Granadine Confederation: Map & History

History

The short but complicated life of the Granadine Confederation was marked by rivalry between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party, which ended in a Civil War (1860–1862). It also was a period of hostility against the Roman Catholic Church, and of divided regionalism.

The Granadine Confederation was established by the Constitution of 1853, considered pro-federalist or centro-federalist because it gave more autonomy to the provinces, which multiplied to 35 provinces during the administration of Manuel María Mallarino (1855–1857), each with its own provincial constitution.

Even though the majority of the mid-century reforms came from the Liberal Party, their beginnings can be traced to the last two administrations of the 1840s decade.

Economy

Giving account of particular circumstances in economic terms for the period of the Granadine Confederation is extremely complicated. Both because the period inserts itself in a series of dynamics that had been taking shape since the middle of the 19th century, and because the Government of Mariano Ospina Rodríguez never managed to consolidate itself enough to undertake some reform of importance that altered the economic processes that had been developing since the decade of 1840. However, the form acquired by the Constitution of 1858, bearing in mind that this is the result of a unilateral constituent exercise of conservatism, does allow giving account of some substantial elements in the understanding of the politics and economic development of the 19th century in Colombia.

Geography

According to the constitution of 1858, the limits of the territory of the Granadine Confederation were to be the same as those of 1810, that divided the territory of the Viceroyalty of New Granada from the Captaincy General of Venezuela, the Captaincy General of Guatemala, and the Portuguese possessions in Brazil. In the west, the limits would be those marked provisionally by the treaty with the government of Ecuador on July 9, 1856, and all treaties with that republic.

The Granadine Confederation covered a vast region, sharply divided by its geography. The country was divided by the three cordilleras of the Andes mountains, the Magdalena River which was the main artery of navigation in the country, and the Isthmus of Panama which was isolated in its own region.