The Successor States of Gran Colombia 1830-1907

The State of Gran Colombia was proclaimed at the Congress of Angostura in 1819 and Símon Bolívar, “The Liberator”, was made its President. The ensuing Congress of Cucuta in 1821 promulgated the new state’s constitution. Ten years later, Gran Colombia was dissolved due to the political differences that divided the supporters of federalism and centralism, as well as regional tensions among the peoples that made up the republic. It was divided into the successor states of Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama (the latter only became independent from the Republic of Colombia in 1903). Since Gran Colombia’s territory corresponded approximately to the original border of the former Viceroyalty of New Granada, it also claimed the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, the so-called ‘Mosquito Coast’. These claims were lost, as well as most of Esequiba on Guyana’s western border, which taken by Great Britain in 1904. Other territories were lost to Brazil in 1873 and 1907.