Dissolution of Gran Colombia

The dissolution of Gran Colombia and the disintegration of its political structures and central government created three independent countries: the Republic of Venezuela, the Republic of Ecuador, and the Republic of New Granada.

The main ideological leader of Gran Colombia was Simón Bolívar, known as the Liberator, who had wanted to create a nation strong enough to maintain its independence and compete economically with the European powers. It was the most ambitious dream of unity in Latin America.

Gran Colombia was created in 1819 with the union of New Granada (today Colombia), Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama in an attempt to unite the peoples of northern South America into a single nation. Its constituent nations saw the new republic as a joining of forces to prevent the re-establishment of the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Granada, not a social, economic and political union of societies that were markedly dissimilar in their composition and the structure of their social power.

Before the union, some constituent countries had already tried other forms of government, notably federalism in the United Provinces of New Granada and the United Provinces of Venezuela. These experiments and their ensuing confrontations with other groups that were pro-Spanish or advocated a more centralized government caused them to fail and be reconquered by viceregal forces. Simón Bolívar concluded that a nation should be built with a solid unitary base in his Jamaica Letter.

After the Republic was formed, the differences of opinions between federalists and centralists, as well as the disparities between the regions and their differing interests, accelerated the dispute over Gran Colombia's form of government. As a form of concertation, he decided on the centralist system headed by Bolívar.^{[clarification needed]}

Quito and Panama had not had real representation in the 1821 constitutional deliberations in Villa del Rosario, because they didn't formally become part of Gran Colombia until 1822. Despite support for the Constitution of 1821 in Guayaquil, Quito and Caracas, many supported a federalist constitution that allowed regional control and freedom; in particular, the Venezuelan military hoped to exert more power in its region. Likewise, the heroes and leaders of Panama were businessmen linked to shipping and international traffic. Anglophiles for mercantile reasons, they professed Manchester liberalism and therefore supported state abstentionism, free trade and an essentially commercial economy.

The union of the four nations had never been solid due to their uneven economic development and the lack of connecting routes between the three regions of the country, in which cohesion was only maintained during the war years thanks to the prestige and will of Bolivar.

Members of the military had been given the right to vote in the Constitution of 1821 as recognition for their effort in Bolívar's campaign to liberate New Granada. In 1827 Congress made a constitutional change so that only officers could vote.^{[citation needed]}