First Republic of New Granada

The First Republic of New Granada, known derogatorily as the Foolish Fatherland (Spanish: la Patria Boba), is the period in the history of Colombia immediately following the declaration of independence from Spain in 1810 as the first South American independent nation to break away from Spanish rule until the Spanish reconquest in 1816. The period between 1810 and 1816 in the Viceroyalty of New Granada (which included present-day Colombia) was marked by such intense conflicts over the nature of the new government or governments that it became known as la Patria Boba (the Foolish Fatherland). Constant fighting between federalists and centralists gave rise to a prolonged period of instability that eventually favored Spanish reconquest. Similar developments can be seen at the same time in the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata. Each province, and even some cities, set up its own autonomous junta, which declared themselves sovereign from each other.

With the arrival of news in May 1810 that southern Spain had been conquered by Napoleon's forces, that the Spanish Supreme Central Junta had dissolved itself and that juntas had been established in Venezuela, cities in New Granada (modern-day Colombia) began to do the same and established their own. Antonio Villavicencio had been sent by the Spanish Cortes as a commissioner of the Regency Council of Spain and the Indies, a sort of ambassador of the Regency to the provinces. Villavicencio arrived to Cartagena de Indias on May 8, 1810, finding the city in political turmoil. Villavicencio used his appointment as commissioner to call for an open cabildo, which stimulated the creation of many provincial juntas just as the one that had been established in Cadiz.

On May 22, 1810, with Villavicencio's support, the open council forced Cartagena's governor to acquiesce to a co-government with two people chosen by the council, and then ousted the governor on June 14, establishing a government junta instead. This elicited the creation of similar juntas all over the viceroyalty: Cali on July 3, Pamplona the next day, and Socorro on July 10. On July 20, the viceregal capital, Santa Fe de Bogotá, established its own junta. (The day is today celebrated as Colombia's Independence Day.) The viceroy Antonio José Amar y Borbón initially presided over the junta in Bogotá, but due to popular pressure, he was deposed five days later.

Following the creation of the Supreme Governing Junta of Santa Fe, other juntas were established in Honda in July, Antioquia, Popayán, Neiva, Quibdó and Nóvita in August and September, and then Tunja in October. By then, smaller provinces and cities started making claims for larger autonomy within the provinces, as can be seen in the decision by the council of Mompós to disavow the authority of the Cartagena junta and to declare independence on August 6, or those by the recently established "Friend Cities of the Cauca Valley", between 1811 and 1812. These juntas made a case over their legality and legitimacy within the monarchy, and declared loyalty to Ferdinand VII, to the Catholic church, and to maintain ties with Spain. Although the Bogotá junta called itself the "Supreme Junta of the New Kingdom of Granada," the splintering of political authority continued as even secondary cities set up juntas that claimed to be independent of their provincial capitals, resulting in military conflicts. There were two fruitless attempts at establishing a congress of provinces in the subsequent months.

Just as the local councils were fundamental in the attainment of a peaceful transfer of power, particularly in the large cities, they soon became a source of strife and territorial disintegration following the ousting of the regal authorities. In New Granada, the elites in the main cities were divided in regard to the support toward the government in Spain, with the juntas supporting sovereignty and other cities instead supporting Ferdinand VII and the regal authorities commanded by the Regency Council of Spain. Royalist factions commanded by Spanish officers managed to seize power in the cities of Santa Marta, Panamá (by then, still a part of the vice-royalty of New Granada), Popayán and Pasto, and soon engaged in conflict against the regions with autonomous governments. While the royalist regions were military weak and were often defeated by the juntas, they managed to become a source of destabilization which both maintained the idea of reconciliation with Spain alive, and drained the resources and energy of the patriotic governments. Some of these royalist cities became fundamental later in the military campaign for the reconquest of New Granada. Such division hence prevented the creation of a unified state in New Granada.

In addition to this, the provincial juntas were also divided on the question of the type of government that the new state should have. Disagreements on whether there should be a single state in the place of the old New Kingdom of Granada or whether the provinces should become autonomous and independent states became a matter of heated debate. The Supreme Junta of Santafé (in modern-day Bogotá) assumed that it would inherit the authority of the old regime, as it was the most prosperous and populated province in the vice-royalty, and it was in fact the seat of the Spanish viceroyalty. When the Cartagena junta called for a separate General Conference in Medellín, where each province would be represented in proportion to their populations, the Supreme Junta of Santafé decided to counter by inviting each province to send a delegate to form an interim government while a general congress was summoned to establish a Constitutional Assembly for the whole New Granada.

The congress was irregular from the start as it was formed by delegates from barely a handful of provinces (Santa Fe, Socorro, Neiva, Pamplona, Nóvita, and Mariquita), and was deeply divided on whether the cities of Mompós (part of the Cartagena province) and Sogamoso, which had sent delegates, should be considered provinces. In the congress, held between December 22, 1810, and February 2, 1811, Antonio Nariño became the leader of a push to establish Congress in Santafé, a proposal that was rejected by the remaining provinces, which saw in this a push for deferral to Santafé. The Congress was finally dissolved amid disagreements when the members stopped attending the sessions.

In the meantime, under the guidance of Jorge Tadeo Lozano, the province of Santafé transformed itself into a state called the Free and Independent State of Cundinamarca. In March 1811, it convened a "Constituent Electoral College of the State of Cundinamarca," which promulgated a constitution for the state the following month. The constitution followed the model of the Constitution of the United States, and established Cundinamarca as a constitutional monarchy under (absent) Ferdinand VII (it would only declare full independence from Spain in August 1813). The Cundinamarca state also attempted to impose its political model by way of a strategy that involved annexing neighboring regions and towns, while attempting to create alliances with Venezuela to balance out the power of the big provinces, such as Cartagena and Popayán. During this period, Antonio Nariño became an ardent critic of federalist ideas and the key promoter of the idea of a strong republican government centered in Santafé. Nariño created a newspaper, La Bagatela, on July 14, 1811, which became the main outlet of his views against the adoption of federalism for New Granada. Nariño became president of Cundinamarca in September 1811, vouching for a centralized republic. Following a failed royalist coup d'état, Cartagena became the first province in New Granada to formally declare its independence from Spain on November 11, 1811 (the day is also today a national holiday in Colombia).