The Spanish Colonialism: 1492-1808 (wk 4a)

The Europeans and the Americans were very dissimilar, they had different ideals, they ate diverse food, and they did different things. When the Europeans came to America a lot of traditions were changed.
The Pre-Columbians were astonished with all the ships, the horses, and the weapons that the Europeans had. And the Spaniards were amused about the habit, the treasures and the natural resources of America.
The Pre-Columbians were impressed with the European’s food, “sus alimentos son como alimentos de hombres, muy grandes, blancos, ligeros, como si fueran residuos, como si fuera caña de maíz tierna; tienen buen sabor, como si fuera harina de caña de maíz, bastante dulces, bastante melosos, son melosos al comerse, son dulces al comerse” Colombia imágines de su diversidad (1492 a hoy, pg 43). They also brought new food and flavors.
Besides the cultural exchange shown before, America changed a lot with the entrance of the Europeans. America was getting every time more similar to Europe, it was like part of it: “el mundo nuevo fue desde entonces la pretensión dramática de reducirlo todo a su imagen y semejanza” Colombia imágenes de su diversidad (1492 a hoy, pg 44).

The American (also named Indians) world before the Europeans (wk 3a)

Colombia has been occupied for a long time. In all this time a lot of things have happened; like Europeans coming to take all the gold. In this essay I want you to see how people did things before the Europeans came, how they worked, and how the country was divided.

Colombia is a country that has been inhabited for a lot of time. It was divided by a lot of groups like, the Muiscas that lived in the central Andes of Colombia; the Tayronas that lived in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, and the Quillancigas and the Pastos lived in the south of Colombia. The people that weren’t memebers of any group couldn’t habit in those territories or they became slaves “la comunidad dominante se unen los jefes de las comunidades vencidas, dando origen a una estructura diferenciada entre comuneros o idividuos y miembros de la administración del cacicazgo” Colombia imagines de su diversidad (1492 a hoy, pg 28). The indian community was composed by a property system that had three economic concepts
 The reciprocity
 The distrubution
 And the exchange of things

It was very important to exchanged things with external territories or between different regions of Colombia because not all the things could be found everywhere. “En los llanos Orientales, los indigenas detenian la Guerra para proceder a hacer sus intercambios” Colombia imagines de su diversidad (1492 a hoy, pg 32).


The Europeans found that in Colombia there was a lot of gold, and they began to take it all. The gold that wasn’t taken is now in “El museo de oro” in Bogotá, in the collection of “El Banco central de Costa Rica” and in other museums of America and Europe.

Colombia was an organized territory; the Europeans, in my opinion didn’t help the Precolombians. I think they made it worse, because they took the gold, they made them loose their traditions, ancient cultures, and they changed all their daily lives.

The map and the idea of nation (wk 2a)

In 1819 Colombia had 2.500.000km2 of territory, now it has 1.141.748km2, it lost 54% (see picture)
The territory of Colombia has always been different, some times bigger and sometimes smaller; it depends on the frontiers with the other countries. A map shows the space that corresponds to each nation, and it is a very important thing, because it tells how much land a country has, and in most cases, land means power.



“Si los mapas son proyectos políticos y recursos ideológicos de una comunidad, es evidente que el tímido interés que se mostró los territorios periféricos contribuyo a crear un Estado sin gobernabilidad en los lugares más alejados del centro” Colombia imagines de su diversidad (1492 a hoy, pg. 15). This book quoted says that Colombia is a state without rulers, and a disorganized country. The book states that the Colombian people didn’t help the country to progress, and that some of them even betrayed the country, “Imposible establecer autoridad colombiana en el territorio porque la empresa Arana apoyada gobierno Perú, impídeselo.” Colombia imagines de su diversidad (1492 a hoy, pg 16).
So this author proposes that even though Colombia was a great and big country, with the passing of time, it turned into a small country and without rulers that control it.
If you think for a moment. What do you think is important to learn from this? How can a country be able to give land without any benefit? I think these two questions give us a pretty good idea of why Colombia is like it is.