Colombia Historical Setting
One of several hundred stone monuments
located near San Agustín, Huila Department. The monuments are
distinguished by their part-men, part-jaguar features.
THE HISTORY OF COLOMBIA is characterized by the
interaction of
rival civilian elites. The political elite, which overlaps
with
social and economic elites, has shown a marked ability to
retain
the reins of power, effectively excluding other groups and
social
institutions, such as the masses and the military, from
significant
participation in or control over the political process.
Members of
the lower classes have found it difficult, although not
impossible,
to challenge or join the established elite in the
political and
economic spheres. Their subordination dates to the rigid
colonial
social hierarchy that placed the Spanish-born above the
nativeborn . Elite control of the military is the result of the
"civilian
mystique" that developed along with Colombian
independence. That
mystique has successfully restricted the military to
nonpolitical
functions, with three exceptions--1830, 1854, and 1953.
Thus
Colombia has a history rare for Latin America in that the
country
has been dominated more by civilian than by military rule.
Because
military forces have been denied political power, the
civilian
elites have had only themselves, divided into rival
groups, to
contend with in the political arena.
Some analysts have divided the political elite along
economic
lines between the landed and the nonlanded. The
agricultural export
sector, the backbone of the Colombian economy, has
supplied the two
main economic groups that also have been the most powerful
in the
political sphere: the landed aristocracy, who are devoted
to the
large-scale production of agricultural crops, and the
merchants,
who are engaged in the trade of these export goods and
imported
consumer goods. Lesser economic groups, such as the
emerging
manufacturing sector, have allied themselves with one of
the two
dominant groups, most often the merchants. Differences
within the
allied groups on issues such as trade created factions
within the
alliances even before they officially became established
political
parties. In addition, the nation's economic development
opened up
new economic opportunities, and new forces increasingly
expressed
their views through the political factions.
Elite members of the Liberal Party and the Conservative
Party
alternately competed and cooperated with each other
throughout the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Often the nature of
relations
between the two parties depended on whether moderates or
extremists
dominated the ruling party. During the periods when
moderate
factions of both parties were in power, the parties were
able to
work together in coalitions; when extremist factions
prevailed,
however, conflict often resulted. During the competitive
periods,
one party usually sought to limit or eliminate the rival
party's
participation in the political process, attempts that
often
resulted in political violence. The most notorious of
these periods
were the War of a Thousand Days (1899-1902) and la
violencia
(1948-66). At the end of these civil wars, the elite
inaugurated
the cooperative governments of the Period of
Reconciliation (1903-
30) and the National Front (1958-74), respectively, the
former
catalyzed by the Rafael Reyes presidency (1904-09) and the
latter
by the Gustavo Rojas Pinilla dictatorship (1953-57). The
replacement of the discredited extremist factions by the
more
conciliatory moderate factions in each case made it
possible for
the two parties to share power and to achieve a consensus
on what
policies were appropriate for Colombian society at the
time.
Although the elite dominated the masses, the different
classes
were bound to each other through personalistic
patron-client
relationships, especially in rural areas where peasants
relied on
the propertied upper class for access to the land they
farmed.
These patron-client relationships also tied the masses
into the
political system as the numerical votes or bodies
mobilized and
controlled by local political bosses. The affiliation
adopted by
the members of the lower classes was determined largely by
the
affiliation of their patrons and their families; these
affiliations, as much for a party as against the opposing
party,
became what Robert H. Dix termed "inherited hatreds,"
elements of
one's identity handed down from generation to generation.
The
emotional bond to the party carried individual members not
only to
the polls but also into violent conflict with adherents of
the
opposing party during those times when political conflict
could not
be controlled. In this way, the peasants and urban masses
were
recruited by the party elite to participate in the civil
wars that
riddled the nation's history.
Colombia's economic life has been based consistently on
exports
of primary goods, especially coffee. In the sixteenth
century, the
conquistadors and early colonialists, who often exploited
Indian
and slave labor, mined precious metals and gems for export
to Spain
under a mercantile system that inhibited the development
of
domestic industries. Throughout the preindependence and
postindependence periods, agriculture on large
landholdings, known
as latifundios, became the predominant mode of
production
for export crops such as sugar and tobacco. By the 1860s,
coffee
had emerged as the key export crop. At the turn of the
century,
tariffs on coffee exports were the main source of
government
revenues, and profits from the coffee trade were the major
source
of investment in the newly emerging industrial sector that
was
beginning to produce basic consumer goods. Although the
industrial
sector grew sufficiently to induce urbanization and
economic
modernization in the first half of the twentieth century,
industrial exports remained relatively minor compared with
coffee,
which in the late 1980s still accounted for almost 60
percent of
all export earnings.
Economic modernization, supported by the coffee
industry,
became significant at the turn of the century.
Modernization
brought social changes and growing demands that produced
various
challenges to the dominant position of the traditional
elite: the
populist movements of the 1940s and 1970s, the military
dictatorship of the 1950s, the rise of guerrilla activity
in the
1960s through the 1980s, and the emergence of drug
traffickers as
a major economic and social element in the 1970s and
1980s. The
increase in industrialization and the migration of
peasants to the
cities accelerated the rate of urbanization and the
formation of
urban working and lower classes. The heightened need for
infrastructure, both within a given city and among urban
areas,
spurred the growing involvement of the state in the
economy,
especially during the reformist period in the 1930s and
1940s. By
the 1980s, the state had become an important investor in
and
manager of strategic sectors of the economy, such as
energy
resources, transportation, and communications.
The emergence of the National Front marked a
significant break
in the traditional political and economic patterns in
Colombian
society. Interparty conflict receded and was replaced in
the 1960s
by leftist subversion, which continued through the 1980s.
The
illicit narcotics industry emerged in the 1970s as a
dominant
economic force, altering the structure of the national
economy and
disrupting existing social and political relations. The
leadership
in both parties proved unable to address inflation,
unemployment,
and a skewed distribution of income. The post-National
Front
Liberal tenure bequeathed a triple legacy to the incoming
Conservative government in 1982: guerrilla activity, the
corruptive
drug trade, and an inequitable economy.
Data as of December 1988
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