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Colombia BACKGROUND AND TRADITIONS OF THE ARMED FORCES
Unlike the militaries of several Latin American
countries, the
Colombian military did not significantly affect national
developments during the nineteenth century. During the war
for
independence from Spain that began in 1810--the period
from which
most Latin American armies, including Colombia's, trace
their
official traditions--patriots from the territory that is
now
Colombia played a subordinate role to that of leaders from
other
parts of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. Many of the
Colombian
patriots' key military leaders, with the important
exception of
General Francisco de Paula Santander, were killed during
the
initial phase of the independence struggle that ended in
1816;
their troops, which consisted mainly of poor, uneducated
peasants,
gradually came under the command of forces led by the
Venezuelan
Simón Bolívar Palacio. Indeed, in 1819 Bolívar became the
first
president of Gran Colombia
(see The Independence Movement
, ch. 1).
Data as of December 1988
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