Colombia

COLOMBIA. - State of South America; the only one on the continent that faces both the Pacific and the Caribbean Sea.

I. GEOGRAPHY

It is a very vast country (1,100,000 sq. km., almost 4 times Italy), but it is still not entirely well known, and only a small part of it has been developed. Apart from the narrow coastal strip on the Pacific, harborless and sparsely inhabited, Colombia consists of a western, mountainous section (Andes), with broad intervening valleys (Atrato, Magdalena, Cauca), and of an eastern, flat section, furrowed by the tributaries of the Orinoco and the Amazon. The latter alone embraces more than half of the country, covered with forests in the south and savanna in the north, but it is almost deserted.

The population, on the other hand, is concentrated in the Andean region, where the altitude (in the so-called Tierras templadas, 1000-2000 m., live 50% of the inhabitants) tempers the extremes of the hot-humid tropical climate, sometimes extremely rainy (7000 mm. of annual precipitation on the Pacific slope). Colombia has immense natural possibilities, but their development is delayed and hampered by the low density of population (9 inhabitants per sq. km.; as in Norway), by the difficulty of communications (mostly river; there are 3440 km. of railways) and by the relative instability of the government. The latter is connected with the poor homogeneity of the population (over 10 million souls in 1946), of which about 40% is represented by mestizos, 15% by mulattoes, 10% by blacks, 7% by Amerindians and a little more than 25% by pure whites (among foreigners there are about 2000 Italians). Agriculture and extractive industry balance each other as productive activities. Coffee and petroleum are the articles on which exports are based, but Colombia is well suited, among other things, to the cultivation of bananas, tobacco, cotton and sugar cane, which now thrive there, while the subsoil also yields gold, silver, platinum, coal, precious stones, etc.; livestock farming already counts on a considerable zootechnical patrimony (12 million head of cattle) and the forest (more than 50% of the territorial surface) can be said to be still intact.

Colombia is a unitary republic with bicameral representation. The country has the following administrative division.

The capital is Bogotá (600 thousand inhabitants in 1948), at 2640 m. above sea level.

The state religion is Roman Catholic; however, pagan cults are still preserved among the indigenous tribes of the interior.

Giuseppe Caraci

II. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

1. Evangelization

From the beginning of the 16th century the northern coast of present-day C. was occupied by the Spaniards, and the cities of S. Marta (1525) and Cartagena (1533) were founded. From the south the conqueror of Quito, Sebastián de Benalcázar, pushed northward, founding the city of Popayán in 1537 and arriving in 1538 in the State of the Chibchas, or Muyskas, on the high plateau of Boyacá and Condimarca. At the same time Gonzalo Ximénez de Quesada from S. Marta and Nicolás Federmann coming from Coro (Venezuela) burst into this State of the Chibchas. Quesada's claims were recognized, and the province (audiencia) of New Granada was founded with its capital at S. Fé de Bogotá. New

Granada, at first an "audiencia" of the viceroyalty of Peru, was elevated in 1739 to a viceroyalty comprising C., Panama, Ecuador and Venezuela. In 1806 the independence movement began, which after some setbacks led to the founding of the Republic of C. in 1819.

With the founding of S. Marta the evangelization of the Indians of the northern coast began. The Dominicans settled at S. Marta and at Cartagena, made dioceses in 1534, thus forming the centers of missionary activity among the Indian tribes of the region. At Cartagena a college was opened for the sons of the chiefs. It was at Cartagena that the Dominican St. Ludovico Beltrán in the 16th century developed his beneficial activity among the Indians. The first missionaries of Popayán (erected into a diocese in 1546) were the Mercedarians, while with Quesada the Dominicans of S. Marta came to Bogotá (elevated to an archdiocese in 1564 with the suffragans of Popayán, Cartagena and S. Marta). In 1566 the Dominicans administered 170 "doctrinas" in New Granada and founded an independent province in 1577. From 1550 the Franciscans worked in New Granada, which they erected into a province in 1565. Also found in the country are the Hermits of St. Augustine, with their first foundation at Bogotá in 1575, and the Recollects of St. Augustine, who from their first foundation "El Desierto de la Candelaria" in 1597 were called Candelarios.

During the 16th-17th centuries the mission was generally limited to the mountainous regions because of their healthy climate, the aforementioned Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, Hermits and Recollects having organized their "doctrinas" among the Chibchas and the numerous other tribes of the country. In the 17th century missions were also begun among the Indians of the unhealthy plains of the coast and of the rivers and the plains (Llanos) to the east. These were principally the Jesuits, who at first, from 1598, had worked in the colleges of the Spanish colonies. In 1604 they founded the vice-province of New Granada. From 1624, and, after an initial failure, again from 1659, they began the missions of the Llanos, founding especially in the 18th century reductions in Casanare, on the Meta and on the Orinoco, which in 1754 comprised 10,000 Indians and, farther south, the famous reductions of Mainas, which extended in part over the present-day territory of C. The Jesuits also concerned themselves with the numerous black slaves landed at Cartagena; and among them St. Peter Claver (v.) distinguished himself. The Augustinians, Dominicans and Franciscans continued in this period to undertake, alongside the existing "doctrinas," new missions. The Franciscans founded two missionary colleges: Pamasqui (in 1699), transferring it in 1747 to Popayán, and Cali (in 1756) for the Indians of Caquetá, Chocó and Urabá. The Capuchins began in 1693 the mission of Goajira, which continued until the wars for independence.

The expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, whose missions were at first administered by the Dominicans and Franciscans, and the upheaval of the struggles for independence, greatly hindered the missionary work, which in the 19th century collapsed completely. In the early days of the Republic of C. the convents, the principal centers of missionary activity, began in part to disappear for lack of support from Spain.

With the concordat (1887) the reorganization of missionary work also began among the half-civilized and the uncivilized Indians. For their evangelization the following vicariates and prefectures were erected: Goajira, Capuchins (returned to the mission in 1883, apostolic vicariate in 1905); Casanare, Augustinian Recollects (apostolic vicariate in 1893); Caquetá, Capuchins (begun in 1895, apostolic prefecture in 1904; apostolic vicariate in 1930); plains (Llanos) of S. Martino, Montfortians (1903-1904 two apostolic prefectures; 1908 single apostolic vicariate); Tierradentro, Lazarists (from 1905, apostolic prefecture in 1921); Chocó, Claretians (apostolic prefecture in 1908); San Andrés y Providencia, Mill Hill from 1912, Capuchins from 1927; Urabá, Discalced Carmelites (apostolic prefecture in 1918, suppressed and united to the diocese of Antioquia in 1941); Arauca, Lazarists (apostolic prefecture in 1915); S. Jorge, Spanish institute of St. Francis Xavier of Burgos (apostolic prefecture of Sinú in 1924, new name S. Jorge from 1931); Tumaco, Augustinian Recollects (apostolic prefecture in 1927); Magdalena River, Jesuits (apostolic prefecture in 1928); Labateca, seminary of Yarumal of C. (apostolic prefecture in 1945).

Giovanni Rommerskirchen

2. Modern history

At the Congress of Angostura, on 17 Dec. 1819, the Republic of C. arose. Its first president was Simon Bolivar, "Libertador de C., padre de la patria, terror de los tiranos." The new State (Gran C.) comprised not only present-day C., but also Venezuela and Ecuador. The constituent assembly of Cucuta of 1821 showed itself quite favorable to the Catholic religion, and the new republic immediately sought to establish ties with the Holy See, but the right of patronage that the king of Spain held over the South American dioceses stood in the way of this aim. The mission to Rome of the Colombian envoy Texada therefore failed in Sept. 1824. Only after the battle of Ayacucho (9 Dec. 1824), which marked the definitive decline of Spanish rule in South America, and the recognition of the new State by Great Britain, did Leo XII resolve on 18 Jan. 1827 to proceed motu proprio to the provision of the vacant episcopal sees. This measure, greeted with joy by the Catholics of C., met with the particular approval of Bolivar, who subsequently issued a series of laws favorable to the Church. After the assassination of Sucre, the beloved disciple of the "Libertador" (4 June 1830), and the resignation and death of Bolivar (17 Dec. 1830), the Republic of C. split into the three States of Venezuela, Ecuador and New Granada, and in 1861 the name was changed to the one now in force, C. Since the Convention of the new State had formulated most fervent wishes to establish regular relations with the Holy See, President Santander entrusted the relevant negotiations to the aforementioned Texada, who obtained in Nov. 1835 the recognition of the Republic by the Holy See and the establishment of a pontifical diplomatic representation in Bogotá. Under the presidency of General Herran a new constitution was promulgated in 1843; the Catholic religion was recognized as the religion of the State and the Society of Jesus, expelled in the time of Charles III, was readmitted to the territory of the Republic. The two following decades, up to 1867, saw the triumph of radicalism and the sectarian predominance of Mosquera, who exiled the bishops, confiscated the property of the convents and sought in every way to subject the ecclesiastical ministers to state authority: indeed the new constitution of 21 May 1853 and the law of 15 June of the same year had sanctioned the separation of Church and State. The internal life of the Republic was disturbed by continual revolts and by the struggles of the parties. Liberals and conservatives, federalists and centralists contended ceaselessly for power, until the constitution of 5 Aug. 1886 marked the triumph of the conservatives and of the centralists. The name of United States of C., in use since 1861, was replaced by that of Republic of C., and the federal States, having lost their autonomy, became departments dependent on the central authority. On 31 Dec. 1887 the signing of a concordat with the Holy See took place in Rome, which proclaimed the Catholic religion the religion of the State, assured full freedom to the Church, and guaranteed that instruction would be carried out in conformity with Catholic dogma and morals: the concordat had been made possible by the new constitution of 6 Aug. 1886 (cf. especially arts. 51 and 56, the latter now modified by arts. 13 and 34 of the law of 5 Aug. 1936). In 1892 there was moreover a supplementary convention on the ecclesiastical forum, on cemeteries and on civil status; and on 29 Dec. 1902 an agreement was stipulated for the erection of new apostolic prefectures. In 1903 a revolt broke out in the department of Panama which the troops of the central government were unable to suppress: it followed that the department, with the support of the United States, constituted itself an independent republic. During the First World War the diplomatic representation of the Holy See was raised to the rank of nunciature. On 5 May 1928 an agreement concerning the mission territories was stipulated between the Holy See and C., in which it is established among other things (art. 12) that the appointments of civil officials in the mission territories shall be made with the prior agreement of the apostolic nuncio, so as to guarantee that they are persons favorable to the missions. A convention bearing additions and modifications to the concordat of 1887 on the appointment of bishops, on the full recognition of the civil effects of canonical marriage and on the transfer of the administration of cemeteries from the ecclesiastical authority to the civil one, was signed in Rome on 22 Apr. 1942.

Silvio Furlani

III. ART OF COLOMBIA

Like all the other countries of Central America, C. presented at the time of its discovery a lively indigenous civilization that was totally extinguished with European infiltration, except in a few manifestations of folk art. After the conquest the influence of the Spanish Baroque was felt especially in architecture and in the sculptural and pictorial decorations of church interiors.

In painting, Gregorio Vásquez Ceballos of Bogotá (1638-1711) particularly established himself, a pupil of Gaspare de Figueroa, who was the first painter of note in C. Vásquez's art, almost entirely unaware of European forms, had quite happy moments in the Portrait of d. Enrique Burbasa (1698) in the church of the Rosary and in the Preaching of St. Francis Xavier in the Sagrario of Bogotá. After him other painters and sculptors, among them Paolo Caballero and Miguel de Santiago, Giovanni de Cabrera and Antonio de Pimentel, faintly reflected Italian experiences. In the 19th century, once national independence was won, a new expressive language was introduced into C. by artists, such as the painter Epifanio Garay, who had studied in Europe, and by foreigners who went to C. such as the Italian sculptor Cesare Sighinolfi, for many years a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts of Bogotá.

For literature, v. BRAVO-AURICANA LETTERATURA.

Giovanni Carandente

IV. SCHOOL SYSTEM OF COLOMBIA

The school reform of 1930 came about through the efforts of the Colombian pedagogues Agustín Nieto Caballero, Luis Lopez de Mesa, Gustavo Santos and Carlos Grazia Prada. The entire school system is divided into: kindergartens lasting 2 years, primary schools lasting 5 years, complementary schools also called vocational or rural schools lasting 2 years, secondary schools called "Colegios de bachillerato" lasting 6 years, and professional schools divided into normal schools and universities.

The universities are the following: Universidad Nacional, in Bogotá, founded in 1867; Universidad de Antioquia in Medellín; Universidad de Bolívar in Cartagena; Universidad de Nariño in Pasto; free universities: in Bogotá: the Catholic University "Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario", founded in 1652; the Free University, founded in 1923; the Catholic University Javeriana in Bogotá (v.), and the Catholic University Bolivarana in Medellín (v.).

In C. there exist the following missionary schools: 83 catechism and prayer schools, 538 primary schools, 13 lower secondary schools, 13 upper secondary schools, 2 normal schools and 1 professional school. The education of the Catholic clergy is carried out in the 13 major seminaries and in the 3 minor seminaries, of which that of Las Casas is a missionary seminary. - See Pl. CXXVI.