The principal reason for Violence in Colombia's publication appears to have been to explain how the widely reported incidents of violence in Colombia in the modern period evolved from the realities of the political and social scene of the country over a period of decades dating from the time of independence from Spain in 1819. Indeed, to understand the phenomenon of violence in modern Colombia, it is important to recognize the background of political evolution in Latin America more generally, as well as the often complicated political history of the country itself. The essays in Violence in Colombia discuss how the political past of the country impinges on and in part determines the environment of its political present and the elements that make up its social and political structure on one hand and the overlay of violence on that structure on the other.
The mere chronology of Colombia's political history is an essay in violence. The revolutionary turmoil that swept through South America early in the nineteenth century stripped Spain of her mainland American colonies and created a number of new independent states. After 300 years of domination by the Spanish monarchy, the new nations were free to form their laws in accordance with their own aspirations and political ideals. Colombia was part of the Republic of New Granada, promulgated in 1810; Venezuela and Ecuador split off in 1830, and Panama in 1903 as part of a civil war fostered by U.S. interest in building a canal across the Panama isthmus. In Colombia, the advent of independence brought two broad philosophical strands of thought about self-rule into conflict. One held that adherence to the principles of Roman Catholicism--long the state religion of Colombia--was the only bulwark against anarchy. The other, inspired by the revolutionary and secular ideals emanating from North America and Europe, advocated a secular state; however, secular factionalism fostered cycles of civil ...