Viceroyalty of New Granada
historical territory, South America
Virreinato de Nueva Granada
Viceroyalty of New Granada, Spanish Virreinato de Nueva Granada, in colonial Latin America, a Spanish viceroyalty—first established in1717, suppressed in 1723, and reestablished in 1739—that included present-day Colombia, Panama (after 1751), Ecuador, and Venezuela and had its capital at Santa Fé (present-day Bogotá).
The separation of these territories from the Viceroyalty of Peru, one of the principal colonial administrative changes effected by the Bourbon monarchs of Spain, reflected the growing population and increasing commercial importance of the area in the 18th century, as well as the perceived need for stronger defense against British activities in the Caribbean. Subsequent commercial and political reforms and rising European demand for colonial products led to a period of relative prosperity and intellectual and cultural activity, which, however, exacerbated divisions between peninsular Spaniards and middle- and upper-class creoles. The viceroyalty began to disintegrate in 1810, when most of the component jurisdictions ejected their Spanish officials. Initially the new governments swore allegiance to the Spanish monarch, and they did not begin to declare independence until the following year. A series of civil wars facilitated the temporary reconquest of the United Provinces of New Granada by Spain between 1814 and 1816, and the liberation of the area from Spanish rule was not completed until 1823. The name República de Nueva Granada (“Republic of New Granada”) was adopted by Colombia in the period 1830–58.
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Creole anxieties contributed to the persistence of strong loyalist factions in the Viceroyalty of New Granada, but they did not prevent the rise of an independence struggle there. Creoles organized revolutionary governments that proclaimed some social and economic reforms in 1810, and in Venezuela they openly declared a break with Spain the following year. Forces loyal to Spain fought the...
...Yet the timing and the nature of these moves had at least as much to do with changing conditions as with ideology. Most reforms came in a bundle in the late 18th century, the creation in 1739 of the Viceroyalty of New Granada based in Santa Fé (Bogotá) being an exception.
The Viceroyalty of New Granada, which included present-day Colombia, Panama (after 1751), Venezuela, and Ecuador, was created in 1717–23 and reconstituted in 1740, opening a new era. In the next decades the crown introduced political and economic measures to reorganize and strengthen the empire by greater centralization of authority, improved administration and communication, and freer...