Colombia

Location:

Colombia is located in Northern South America, bordering the Caribbean Sea, between Panama and Venezuela, and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Ecuador and Panama; a country completely covered by thick jungles and beautiful landscapes. It also shares borders with Peru and Brazil. Colombia consisting mainly of flat coastal lowlands, central highlands, high Andes Mountains and eastern lowland plains is slightly less than twice the size of Texas and is the only South American country with coastlines on both the North Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea. There are also the islands, the most important being the San Andres and Providencia archipelago, some 450 miles away, the Islas del Rosario and San Bernardo, also in the Caribbean; and Gorgona, Gorgonilla and Malpelo in the Pacific. The surrounding waters give Colombia some more distant neighbors, such as Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Physical Features:

Colombia has extensive jungle areas but by far the most prominent physical features are the three great Andean mountains chains that spread north from Ecuador. To the east of the Andes lies more than half of Colombia's territory, a vast and largely undeveloped lowland crossed with rivers. The northern section consists of savannas devoted to cattle and sheep grazing. A fourth mountain chain, the Cordillera del Chocó, runs parallel to the Pacific North of Buenaventura. The range's slopes produce dyewoods and hardwoods, rubber, tagua nuts and other forest products, and gold and platinum. After the Andes and the Cordillera, some other important features of Colombia are the Amazon basin, Caqueta River, Magdalena River, Cauca River, and the Guaviare River.

Climate:

The climate of Colombia is mostly tropical along the coast and eastern plains with cooler areas in the highlands. Generally the climate is wet and tropical. Summer is the principal rainy season although there is no specific dry season. The eastern Caribbean and Pacific coastal lowlands experience a climate with high temperatures and high humidity all year round, with rainfall of 40 inches a year. In the mountainous parts conditions are cooler and vary depending on winds, altitude and topography of the area.

History:

Little is known about the various Indian tribes who inhabited Colombia before the Spanish arrived. In 1510 Spaniards founded Darien, the first permanent European settlement on the American mainland. In 1538 they established the colony of New Granada. After a 14-year struggle, fighting under the leadership of Simón Bolívar, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and Ecuador were united as the Republic of Greater Colombia and the Colombians were finally free from the Spanish. Two political parties dominated the region: the Conservatives and the Liberals. 1832 through 1836 was a period of relative stability lasting while the Liberals controlled the government and ended in 1899 when a brutal civil war broke out, the War of a Thousand Days, that lasted until 1902 and put the Conservatives into power. Marxist guerrilla groups organized in the 1960s and 1970s plunging the country into violence and instability. In the 1970s and 1980s, Colombia became one of the international centers for illegal drug production and trafficking. Belisario Cuartas, a Conservative who assumed the presidency in 1982, unsuccessfully attempted to stop the guerrilla violence. In an official war against drug trafficking, Colombia became a war zone with bombs, killings, and kidnappings. By 1989, homicide had become the leading cause of death in the nation. In 1996 Cuartas was accused of accepting campaign contributions from drug traffickers and Andrés Arango was elected president in 1998, pledging to clean up corruption. In Dec. 1999 the Colombian military announced that 2,787 people were kidnapped that year—the largest number in the world. The murder rate soared in 1999, with some 23,000 people reported killed by the drug traffickers and cartels, and common criminals. The violence has created more than 100,000 refugees, while 2 million Colombians have fled the country in recent years.

Economy:

Petroleum ranks as the principal export of Colombia. Other leading exports include coffee, vegetables, chemicals, coal, textiles, fresh-cut flowers, bananas, sugar, gold, emeralds, and cattle. Illegal drugs also rank high among the country's exports. Based upon this, Colombian's economy is based mainly on agriculture, the mining of mineral resources, and industry. About half of Colombia's land is forested. To the north and west of the Andes, tropical forests line the major rivers and coastal areas. East of the Andes, the forests