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The New Kingdom of Granada (Spanish: Nuevo Reino de Granada) was the name given to a group of colonial provinces in northern South America, corresponding mainly to modern Colombia. Before the 19th century independence struggles, the Viceroyalty of New Granada existed as a political and administrative entity which also extended to include oversight over local authorities in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela, as well as small parts of Brazil, Peru and the Guianas. The name New Granada is still used as an alternative to Colombia by some of its neighbors.

[edit] Colonial history

In 1514, the Spanish first permanently settled in the area. With Santa Marta (1525) and Cartagena (1533), Spanish control of the coast was established, and the extension of colonial control into the interior could begin. The conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada colonised a large area in the region, by following the Magdalena River into the Andean cordillera, defeating the powerful Chibcha people and founding the city of Santa Fé de Bogotá (c. 1538, currently Bogotá) and naming the region El nuevo reino de Granada, "the new kingdom of Granada", after the kingdom of Granada which had existed until 1492 in southernmost Spain.

To establish civil government in New Granada, an Audiencia (a "court of hearing") was established at Santa Fé de Bogotá in 1548-1549, a body that combined executive and judicial authority, until a presidencia or governor was established in 1564, assuming executive powers. At this point, New Granada was considered a Captaincy General within the Viceroyalty of Peru. The jurisdiction of the Audiencia court over the surrounding provinces determined the territory corresponding to New Granada, as new provinces were created in the following years.

The governor was loosely dependent upon the Viceroy of Peru at Lima, but the slowness of communications between the two capitals led to the establishment of an independent Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717 (and its reestablishment in 1739 after a short interruption); other provinces corresponding to modern Ecuador and Venezuela, and eventually Panama, until then under other jurisdictions, came together in a political unit under the jurisdiction of Bogota, confirming that city as one of the principal administrative centers of the Spanish possessions in the New World, along with Lima and Mexico City. Sporadic attempts at reform were directed at increased efficiency and centralized authority, but control from Spain was never very effective.

The rough and diverse geography of northern South America and the limited range of proper roads made travel and communications inside the Viceroyalty difficult. The establishment of a Captaincy General in Caracas and an Audiencia in Quito, still legally subordinated to the Viceroy, was a response to the necessities of effectively governing their surrounding regions, and some analysts consider that it was also reflecting a degree of local traditions that, much later, eventually contributed to creating differing political and national differences between the newly independent territories that the unifying efforts of Simón Bolívar could not overcome.

[edit] Independent history

The territories of the Viceroyalty gained full de facto independence from Spain between 1819 and 1822 after a series of military and political struggles, uniting as part of a federation known as Greater Colombia.

When Ecuador and Venezuela became separate states during the dissolution of Greater Colombia, a "Republic of New Granada" centered around the capital of Bogotá lasted from 1831 to 1856, and "New Granada" was a usage that later survived in conservative circles, such as among ecclesiastics.

Today, some people in Colombia's neighboring countries sometimes still refer to Colombians as neogranadinos ("new-granadians").

[edit] See also

• Colombia
• Great Colombia
• History of Colombia
• List of Viceroys of New Kingdom of Granadacs:Nová Granada

de:Neugranada es:Virreinato de Nueva Granada fr:Nouvelle-Grenade pl:Wicekrólestwo Nowej Granady ru:Новая Гранада