ABSTRACT
Colombia had fewer Indians than Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, or Peru at the time, perhaps three to four million, when the Spanish reached it in about 1530. A small number of Spanish colonizers had come to Colombia for its natural riches, especially gold and emeralds. Definitive independence for Colombia came in August 1819 with the battle of Boyaca, in which the Spanish were defeated by patriot forces led by the Venezuelan Simon Bolívar after a lightning trip up the mountains from the Orinoco region. Thus Colombia's independence came the second time around, and the new leader was a Venezuelan who already recognized its regional differences. When the Colombian Senate refused to ratify a treaty with the United States (US) for the construction of a canal in the department of Panama, the US government of Theodore Roosevelt encouraged a rebellion and prevented Colombian troops from reaching Colon.
