ABSTRACT
The repeal of the “Corn Laws” presented a new opportunity for Latin Americans, generated significant liberal reforms, and signaled the end of arbitrary, often tyrannical, rule by caudillo in many areas of Latin America. Reformers in Latin America who attached themselves to liberal political and economic programs generally did so in the name of “progress,” or the civilizing paradigms found in the cities of foreign capitals. Part of the liberal reformers’ plan was to “shed” the colonial past, which meant curbing the power of the institutions associated with the colonial period. In Colombia, liberal reform is most closely tied to the policies of General Tomas Cipriano de Mosquera, president from 1846 to 1849. The nineteenth century concluded, in Colombia, with a major civil war between Liberals and Conservatives: the War of a Thousand Days lasted from 1899 until 1902 and claimed about 70,000 lives.
