HTY/POL 301 Career Prep and HTY 339: Historiographical Essays and HTY 499/POL 499 Senior Seminar: Gran Colombia and Diplomatic Recognition

Between 1793 and 1853 Columbia underwent a transition from being the Spanish viceroyalty New Granada to the Gran Columbia of liberator president Simón Bolívar, and on to become one of the most liberal republics in the contemporary world. The Constitutional Documents of Colombia and Panama 1793-1853 presents the first declaration of human rights in Spanish from the year 1793, along with the first constitutional charter of Ibero-America (that of the Free State of Socorro from 1810), as well as the previously little-known early constitutions of the Antioquia Republic from 1811. The volume contains 32 national documentsand21 state document of Colombia and two documents of Panama.

Simon Bolivar, who fought to free South America from Spanish rule from 1810 to 1826, was one of the most influential figures in Latin American history. His life contained all the makings of an epic war hero: repeated comebacks from defeat, flashes of military genius, a near-manic quest for glory, and fall from political grace. Here, the authors bring forth his story and show how it set the political pattern for the next century.

In the aftermath of Waterloo, over 6,000 British volunteers sailed across the Atlantic to aid Simon Bolivar in his liberation of Gran Columbia from her oppressors in Madrid. The expeditions were plagued with disaster from the start, one ship sank shortly after leaving Portsmouth with the loss of almost 200 lives. Those who reached the New World faced disease, wild animals, mutiny and desertion. Conditions on campaign were appalling, massacres were commonplace, rations crude, pay infrequent and supplies insufficient. Nevertheless, those who endured made key contributions to Bolivar's success.