Viceroyalty of New Granada

The management of the Spanish colonies in America It was always very complicated because they were places very far from the metropolis, and, therefore, they were very far from the management of the king. To control these regions, the Spanish created the so-called viceroyalties, regional entities led by a viceroy who answer directly to the king for the management of the area. There were several viceroyalties in Spanish America and, to learn about one of them, in this lesson by a Teacher we are going to offer a summary of the Viceroyalty of New Granada with map.

The Viceroyalty of New Granada, also called Viceroyalty of Santafe or Viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada, was a territorial unit of the Spanish Empire created during the government of the Bourbons, who wanted to improve the management of the place by creating new viceroyalties.

the viceroyalty It was created in 1717 by Felipe V, within its measures to improve territorial control of the area. The creation of this territorial unit was not without problems, causing it to be dissolved in 1724 due to the economic problems it caused.

In 1739 it was restored, since the king was convinced of the need for its existence to manage everything. With this, the viceroyalty held until 1822, moment in which the independence of the region took place.

To understand the historical importance of this region we must talk about its location. In this way we will be able to understand the extension of land that occupied this place and how it influenced the towns that were born later.

The land that gave rise to New Granada was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the Captaincy General of Venezuela and the Tierra Firme Kingdom. It was regions of these formations that broke away and formed New Granada, as they were too large to control effectively at that point.

The Viceroyalty of New Granada was formed by the current countries from:

• Colombia
• Venezuela
• Ecuador
• Panama
• Guyanese

With this we can understand the map of New Granada and how enormous its extension was. As for its capital it was Santa Fe de Bogota, which is currently called just Bogotá and is the capital of Colombia.

To continue this lesson on the Viceroyalty of New Granada, we must make a summary of the history of this region, to know its evolution since its establishment and until its independence.

The history of the viceroyalty begins in 1718 when Philip V had it created, leaving Jorge de Villalonga as the viceroy of the region. Villalonga's management was an absolute failure, failing to fulfill any of the king's designs and causing Felipe V to begin to think that the viceroyalty was not functional.

Villalonga's failure, together with the Spanish economic crisis, made the viceroyalty was dissolved. Although the viceroyalty was dissolved, it actually maintained part of its powers, reaching a point where it carried out the actions of the viceroyalty but without being a viceroyalty itself.

In 1739 the Viceroyalty of New Granada was re-established, since they considered that the conversion of indigenous people or the defense of the ports needed closer management. With all this began the history of one of the great viceroyalties of American history.

Influence of the Enlightenment

One of the most important events of the viceroyalty was the Illustration, since many rulers of the area were influenced by enlightened ideas, causing the viceroyalty to be very advanced in certain aspects, which caused that, years later, these ideas influenced the revolution.

When the conquest of Spain by France began (known as the war of independence), in the viceroyalty there was various lifts of the population, causing enormous havoc and rebellions that ended with the overthrow of the viceroy and a crisis at all levels. The process of the end of the viceroyalty began.

The end of the Viceroyalty of New Granada

The first revolutionary movements supported the king, but in 1811 the governing boards began a process of independence considering that they were too far from Spain and that the king had abandoned them. At this point they declared independence, causing a civil war between federalists and centralists, at the same time that both fought against the royalists.

After years of struggle in 1822, Simon Bolivar declared the birth of the Republic of Colombia, beginning a new period in the history of the region and thus ending the Viceroyalty of New Granada. With this, one of the most important viceroyalties in history came to an end, being the enlightened ideas that led the nation to achieve independence quickly.