WK.14a The Return

Spain refused to lose any American colonies, so, after Colombia`s independence the crown wanted to rule over Colombia again, which meant, conquer it one more time. But in the time that took the Spanish army to get to America the Colombian armies had gotten stronger, in part because more people had “joined the cause”.

Before the independence Spain had the support of some governors that forced the people to be in favor of the crown, but when they got back they saw that that support was no longer in their favor, so they started torturing and humiliating the men women and children to “earn” their support.

Despite this, the crown`s armies got very strategic: Instead of fighting the Colombian army they cut the sources that supplied the army “se organizo una intendencia que fiscalizaba y centralizaba la producción de alimentos, el reclutamiento de soldados y artesanos, el abasto de cueros y ganados como de todo aquello que fuera esencial para sus ejércitos en campaña”(Colombia: imágenes de su diversidad pg. 131). With this strategy, the Spanish army recovered the south of Colombia between 1815 and 1816.

WK. 11a The Independence

The Colombian Independence from Spain was a slow process in which factors such as the economy, agriculture and politics, altered the facts of what happened.

In 1808 Spain`s colonies in America realized that Spain wasn`t as politically and economically stable as it had been for the past years. As this also affected Colombia, the politicians of the country started making demands to Spain`s crown. As the crown knew that Spain was loosing credibility in America, they accepted the demands made to keep the people loyal.

Later, when Spain was being invaded by France, the European government started taking soldiers and resources from Colombia to feed the war. This fact affected deeper the poverty in the American country, now that it was already on critical conditions, and lead to secret independence meetings.

As time passed by, the revolutionary ideas got stronger, causing several civil wars between those towns who supported the crown and those that were craving independence.

The 20`Th of July of 1810, Colombia got its independence from Spain. At the time Spain was leading with the occupation of France, so there wasn`t much resistance, but when Spain defeated France, the economy and strength of the country raised a little and its priorities changes. Spain’s number one priority now was to conquer Colombia again.

(Wk 10a) The Ranches In Colombia

The purpose of the farms in America during the colonialism was to take the great lands (some even had about a million hectares) and put them to produce money in every way possible.

They started as the farms and houses of rich people who felt the need of expanding the dimension of their lands so that they could aboard a bigger diversity of businesses. The problem with this is that these land-owners took the lands from the poor people by bribing the authorities.

With the advantage of having lands with such size, these land owners got what they wanted: to have many businesses. Some haciendas had such a diverse market that they made and sold soaps, tobacco, leather and cheese between much others now that the “ Dueños eran hacendados, mineros burócratas y comerciantes” (Colombia: imagenes de su diversidad pg 105).

Although, many haciendas focused on a single product and made wide companies to sell it, the products normally came from huge harvests and it was all in charge of the slaves whose work hours were inhumane.

The haciendas were also a sign of elegancy and money, which placed the land owner high in the society.

(Wk 9a) Black Slaves Living Conditions.

When the black slaves arrived to America they were forced to live in very hard conditions.

They had to live in small houses of only a single communal room were all the slaves of the hacienda lived “sobre sus estrechos espacios se arracimaban hombres, mujeres y niños formando una comunidad de gentes sanas y enfermas” ( Colombia:imagenes de su diversidad pg 93)

After a while of this way of living the slaves were forced into, the church decided to appeal for them and prohibit the illegal unions of slaves, which meant that if two slaves were married they got a very small house of their own. But the single slaves weren’t allowed to have relationships.

Regardless, all these slaves were forced to do hard work for long periods of time without the appropriate alimentation, which made most of them ill and as they all lived together in the ranches the infections and illnesses spread rapidly among the whole colonies of slaves. Although, the sick slaves didn’t only suffer from viruses, they also suffered from hernias, mutilations, fractures and craziness due to hard work. Which wasn’t only given among men but also in the women and children, and when any of this was the case of a slave, the master’s steel forced him or her to work without receiving any special treatment or medication.

(wk´s 7 & 8) Aguirre The wrath of God

This is a movie of a German director which shows, through the story found in the diaries of a priest that goes in an expedition to America, how hard it really was for the colons to conquer it.

This movie shows how difficult it was the war or colonization for the Europeans against the natives in the dangerous jungles of South America.

The story takes place in Peru, where the famous Spanish conqueror Lope de Aguirre and his troops that sail through the Amazon River are unsuccessfully searching for the gold city of “El Dorado”.

What I liked the most of this movie is how it shows a different perspective of how the process of colonization really happened. They don’t show the colonization as an easy process like the vast majority of the movies and books that treat this subject, but they actually show that it was hard, and that the natives did gave a fight and, though they lost the war, they did won many battles.

The story is pretty good, but sometimes it goes very slow, and the spectators may lose the thread of it.

Besides this, I really recommend the movie to the people that wants to see a different interpretation of the colonization, because, every story has two sides.