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Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura
Print version ISSN 0120-2456
Abstract
AFANADOR-LLACH, MARÍA JOSÉ. A Colossal Republic: The Union of Colombia, Access to the Pacific, and the Utopia of Global Trade, 1819-1830. Anu. colomb. hist. soc. cult. [online]. 2018, vol.45, n.2, pp.35-63. ISSN 0120-2456. https://doi.org/10.15446/achsc.v45n2.71026.
The leaders of Gran Colombia faced the problem of imagining and creating a nation that would integrate an enormous and mountainous territory and its people into a coherent political entity. To that effect, as well as to justify the union of Venezuela, Nueva Granada, and Quito, they created discourses, representations, and symbolisms referring to geography. In addition, they constructed a utopia of Colombia as pillar of global trade. Access to the Pacific Ocean and opening an interoceanic route were central to this project, in both symbolic and practical terms. This gave rise to tensions between the local political economies and the legislation designed in Bogotá. The Guayaquil-Panama regional axis tested the limits of central power by showing the importance of the Pacific region in the early stages of the republican experience.
Keywords : (Author) global trade, Gran Colombia, Guayaquil; (Thesaurus) Panama, republic, utopia.