Colombia officially the Republic of Colombia (Spanish: República de Colombia is a transcontinental country largely in the north of South America, with territories in North America. Colombia is bounded on the north by the Caribbean Sea, the northwest by Panama, the south by Ecuador and Peru, the east by Venezuela, the southeast by Brazil, and the west by the Pacific Ocean. It comprises 32 departments and the Capital District of Bogotá, the country’s largest city. With an area of 1,141,748 square kilometers (440,831 square miles), Colombia is the fourth-largest country in South America, after Brazil, Argentina and Peru. It is also the 25th-largest country in the world, the fifth-largest country in Latin America, and the second most populous Spanish-speaking country.
With over 50 million inhabitants Colombia is the third-most-populous country in Latin America, and the world’s third-most populous Spanish-speaking country. Its population is ethnically and linguistically diverse, with its rich multicultural heritage reflecting influences by several Amerindian civilizations, Spanish settlement, forced African labor, and immigration from Europe and the greater Middle East. Urban centres are concentrated in the Andean highlands and the Caribbean coast.
Colombia has been inhabited by indigenous peoples since at least 12,000 BCE, including the Muisca, Quimbaya, and Tairona. Spaniards arrived in 1499 and by the mid-16th century annexed part of the region, establishing the New Kingdom of Granada, with Santa Fé de Bogotá as its capital. Independence from Spain was achieved in 1819, but by 1830 the Gran Colombia Federation was dissolved, with what is now Colombia and Panama emerging as the Republic of New Granada. The new sovereign state experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation (1858), and then the United States of Colombia (1863), before the Republic of Colombia was finally declared in 1886. Panama seceded in 1903, leading to Colombia’s present borders.
