Civil wars in Colombia during the 19th century

In 1908, the conservative politician Jorge Holguín, briefly president of the Republic, recounted a total of 28 “public calamities” that shook the country between 1830 and 1903, including nine major general wars, 14 local wars, and two international wars. with Ecuador, two barracks coups and a barracks conspiracy, which cost the country $51,900,000 gold pesos. It is estimated that the death toll from the wars was 150,000, of which nearly two-thirds perished in the Thousand Days War. It is necessary to note that the Holguín figures do not include the wars prior to 1830, namely the War of Independence and the clashes between federalists and centralists between 1812 and 1815.

A general look at the armed confrontations at the national level that occurred throughout the 19th century, except for the War of a Thousand Days, which deserves a separate chapter due to its scope and consequences, offers a panorama of a country in turmoil in the first century of its formation. as an independent nation.