Colombia the country.
This is a thumbnail sketch of Colombia courtesy of Wikipedia:
Colombia officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country mostly in South
America with insular regions in North
America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean
Sea to the north, Venezuela to
the east and northeast, Brazil to the southeast, Ecuador and Peru to the south
and southwest, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Panama to the
northwest. Colombia is divided into 32 departments. The
Capital District of Bogotá is also the country's largest city hosting
the main financial and cultural hub. Other major urbes include Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Santa
Marta, Cúcuta, Ibagué, Villavicencio and Bucaramanga.
It covers an area of 1,141,748 square kilometers (440,831 sq mi), and has a
population of around 52 million. Its rich cultural
heritage including language, religion, cuisine, and art—reflects its
history as a colony, fusing cultural elements brought by mass immigration from Europe and the Middle
East,[ with those brought by the African
diaspora, as well as with those of the various Indigenous civilizations
that predate colonization. Spanish is the official
language, although English and 64 other languages are
recognized regionally.
Colombia has been home to many indigenous peoples and cultures since
at least 12,000 BCE. The Spanish first landed in La
Guajira in 1499, and by the mid-16th century they had colonized
much of present-day Colombia, and established the New Kingdom of Granada,
with Santa Fé de Bogotá as
its capital. Independence from
the Spanish Empire was
achieved in 1819, with what is now Colombia emerging as the United Provinces of New Granada.
The new polity experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation (1858)
and then the United States of Colombia (1863),
before becoming a republic—the current Republic of Colombia—in 1886. With the
backing of the United States and France, Panama seceded from
Colombia in 1903, resulting in Colombia's present borders. Beginning in the
1960s, the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict and
political violence, both of which escalated in the 1990s. Since 2005, there has
been significant improvement in security, stability and rule of law, as well as
unprecedented economic growth and development. Colombia is recognized for its healthcare system,
being the best healthcare in Latin
America according to the World Health Organization and
22nd in the world. Its diversified economy is
the third-largest in South America, with macroeconomic stability and favorable
long-term growth prospects.
Colombia is one of the world's seventeen megadiverse countries;
it has the highest level of biodiversity per
square mile in the world and the second-highest level overall. Its territory encompasses Amazon rainforest, highlands, grasslands and deserts.
It is the only country in South America with coastlines (and islands) along
both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Colombia is a key member of major global and regional organizations including
the UN, the WTO, the OECD, the OAS, the Pacific
Alliance and the Andean
Community; it is also a NATO Global Partner and a major non-NATO ally of
the United States.
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