An approximation to Public Force in the States of Cundinamarca and Santander, 1857-1885.

Abstract

The aim of this article is to produce a historical representation on the structure, the functioning and the transformations of the Public Force in the States of Cundinamarca and Santander, during the period 1857-1885 by following its administrative aspects, as well as the evolution, organization, composition and distribution of its armed workforce, paying close attention to its constitutional or legal form.

The Military constitutional bases were presented in order to analyze up to what extent they were fulfilled. As a result, it was possible to demonstrate the double dynamic in which the armed forces of the State worked out, rotating between a military character and its functions of civil control of public order.

As the Sectional Army evolution were known, it was possible to understand the consequences left by the federal experience in the national institutions, particularly the Military, showing that an irregular budget and the subordination of military power to the civil power generated the major contradictions within the army.

However, such experiment allowed us to demonstrate how necessary the Public Force was. Despite the inconveniences of the period, with its liberal doctrines taken to the extreme, the institution managed to maintain itself until the Military Reform arrived.

Key words: Public Force, Federalism, Monopoly of Force, Federal Army, Sovereign State.