The Goajira Peninsula and the Republic of Colombia (1821-1830)

Abstract

The scope of the main policies implemented by the Republic of Colombia on the Goajira peninsula is studied during the brief time that said territory, as part of the Zulia Department, belonged to the Colombian Union (1821-1830). For its elaboration the method of historical-documentary research was used. It is concluded that, once the colonial nexus was broken by the pronouncement of the province of Maracaibo in favor of independence and its incorporation into the Republic of Colombia, control over the territory of the Goajira peninsula became a difficult challenge for the novel Republican state. The failure in the pacification of indigenous peoples, control of clandestine trade and the constant presence of foreigners (English) in said peninsula constituted a legacy of unresolved problems due to the colonial policies of the Spanish Crown that the Colombian State, with its limitations, was unable to solve, achieving only conjure the British claims to establish a protectorate in the Goajira peninsula which, after the Gran Colombia dissolution, will be subject to a long border dispute between the reconstituted republics of New Granada and Venezuela until the end of the 19th century.