Colombia, the Perils of a Shattered National Identity

riciusfischer (53)in #writing • 7 years ago (edited)

Colombia, the Perils of a Shattered National Identity

By Rick Fischer.

Unlike the European Nation-States ~~used to~~ have, the State-Nations of Central and South America don’t really have a national identity… well they didn’t, at least not at first. In Europe the national identities developed first and then did the states develop around them. Some would argue that that was precisely the key to their viability as states.

In North America the very nature of the pilgrims’ religious idiosyncrasy and their reasons to leave Europe, allowed them to immediately forge a national identity as soon as they set foot in the Americas, identity which was later carried on by their founding fathers, that could arguably be the reason they were the first colonies in the Americas to claim independence from imperial rule by almost a century.

In South America, it was all backwards… Colonization was all different, instead of replacing the indigenous populations of the Americas; some judge this as evil, but it tends to happen when you get conquered, so don’t let it happen to your ass.

The Spanish actually ended up mixing with the native population.
At first there was some intent to enslave the indigenous population, but forced labor combined with epidemics brought by the Spaniards led to a population decline so severe that it threatened the very viability of the colonies.

The only solution available was mestizaje Spanish for (((Race-Mixing))) creating the mestizo the mix between mostly low-class criollos - ethnic Spanish born in the Americas - and indians the native peoples of the continent. Giving latinos or as I prefer Hispanics our unique racial constitution. This brought a unifying identity to the Spanish colonies with a common language, religion and origin.

Fast forward to the Napoleonic era, the disagreements between the criollo colonial elites and the peninsular Spanish crown regarding labor legislation, since the criollo elite of colonial rulers were interested in a more slavery-like model of economy, while the Spanish crown was interested in paid workers who could buy their manufactured goods. And also regarding tax regulation since the Spanish crown was trying to wage war against napoleon.

Led the criollo elites of South America, to see the occupation of Spain by Napoleon as an opportunity to break out of the Spanish empire, and keep economic policies more favorable to their primary cash-crops economy instead of the secondary economy of peninsular Spain.

So they declared independence, and then formed states dividing the territories of the former Spanish empire…

But in order to actually have enough manpower in their independence war the criollo elite disavowed their Spanish heritage, despite being catholic and speaking Spanish, and openly condemned the Spaniards as being the exploiters of the mestizos and the Indians, while claiming to be their liberators.

When actually all along it was the Spanish crown the one who pushed first against slavery and then for more humane labor policies. 1 - 2

... so they could create a sense of anti-hispanism in the mestizos they themselves had exploited. To recruit them against the imperial loyalists, Therefore shattering the still embryonic identity of the peoples of the colonies, and leaving them with a gigantic mess...

Colombia today has 1,141,748 km2

440,831 sq mi for those savages that still use that shit.

... almost 4 times the size of Germany, and at the time of independence it was the Gran Colombia, so it included the territories of current day Venezuela Ecuador and Panama.

Now in the hands of a criollo a elite of racially Spanish people who were thoroughly anti-Hispanic, leading a mestizo middle class and an indian marginalized lower class.

Among the mestizo majority due to the long extension of territory, there were many different cultures within the borders of Colombia most of them with some regional identity, but no national one.

As we learned from Rhodesia and The Austro-Hungarian Empire, multinational states tend to go down in flames rather sooner or later.

I’m looking at you European Union...

And a minority elite of one race, or ethnicity if you´re feeling Orwellian, cannot lead a country with a majority middle and lower class of another race, without eventual infighting and the unavoidable civil war. Particularly since the more ethnically white elite despised the more indian mestizos.

to the point of "indio!" still being used as a slur in Colombia.

The only reminiscence of a national identity was anti-hispanism, which as soon as the Spanish withdrew from the continent ceased to be enough to hold national unity.

So not long after the end of the independence wars Ecuador and Venezuela seceded, no more Gran now just Colombia.
And lacking a national identity Colombia's national unity was hold together... well... by nothing... thus Colombia plunged into a continuous series of on and off civil wars, and internal conflicts, that lasted throughout the entire XIX century, and ended in the beginning of the XX century with the war of the thousand days, then continuing in the 40s with La Violencia - the Violence in Spanish - after the assassination of a communist presidential candidate.

And finally in the 60s started the fucking longest internal conflict in the entire fucking western hemisphere.
After a group of autists tried to imitate the Cuban “revolution” in a continental country... 10 times the size of Cuba... and with 4 times its population…

Spoiler alert: it didn’t work... but it did lead to 40 years of atrocities, population displacements, corruption, inequality, poverty, war crimes, suppression of human rights, loss of personal liberties, that though have improved in the last 20 years, haven't really ended with President’s Santos (((peace treaty))) with FARC.
Since there at least two internal guerrilla and paramilitary groups currently active.

How did lack of national identity caused this? In my opinion the ruling class of the country have never seen themselves as part of their own Country, they renounced their Spanish heritage, which also bonded them together with the middle and lower classes, whom they despise. So they see Colombia only, in the best of cases, as a business to profit from, or in the worst as land to for plunder for loot. This causes the people to feel alienated from their rulers, leading to corruption, and social instability, due to a lack of belonging to the country.

Most other Central and South American nations have had similar problems building a national identity; with two of them having notable success: Mexico, by appealing to their common past in the Aztec Empire, and Brazil, by uniting against a common enemy: military dictator João Figueiredo.

So far Colombia hasn't been able to forge its own identity, though some effort has been made by rewriting its constitution and identifying it as (((multicultural and polyethnic))), the closest we have ever been is through Football (not hand-egg Ameribros). The only mildly unifying element in all the nations that make the Republic of Colombia, is their happiness to see the success of their national football team... Let that be a warning for other nations falling for the meme of surrendering their national identity, without one you will plunge into an eternity of civil wars and internal conflicts, and hang the balance of your national unity on 11 guys kicking around a ball...

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