Major interest in Colombia for the UK has lain in environmental protection and for Colombia the direct financial investment from the UK, military assistance, and gas production. Bilateral trade currently stands at ÂŁ1 Billion.[1]
History
Early contact with the area known today as Colombia began in the 16th century with the limited expeditionary forces of
Elizabeth I's
privateers, most famously in the search for the mythical city of
El Dorado. Until the
early modern period British maritime activity, exploration and trade was limited to these skirmishes in the Caribbean such as the
Battle of San Juan de UlĂșa (1568), which would lead to the
Anglo-Spanish War (1585â1604) and other successive Anglo-Spanish wars in the area.
By the 17th century the British began to become interested in the South American continent due to these trade and naval rivalries with
Spain, with the British fighting Spain over a
european regional conflict resulting in their defeat in the
War of Jenkins' Ear (1739 to 1748), which lead to the British withdrawing to focus naval efforts on their
North American wars (1775-1783) and resulting in the
Anglo-Spanish War in the Americas (1779â1783). British maritime activity in the late 1790s became more aggressive and began actively gaining territory in the Caribbean (see
Trinidad remained Spanish until 1797) to enable greater British mercantile trade in the area. At the time, they also furthered their interest against Spain, (see the
Black Legend). After Napoleonic Invasion of Spain in 1808 looking to gain independence, the Venezuelan Junta formed in
Caracas by 1810 was the first Junta to engage in diplomacy to gain ties to Great Britain.
The British Government on paper however were still in support of Spain in official channels, apart from a number of liberal politicians, but British public favour went with Colombian patriots and favoured pressuring government to open new trade markets with these newly formed Spanish American groups in 1817 and 1818. However, by 1822 at the
Congress of Verona, Castlereagh shifted position to favour Colombian independence, after the accession of British interest to the Western Question, due to the fluctuating relations with regards to the French Empire and its interests and power relations with the Spanish Empire. With the independence of several Spanish colonies such as Mexico and Peru between 1817 - 1821, and the success of Bolivars armies in the North South-Americas and in 1824 with the signing of the United States-Colombia Trade agreement, the UK under
George Canning eventually recognised the Colombian state in 1825.[2]
Canning in the
House of Commons defended his policies regarding France, Spain and Spanish America in a speech stating: "I resolved that if France had Spain it should not be Spain with the Indies. I called the
New World into existence to redress the balance of the
Old" - 12 December 1826
In the later half of the 19th century British merchants came to the area for the Coffee which in this century has become an important import once more.
Steamships and
steam trains began to be invested in the 1870sâ1890s by English merchants and the Colombian government to transport goods such as Bananas, tobacco, coffee and European imports, which proved to create a flourishing community of British expats in Colombia and spread out across the South Americas.[3] The British expat community later controlled a portion of the railways in Colombia such as the Cartagena Railway line, the Colombian Northern Railway and the Southern Bogota Railway line by 1906, with all railways returning to Colombian ownership by the 1930s.[4]
1595 -
Raleigh's El Dorado Expedition for the city
El Dorado takes place with the crew travelling the
Orinoco River in modern day Venezuela, with two Englishman left behind with local Indian chiefs, to whom he exhibited a portrait of Queen
Elizabeth and promised to return and liberate them from
Spanish dominion ... [whom were] promptly arrested by the Spanish colonial [authorities], who warned local chiefs to only trade with the
Spanish[6]
1596 -
Francis Drake ransacks the city of Riohacha, sailing away with 100 slaves as part of his booty[7]
1617 -
Watt Raleigh with an expedition traverses the Orinoco, until he was killed in a battle with the Spanish[8]
1739-1748 -
Battle of Cartagena de Indias occurs due to British mercantile expansionism in South Americas, with Britain withdrawing to North America not to return to the area until the 1790s
1758 -
Battle of Cartagena whereby the British blockaded the French in the port of Cartagena occurs during the North American Seven Years War
1815 - British Cartagenas de Indias is declared and fails, but Annual trade with Spain is replaced by trade between Colombia and British Jamaica via the
Treaty of Utrecht in the
Atlantic slave trade
1819 - Battles of
Vargas Swamp and
Boyaca. In
Angostura Bolivar proclamated the Republic of Colombia included present-day Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela, along with parts of northern Peru, northwestern Brazil and Guyana.
1821 -
Francisco Antonio Zea was appointed by Bolivar as special diplomatic agent of Colombia to Europe and United States. In London he negotiated loans of financial creditors Herring & Richardson and gained recognition of his new country only from the United States.
1822 - The ambassador Zea dies in
Bath, and a large amount of British private investment is made in the new state
1822 -
Jose Rafael Revenga as substitute of Zea as Minister Plenipotentiary of Colombia in London, negotiated Great Britain's recognition of Colombia as an independent country.
1824 - Bolivar leases the
Aroa mines to generate revenue to fight the Spanish in the wars of Independence
1825 - The republic of
Gran Colombia was recognised formally by United Kingdom in first South American envoy recognised by European state
1826 - The London stock market crashes reducing the already small number of private brokers willing to invest in what is now considered as a risky financial investment
1826 - Revenga complained to the British government at the direction of BolĂvar about the illegal presence of British settlers in Essequibo territory claimed by Colombia.
1831 - Gran Colombia was dissolved due to the political differences that existed between supporters of federalism and centralism, as well as regional tensions among the peoples that made up the republic. It broke into the successor states of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Since Gran Colombia's territory corresponded more or less to the original jurisdiction of the former Viceroyalty of New Granada, it also claimed the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, the Mosquito Coast, as well as most of Esequiba.
1882 - The English merchant Robert A Joy (1818-?) and the Colombian Manuel J. de Mier funded the
Santa Marta Railway in 1882-1906 to connect Bogota with the
Magdalena River, and by 1906 reached its longest length of 94 kilometers stretching to
FundaciĂłn, mostly delivering Bananas[4][3]
1889 -
Samuel SmilesSelf-Help is published and put into circulation in Colombia, used from 1891 - 1912 to further the goal of the education of the Colombian working classes[10]
1940 - The British Council establish English examinations in Colombia.[11]
1955 -
Cricket in Colombia became more institutionally recognised on 20 May 1955 with the creation of the BogotĂĄ Cricket Club (BCC) whose first chairman of the club was the Englishman Reginald Brand alongside and Indian Rishiraj Patel.
1978-1981 -
Aline Helg travels between England and Colombia to write her 1987 work La educaciĂłn en Colombia, 1918-1957: una historia social, econĂłmica y polĂtica
Following
Brexit, the United Kingdom signed a
continuity trade agreement with three
Andean countries (Colombia,
Ecuador, and
Peru) on the 15 May 2019.[16][17] Colombia was not able to ratify the
free trade agreement by 1 January 2021 and could not provisionally apply the agreement. Through the exchange of diplomatic notes the United Kingdom and Colombia agreed to a bridging mechanism arrangement, which was signed on 18 October 2019, allowing the two countries to continue to trading on preferential terms until Colombia could complete its domestic procedures to fully ratify the agreement.[18] Colombia ratified the agreement on 21 April 2022 and the UK-Andean countries free trade agreement entered into force on 28 June 2022 for Colombia.[19]
^
abEmpresas de vapores en el Caribe Colombiano: la navegacion fluvial y los ferrocarriles en el Magdalena Grande y el Bajo Magdalena 1870â1930, Joaquin Valoria-de-la-Hoz, October 2016, No.40, Caudernos de historia Economica y Empresarial, ISSN 1692-3707, p.12 See
[1]
^
abcDawn of the Railway Era in Colombia, J. Fred Rippy, November 1943, The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 23, pp. 650-663
^Adventuring Through Spanish Colonies: SimĂłn BolĂvar, Foreign Mercenaries and the Birth of New Nations, Matthew Brown, 2006, p.185, Liverpool University Press