Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The Spanish arrived in 1499 and by the mid-16th century conquered and colonized much of the region, establishing the New Kingdom of Granada, with Santafé de Bogotá as its capital. Independence from Spain was achieved in 1819, but by 1830 the "Gran Colombia" Federation was dissolved, with what is now Colombia and Panama emerging as the Republic of New Granada. . . . Beginning in the 1960s, the country suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict and rampant political violence, both of which escalated in the 1990s. Since 2005, there has been significant improvement in security, stability, and rule of law. Colombia is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse countries in the world, with its rich cultural heritage reflecting influences by indigenous peoples, European settlement, forced African migration, immigration from Europe and the Middle East. Urban centres are mostly located in the highlands of the Andes mountains and the Caribbean coast. Colombia is . . . The most densely biodiverse per square kilometer; its territory encompasses Amazon rainforest, tropical grassland and coastlines along both the Caribbean and Pacific." [Wikipedia]