War Of A Thousand Days Analysis

Columbia and The War of a Thousand Days

Background: The War of a Thousand Days was a revolutionary war between the Liberal and Conservative Parties of Columbia that lasted from 1899-1902.The war started in Natá on the 27th of October, 1899, when the Liberals attacked the Conservatives in a small, and very ineffective conflict. The Liberal Party supported land reform, support of the peasantry, and sovereignty for the states. The Conservative Party supported a strong centralized government. The Liberal Party represented workers that favoured a laissez-faire system of economics and felt alienated because they had been largely excluded from the government since 1867 due to the Conservatives control. The Liberals had began planning a revolt

Furthermore, the members of the Liberal party were mainly coffee farmers and were suffering from an international downturn in the price of coffee. The land was left in a state of guerrilla warfare and civil unrest in which land was destroyed and lives were lost. In consequence, because the Conservative government could not pacify the violence, the Conservative Party offered amnesty and political reform on the 12th of June, 1902. The war and the negotiation between the parties had a significant impact on Columbia and its modern government.

Ideology: The War of a Thousand Days was basically a war between differing political philosophies and a thirst were government control. On one side, you had the Liberals who supported a larger emphasis on the states and land reform. On the other side, you have the Conservatives, who have controlled the government for nearly thirty years and favored a more centralized government. The insurrection was mainly due to the corrupt operating style of the Conservative

The first official battle was on October 27th, 1899 in which the Liberals attacked the Conservatives, although it was a small and negligible battle.

•The year of 1899 mostly consisted of battles between the Liberal and Conservative parties. The first major battle was on March 31, 1900 in which Bellisario Porras, a member and leader of the Liberal Party, launched an invasion of the province of Chiriqui, and in consequence, captured the city of David. The Liberal Party continued to take town after town as the Conservatives retreated. However, the glory of the Liberal Party was short lived. The Conservatives quickly regrouped and waited to launch a counterattack against the Liberals. They were better equipped than the Liberals, with new weapons, to where the Liberals had old weapons that needed constant maintenance.

•The Liberals still won, after eight hours of brutal war; adding members and increasing the overall moral of the Liberals. On July 24, 1900, the Liberals struck Panama, and were horribly defeated in one of the bloodiest battles of The War of a Thousand Days. .

•The situation was lost for the Liberals and they struck a peace treaty July 26, 1900. This ended the first part of the