La Violencia Political

Casey Andrew

11/7/12

Professor Hawkins

Comparative Politics 150

Blog 8: Categorizing Political Violence

            Some days it seems that all we hear on the news is more stories about political violence and conflict in countries all over the world.  There are so many types of political violence: revolutions, civil wars, terrorism, and genocide.  It can be difficult to know exactly how to categorize a certain incident, especially if it seems to be an exception or apply to more than one definition.  For this particular assignment, I picked an incident from the country I have been studying, the Republic of Colombia, and compared it to the definition given in the textbook.  I chose to more closely consider civil war.  The author defines civil war as “armed combat within the boundaries of a sovereign state between parties that are subject to common authority at the start of hostilities” (Samuels 259).  After studying The Thousand Days’ War in Colombia, I decided that this war stays true to the book’s definition. 

            In order to understand the war more thoroughly, I researched the political history of Colombia.  I found out that Spain used to rule the area, with its first settlement in the country starting back in 1525.  In 1810, however, Spain was conquered so Colombia (along with Ecuador, Venezuela and Paraguay) declared independence.  After this declaration, a Constitution was created and two political parties formed, called the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party.  Although young and unstable because of the many Constitutional changes, the country seemed to be getting on its feet (History of Colombia).

            A big Constitutional change was made in 1863 when the Liberals had power.  Because the Conservatives did not agree with this, they also made many of their own changes in 1886 when they came to power. When it became evident that the Conservatives had used fraud to remain in power, even though the country was supposed to have free elections, the time was ideal for the start of a civil war (Thousand Days’ War). 

            Although some were anxious that they would not have the resources or organization to fight the Conservatives in government, the Liberal party attacked on October 17, 1899. The War was not expected to last very long. The Conservatives tried hard to quickly solve the problem by putting in a new president and split into two parts, the Historical and the National. The Liberals also found a new candidate for the presidency and the war continued to get worse and more violent.  The Liberals continued to be defeated until the party was also split in two and the National party decided to end the War (Thousand Days’ War).  Peace treaties were signed and the country seemed okay for a few decades until more violence occurred in 1948 (History of Colombia).        

            It is evident that this War fits the book’s criteria for a civil war.  First of all, it was definitely “armed combat,” not just protests or demonstrations.  Second, this war was in the boundaries of the state of Colombia.  Though some may argue that many of the battles were fought in Panama, Panama was actually a province of Colombia at the time and broke away after the War ended with the help of the United States. (I do not consider Panama’s independence to be a Revolution, though, because the War was not Panama against Colombia, but two political parties against each other.  Panama simply took advantage of the fact that Colombia was a weakened state (History of Colombia).) Third, both the Liberal and Conservative parties were subject to the same government, another necessity of being classified as a civil war.  The book also lists many potential causes of civil war and the Thousand Days’ War even fits one of those options.  The book says that Colonial Legacy can impact civil war. What that means is that another country had control of another country for a long period of time and when it finally left the conquered country to its own control, the leadership and government was left to be very unstable (Samuels  ).  Colombia had been left politically unstable by Spain and had had problems for years before the Civil War began.  The time was ideal for a Civil War to start, and all it needed was a spark to start the fire. That “spark” was the Conservatives using fraud to maintain power (History of Colombia).  After the research, it is clear that the Thousand Days’ War fits the textbook definition of “civil war.”

           

           

Works Cited

History of Colombia. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Colombia. November 7, 2012.

Samuels, David J. Comparative Politics. New York: Pearson Education, 2013.

Thousand Days’ War. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand_Days_War. November 7, 2012.