Notes from the Author
"Libertad Y Orden", Liberty and Order
Notes From Me, the AuthorHello there gentlemen and gentlewomen! My name's Autopilot, but you can also just call me Auto. Today, I want to present y'all a project I've been thinking about for quite a while now. While I am not new to this website, and in fact, I've made a (rather unfinished) timeline in this forum, I've always wanted to make a timeline related to Latin America, my home region, specifically, the country of Colombia, which I very much love and appreciate. While I am not Colombian (I'm Mexican), I've seen many timelines that focus on the so-called "Gran Colombia", Simon Bolivar's nation-building project which ended in failure in 1831, and while that is a very interesting topic on its own that has the potential for many interesting scenarios, for this project of mine, I do not want to focus on Bolivar, Santander, or any of the other Granadine Heroes of Independence, and instead, I want to focus on a period of Colombian history known as the "Olimpo Radical", the Radical Olympus, a period in Colombian history spearheaded by Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera (who was nicknamed "El Gran General", the Great General) which was marked by Liberal policies, a significant decentralization of the country, a major cultural and intellectual revival, secularization, and an opening to foreign nations, but was also marked by significant fighting between states due to the weakness of the central government. In OTL, The United States of Colombia ended in 1886, after the "Regeneracion", the Regeneration, a Conservative and Unitarian revolution that ended the Liberal Olympus and instituted a new, more conservative Constitution in 1886. These events eventually led to a hegemony of Conservative politicians in Colombia who centralized power around Bogota, the 1000 Days War between rebellious Liberals and the Conservative government, the subsequent separation of Panama, and "La Violencia", one of the most chaotic periods in Colombian history marred by political assassinations and economic turmoil. However, I want to change all of this in this ATL, and make Colombia a fully Westernized and developed nation on par with countries like Canada or Australia in terms of strength and geopolitical influence, and I believe that a fairly reasonable and realistic PoD that would help us achieve that is an alternate "Guerra Magna"/Granadine Civil War of 1860-62 between the Liberals led by Mosquera and the Conservative Granadine Confederation led by Mariano Ospina Rodríguez and a much stronger 1863 Rionegro Constitution which would not have the same problems of a weak executive position that led to constant infighting between states and political factions. I hope y'all enjoy this and, without further ado, let us begin!
“Your Eminence, I have no enemies since I shot them all.”
-Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, First President of the United States of Colombia
-Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, First President of the United States of Colombia