The interior frontier and the deployment of the State in 19th century Colombia: two documents for the history of Santa Rosa de Cabal

Abstract

The texts that we transcribe on this occasion for the Annals section are the testimony of the process in which the territory of present-day Colombia found itself during the second half of the 19th century. Towards the 1840s, once the “War of the Supreme Warlords” was over, the republic of New Granada had to face its consolidation as a nation-state, which required not only the political organization of its territory, but also its integration and expansion into less controlled areas. In this context, the Cauca territory played a central role as it was proposed as a strategic point for the creation of new settlements on its northern border, a space in transformation that connected with the historic region of Antioquia. This process not only responded to the need to consolidate internal borders, but also to control disputed territories that were poorly integrated into state control and institutions of power that in many cases had been established since the early monarchic period.