Bienvenidos a Colombia

Colombia's history goes way back to 1499 when it was first discovered. Spain is the motherland of Colombia. Spain colonized over half of South America, and part of it was Colombia; that's why Colombians speak Spanish. The indigenous people from Spain helped be an influence on their culture and language. The country became independent from Spain in 1819 with the help of Simon Bolivar, who helped the whole Gran Colombia gain independence. Colombia has also been in many other wars, but a big one was with Panama. Panama declared its independence from Colombia on November 6th, 1903. This affected Colombia because they lost a lot of land and also, their government was not stable at the time, which caused even more problems. Colombia has grown a lot in population but also ethnicity; Colombian people are a mix of European people and indigenous people. Half of the population in Colombia are called mestizos. Mestizos are a combination of Indian and European. Mestizos are here because when Spain (the European colony) colonized Colombia, they came and stayed. In South America, about one-fifth of the population identifies as Afro-Colombian from when Colombia enslaved people. People around the world have never really been motivated to immigrate to Colombia. Venezuela currently is where the most immigrants are moving from. A lot of population growth came after World War 2. Colombia has experienced many people leaving to emigrate to other places. What is the most common place? The United States of America. Some of the common reasons why Colombians leave Colombia are guerrilla warfare and drug trafficking. 

Colombia has a history that holds people coming and going, it will continue to evolve just as it evolved from Gran Colombia and got stronger.