HIST-2204A Geography of Colombia

This course is intended to familiarize students with the changes that have taken place in the current territory of Colombia and how it has been perceived and owned by some of the multiple societies that have lived in Colombia. To achieve the objective of the course, its topic range has been divided into four parts. The first, rapidly discusses the transformations in relief and modelling as part of long-term processes: the formation of the Andean cordilleras, the marine regression, the production of alluvial systems, such as rivers and swamps, as well as bioclimatic changes associated with these phenomena. The second one studies the populating processes that these territories have undergone since the first occupations of the territory until the European invasion of the 16th century. At this point,it focuses on the special importance that several pre-Columbian cultures gave to the management of hydric resources, their activities to render their environment more productive, and the impact of their occupation of this land. The third one will focus on the populating and transforming processes of the territory and its organization during the colonial period. The establishment of cities, villages, hamlets, parishes, mining-small towns, among others, will be studied along with other forms of settlement, somehow considered alternative: isolated populations out of the Spanish colonial domination called palenques and rochelas. The fourth one will focus on the configuration of the nation during the Republican period and the role that geography played in that process.

Credits

3

Instructor

Herrera Angel Martha