The Republic of Columbia is a country located in the northwestern region of South America. Columbia has over 46 million people making it the second largest Spanish speaking country behind Mexico. Columbia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil, to the south by Ecuador and Peru and to the west by the Pacific Ocean.
Indigenous people such as Muisca, Quimbaya, and Tairona previously inhabited Columbia. The arrival of the Spanish brought an era of conquest and colonization which did away with many of the indigenous people that inhabited the land. The Spanish then brought about the viceroyalty of New Grenada which was composed of modern day Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama and north-western Brazil . Spain's foothold was eventually tarnished in 1819 when "Gran Columbia" gained its independence. However, Gran Columbia was short lived due to the secession of Ecuador and Venezuela in 1830. After going through changes during the 19th century, The Republic of Columbia finally emerged in 1886 and it became modern day Columbia in 1903 after the secession of Panama.
Columbia is an extremely ethnically diverse environment due to the trans-Atlantic slave trade that brought Africans to Columbia and the migration of Europeans and Arabs in the 20th century.