"Colombia is easily the most confounding country in the Americas. Its democratic tradition is among the most long-standing in the hemisphere, with only eleven years of military rule otherwise marring its 208 years of independence. With Latin America's third-largest population and third-largest economy, Colombia has achieved stellar rates of export growth during the last 75 years, but it has also suffered from one of the worst levels of income distribution in the Americas. The richest 10% of Colombians earn 53 times as much as the poorest 10%. On paper, the country has one of the most progressive constitutions on the planet (with no less than 99 specifically-enumerated human, social and environmental rights), but since that constitution's enactment in 1991 no fewer than 10 million Colombians have either left the country or become internally-displaced - the result of, what Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez has termed, a "biblical holocaust" of human savagery in which 400,000 people have lost their lives over the past 70 years. "-- Provided by publisher.

Machine generated contents note:pt. I ORIGINS, 1536-1948 -- 1. Conquest and Colony -- How did Spain conquer the New Kingdom of Granada? -- How did the legend of "El Dorado" arise? -- What happened after the conquest? -- How did the importation of African slaves affect Nueva Granada? -- What role did the Catholic Church play in conquest and colony? -- How did Spain's change in imperial rule affect Nueva Granada? -- 2. Civil Wars of Liberation -- Why did Spain lose its grip in the New World? -- How did Nueva Granada become independent? -- Why did Simon Bolivar become the most important figure in the history of Spanish America and the Republic of Nueva Granada? -- Did the United States help Bolivar? -- Why did Gran Colombia fall apart? -- 3. Liberal Revolution and the Conservative "Regeneration" -- What changes did independence bring? -- How did independence affect the role of women? -- What happened after Bolivar's demise? -- What about the economy of the newly independent country? -- Did the Liberal revolution improve the status of Afro-Colombians? -- What drove frontier settlements in the Republic of Nueva Granada? -- How real was the Liberal revolution? -- What radical changes did the Liberals (1845-1885) enact? -- Why was disagreement over the role of the Church in Colombia in the 19th century so fratricidal? -- How have historians evaluated the Liberal Era? -- How did the Conservative "regeneration" consolidate state power? -- What changes took place during the regeneration? -- 4. Conservative Peace and the Liberal Republic -- How did Colombia recover from the Thousand-Day War? -- How did Colombia become the "Republic of Coffee"? -- What was the "dance of the millions," and why did the United States underwrite it? -- What caused rising social unrest? -- What was the La Cienaga massacre? -- How did the Liberals get back into power in 1930? -- What was the Liberal" Revolution en Marcha"? -- Did the Revolution en Marcha succeed? -- 5. "Good Neighbor," the Nazi Threat, and Cold War "Armageddon" -- What was America's Good Neighbor policy? -- Was there really ever any threat of a Nazi takeover in Colombia -- or anywhere else in Latin America for that matter? -- Why did Colombia start to slip into the cycle of mass killing later called the Violencia? -- How did the Cold War affect Colombia? -- pt. II MODERN ERA, 1946-2019 -- 6. "Violencia" and Military Rule -- What was the effect of Gaitan's assassination? -- Why was Gaitan's death a turning point in Colombian history? -- What explains the Violencia? -- How did the economy fare during La Violencia? -- Why did Colombia join the United States in the Korean War? -- Why didn't military rule (1953-1958) stop the mayhem? -- 7. National Front: 1958-1974 -- What was the National Front? -- What was the National Front's development agenda? -- What was Law 135? -- How did the status and mobility of women change during the period of the National Front? -- In what ways did Colombian culture and society change during the years of the National Front? -- How did the novel Cien Anos de Soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude gain such iconic global status? -- How did the Church change in the 1960s and afterward? -- How did the Cuban Revolution influence Colombia's turn to counterinsurgency? -- What was the Alliance for Progress? -- Did Plan Lazo end the Violencia? -- 8. Drug War I -- How did the United States become the world's leading drug consumer? -- Why did Washington first declare a "war on drugs"? -- How did Colombia become the global epicenter of the illegal drug business? -- What was the Bourne Memorandum, and what part did it play in the drug war in Colombia? -- Why didn't supply-side militarization work during the 1970s? -- How did the flood of narco-dollars in the 1980s affect the Colombian economy? -- 9. Drug War II -- Why did threat of extradition to the United States cause the drug lords to engage in mass bloodshed in the 1980s? -- What effect did Iran-Contra have on Colombia? -- What happened in the sacking of the Palace of Justice in 1985, and how did it change Colombia? -- In what ways was the assassination of Liberal presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan a turning point? -- How did the United States and Colombia hunt down Pablo Escobar? -- What was the constitution of 1991, and how did it reform both state and society? -- How did Escobar's death affect the drug war? -- What was the Leahy Amendment, and what effect did it have? -- 10. Plan Colombia -- How did Plan Colombia come about? -- How did American politics shape Plan Colombia? -- After everything that went into making it happen, did Plan Colombia work? -- How did the paramilitary forces play into Uribe's strategy of "democratic security"? -- What happened in the May 2008 overnight extradition of Colombia's paramilitary warlords to the United States? -- How did Plan Colombia impact the drug trade? -- Did the American-supported "war on terror" in Colombia succeed by anyone's standard? -- Why was the FARC targeted for "leadership decapitation" by the United States? -- Why did Washington have second thoughts about Plan Colombia? -- 11. Neoliberalism and Counterinsurgency -- How did the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement come about? -- Was the U.S.-led counterinsurgency in Colombia successful? -- How did peace talks begin? -- What was Espadade Honor? -- What peacebuilding initiatives accompanied the peace negotiations? -- How did the Obama administration bring about the U.S. Colombia free trade agreement? -- Have free trade and deregulated foreign investment worked in Colombia? -- 12. In Search of Peace -- What happened to the peace accord between the FARC and the Colombian government? -- What are the key elements of the revised peace plan -- and where do things stand today? -- Is the Trump administration backing "Peace Colombia"? -- What are the challenges facing Colombia now and in the coming years? -- Where is Colombia culturally speaking?.