96 Colombia, War of the Thousand Days in (1899–1902) tighter integration into the structures of global capitalism The specifics of these transformations in various national and subnational contexts comprise the subject of a voluminous literature See also abolition of slavery in the Americas; Latin America, export economies in; slave trade in Africa Further reading: Bergquist, Charles Labor in Latin America: Comparative Essays on Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, and Colombia Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1986; Mintz, Sidney W Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History New York: Viking, 1985; Stein, Stanley J Vassouras: A Brazilian Coffee County, 1850–1900: The Roles of Planter and Slave in a Plantation Society Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985; Williams, Robert G States and Social Evolution: Coffee and the Rise of National Governments in Central America Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994 Michael J Schroeder Colombia, War of the Thousand Days in (1899–1902) The War of the Thousand Days in Colombia lasted from October 1899, when the Liberals staged a revolt to unseat the Conservative government, to November 1902 It is estimated that 100,000 people died during the war, which left Colombia and Panama (then a part of Colombia) devastated It also led to the secession of Panama There had been much instability in 19th-century Colombia with the 1863 constitution suppressed in 1886 and a new constitution established This failed to end the period of confrontation between the Liberals and the Conservatives, the latter managing to manipulate the electoral system to remain in power With President Manuel Antonio Sanclemente being too ill to administer the country, there was a power vacuum which Liberal generals hoped to exploit The Liberal generals planned a coup d’état for October 20, 1899, but the date was brought forward to October 17 at the last moment Instead of being a relatively straightforward conflict, many Liberals were hesitant about becoming involved in the war, some for fear of the consequences of failure, others because they were unsure whether they wanted a civil war The outbreak of the rebellion was in Socorro, Santander, with rebels who had trained in Venezuela ready to come over the border The Conservative government immediately sent their loyal commanders to Bucaramanga, the capital of Santander, but the soldiers were unhappy about being paid in what they felt was worthless paper money This stopped the Conservatives from ending the war with a quick victory However, they did manage to defeat some of the Liberals at the Battle of the Magdalena River on October 24 They were unable to follow up their victory The Conservatives split into two factions, the “historical” and the “national.” Sanclemente was deposed and replaced with José Manuel Marroquín At the same time, the Liberals, who also split into two factions, the “pacificists” and the “warmongers,” nominated one of their leaders, Gabriel Vargas Santos, as their president, and the scene was set for a civil war At the Battle of Peralonso, the Liberals led by Rafael Uribe defeated their opponents, but at the Battle of Palonegro, the Conservatives were able to crush the Liberals The Venezuelans intervened to support the Liberals, but the Conservative Commander Marroquín managed to block them from coming to the aid of their allies With neither side able to deliver a decisive blow, the first peace agreement was signed at the Neerlandira plantation on October 24, 1902 Fighting continued into the following month in Panama, and finally, on November 21, the final peace agreement was signed on the U.S battleship Wisconsin This ended the war that had wrecked the economy of the country but had also confirmed the split in Colombian society that was to lead to Panama being created as an independent republic on November 3, 1903 Further reading: Bushnell, David The Making of Modern Colombia: A Nation in Spite of Itself Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993; Demarest, G “War of the Thousand Days,” Small Wars & Insurgencies Vol 12, no (Spring 2001): 1–30 Justin Corfield comuneros’ revolt The comuneros’ revolt was a rebellion against Spanish colonial authority that took place between March and October 1781 in what is now considered Colombia This rebellion in the Viceroyalty of New Granada was a response by colonists to changing economic conditions While some of the conditions were long-standing, many of those that sparked the revolt were a result of the so-called Bourbon reforms The Spanish government had imposed a series of reforms in their New World colonies in order to more effectively control and profit from them