Economic Consequences of Independence in Colombia

Independence from Spain was a complex movement of civil confrontation and long and cruel wars of liberation. Human lives were lost, assets destroyed, capital fled, slavery abolished and public issues left to inexpert administrations, but at the same time there was an important reduction in the tax burden as well as a modernization of both the state and its financial regulations. The GDP per capita was reduced until 1830, and then recovered. The economies of Popayan and Cartagena contracted, the latter having been subsidized by the taxes of the quot;virreinatoquot;, and Antioquia, with its mining, and Cundinamarca benefited