Gran Colombia (Spanish for "Great Colombia'") is a name used today for the nation that encompassed a great part of the territory of northern South America and part of southern Central America during the years 1819 to 1831. This short-lived republic encompassed the territories of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama. The first three were the successor states to Gran Colombia at its dissolution. Since its territory corresponded more or less to the original jurisdiction of the former Viceroyalty of New Granada, it also claimed the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, the Mosquito Coast, "Guayana Esequiba" in Guyana and small parts of what today are Peru and Brazil.
Its existence was marked by a struggle between those who supported a highly centralized state with a strong presidency and those who supported a decentralized, federal form of government. At the same time another, three-way, political division emerged between those who supported the legitimacy of the Constitution of Cucutá, which created the nation, and two groups who sought to do away with the Constitution, either in favor of breaking up the nation into smaller republics or maintaining the union but creating an even stronger presidency. The faction that favored constitutional rule coalesced around Vice-President Francisco de Paula Santander, while those that supported the creation of an even stronger presidency were led by President Simón Bolívar. The two originally had been allies in the war against Spanish rule, but by 1825 their differences had become public and were an important part of the political instability from that year onward.
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