Chapter · Colombia · History
The letter that named the country
Kingston, 6 September 1815, with no archives and no library
In September 1815 Simón Bolívar has lost everything and is living in Jamaica with no army and no library. A gentleman of the island writes to ask what will become of Spanish America. He answers in twenty pages, and in the middle of a paragraph about building timber he writes the name Colombia will carry.
Context first
A lesson to read before the others, to set the scene.
- The place
- The era
- The people
The lessons in this chapter
- 1Seventeen nationsBolívar accepts the figure of seventeen nations and refuses the seventeen kings, then goes down the map giving each region a forecast, with his reasons and without a single document to hand.10 min
- 2This nation would be called ColombiaThe country's name sits in one conditional sentence of a private letter of 1815. Four years later a congress takes it up in article one of a law, without citing its source.11 min
- 3The isthmus and the congressIn a paragraph on the isthmus, Bolívar announces canals ninety-nine years before the first one, and an American congress he himself calls a delirium. Both ended up happening.10 min
How these lessons are written
Each lesson starts from first-hand sources: Wikisource, Gallica, Persée, archives, museums and institutes. A fact without a source does not get written, and every lesson lists its own as direct links.
The rhythm
A lesson is five minutes of cards and four questions. Those questions then come back the next day, then at 3, 7, 21 and 60 days, and that return is what makes it stick. One a day is enough, and you can do several in a row.