Michael J. LaRosa is associate professor of history at Rhodes College. Germán R. Mejía is professor of history and dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá.

During the last decade, Colombia underwent a tectonic transformation, securing a peace deal with Latin America's longest-running insurgent group, electing its first-ever leftist president, and even starring as the backdrop for a record-breaking animated Disney film. The rest of the world is quickly discovering Colombia, and LaRosa and Mejia's third edition of Colombia: A Concise Contemporary History is a peerless companion for scholars, practitioners, and curious minds seeking a greater understanding of the South American nation in all its spellbinding complexity.

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsForeword by Pamela S. MurrayIntroduction1 OriginsPrecedentsThe Crisis of Empire1810: The Development of the JuntasThe First Republic (1811–1816)The Final Battle against AbsolutismColombia: The Second Republic (1819–1830)The End of an Era of Change2 The Colombian NationsColombian Indigenous PopulationThe Afro-Colombian PopulationOther ColombiansDemography and Its NumbersColonizers and Settlers: The Nineteenth CenturyAn Urban Country: The Twentieth Century3 The Dynamics of a Political CommunityCitizenshipRightsThe Democratic Model and PoliticsGovernmentThe Formation of Law4 The Cadence of UnityThe Parties and the NationCommunion in BeliefsA Common MemoryA Single Institutionalism5 ConflictThe Spanish EvacuationPolitical Conflict in the Nineteenth CenturyPanama SeparatesConflict in the Twentieth CenturyLa ViolenciaInsurgency InterventionNarco-violencePlan Colombia, 20006 Colombians Search for Peace The Nature of the Colombian Armed ConflictThe Stages of the WarThe Peace Processes in Historic PerspectiveThe Future7 Economic UnityColonial Colombia ComparedMonopoly and Political Problems in the Eighteenth CenturyCoffeeThe Percolating TwentiesOil and IndustrializationThe National FrontModern TimesPhoto Essay8 A Common SpaceFrom Horse Path to HighwaySteamships and RailwaysAerial Cables and AirplanesMail and Communications SystemsPrint Media9 Cultural DynamismSculpture and PaintingLiteratureTheaterArchitectureMusic10 Daily LifePopular Religious CelebrationsSportsBeauty PageantsRetaking the Colombian Urban CentersRadio, TV, and Soap OperasGastronomy, Colombian StyleUniversity Life in Colombia11 Colombia and the WorldThe Early DaysThe Canal Project1928World War II and Jorge Eliécer GaitánKorea and the Alliance for ProgressPope Paul VI and the Close of the 1960sContadora, Central America, and Colombia’s NeighborsUribe and Bush: Brothers in ArmsEnter Santos12 Colombians AbroadPreliminary Observations on Colombian EmigrationWhy Colombians Leave: A Historic OverviewBienvenidos to QueensThe 1980 Refugee ActThe Special Case of Colombians in VenezuelaRemesas—Sending Money HomeColombians Abroad: Some NamesSome Sustained (and Unfortunate) StereotypesPeace Process and the Great Reverse Migration?13. 2016 and Beyond: ¡Basta Ya!The Elusive PeaceThe PandemicEconomic DataMigratory Processes Trouble on the Streets of ColombiaTourism: The Contemporary TrendConclusionColombian Chronology, 1810–2022Selected BibliographyIndexAbout the Authors