Counterrevolutions

Abstract

By November 1829, with José María Córdova dead and Antioquia’s loyalty to the Gran Colombian government restored, O’Leary and his officers were at the apex of their power. But their fall from these heights was rapid, acrimonious, and bloody. Despite its defeat, Córdova’s rebellion had dealt a fatal blow to the Bolivarian regime, and on March 1, 1830, Bolívar resigned, later declaring that “he who serves the revolution ploughs the sea.” Sick, disenchanted, and disillusioned he prepared to go into exile but died before he could leave Gran Colombia, on December 17, 1830.¹ This chapter follows the veterans of El Santuario as they picked their way through the ruins of Bolívar’s dreams, attempting to protect their interests, their ideas, and their lives in the face of incessant waves of political and military upheaval. New Granada’s geography played a key role in scrambling the plans and strategies of generals and diplomats in these years. In several cases news of a battle or an armistice in one region arrived too late to prevent further bloodshed or a rebellion in another part of the country, creating new circumstances in one place that triggered further reactions somewhere else by which time, of course, more changes had occurred. The biographical approach adopted here provides a degree of coherence and some insight into the transformations of these crucial years in the development of New Granadan politics and society.