Can you imagine a world where two United States existed? One in the north of the American continent and another one in the south of the continent, maybe they would be two “great” countries working together towards a world westernization, or two rivals with different political systems and viewpoints fighting against each other. Well, once in our history a group of people attempted to unified some South-American territories in order to make a great united nation, however, they did not succeed in their objective.
This country’s name was -at its time- the Republic of Colombia, but historians decided to name it as “La Gran Colombia” or “The Great Colombia” just to make a difference between it and the present-day Colombia. This Republic was established in 1821 and It included the territories of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, northern Peru, western Guyana and northwest Brazil.

Regarding to the economic importance, the country's soils, due to their fertility, allowed numerous crops to be planted, from temperate to warmer climates. This is why the main economic activity of the inhabitants of Great Colombia was agriculture. The main export items were cocoa, tobacco, coffee and livestock, most of which were transported to Europe (mainly Great Britain and France), the United States and Peru.(Guhl, 1991) In other words, it could have been a powerful nation at that time, but it did not last long enough to grow as powerful as the United States in the north.

We have seen that this country was large and powerful economically, so why did it split up? In short, insufficient unity between the different departments of the republic. The Great Colombia was formed mainly by the colonial entities of: The Viceroyalty of the New Granada, The Captaincy General of Venezuela, the Government of Quito and the Government of Guayaquil. Each with their own cultures and peoples, therefore with their own interests, which the dream of being a great nation could not destroy.