Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is the twenty-sixth largest country by total area, and the twenty-seventh largest by population, and the second largest in South America, after Brazil.  Colombia has the third largest population of any Spanish-speaking country in the world, after Mexico and Spain.  Colombia is the only South American country with coasts on the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, where it has several islands and the archipelago of San Andres and Providencia.

Colombia is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations.  Colombia is very ethnically diverse, and the interaction between descendants of the original native inhabitants, Spanish colonists, Africans brought as slaves and 20th century immigrants from Europe and the Middle East has produced a rich cultural heritage.  This has also been influenced by Colombia's varied geography.  The majority of the urban centres are located in the highlands of the Andes mountains, but Colombian territory also encompasses Amazon rainforest, tropical grassland and both Caribbean and Pacific coastlines.

Ecologically, Colombia is one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries, and is considered the most megadiverse per square kilometer.  Colombia Is recognized worldwide for the production of palm oil, mild coffee, flowers, emeralds, coal, and oil.  Between 1980 and 1996, Colombia was considered the largest producer of cocaine in the world, but thanks to the reform efforts of recent times, the estate tax and Plan Colombia led by the United States, the landscape has changed significantly.

Colombia is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments.  The Colombian economy is the fourth South American largest national economy, with an estimated 2010 GDP of $435.367 Billion.  Colombia is a standing middle power with the fourth largest economy in Latin America.  However income and wealth are unevenly distributed.  In 1990, the income ratio between the richest and poorest 10% was 40-to-1, climbing to 80-to-1 in 2000.  In 2009, 46% of Colombians lived below the poverty line and 17% in "extreme poverty".

Cartagena

Cartagena is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia.  The city had a population of 892,545 as of the 2005 census making it the fifth-largest city in Colombia.  Cartagena is a centre of economic activity in the Caribbean, as well a popular tourist destination.  In 1984, Cartagena's colonial walled city and fortress were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Cartagena was founded on 1 June 1533 by Spanish commander Pedro de Heredia.  The town was named after Cartagena, Spain, where most of Heredia's sailors came from.  The dramatically increasing fame and wealth of the prosperous city turned it into an attractive plunder site for pirates and privateers licensed by their French or English king.

The city then set about strengthening its defences and surrounding itself with walled compounds and castles.  Engineering works took well over 208 years and ended with some eleven kilometres of walls surrounding the city, including the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, named in honor of Spain's King Philip IV.  It was constructed to repel land attacks, equipped with sentry boxes, buildings for food and weapons storage, and underground tunnels.  When the defenses were finished in 1756, the city was considered impregnable.

Cartagena was a major trading port, especially for precious metals.  Gold and silver from the mines in the New Granada and Peru were loaded in Cartagena on the galleons bound for Spain via Havana.

Cartagena was also a slave port; Cartagena and Veracruz, (Mexico), were the only cities authorized to trade African slaves.  The first slaves arrived with Pedro de Heredia and worked as cane cutters to open roads, in the raiding and desecration of tombs of the aboriginal population of Sinú for its gold and artifacts, and in the construction of buildings and fortresses.  The agents of the Portuguese company Cacheu distributed human "cargoes" from Cartagena for mine exploitation in Venezuela, the West Indies, the Nuevo Reino de Granada and the Viceroyalty of Perú.

The "Silver Age" of the city (1750–1808) was a period of permanent expansion of the existing buildings, massive immigration from all the other cities of the Viceroyalty, increase of the economic and political power of the city and a population growth spurt not equaled since that time.  The Viceroys decided to reside in Cartegena permanently.  The inhabitants of the city were the richest of the colony, the aristocracy erected noble houses on their lands to form great estates, libraries and printing establishments were opened.

The good times of steady progress and advancement in the second half of the 18th century came to an abrupt end in 1808 with the general crisis of the Spanish Empire that came from the Mutiny of Aranjuez and all its consequences.  For more than 275 years, Cartagena was under Spanish rule.  On November 11, 1811, Cartagena declared its independence.

Medellín

Medellín is the second largest city in Colombia, with more than 3.5 million people.  The ethnographic makeup of the city is: 70% White (descendants of Spanish colonists, including Basques, Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, other Europeans, and Arabs), 20% Mestizo (those of mixed Spanish and indigenous Amerindian descent), 6.5% Afro-Colombian, and 0.1% Indigenous Amerindians.

During the 19th century, Medellín was a dynamic commercial center, first exporting gold, then producing and exporting coffee.  During the 1930s, the textile industry was developed by families whose fortunes came from colonial-era gold mines.  Glass, beverage, and food industries also were founded during the 1930s, and contributed to making Medellín the top industrial region of Colombia.  The position of Medellín as the top industrial city in Colombia has been a main factor in overcoming its crisis of the 1980s and 1990s.

Medellín was once known as the most violent city in the world, a result of an urban war set off by the drug cartels at the end of the 1980s.  As the home of the Medellín Cartel funded by Pablo Escobar, the city was victim of the terror caused by the war between the organization headed by Escobar, and competing organizations such as "El Cartel del Valle".  However, after the death of Escobar, crime rates in the city began to decrease.  Throughout the rest of the 1990s crime rates remained relatively high, although gradually declining from the worst years.  An average of 9 people were killed every day in 2009.

Today, the main economic products are steel, textiles, confections, food and beverage, agriculture (from its rural area), public services, chemical products and pharmaceuticals, refined oil, and flowers.  Medellín is also important to the region for its universities, academies, public schools, commerce, science, health services, festivals and nightlife.  Fashion is a major part of the economy and culture of the city.  Medellin is known as the "Milan of Latin America" and hosts Latin America's biggest fashion show, Colombiamoda.

The city is promoted internationally as a tourist destination, and tourism has strongly developed in Medellín in recent years.  The tourism in Medellín is mainly focused on business tourism, conferences and conventions and medical tourism.