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Colombia is located in the Northwest region of South America. Bordering the Caribbean sea, between Panama and Venezuela, and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Ecuador and Panama. Colombo shares maritime border with the Caribbean countries of Haiti, Jamaica and Dominican Republic and the Central American countries of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras. Colombia has emerged from the collapse of the Gran Colombia in 1830. Gran Colombia consisted of three countries Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.
Colombia is the world's 26th largest nation, and fourth largest country in the South America. Being a Latin American country it has the third most populated after Brazil and Mexico.
Colombia is formed of two territorial zones, one is the emerged land formed by Andes mountain range and the Llanos plains also shared with Venezuela, and the second is the submerged zone is submerged in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
The Cordillera Occidental, the western mountain range is a moderately high range with peaks reaching up to about 13,000 ft (4,000 m). The Cauca River Valley is an important agricultural region that has several large cities on its borders, it separates the Cordillera Occidental from the massive Cordillera Central.
Colombia has predominantly a tropical and isothermal climate, the climate basically witness variation because of it proximity to the Earth's Equator. There are diversified climate within five natural regions and depending on the altitude, determined by temperature, winds, humidity, mountain climate, also influenced by the trade winds and precipitation influenced by Intertropical Convergence Zone.
The temperature decreases depending upon the altitude, for every 1000-ft increase in the altitude above sea level. Rainfall varies with location and is present in two seasons i.e. two dry and two rainy, presenting one of the highest rainfalls in the world in the pacific region.
Flora and fauna also diversify with the climatic zones. |
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| People |
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Colombia is the third most populated country in the Latin America. Colombia has a very colorful history that gets reflected with the diversification of the population. The major ethnic groups of Colombia are Mestizo that comprises 58% of the population, white comprises 20%, the mulatto population is 14%, black with 4%, mixed black-Amerindian 3% and Amerindian 1%. The European (White) immigrants are primarily Spanish Colonist and immigrants who had settled during the Second World War and Cold war. Other immigrant populations include Asians and Middle Easterners, particularly Lebanese, Chinese, Japanese, Syrians, Jordanians and Koreans.
Colombians are predominantly Roman Catholic and majority speaking Spanish. 1% of the population follows indigenous religion. Less than 1% practice Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism. Colombia is a young country with 94% literacy rate and more that two-third of the natives live in urban area. |
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| Government |
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Colombia has a republic government. The government of Colombia is a presidential representative and democratic republic. Government of Colombia is divided into three branches of Power, the executive, Legislative and judicial with special electoral and control institution. President is both the heads of the State and Government, with administrative authority. The Vice president and the council of ministers also exercise power. The president and vice president are elected by popular vote for a four-year term, and are eligible for the second term. The two largest insurgent group's active in Colombia are Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC and National Liberation Army or ELN. Colombia is administratively divided into 32 departments and one capital district.
Capital: Bogoda
President: Alvaro URIBE Velez
Independence Day: 20th July 1810 |
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| Economy |
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| Despite serious armed conflict, Colombia's economy has experienced positive growth over the past five years. The economy continues to improve in patches because of astringent government budgets focused to reduce the public debt level, an export- oriented growth strategy improved domestic security, and high commodity prices. The majority population is into the services sector with 58.5%, 22.7% of the population is into the Agricultural sector and 18.7% into the industrial sector. The major agricultural products are coffee, cut flowers, bananas, corn, sugarcane, cocoa beans, oilseed, vegetables, rice, tobacco, forest products and shrimp. The industrial products are textiles, oil, clothing and footwear, food processing, beverages, gold, coal, emeralds, chemicals and cement. |
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