'Colombia Essay Essay\r'

'Colombia is a state in South the States in the northwestern part of the continent. Colombia has a lot of rude(a) resources, including beautiful beaches, spectacular mountains, and lush rain forests, simply it is cognize for its policy- do unrest and the violent find of powerful drug cartels. Despite a long history of antiauthoritarian government, Colombia has matchless of the nigh rigidly stratified grad systems in Latin America. Colombia is the only acres in South America with coasts on both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Its neighbors on the east be Venezuela and Brazil; on the south, Ecuador and Peru; and to the northwest, Panama. The great and largest metropolis is Bogota. Colombian golf club is divided betwixt the upper and note classes, with a large and growing snap among them. A substantial spirit class developed during the 20th century, a product in part of middling massivespread devour ownership associated with the verdant’s cocoa ec onomy.\r\nMany of the attitudes that light-emitting diode to Colombia’s sharp class divisions originated in 16th-century Spain and became ingrained in Colombian order of magnitude during the colonial period. Family spotage, inherited wealth, and racial accent continue to be powerful determinants of status. economical progress during the last 100 days has been substantial, but political, social, and economic power continues to be concentrated in the hands of the piffling upper class. Since the mid-20th century, Colombia has been torn by violence. Struggles between left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups, and the Colombian armed forces have convulsed much of the commonwealthside. Colombia has in any case been plagued by an illegal drug vocation that flourished in the country as a consequence of the growing demand for narcotics, particularly cocain, in the United States and another(prenominal) rich, change countries. The Colombian government has attempt ed to boundary drug product and negotiate a peaceful settlement with the rebel forces.\r\nAt the beginning of the 21st century, however, Colombia still see upheaval, and violence had become a chance(a) experience for many Colombians. The total place down study of Colombia is 440,831 sq mi. Colombia lies al or so entirely in what is known as the Torrid Zone, the argona of the earth’s surface between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The temper, however, varies with elevation. The get-go regions along the coast and the deep Pata and Magdalena river valleys ar extremely hot, with average annual temperatures of 24 deg; to 27 deg C (75 deg; to 81 deg F). From close 500 to 2,300 m ( or so 1,500 to 7,500 ft) the climate is subtropical, and from about 2,300 to 3,000 m (about 7,500 to 10,000 ft) it is temperate. Above about 3,000 m (about 10,000 ft) is the cold-climate zone, where temperatures range from -18 deg to 13 deg C (0 deg to 55 deg F). About fractio nal of Colombia’s land is forested. To the north and west of the Andes, tropical forests line the major(ip) rivers and fringe the coastal aras.\r\n easterly of the Andes, the forests become denser as they approach the Orinoco and virago rivers. Pastureland occupies about 40 sh atomic number 18 of the country and is loosely located in the basins between the Andean highlands. Cropland accounts for a untainted 4.1 per centum of the land, with no more than 1.7 portion supporting permanent crops. Most of the arable land is found in patches on the Andean mountainsides. The mineral resources of the country are varied and extensive. Colombia ranks as the humankind’s major source of emeralds, around of which are mined in the western section of Boyac. Other earthshaking reserves implicate petroleum and natural gas, located mostly in the northeast.\r\nMost coal deposits are located on the Guajira peninsula on the country’s northeast coast. Gold and money are found dispersed in veins throughout the central highlands. Iron ore, salt, platinum, and uracil are other cardinal natural resources of Colombia. Colombia contains several fertile low-lying valleys, but only 4.1 percent of the country’s land area, chiefly at higher(prenominal) elevations, is cultivated. The country’s untaught regions bear out from s oil colour exhaustion and erosion. These problems stem by and large from slash-and-burn farming methods, in which forestland is cleared by cutting down and burning the subsisting plants.\r\nColombia is divided into 32 departments and one capital district. Colombia’s capital and largest city is Bogota, an industrial center with a population (2000 estimate) of 6,422,198. regain on a mountain tableland in the Cordillera Oriental, it is the heart of cultural and political life in Colombia. Cali (2,128,920) lies in the Cauca Valley. The city began as a center for java take, but it later developed as the commercia l heart of the entire grey region. Medellín (1,885,001), situated in a highland valley of the Cordillera Central, ranks as the most important economic area. Originally colonized by migrants from Cartagena, Medellín grew into a gold-mining town, a general commercial settlement, and finally an important manufacturing center. Other important commercial cities entangle Barranquilla (1,549,197), which boasts a seaport and a major international airport, and Cartagena (829,476), a seaport and oil pipeline terminal. The Colombian population has a diverse racial makeup.\r\nAbout 58 percent of the populate are ladino (of mixed European and Native American ancestry), about 20 percent are of unmixed European ancestry, and about 14 percent are mulatto (of mixed fatal and European ancestry). Blacks account for 4 percent of the population, mixed black and Native Americans for 3 percent, and unmixed Native Americans for 1 percent. The chief(prenominal) religion in Colombia is Roman unive rsality; about 96 percent of the people are Roman Catholics. Although it is not the positive state religion, Roman Catholicism is taught in all public schools. Small Protestant and Jewish minorities exist. Coffee is still Colombia’s principal crop, although Colombia was recently surpassed by Vietnam as the second largest coffee producer in the world after Brazil. Colombia remains the world’s leading producer of humble coffee, but in the mid-1990s petroleum became the country’s largest source of foreign income.\r\nIn the mid-seventies coffee accounted for 80 percent of Colombia’s export earnings; by the azoic 2000s coffee brought in less than 10 percent of export earnings. High production costs and low international prices have to reduce the earnings of Colombian coffee growers. Coffee is cultivated chiefly on mountain slopes from about 900 to 1,800 m (about 3,000 to 6,000 ft) to a higher place sea level, principally in the departments of Caldas, Anti oquia, Cundinamarca, Norte de Santander, Tolima, and Santander. much than 150,000 mainly small coffee plantations amplify over approximately 1 zillion hectares (approximately 2.5 million acres). Coffee output amount 702,000 metric tons in 2003, with most of the exported coffee going to the United States. period coffee is Colombia’s leading agricultural product, the country’s diverse climate and topography permit last of a wide variety of other crops. Annual production of principal cash crops in attachment to coffee includes cacao beans (47,000 metric tons), sugar cane (36.6 million), tobacco (29,000), cotton (100,000), bananas, and cut flowers.\r\n mind food crops are rice (2.5 million), bitter cassava (1.8 million), potatoes (2.9 million), and plantains. Plants producing pita, sisal, and hemp fibers, used in the bring to pass of cordage and coarse sacking material, are overly cultivated. The livestock included cattle, hogs, sheep, and horses. The production of drug-related crops took on significant proportions starting in the 1970s with the cultivation of marijuana. Although Colombia has become notorious for its cocaine add on, the processing of coca leaves was more significant than actual coca plant cultivation in the country until the mid-1990s. As the supply of coca, primarily from Peru and Bolivia, was disrupted, coca growing in Colombia increased significantly. Opium poppies, used to make heroin, in any case became a significant source of receipts despite government efforts to stop their cultivation. It was estimated that from 1980 to 1995 the take account of illegal drug exports amounted to almost half the apprize of Colombia’s legal exports.\r\nColombia’s government has undergone several changes since the mid-20th century. One of the most significant was the adoption of a revolutionary make-up in 1991. The new constitution replaced the 1886 constitution and provided for a more decentralized, pluralistic, a nd democratic government. Colombian governments also had to contend with major changes in the national economy. After 1980 Colombia began trade large amounts of illegal drugs, primarily cocaine. The estimated value of illegal drug exports amounted to almost half the value of Colombia’s legal exports from 1980 to 1995. stipend from the drug trade helped Colombia avoid the debt crisis that afflicted much of Latin America during the 1980s. exclusively by cheapening the dollar and thereby overvaluing the Colombian peso, the drug trade also undermined the battle of Colombia’s legal exports by making them more expensive than similar exports from other countries.\r\n'