The official story goes that on the 20th July in 1810, there was a fight between criollos and Spanish royalists over a flower vase (el “Florero Llorente”), and that this issue later became the popular fight for independence, which ended almost a decade later. Such a small incident led to all of this. Well, kind of…
It’s important to note that while this is the “official” date, the truth is the independence processes in Colombia and its regions and neighboring countries (like we saw with Venezuela) all happened at different times. Some regions of Colombia started before and some long after, but this date was chosen to commemorate the independence of the whole country.
So, as you know by now, the independence movements happened due to a variety of reasons: people wanted to be free from the Spanish crown, there was instability in Europe, the Americans had gained independence from the UK and the French revolution had just happened. People were inspired, they wanted equal rights for all citizens, but it was a messy fight, and a lot of people from different backgrounds were involved on both sides.
So, the story about the flower vase is recorded as a symbolic moment in which the supposed refusal to lend a flower vase to the criollos inspired the conflict in one of the regions of Colombia (back then part of the Spanish empire “Nueva Granada”) and the fight was extended to other places. After a long process, the modern Colombia was born.
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