Viceroyalty of New Granada

The Viceroyalty of New Granada was a jurisdiction of the Spanish Empire in northern South America, covering the territories of modern Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela. It was created in 1717 by King Philip V to improve the administration of a vast and distant region, but it was suspended in 1723 for financial reasons and restored in 1739. Its capital was Santa Fe de Bogotá, which also hosted an audiencia. The viceroyalty included Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, parts of Suriname and north-western Brazil, and a stretch of the Mosquito Coast. Venezuela was separated from it in 1777 and placed under a new Captaincy General. The jurisdiction was repeatedly reshaped as Spain tried to balance defence, trade and revenue across the Caribbean and the Andes. The independence wars of the early nineteenth century fatally weakened it: the movement suspended royal authority in 1810, and Simón Bolívar's victory at Boyacá in 1819 sealed the collapse of Spanish rule. The viceroyalty's administrative boundaries later influenced the shape of the new republics of northern South America.