The weakness of New Granada's military is…

The weakness of New Granada's military is a characteristic common among Colombian state institutions generally.

The country's broken topography and primitive transportation makes it difficult, if not impossible, to assert effective control in outlying areas.

No cart roads exist anywhere outside the cities, and regular steam navigation on the Magdalena, the main artery connecting the coast with the interior, will not take hold until the 1840s.

Improvements in transport infrastructure—or any ambitious governmental activity—will cost money, which is not readily available, for the central administration operates on an annual budget of about one and a half pesos (still roughly equivalent to U.S. dollars of this time) per capita.

Local governments have even smaller resources.