The institutional reforms carried out in Colombia…

The institutional reforms carried out in Colombia since independence have done little to increase social mobility.

The reform of most sweeping social significance might seem the abolition of slavery, but it had been a gradual process, and there are no programs to help former slaves improve their material condition.

The conversion of Amerindian communal land into private smallholdings, supposedly to imbue the recipients with a proper entrepreneurial spirit, apparently does not make much difference in most of the country.

In the southwest, where the Amerindian presence is greatest, their objections cause state authorities to hold off implementing the policy.

Neither does the series of commodity export booms, in products such as tobacco and quinine, have much impact on basic social structures, other than enriching some speculators and middlemen.

However, one phenomenon of long-term significance during the mid-nineteenth century is the movement of settlers from Antioquia in the northwest into adjoining sections of the Cordillera Central.

The traditional view of this process as one of homesteading by sturdy independent farmers is idealized, for speculators and intermediaries likewise find opportunities in colonization projects.

Even so, campesino smallholders ware the predominant settlers, who will eventually serve as the backbone of a new and more lasting industry, coffee.