Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America, bordered by the Caribbean Sea, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, the Pacific Ocean and Panama. The Spanish landed in La Guajira in 1499 and by the mid-16th century had colonized much of present-day Colombia, establishing the New Kingdom of Granada; independence from the Spanish Empire was declared in 1810, with what is now Colombia emerging as the United Provinces of New Granada, and after a Spanish reconquest, Colombian independence was secured and the Gran Colombia period began in 1819. The new polity experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation and the United States of Colombia before becoming a centralised republic in 1886, and with the backing of the US and France, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, resulting in Colombia's present borders. Colombia is one of the world's seventeen megadiverse countries and has one of the widest recognitions of LGBT rights, gender equality and human rights in the region. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/