El proceso de apropiacion de la tierra en Colombia, 1821-1850 : una perspectiva regional para el analisis

This paper tries to give a different methodological perspective to approach the formation process of the Colombian State and Nation. The point of departure is to consider the regional peculiarities and their incidence in the application of unified policies to appropriate the main elements of social production. We examine those state policies related with land appropiation, the objective difficulties against the implementation of "national" policies and the tendency to decentralize the solution to the hands of the respective provisional elites. We analyze three fundamental aspects that summarize the state's agricultural policy for this period: the dismantlement of the fiscal tripod that taxed agricultural output (tobacco store, aguardiente's store and tithe; the descomposition of collective land property forms (mayorazgos, resguardos and indivisos) and their transit to the form of individual private property; and finally the allocation policy of public and untilled lands.