Seigneur Francisco Javier Vergara y Velasco
Francisco Javier Vergara y Velasco (1860 in Popayán – 1914 in Barranquilla) was a Colombian geographer, cartographer and historian. Author of many works of history and geography and hundreds of maps, his main works include the Nueva Geografía de Colombia (1888, 1892 and 1901; final version published in 1902)1 and the Atlas completo de geografía colombiana (1906-1910), which won the Charles Manoir Prize of the Société Geographique de Paris. A member of several scientific societies, Vergara corresponded with geographers and historians from all over Europe and America, most notably the French anarchist geographer Elisée Reclus, whose chapter on Colombia in the Nouvelle Géographie Universelle is largely based on his work. Vergara was ‘a scholarly and critical author’, and ‘his geographical thinking did not fit within the parameters of the dominant geographical ideologies of the country of his time’, so his work serves as a starting point for studies ‘of the history of the territorial formation of Colombia’. General Vergara y Velasco has a bust erected in his honour in Bogotá's central cemetery.
The National Army of Colombia (Spanish: Ejército Nacional de Colombia) is the land warfare service branch of the Military Forces of Colombia. The modern Colombian Army has its roots in the Army of the Commoners (Ejército de los Comuneros), which was formed on 7 August 1819 – before the establishment of the present day Colombia – to meet the demands of the Revolutionary War against the Spanish Empire. After their triumph against the Spanish, the Army of the Commoners disbanded, and the Congress of Angostura created the Gran Colombian Army to replace it. Throughout its history, the Colombian Army has seen action in several wars and civil conflicts, including the Gran Colombia-Peru War, the Ecuadorian–Colombian War, the Thousand Days War. After the dissolution in 1830 of Gran Colombia and the death of Bolivar, the Army of the new New Granada had been involved in war and civil war without being able to progress or modernize. Its officers were not well trained or technically skilled. The government addressed this by founding and organizing military schools and colleges, but was hampered by the constant civil wars that financially drained the country's economy. In 1839 General Tomas Cipriano de Mosquera hired Italian Colonel Agustin Códazzi as an inspector of the army. As a consequence of these civil wars over partisan affairs, the chiefs and officers began to be involved in politics. The need to professionalize and retrain the army prompted the creation of a
military school, which was created in 1887. In order to reorganize the army, the government hired a French military mission. Its mission was fruitful and the organization along French lines based on divisions, regiments and battalions was implemented in the country. Unfortunately another civil war, perhaps the most devastating of them all, the Thousand Days War, was declared on October 8, 1899, and did not allow the retraining and education of officers and commanders. This civil war lasted until 1903. With the ending of the Thousand Days War, General Rafael Reyes Prieto was elected President of Colombia with many ambitious plans to reorganize and professionalize the army. The first thing he did was to reduce troop numbers drastically: the army at the time had an estimated 80,000 troops who were poorly equipped, poorly trained, poorly dressed and very malnourished. Also the army lacked professionalism and sense of duty to the country and never acted as a national army, acting instead as militias and armed factions led by Commanders who had their own political agendas.
The Vergara family is one of the most aristocratic families of Colombia and Chile with origins in Bergara, Spain. The House of Vergara had its period of greatest influence between the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The family is spread across several branches in Spain, Colombia, Chile and the US. Considered one of the first families of Spaniards in the Americas having arrived first as conquistadors, and royal officers of the Spanish crown. The Vergara Family have produced four presidents of Colombia by the same surname; and three more related by blood. Other branch is considered amongst the founding families of Chile. Originally from Gipuzkoa, Spain, more specifically from Bergara, the Municipality in Basque Country. The Vergara-Azcarate's are descendents from Spanish conquistadors, and nobility. In Navarre, Spain they were a family with
armery, meaning they had the right to have coat of arms and be considered a well known house in the Basque country. During the Middle Ages they founded different houses in Abalcisqueta, Azcoitia, Azpeitia, Berástegui, Cizúrquil, Elgóibar, Elduayen, Elgóibar, Elgueta. Oñate, San Sebastián, Tolosa y Bergara. In 1391 the mayor of Bergara, Spain, was Juan Martínez de Azcarate, later in 1515 his descendant, the Baron Martin de Vergara y Azcarate moved to Getafe and changed his last name from Azcarate to Vergara y Azcarate after his hometown, making the family be known as The Vergaras from that point forward. Martin's grandson was Lieutenant Captain General Francisco de Vergara y Azcarate, born in Cadiz, Spain in 1575, the first of this family to travel to the new world. Later his son Antonio would follow his steps in 1621 founding the family in South America. The most important branch of this family are descendants of the Royal Treasurer Antonio de Vergara Azcarate y Davila, a colonial Spanish captain and governor of Cartagena, Mérida, Maracaibo and La Grita, that started the distinguished family in Colombia. This branch is located in Santafé de Bogotá, Colombia. That within more than 15 generations have participated in the history of Colombia in its different periods such as the colony, the independence and the republics. They have had several influential members in the country, from nobility, Generals, Presidents; of which there are seven who have held the position of the Colombian presidency, who are members or are related to the family by affinity. In addition, Governors, Mayors, Ambassadors, Ministers, politicians, academics, soldiers, knights of different orders, Freemasons of different lodges, writers, poets, several stewards of the chapel of the tabernacle of Bogotá, notaries, lawyers, engineers, architects and businessmen. In the new kingdom of New Granada, during the 18th and 19th century (1740s–1810s) they were considered one of the oldest and more aristocratic families of Colombia they consolidated great influence, being one of the first bureaucratic dynasties and political clans of Colombia.
Awards: Star of the Order of Boyacá (Orden de Boyacá).
