Claim: Colombia is a country in South America.

Colombia -LRB- k -RRB- , is a sovereign state largely situated in the northwest of South America , with territories in Central America . Colombia shares a border to the northwest with Panama , to the east with Venezuela and Brazil and to the south with Ecuador and Peru . It shares its maritime limits with Costa Rica , Nicaragua , Honduras , Jamaica , Haiti and the Dominican Republic . It is a unitary , constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments . The territory of what is now Colombia was originally inhabited by indigenous peoples , with as most advanced the Muisca , Quimbaya and the Tairona .   The Spanish set foot on Colombian soil for the first time in 1499 and in the first half of the 16th century initiated a period of conquest and colonization , ultimately creating the New Kingdom of Granada , with as capital Santafé de Bogotá . Independence from Spain was acquired in 1819 , but by 1830 the `` Gran Colombia '' Federation was dissolved . What is now Colombia and Panama emerged as the Republic of New Granada . The new nation experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation -LRB- 1858 -RRB- , and then the United States of Colombia -LRB- 1863 -RRB- , before the Republic of Colombia was finally declared in 1886 . Panama seceded in 1903 . Since the 1960s , the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict , which escalated in the 1990s but then decreased from 2005 onward . Colombia is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse countries in the world , and thereby possesses a rich cultural heritage . The urban centres are mostly located in the highlands of the Andes mountains .   Colombian territory also encompasses Amazon rainforest , tropical grassland and both Caribbean and Pacific coastlines . Ecologically , it is one of the world 's 17 megadiverse countries , and the most densely biodiverse of these per square kilometer . Colombia is a middle power and a regional actor with the fourth-largest economy in Latin America , is part of the CIVETS group of six leading emerging markets and is a member of the UN , the WTO , the OAS , the Pacific Alliance , and other international organizations . Colombia has a diversified economy with macroeconomic stability and favorable growth prospects in the long run .