White Colombians are the Colombian descendants of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an and
Middle Eastern
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europea ...
people. According to the 2018 Census, 87.58% of Colombians do not identify with any ethnic group, thus being either
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...
or
Mestizo
(; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturally European even though thei ...
(mixed European and Amerindian ancestry), which are not categorized separately.
Distribution and ethnic background
While most sources estimate Whites to be 20% of country's population,
the
Federal Research Division
The Federal Research Division (FRD) is the research and analysis unit of the United States Library of Congress.
The Federal Research Division provides directed research and analysis on domestic and international subjects to agencies of the Unit ...
(using data from 2005 Census) puts that percentage at 37%.
According to
Latinobarómetro poll, 25% of Colombians surveyed self identified as Whites.
Whites live mainly in
Andean Region and the urban centers; they are mostly of
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
lineage, but there is also a large population of
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
descent, as well as some
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
, and another European ancestry,
particularly among upper classes.
Genetics
According to a genetic research published in 2014, where the ancestry of five Latin American countries were evaluated, the average Colombian genetic admixture is 60% European, 29% native Amerindian and 11% Subsaharan African, with self-identified White Colombians (19.3% of the samples) being 65% European, 26% native Amerindian and 9% Subsaharan African.
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...
obtained the second highest European component after
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, the second lowest melanin ratio also after Brazil, the second highest rate of
blue/gray and
green eyes, with the highest rate of
honey/hazel eyes, the third highest rate of
blond hair and with the same rate of red hair as
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...
.
History
Colonial period
The presence of Whites in Colombia began in 1510 with the colonization of
San Sebastián de Urabá
San Sebastián de Urabá was the first settlement established by Spaniards in the area of the Darién Gap in Colombia.
This fortified settlement was founded on 20 January 1510 by Alonso de Ojeda on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Urabá, in wha ...
. In 1525, settlers founded
Santa Marta
Santa Marta (), officially Distrito Turístico, Cultural e Histórico de Santa Marta ("Touristic, Cultural and Historic District of Santa Marta"), is a city on the coast of the Caribbean Sea in northern Colombia. It is the capital of Magdalena ...
, the oldest Spanish city still in existence in Colombia.
Many
Spaniards
Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both ...
came searching for
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
, while others established themselves as leaders of the social organizations teaching the
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...
faith and the ways of their civilization.
Immigration from Europe
Basque priests introduced handball into Colombia.
[Possible paradises: Basque emigration to Latin America by José Manuel Azcona Pastor, P.203] Besides business, Basque immigrants in Colombia were devoted to teaching and public administration.
In the first years of the Andean multinational company, Basque sailors navigated as captains and pilots on the majority of the ships until the country was able to train its own crews.
In Bogota, there is a small colony of thirty to forty families who emigrated as a consequence of the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
.
[Amerikanuak: Basques in the New World by William A. Douglass, Jon Bilbao, P.167]
The first German immigrants arrived in the 16th century contracted by the Spanish Crown, and included explorers such as
Ambrosio Alfinger
Ambrosius Ehinger, also (Ambrosio Alfínger in Spanish) Dalfinger, Thalfinger, (ca. 1500 in Thalfingen near Ulm – 31 May 1533 near Chinácota in modern-day Colombia) was a German conquistador and the first governor of the Welser concessio ...
and
Nikolaus Federmann
Nikolaus Federmann ( es, link=no, Nicolás Féderman, ) (c. 1505, Ulm – February 1542, Valladolid) was a German adventurer and conquistador in what is modern-day Venezuela and Colombia. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Vened ...
. There was another small wave of German immigrants at the end of the 19th and beginning of 20th century including Leo Siegfried Kopp, the founder of the famous Bavaria Brewery.
SCADTA
Sociedad Colombo Alemana de Transportes Aéreos german: Deutsch-Kolumbianische Luftverkehrsgesellschaft), or SCADTA, was the world's second airline, and the first airline in Latin America, operating from 1919 until World War II. After the war, SC ...
, a Colombian-German air transport corporation which was established by German expatriates in 1919, was the first commercial airline in the
western hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the te ...
.
In December 1941 the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
government estimated that there were at least 4,000
Germans
, native_name_lang = de
, region1 =
, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
living in Colombia.
[Latin America during World War II by Thomas M. Leonard, John F. Bratzel, P.117]
A wave of
Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
immigrants came after the rise of Nazism in 1933, followed by as many as 17,000 German Jews. From 1939 until the end of World War II, immigration was put to a halt by anti-immigrant feelings in the country and restrictions on immigration from Germany.
There were some
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
agitators in Colombia, such as
Barranquilla
Barranquilla () is the capital district of Atlántico Department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean Coast region; as of 2018 it had a population of 1,206,319, making it Co ...
businessman Emil Prufurt,
but the majority was apolitical.
Colombia asked Germans who were on the U.S. blacklist to leave and allowed German and Jewish refugees in the country illegally to stay.
Immigration from the Middle East
Colombia was one of early focus of
Sephardi
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...
immigration.
Jewish converts to Christianity and some crypto-Jews also sailed with the early explorers. It has been suggested that the present day culture of business entrepreneurship in the region of
Antioquia and
Valle del Cauca is attributable to Sephardi immigration.
The largest wave of Middle Eastern immigration began around 1880, and remained during the first two decades of the 20th century. They were mainly
Maronite Christians
The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larges ...
from
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...
,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
and
Ottoman Palestine, fleeing financial hardships and the repression of the Turkish
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...
. When they were first processed in the ports of Colombia, they were classified as Turks.
During the early part of the 20th century, numerous Jewish immigrants came from Turkey, North Africa and Syria. Shortly after, Jewish immigrants began to arrive from Eastern Europe.
[ Armenians, Lebanese, Syrians,] Palestinians and some Israelis continue since then to settle in Colombia.[
Between 700,000 and 3,200,000 Colombians have full or partial Middle Eastern descent.] Due to poor existing information it's impossible to know the exact number of people that immigrated to Colombia. A figure of 50,000-100,000 from 1880 to 1930 may be reliable. Whatever the figure, Lebanese are perhaps the biggest immigrant group next to the Spanish since independence. Cartagena, Cali
Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,227,642 residents according to the 2018 census. The city spans with of urban area, making Cali the second ...
, and Bogota were among the cities with the largest number of Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
-speaking representatives in Colombia in 1945.
See also
*Race and ethnicity in Colombia
Race and ethnicity in Colombia descends mainly from three racial groups—Europeans, Amerindians, and Africans—that have mingled throughout the last 500 years of the country's history. Some demographers describe Colombia as one of the most e ...
*Mestizo Colombians
Mestizo Colombians refers to Colombians who are of European (mostly Spaniard) and Amerindian ancestry.
Numbers and distribution
The 2018 Census reported that 87% of the population do not consider part of some the recognised ethnic groups, being m ...
*Afro-Colombians
Afro-Colombians or African-Colombians ( es, afrocolombianos, links=no) are Colombians of full or partial sub-Saharan African descent ( Blacks, Mulattoes, Pardos, and Zambos).
History
Africans were enslaved in the early 16th Century in Colomb ...
* Indigenous peoples of Colombia
* Spanish Colombian
* Italian Colombian
*Lebanese Colombians
Lebanese Colombians are Colombians of Lebanese descent. Most of the Lebanese community's forebears immigrated to Colombia from the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for economic, political and religious reasons. The first ...
*History of the Jews in Colombia
The History of the Jews in Colombia begins in the Spanish colonial period with the arrival of the first Jews during the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
History
"New Christians", or Marranos, fled the Iberian peninsula to escape pers ...
*Immigration to Colombia
Immigration to Colombia during the early 19th and late 20th Century, What makes it one of the most diverse countries in the world, above other countries in the Latin region. Colombia inherited from the Spanish Empire harsh rules against immigrati ...
References
Works cited
*Bushnell, David and Rex A. Hudson. "Racial distinctions". I
''Colombia: A Country Study''
(Rex A. Hudson, ed.). Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...
Federal Research Division
The Federal Research Division (FRD) is the research and analysis unit of the United States Library of Congress.
The Federal Research Division provides directed research and analysis on domestic and international subjects to agencies of the Unit ...
(2010).
{{White people
Ethnic groups in Colombia
White Latin American