The Triumvirate After two attempts at establishing a congress, the State of
Cundinamarca managed to convene a Congress of the United Provinces, which met in late 1811. It issued an Act of Federation on November 27, 1811, which allowed Congress to establish a separate executive branch, if it felt it was required. An executive, consisting of a triumvirate, was created in 1814 after a royalist army from
Pasto and
Popayán defeated one from Cundinamarca (which had not accepted the Union and, in fact, had even sent troops against it). Congress nominated
Manuel Rodríguez Torices, President of the State of
Cartagena;
José Manuel Restrepo,
Antioquia's
Secretary of State; and
Custodio García Rovira, Governor of the province of
Socorro. At the time of the nomination, the nominated officials were exercising their jobs, so they were temporarily replaced by members of Congress:
Joaquín Camacho, Representative for the
Tunja Province,
José María del Castillo y Rada and
José Fernández Madrid, both Representatives for the
Cartagena Province. The triumvirate was inaugurated on October 5, 1814. On January 12, 1815, Congress arrived in
Santa Fe de Bogotá, after its army, headed by
Simón Bolívar, had forced Cundinamarca into the Union in December 1814. The interim triumvirate was replaced on January 21, 1815, by the original nominated members, with the exception of Joaquín Camacho, who had turned down the nomination. The first president of the triumvirate was
José Miguel Pey de Andrade, who at the moment was serving as the governor of Bogotá. On August 17, García Rovira, who had presented his resignation as President of the Triumvirate to Congress on July 11, was replaced by
Antonio Villavicencio.
Administrative divisions The Act was ratified by the provinces of
Antioquia,
Cartagena,
Neiva,
Pamplona and
Tunja. Under the Act of Federation each province was free to write its own constitution and form its own government. Other regions of the
New Kingdom of Granada established their own governments and confederations (for example, the Confederated Cities of the Cauca Valley, 1811–1812) or remained royalist. At the beginning of the revolution, the larger
Viceroyalty of New Granada consisted of 22 provinces. The provinces were under the jurisdiction of two
audiencias. The
Royal Audiencia of Quito, whose president had executive powers, had jurisdiction over the provinces of
Quito,
Cuenca,
Loja,
Ibarra,
Riobamba,
Pasto,
Popayán,
Buenaventura and parts of the
Cauca River Valley. These provinces were located in what are now the
Republic of Ecuador and the southern part of
Colombia. The
Royal Audiencia of Santa Fe de Bogotá, had jurisdiction over the provinces of
Panamá and
Veragua in what is now the
Republic of Panama, and the provinces of
Antioquia,
Cartagena de Indias,
Casanare,
Citará,
Mariquita,
Neiva,
Nóvita,
Pamplona,
Riohacha,
Santafé,
Santa Marta,
El Socorro, and
Tunja. The Audiencia of Quito, despite an
attempt at establishing a junta between 1809 and 1812, remained a Royalist stronghold throughout the wars of independence. The territory of the
Captaincy General of Venezuela had been part of the viceroyalty, but had become independent of it when the captaincy general was established in 1776, and therefore, never became part of the United Provinces. The Captaincy General had jurisdiction over the provinces of
Coro,
Cumaná,
Guayana,
Maracaibo,
Venezuela or Caracas (central Venezuela), and
Margarita Island, and it had its own
audiencia and
superintendency based in Caracas. After the Revolution the captaincy general established itself as a
republic. ==See also==