Thank The Magna Carta

King John signs the Magna Carta in this mistaken portraya. In fact, he sealed the document.

Article VII - No man can be accused, arrested nor detained but in the cases determined by the law, and according to the forms which it has prescribed. 
Article IX - Any man being presumed innocent until he is declared culpable...
Article XVII - Property being an inviolable and sacred right, no one can be deprived of private usage...
Article XIV - Each citizen has the right to ascertain, by himself or through his representatives, the need for a public tax, to consent to it freely,
 - Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, Paris, 1789.

Those basic citizens' rights and others are inscribed on the wall of the Universidad de America's Casa

The Rights of Man and the Citizen, just off of Calle 10.

de los Derechos del Hombre, sadly hidden away on Calle 10, just above the Plaza Bolivar.

That resounding list of rights, issued by the French Revolutionaries in 1789, was secretly brought to Colombia in 1794, translated and secretly distributed by Antonio Nariño. The Spanish royal government, which held that the king ruled with divine right and could do whatever he pleased, confiscated and destroyed the documents and sentenced Nariño to 10 years imprisonment. Nariño escaped royal arrest twice and returned to Bogotá to help lead the revolution in La Gran Colombia, becoming one of Colombia's most important but less remembered heroes.

As imperfectly as those principles have been honored, they still provide a basis for rule of law in Colombia today.

The Right of Man are hidden back there.

And those principles emanate from an even older document: The Magna Carta, sealed by the lousy English King John and the barons exactly 800 years ago on June 15, 1215 in the field of Runnymede, outside of London.

The Magna Carta, or Great Charter, was nearly stillborn: King John soon repudiated it, and the Pope ordered him not to obey it. Rule by divine right and rejection of citizens' rights would continue. Yet, successive kings reissued the Great Charter, it helped inspire the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the United States Constitution and the United Nations' Charter of Human Rights, not to mention the laws of innumerable other nations.

Antonio Nariño brought
over the rights.

You might not have a chance to visit Runnymede this week, but it's worth passing by the hidden
Plazoleta on Calle 10 and taking a look at the principles which enable you to demand a trial before punishment, to defend your property from arbitrary confiscation and to have a say in how you are taxed - at least in theory.

The Magna Carta, not a very impressive-looking document.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

How Panama Created the United Kingdom

Colombia has not played much of a role in the campaign for tomorrow's Scottish independence vote.

However, if not for territory which was for a time part of Colombia, Scotland might never have united with England in the first place.

The Gulf of Darien, with New Edinburgh
on the right.

During the 1600s Scotland was a small struggling nation on the edge of Europe - but with dreams of greatness. Why shouldn't Scotland become, like England, the center of a great empire?

Scottish leaders set up a business scheme, which finally settled on establishing a colony on the Gulf of Darien on the Isthmus of Panama. Panama was strategic, the Scots believed, because it would be the pathway to trade between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

But English business interests, fearful of competition and of antagonizing the Spanish empire, prevented the Scots from raising money in London and on the European continent. As a result, the Scots had to raise their money at home, from patriotic Scotsmen and women. Ultimately, between one fourth and one half of all the money circulating in Scotland was invested in the Darien Scheme.

The first five ships, with 1,200 colonists, sailed in 1698 and established New Edinburgh in present-day Panama. But the expedition quickly turned disastrous from disease, internal quarrels, hostility from the Spanish and lack of aid from the English, who didn't want to antagonize the Spanish empire, which also claimed Panama. Only 300 people survived to return to Scotland.

Panama, the country which created the United Kingdom.

But before the survivors returned to tell their tale, another set of ships full of eager colonists had set off for Panama. This group also met disaster, including a Spanish military siege. Only a few hundred survived to return to Scotland. They left behind few traces, but today a town on the would-be settlement site is sometimes called Puerto Escocés.

In the wake of the disaster, the Scottish company invested its remaining money in two ships which bought slaves on the coast of Africa. However, on Madagascar those ships were seized by a pirate, who ultimately burned and abandoned them.

Thus ended Scotland's colonial adventure, which nearly bankrupted the nation. Scots seemed to conclude that they'd have better luck by uniting themselves with their larger, wealthier southern neighbor. The parliaments of Scotland and England passed acts of union, creating the United Kingdom in May, 1707.

The Spanish Empire eventually consolidated its control over the Isthmus of Panama. When South America became independent, Panama became part of La Gran Colombia, which also included what today are Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela. When La Gran Colombia broke up in 1831, Panama remained part of Nueva Granada, which became the Republic of Colombia. U.S. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt wanted to dig a canal across the Isthmus, but Colombia's Congress was reluctant.

Not to be stopped, Roosevelt encouraged the Panamanians to rebel, which they did in 1903, and the U.S. recognized Panama's independence. The U.S. dug the Panama Canal, which was completed in 1914. In a way, the Americans fulfilled the Scots' centuries-old plan of connecting the oceans.

Scotland, meanwhile, seemed to flourish in its union with England. Edinburgh became a center of culture and philosophy, while Glasgow evolved into an industrial center. Many Scots played prominent roles in the British empire.

When Scots go to the polls, will they keep Colombia's role in their history in mind? Probably not.

And if Scotland votes 'Yes' and becomes independent again, will they take up once again the old dream of having their own empire? Panama had better watch out!

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours