Colombia is the 5th largest nation in Latin America and has the third largest population in the region. Unlike most of its Andean neighbors, Colombia is a nation of cities; almost 70 % of the people lived in urban areas in the late 1980s. In addition to Bogotá, the capital, which had an around population of 5 million in 1988, three other cities had populations of 1 million or more: Cali, Medellín, and Barranquilla. Fourteen other urban centers had populations of between 100,000 and 500,000. More than 100 cities had 10,000 or more inhabitants.

Three-fifths of the nation was sparsely populated tropical lowlands and jungle. 98% of the population was concentrated in the interior two-fifths of the national territory-- mainly in the narrow valleys and intermontane basins formed by the 3 ranges of the Andes Mountains that divide the nation from north to south. The dominant language was Spanish, and the large majority of the people were Roman Catholic. 70% of the population was of mixed blood; Caucasians, Indians, and blacks accounted for the rest. The nation's economic and political elite remained predominantly white, however.

In the twentieth century, the society began to experience change--not so much in values or orientation but in broadening of the economic bases and an development of the social classes. Improvements in transportation, communication, and education-- coupled with industrialization and rapid urban growth--opened the society somewhat by expanding economic opportunities. Individuals moved up from the masses into the lower, the middle, and inoften the upper classes. However, the orthodox upper class continued to dominate the nation by maintaining strict control over forces that promoted change and by absorbing or coopting other social sectors into the economic and political system. Generally, the upper class did not admit these upwardly mobile groups to the inner circle of power cliques and informal social contacts.