COLOMBIA

COLOMBIA.

Map of San Andrés and Providencia archipielago.
Fourth stamp in a set of 22, issued on 05.03.1956.
Face value: 5 cents of Colombian peso.
Printing: Recess.
Printed by Thomas de la Rue & Co. Ltd, London.
Print: 10,000,000 copies.
Size: 30 x 35 mm.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 771.
- Scott No. 849.
- StampWorld No. 753.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 874.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 512.

The Archipelago of San Andrés and Providencia (to which the island of Santa Catalina was later added) is located west of the Caribbean Sea, 775 km (480 nautical miles) northwest of the Atlantic coast of the Colombian mainland, and 220 km (140 nautical miles) from the eastern coasts of Central America, specifically Nicaragua and Honduras. Its area is 52 km² (20 sq mi).
Apparently, the islands were sighted by Christopher Columbus during his fourth voyage in 1502, which is not documented. In 1510, however, Spain took official possession of the archipelago, but did not promote settlements there. Between 1629 and 1630 the first settlers, Dutch and English from Bermuda and Barbados, settled there, and from 1680 the islands were under British colonial jurisdiction until 1775, when the settlers were expelled, and in 1803 they became part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. Between 1818 and 1821 they were taken by the French privateer Louis-Michel Aury, who put them at the service of Simón Bolívar's troops. On June 23, 1822, the flag of Gran Colombia was raised for the first time in the archipelago. Nicaragua claimed the islands, but a ruling of the International Court of Justice of November 19, 2012 definitively awarded the territory to the Republic of Colombia.