Shows how Afro-Colombians, Indians, and white peasants helped construct a democratic political culture in 19th-century Colombia, and ways in which the loss of some aspects of this mass-based democracy fed into the pervasive violence of the 20th-century nation Suggests that the reactionary developments contributed to the violence and unrest afflicting modern Colombia Contentious Republicans explores the mid-nineteenth-century rise of mass electoral democracy in the southwestern region of Colombia, a country many assume has never had a meaningful democracy of any sort. James E. Sanders describes a surprisingly rich republicanism characterized by legal rights and popular participation, and he explains how this vibrant political culture was created largely by competing subaltern groups seeking to claim their rights as citizens and their place in the political sphere. Moving beyond the many studies of nineteenth-century nation building that focus on one segment of society, Contentious Republicans examines the political activism of three distinct social and racial groups: Afro-Colombians, Indians, and white peasant migrants.