The first response you will get from an average Colombian when inquiring about the armed conflict is, “It's complicated.” And it is true. There are regional dynamics, multiple actors, changes across time, various theories and logics, and hidden narratives and subtexts. Colombia has been in a state of conflict since the early 1960s. The fighting between guerrilla, paramilitary, and government forces, with narco-traffickers thrown in the mix, has had devastating consequences for a large portion of the civilian population. Here I provide an overview of the conflict and civilian mobilizations for peace from the second half of the twentieth century through the present. This overview illustrates the breadth, timing, and regionalization of these trends.

The history shows how a variety of social mobilizations grew in response to rising levels of violence. A look back in time shows there have been various historical iterations of conflict followed by civil society responding and working to oppose violence and repair the damage. The causes of these cycles lay deeper in the country's broader social trends and political history.

Structural factors such as the illicit economy, difficult terrain, and state weakness have shaped the state's approach to the conflict and economic development, but the state's approach to governance has also been shaped by politics. A series of inconsistent choices by elites, driven by political contingencies, produced the social landscape that exists today and set the stage for civilian autonomy.