Abstract
Between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a number of adventurers from
the Italian Peninsula left the Old World and joined the struggle for the emancipation of New
Granada. Motivated by a range of factors, they became involved in the pre-independence up
risings, enlisted in the ranks of the Ejército Libertador (Liberation Army), and participated in the
consolidation of the new republics. Taking place within a broader transatlantic and revolution
ary movement, their biographic trajectories influenced the course of independence in the ter
ritories of New Granada and the eventual birth of Gran Colombia.