Spanish colonization of the region began in 1537 with Sebastián de Belalcázar travelling from the south of later Colombia, where he had founded Cali and Popayán in 1537.

He set north to finally reach the area where Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada had founded Bogotá on August 6, 1538.

Later conquests were executed by captain Andrés Lopez de Galarza, who founded the city of Ibagué and established the municipality of Cajamarca in the west of the department.

Volcanic activity is an issue that residents must deal with living in many parts of Tolima, due to its location over various geological faults.

Industry in Tolima, as has been happening to the whole country, has been declining in its proportion of GDP, while services gain more importance, a phenomenon known as deindustrialization.

The result is explained by the fact that traditional sectors within the economic structure of the department such as the coffee registered a reduction of 22.4%, reducing 2 percentage points to the total variation, and others did not have important growth or presented/displayed diminutions in its added values.

So it is the case of the activity branches: transport, commerce and repairs, industry and electricity gas and water, which jointly reduced 1.7 percentage points to the variation, whereas other services, rights and taxes, construction and farming rest, forestry and 3.6 percentage points fish were the branches with greater positive contribution to the variation of the GDP when contributing.

Famous regional dishes include the Tamal Tolimense, a rice- and yellow pea-based dish with pork, egg, chicken, beef and vegetable filling, wrapped inside a plantain leaf; the Lechona, a yellow pea-and-meat-stuffed pork; Empanadas, small potato, rice and meat stuffed pastries, made with corn dough; Achiras (although not exclusively from this department) and Bizcocho calentano, smaller flour pastries; and Quesillo, a type of cheese wrapped in a plantain leaf.

Tolima gave to the country ten presidents: Domingo Caycedo, José María Melo, Manuel Murillo Toro, José María Rojas Garrido, Miguel Abadía Méndez, Alfonso López Michelsen, Darío Echandía, Carlos Lozano y Lozano, Gabriel París, and Deogracias Fonseca.

Amazonas Antioquia Arauca Atlántico Bolívar Boyacá Caldas Caquetá Casanare Cauca Cesar Chocó Córdoba Cundinamarca Guainía Guaviare Huila La Guajira Magdalena Meta Nariño N. Santander Putumayo Quindío Risaralda San Andrés Santander Sucre Tolima Valle del Cauca Vaupés Vichada