In addition to those core areas, the territory of the Viceroyalty of New Granada included Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, southwestern Suriname, parts of northwestern Brazil, and northern Peru.

A strip along the Atlantic Ocean in Mosquito Coast was added by the Royal Decree of 20 November 1803, but the British battled for administrative control.

[citation needed] Two centuries after the establishment of the New Kingdom of Granada in the 16th century, whose governor was dependent upon the Viceroy of Peru at Lima, and an audiencia at Santa Fe de Bogotá (today capital of the republic of Colombia), the slowness of communications between the two capitals led to the creation of an independent Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717 (and its reestablishment in 1739 after a short interruption).

The rough and diverse geography of northern South America and the limited range of proper roads made travel and communications within the viceroyalty difficult.

The establishment of an autonomous Captaincy General in Caracas in 1777 and the preservation of the older Audiencia of Quito, nominally subject to the Viceroy but for most purposes independent, was a response to the necessities of effectively governing the peripheral regions.

In 1718, Governor Soto de Herrera called them "barbarians, horse thieves, worthy of death, without God, without law, and without a king."

The Spaniards took refuge in Riohacha and sent urgent messages to Maracaibo, Valledupar, Santa Marta and Cartagena, the latter responding by sending 100 troops.

It had the following provinces under its authority: The retribution stoked renewed rebellion, which, combined with a weakened Spain, made possible a successful independence struggle led mainly by Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Paula Santander in neighboring Venezuela.

From there Bolivar led an army over the Andes and captured New Granada after a quick campaign that ended at the Battle of Boyacá, on 7 August 1819, finally proclaimed independence in 1821.

The territories of the viceroyalty gained full de facto independence from Spain between 1819 and 1822 after a series of military and political struggles, uniting in a republic now known as Gran Colombia.