72 A BRIEF HISTORY OF COLOMBIA
twenty years would pass before the U.S. would reimburse Colombia for the loss
of Panamá.
After the civil war and the loss of Panamá, members of the political elite were
more receptive to resolving their differences peacefully. Conservative presidents
began appointing Liberals as government ministers and diplomats, and a
constitutional reform even guaranteed the minority party representation in the
legislatures. At the same time, Conservative administrations were still rooted in
the political traditions of the nineteenth century — close relations between the
Church and the party continued, with the clergy controlling public education,
foreign missionaries governing underpopulated jungle regions, and the
archbishop of Bogotá making the final selection of the official Conservative
presidential candidate. Entrenched in political power, the Conservative Party was
less able to address the problems of a society that was beginning to
industrialize, urbanize, and organize. The coffee economy created a market for
manufactured goods among newly-moneyed peasants, and new factories sprang
up in cities throughout Colombia; Medellín, near the heart of the major coffee-
producing areas, became the center of the textile industry. With industrialization
came urbanization; the building trades provided jobs while brick and cement
factories were established and expanded. Colombia's transportation
infrastructure also improved in order to serve the coffee economy, creating jobs
in the construction and operation of railroads — Bogotá was finally linked to the
Magdalena River by rail in 1909. With the political and economic climate more
stable, foreign investment also increased, particularly in mining, oil, and
bananas.
With the developing economy came demands for better wages and working
conditions, as well as for a breakup of the large coffee estates. Labor organizing
had a particular effect among banana workers attached to the U.S. - owned
United Fruit Company in the Santa Marta region on the Caribbean coast. During
a strike against the UFC in 1928, the Colombian army machine-gunned dozens of
unarmed workers assembled in the town of Ciénaga. The Conservative