States of Colombia existed from February 27, 1855, in the Republic of New Granada and the Granadine Confederation, where they were called "federal states". In the United States of Colombia they were called "sovereign states" (though they were not at all sovereign states in the modern sense of the word).
In 1886, Colombia was reorganized into a unitary republic (i.e. present-day Republic of Colombia), by abolishing the states and dividing the country into somewhat less autonomous departments with their own departmental governments; some of which were modelled after former states.