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Spanish conquest of the Chibchan Nations

 

 
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Spanish conquest of the Chibchan Nations
 
 
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Spanish conquest of the Chibchan Nations refers to the conquest
Conquest

Conquest may refer to:...
 by the Spanish monarchy
Spanish monarchy

is the Constitutional Monarchy of Spain. The King or Queen regent of Spain is the Head of State List of heads of state of Spain and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Armed Forces....
 of the Chibchan speaking nations, mainly the Muisca
Muisca

Muisca refers to a nation of the Chibcha that formed the Muisca Confederation encountered by the Spanish at the time of the conquest of what is now part of central Colombia in 1537....
s and Tairona
Tairona

Tairona is a group of chiefdoms in the region of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in present-day Cesar Department, Magdalena Department and Guajira Department Departments of Colombia, South America, which goes back at least to the 1st century AD and had significant demographic growth around the 11th century....
s that inhabited what is nowadays Colombia
Colombia

Colombia , officially the Republic of Colombia , is a country in north-western South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the north west by Panama; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean....
 to eventually begin the Spanish colonization of the Americas
Spanish colonization of the Americas

The Spanish colonization of the Americas was Spain's conquest, settlement, and rule over much of the western hemisphere. Beginning with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, over three centuries the Spanish Empire expanded from early small settlements in the Caribbean to include Central America, most of South America, Mexico, what toda...
.

The first inhabitants of Colombia were migrating members of the Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica or Meso-America is a region and cultural area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, within which a number of pre-Columbian society flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries....
ns who established themselves in the area c. 1200 BC followed by two other waves c. 500 BC and a third one between 400 and 300 BC. Later on the group of Arawak
Arawak

The term Arawak , was used to designate some of the peoples encountered by the Spain in the West Indies in 1492 and thereafter. These include the Ta?no, who occupied the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas and Bimini Florida, the Nepoya and Suppoyo of Trinidad and the Igneri, who were supposed to have preceded the Caribs in the Lesser Anti...
s coming from southern South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
 made presence in the area, and a third wave of migrating groups, the warring Carib
Carib

Carib, Island Carib or Kalinago people, after whom the Caribbean Sea was named, live in the Lesser Antilles islands. They are an Amerindian people whose origins lie in the southern West Indies and the northern coast of South America....
s established in the lower lands and pushed the Mesoamericans to the mountains.






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Spanish conquest of the Chibchan Nations refers to the conquest
Conquest

Conquest may refer to:...
 by the Spanish monarchy
Spanish monarchy

is the Constitutional Monarchy of Spain. The King or Queen regent of Spain is the Head of State List of heads of state of Spain and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Armed Forces....
 of the Chibchan speaking nations, mainly the Muisca
Muisca

Muisca refers to a nation of the Chibcha that formed the Muisca Confederation encountered by the Spanish at the time of the conquest of what is now part of central Colombia in 1537....
s and Tairona
Tairona

Tairona is a group of chiefdoms in the region of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in present-day Cesar Department, Magdalena Department and Guajira Department Departments of Colombia, South America, which goes back at least to the 1st century AD and had significant demographic growth around the 11th century....
s that inhabited what is nowadays Colombia
Colombia

Colombia , officially the Republic of Colombia , is a country in north-western South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the north west by Panama; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean....
 to eventually begin the Spanish colonization of the Americas
Spanish colonization of the Americas

The Spanish colonization of the Americas was Spain's conquest, settlement, and rule over much of the western hemisphere. Beginning with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, over three centuries the Spanish Empire expanded from early small settlements in the Caribbean to include Central America, most of South America, Mexico, what toda...
.

The first inhabitants of Colombia were migrating members of the Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica or Meso-America is a region and cultural area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, within which a number of pre-Columbian society flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries....
ns who established themselves in the area c. 1200 BC followed by two other waves c. 500 BC and a third one between 400 and 300 BC. Later on the group of Arawak
Arawak

The term Arawak , was used to designate some of the peoples encountered by the Spain in the West Indies in 1492 and thereafter. These include the Ta?no, who occupied the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas and Bimini Florida, the Nepoya and Suppoyo of Trinidad and the Igneri, who were supposed to have preceded the Caribs in the Lesser Anti...
s coming from southern South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
 made presence in the area, and a third wave of migrating groups, the warring Carib
Carib

Carib, Island Carib or Kalinago people, after whom the Caribbean Sea was named, live in the Lesser Antilles islands. They are an Amerindian people whose origins lie in the southern West Indies and the northern coast of South America....
s established in the lower lands and pushed the Mesoamericans to the mountains. The southern areas of nowadays Colombia were also part of the Inca Empire
Inca Empire

The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cuzco in modern-day Peru....
.

There were two main tribes that at the time of the Spanish arrival were socially and economically developed; the Muisca
Muisca

Muisca refers to a nation of the Chibcha that formed the Muisca Confederation encountered by the Spanish at the time of the conquest of what is now part of central Colombia in 1537....
s and the Tairona
Tairona

Tairona is a group of chiefdoms in the region of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in present-day Cesar Department, Magdalena Department and Guajira Department Departments of Colombia, South America, which goes back at least to the 1st century AD and had significant demographic growth around the 11th century....
s both pertaining to the Chibchan Nations.

Pre-Colombian


Muiscas


The Muiscas inhabited the area of what is now the Departments
Departments of Colombia

Colombia is a unitary republic conformed by thirty-two departments and a Capital District . Each department has a Governor and a Department Assembly , elected by popular vote for a four-year period....
 of Boyacá
Boyacá Department

Boyac? is one of the 32 Departments of Colombia of Colombia, and the remnant of one of the original nine states of the "United States of Colombia"....
] and Cundinamarca
Cundinamarca Department

Cundinamarca is a department of Colombia, one of the original nine states of the "United States of Colombia"....
 high plateau mainly (Altiplano Cundiboyacense
Altiplano Cundiboyacense

The Altiplano Cundiboyacense is a set of highlands located on the Cordillera Oriental, Colombia of the Colombian Andes between the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyac? Department....
). The Muiscas were also divided into two confederations: Hunza
Hunza

Hunza may refer to*Hunza Valley*Former Hunza *Hunza River*Hunza Peak*Hunza people*Hunza is the Muisca name of the city of Tunja, Colombia...
, whose sovereign was the Zaque and Bacatá, whose sovereign was the Zipa. They farmed maize, potato, quinoa and cotton, among others. Skilled in goldsmiths, bartered emeralds, blankets, ceramic handicrafts, coca and salt actively trading these with neighboring nations.

Taironas


The Taironas inhabited in northern Colombia in the Andes
Andes

The Andes form the world's longest exposed mountain range. They lie as a continuous chain of highland along the western coast of South America. The range is over 7,000 km long, 200-700 km wide , and of an average height of about 4,000 m ....
 isolated mountain range of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is an isolated mountain range apart from the Andes chain that runs through Colombia. Reaching an altitude of 5,700 metres above sea level just 42 km from the Caribbean coast, the Sierra Nevada is the world's highest coastal range....
. The Taironas were divided into two groups the coastal Taironas by the Caribbean sea
Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean situated in the mid-latitudes of the Western Hemisphere, bounded to the south and west by the Americas, with the North Atlantic Ocean proper to the northeast and the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest....
 and the mountain Tairona in the higher lands of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

By the 1500's, the Chibchas, were divided into two main groups: the Muisca, located in the plateaus of Cundinamarca and Boyacá , and the Tairona, who settled along the northern spur of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the present-day La Guajira Department. The Tairona formed a confederation of two groups, one in the Caribbean lowlands and the other in the highlands of contemporary Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The lowlands Tairona fished and produced salt, which they traded for cotton cloth and blankets with their highlands counterparts. Both groups lived in numerous, well-organized towns connected by stone roads.

Spanish arrival


The territory was discovered by Spanish sailor Alonso de Ojeda
Alonso de Ojeda

Alonso de Ojeda was a Spanish people explorer born of noble parentage in Cuenca. His name is sometimes spelled Alonzo and Oxeda.He came from an impoverished noble family, but had the good fortune to start his career in the household of the Duke of Medinaceli....
 in 1498, during one of the voyages of Christopher Columbus
Voyages of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was a navigator and an admiral for the Crown of Castile whose voyages to Americas initiated European ethnic groups exploration and colonization of the continent....
 though he never landed. A short time later, Juan de la Cosa
Juan de la Cosa

Juan de la Cosa was a Spain cartography, conquistador and exploration. He made the earliest extant European world map to incorporate the territories of the Americas that were discovered in the 15th century, sailed first 3 voyages with Christopher Columbus, and was the owner/captain of the Santa Mar?a ....
, another Spanish explorer, landed on what is today called Cabo de la Vela (Cape of the Candle) in the Guajira Peninsula
Guajira Peninsula

Guajira Peninsula is a peninsula in northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela in the Caribbean sea. It is the northernmost peninsula in South America and has an area of 25,000 km? extending from the Manaure Bay in the Caribbean sea to the Calabazo Ensenada in the Gulf of Venezuela ....
.

In 1502 on another coast of present day Colombia near the Gulf of Urabá
Gulf of Urabá

The Gulf of Urab? is a gulf on the northern coast of South America. It is a long narrow inlet in the coast of Colombia, close to the connection of the continent to the Isthmus of Panama....
, Spanish explorers led by Vasco Núñez de Balboa
Vasco Núñez de Balboa

Vasco N??ez de Balboa was a Spanish people explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World....
 explored and conquered the area near the Atrato River
Atrato River

The R?o Atrato is a river of northwestern Colombia. It rises in the slopes of the Cordillera Occidental, Colombia and flows almost due north to the Gulf of Urab? , where it forms a large, swampy river delta....
 founded the Santa María la Antigua del Darién
Santa María la Antigua del Darién

Santa Mar?a la Antigua del Dari?n was a settlement established in 1510 by Spain explorer Vasco N??ez de Balboa on the Caribbean Sea coast of what is now Darien, between Panama and Colombia.It was the first successful European settlement founded on the mainland of the Americas after the voyages of Christopher Columbus....
 (c. 1509) and San Sebastian de Uraba (c. 1508), founding two the first settlement in the Americas
Americas

The Americas are the region of the Western hemisphere that consists of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions....
.

See also

  • New Kingdom of Granada
    New Kingdom of Granada

    The New Kingdom of Granada was the name given to a group of 16th century Spanish colonial provinces in northern South America governed by the Audiencia of Bogot?, an area corresponding mainly to modern Colombia....
  • Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada
    Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada

    Gonzalo Jim?nez de Quesada, known as the "Knight of El Dorado" was a Spain explorer and conquistador in Colombia. While successful in many of his exploits, acquiring massive amounts of gold and emeralds, he ended his career disastrously; he has been suggested as a possible model for Cervantes' Don Quixote....