Tierra Firma

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Tierra Firma

Tierra Firma (also Tierra Firme, Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
from the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
terra firma, "dry land") served in Spanish

Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
colonial times as the name of the Isthmus of Panama

Isthmus of Panama

The Isthmus of Panama, also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North America and South America....
, which was a province of New Granada

Viceroyalty of New Granada

The Viceroyalty of New Granada was the name given on May 27, 1717 to a Spanish colonial jurisdiction in northern South America, corresponding mainly to modern Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela....
.

In 1509, authority was granted to 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....
and Diego de Nicuesa

Diego de Nicuesa

Diego de Nicuesa was a Spain conquistador and explorer. In 1506, he was given the job of governing Costa Rica, but ran aground off the coast of Panama....
, to colonize the territories between the west side of the Gulf of Uraba

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....
and Cabo de La Vela

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 ....
, and Uraba

Urabá

Urab? or Uraba may refer to:* Gulf of Urab? a gulf in the Caribbean sea in Colombia* Urab? Region a subregion of Colombia* Urab? Antioquia a subregion of the Antioquia Department, Colombia...
westward to Cabo Gracias a Dios

Cabo Gracias a Dios

Cabo Gracias a Dios is a cape located in the middle of the east coast of Central America, within what is variously called the Mosquito Coast and La Mosquitia....
in present-day Honduras

Honduras

Honduras is a democratic republic in Central America. It was formerly known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras ....
. The westernmost portion was given the name Tierra Firme.

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Encyclopedia

Tierra Firma (also Tierra Firme, Spanish

Spanish language

Latin

Spain

Isthmus of Panama

Viceroyalty of New Granada

Alonso de Ojeda

Diego de Nicuesa

Gulf of Urabá

Guajira Peninsula

Urabá

Cabo Gracias a Dios

Cabo Gracias a Dios is a cape located in the middle of the east coast of Central America, within what is variously called the Mosquito Coast and La Mosquitia....
in present-day Honduras

Honduras

New Andalusia

The name New Andalusia refers to two separate regions of the Spanish Empire in the South America.The first was a Spanish governorate created as one of Charles V's grants of 1534, establishing the adelantado Pedro de Mendoza as its first governor, captain general, and chief justice....
and Veragua

Veragua

Veragua or Veraguas was the name of five territorial entities in Central America, beginning in the sixteenth century during the Spanish colonial period....
or Castilla del Oro

Castilla de Oro

Castilla de Oro was the name given by the Spaniards settlers at the beginning of the sixteenth century to the Central America territories from the Gulf of Urab?, near today's Colombia-Panama border, to the Bel?n River....
; the main city in Tierra Firme was Santa Maria La Antigua del Darién, now Darién, Panama, near at mouth of the Tarena river. The idea was to create a unitary administrative organization similar to Nueva España (now Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
), near the Captaincy General of Guatemala

Captaincy General of Guatemala

The Captaincy General of Guatemala , also known as the Kingdom of Guatemala , was an administrative division in Spanish America which covered much of Central America, including what are now Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and the Mexican state of Chiapas....
.

Tierra Firme later received control over other territories: the Isla de Santiago (now Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width situated in the Caribbean Sea. It is about south of Cuba, and west of the island of Hispaniola, on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated....
) the Cayman Islands

Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands are a British overseas territory located in the western Caribbean Sea, comprising the islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman....
; Roncador, Quitasueño, and Providencia

Providencia Island

Isla de Providencia or Old Providence is a mountainous Caribbean. Though it is closer to Nicaragua, it is part of the Archipelago of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina, a department of Colombia, lying midway between Costa Rica and Jamaica....
and other islands now under 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....
n control; and the territories of present-day Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the east and south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
and Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua officially the Republic of Nicaragua , is a representative democracy republic. It is the largest state in Central America with an area of 130,000 km2, about the size of the state of New York....
as far as Cabo Gracias a Dios. The eastern frontier of Tierra Firme also included the east side of the Gulf of Darién

Gulf of Darién

The Gulf of Dari?n is the southernmost region of the Caribbean Sea, located north and east of the border between Panama and Colombia. Within the gulf is the Gulf of Urab?, a small lip of sea extending southward, between Caribana Point and Cape Tibur?n, Colombia, on the southern shores of which is the port city of Turbo, Colombia....
or Uraba

Urabá

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....
and Truando rivers, ending in Cabo Marzo on the Pacific

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portugal explorer Ferdinand Magellan....
side. Between these limits lie Santa Maria La Antigua Del Darien on the Gulf of Uraba and Jurado

Jurado

Jurado is a Spanish language last name and may refer to the following people.*Antonio Torres Jurado, father of the modern classical guitar....
on the Pacific side.

When the Central American states gained independence, the precise frontiers were unclear. For example, some ancient maps and historical references suggest that the entire Caribbean coast as far as Cabo Gracias a Dios as part Tierra Firme or Castilla Del Oro. On the other hand, this would embrace populated regions of the Mosquito Coast

Mosquito Coast

The Caribbean Mosquito Coast historically consisted of an area along the Atlantic coast of present-day Nicaragua, named after its native Miskito and long dominated by United Kingdom interests....
that were never under the effective rule of Tierra Firme. Disputes over both of Panama's frontiers were finally solved by agreements with Costa Rica

Costa Rica

External links

, map showing this usage (and giving both spellings). The map is from L'Histoire du Nouveau Monde ou description des Indes Occidentales, contenant dix-huict livres... enrichi de nouvelles tables geographiqiues & figures des animaux, plantes & fruicts by Joannes de Laet
Joannes de Laet

Joannes or Johannes de Laet was a Netherlands geography and director of the Dutch West India Company. Philip Burden called his History of the New World, "...arguably the finest description of the Americas published in the seventeenth century" and "...one of the foundation maps of Canada"....
(1593-1649), published 1640 by Bonaventure & Abraham Elseviers, Leiden.

Sources

M.M. Alba C., ("Descriptive Geography of the Republic of Panama"). Sixth Edition, text approved by Ministry of Education. (In Spanish.)
Lucien N.B. Wise, (Tr Spanish:", Published by , 1956.
Ernesto J.Castillero R., ("History of Panama"), Ninth Edition. . 1968. (In Spanish.)
Noris Correa de Sanjur, ("History of Panama"), a school text approved by Ministry of Education. Editorial A.I.P.S.A. 1984. (In Spanish.)
, section: (In Spanish.) Portal for "typical" music (characteristic of Panama): "Remembering the Coto War on the Centenary of Panama".