This article describes the history of Cartagena, Colombia.
Pre-Columbian era: 7000 BC – 1500 AD The Caribbean region, particularly in the area from the Sinú River delta to the Cartagena de Indias bay, appears to be the first documented human community in today's Colombia: the Puerto Hormiga Culture.
Until the period of Spanish colonization, many indigenous cultures derived from the Karib, Malibu and Arawak language families lived along the Caribbean Colombian coast. In the late pre-Columbian era, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, was home to the Tayrona people, closely related with the Chibcha family language."X Cátedra de Historia Ernesto Restrepo Tirado - "El Caribe en la Nación Colombiana" Guerra, Langbaek et al. Ed. Aguilar, Bogotá, 2007. .Allaire, Louis (1997). "The Caribs of the Lesser Antilles". In Samuel M. Wilson, The Indigenous People of the Caribbean, pp. 180–185. Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida. .
Archaeologists estimate that around 7000 BC, the settlement of the formative Puerto Hormiga Culture, located near the limits between the departments of Bolívar and Sucre was established. In this area archaeologists have found the most ancient ceramic objects in the Americas, dating from around 4000 BC. The primary reason for the proliferation of primitive societies in this area is the relative mildness of climate and the abundance of wildlife which through continuous hunting allowed the inhabitants a comfortable life.
In today's villages of Maria La Baja, Sincerín, El Viso and Mahates and Rotinet, there have also been discoveries of the remains of culturally organized societies through the excavation of maloka-type buildings, which are directly related to the early Puerto Hormiga settlements.
Archaeological investigations date the decline of the Puerto Hormiga culture and its related settlements to around 3000 BC. The rise of a much more developed culture, the Monsú, who lived at the end of the Dique Canal, near today's Cartagena neighborhoods Pasacaballos and Ciénaga Honda at the northernmost part of Barú Island. The Monsú culture inherited the Puerto Hormiga culture's use of the art of pottery but also developed a mixed economy of agriculture and basic manufacture. the Monsú people's diet was based mostly on seashells, sweet- and salt-water fish.
The ethnologists who discovered Monsú, Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff and his wife Alicia Dussan, found an interesting artificial mound created by them consisting in vases and rests of skeletons. After the first excavations, the Monsú mound was found to be a communal hut that had strong wood logs around it and was built on different levels, each one from a different period of time. The most ancient of these is the TurbanaThe names of the periods of these monticles were chosen randomly according to the name of nearby towns Period, from 3350 BC. This archaeological zone, less than 6 miles from Cartagena de Indias' downtown boasts the most complete collection of ceramic instruments in Colombia and the American continent. The ceramic patterns found in Monsú, are a tour de force for students of archeology of the Caribbean sea basin and northern South America.
The Reichel-Dolmatoffs later found other artificial mounds, dating from 3200 to 1000 BC, thus making the suburbs of modern Cartagena the seat of the first organized society in Colombia, and one of the most ancient in the Americas.
The development of the Sinú society in today's department of Cordoba and Sucre, eclipsed these first developments around the Cartagena Bay area. Around 1500 the area was inhabited by different tribes of the Karib language family, more precisely the Mocanae sub-family. These were: In the downtown island: Kalamarí Tribe In the Tierrabomba island: Carex Tribe In the Barú island, then peninsula: Bahaire Tribe In the eastern coast of the exterior bay: Cospique Tribe In the suburban area of Turbaco: Yurbaco Tribe Some subsidiary tribes of the Kalamari lived in today's neighborhood of Pie de la Popa, and other subsidiaries from the Cospique lived in the Membrillal and Pasacaballos areas. Among these, according to the first chronicles the Kalamari Tribe had preeminence.
These tribes, though physically and administratively separated, shared common architecture, such as hut structures consisting of circular rooms with tall roofs inside wooden palisades.Lemaitre, Eduardo; Historia Extensa de Cartagena de Indias, Ed. Aguilar 1976. Edited before the ISBN system was enforced in Colombia, no reedition.
First sightings: 1500–1533
Since the failed foundation of San Sebastian de Urabá in 1506 by Alonso de Ojeda, and the subsequent failed city of Santa María la Antigua del Darién in 1510 by Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the southern Caribbean coast became a bit unattractive to colonizers, which preferred the more known Hispaniola and Cuba.
The Casa de Contratación gave permission to Rodrigo de Bastidas (1460–1527) to again conduct an expedition as adelantado to these areas. Bastidas explored the coast and discovered the Magdalena River delta in his first journey from Guajira to the south in 1527, trip that ended in the Urabá gulf, seat of the failed first settlements. De Nicuesa and De Ojeda noted the existence of a big bay on the way from Santo Domingo to Urabá and Panama isthmus, encouraging De Bastidas to investigate. Lemaitre, Eduardo; Historia Extensa de Cartagena de Indias, Ed. Aguilar 1976.Corrales, Manuel Ezequiel; Documentos para la historia de la Provincia de Cartagena, Tomo II, Imp. M. Rivas, Cartagena de Indias, 1883.
Colonial era: 1533–1717
Cartagena de Indias was founded on 1 June 1533 by Spanish commander Pedro de Heredia, in the former seat of the indigenous Caribbean Calamarí village. Most of Heredia's sailors were from Cartagena, Spain, a city founded by the Phoenicians in 228 BC and also a seaport. As the site had some geographical affinities with the newly discovered bay, thus they decided to name it as for their native city. See Juan de la Cosa.
Initially, life in the city was bucolic, with fewer than 2000 inhabitants and only one church. A few months after the disaster of the invasion of Cote (see below), a fire destroyed the city and forced the creation of a Firefighting Squad, the first in the Americas.De Castellanos, Juan; Historia de Cartagena, Bogotá, Biblioteca de Cultura Popular de Colombia, 1942.
The dramatically increasing fame and wealth of the prosperous city turned it an attractive plunder site for pirates and corsairs (French privateers, licensed by their king). Just 30 years after its founding, the city was pillaged by a French Huguenot nobleman Jean-François Roberval, (circa 1500 - killed in France by a mob, 1560), known as "Robert Baal". The city then set about strengthening its defences and surrounding itself with walled compounds and castles. Martin Cote, a Basque from Biscay, soldier in Peru during the Peru Civil wars between the Spaniards, attacked years later.
Famous pirates who attacked Cartagena during the colonial era are listed below: Sir John Hawkins, (1532–1595): Tried to persuade Governor Martín de las Alas in 1568 to open (against the Spanish laws of the period) a foreign fair in the city to sell some goods acquired elsewhere. The Governor declined and Hawkins tried to siege but failed. Sir Francis Drake, (1540–1596): Nephew of Hawkins, the famed privateer came with a strong fleet and quickly took the city. The Governor circa 1574 Pedro Fernández de Busto and the Archbishop fled to the neighboring town of Turbaco and from there negotiated the costly ransom for the city: 107,000 Spanish Eight Reales of the time (Around 200 mill. of today's USD), in any case, the future "Sir" demolished 1/4 of the settlement, the developing Palace of the Township and the recently finished Cathedral. After this defeat, Spain poured millions every year to the city for its protection, beginning with Gov. Francisco de Murga's planning of the walls and forts; this practice was called "Situado". The magnitude of this subsidy is shown by comparison: between 1751 and 1810, the city received the sum of 20,912,677 Spanish reales, the equivalent of some 2 trillion dollars today. Sir Bernard Desjean, Baron de Pointis, (1645–1707), Jean du Casse 1697. The Raid on Cartagena occurred. The city recovered quickly from the brief takeover of Drake and kept expanding. The port now became the seat of the Inquisition in the Caribbean (with Lima's and Mexico's the only 3 seats in America), many public buildings and servants, its importance was confirmed. Desjean's plans were far more than pillage: it was an invasion by all means. King Louis XIV, whose mother was a Spanish Habsburg Royal princess, whose son was also the son of a Spanish Habsburg Princess wanted his grandson Felipe V to assert his rights to take over the exhausted, no male succession, Spanish Habsburgs throne and Cartagena de Indias could help significantly if taken "manu military", too. The political vision behind this invasion was shadowed by the governor of Saint-Domingue (today's Haiti) Jean Baptiste Ducasse who brought his soldiers just to steal, the original plan ending as pirates and thieves again destroying the city. In any case, the entry wasn't easy, because of the recently finished first stage of walls and forts which slowed and made costly the victory. While Desjean only asked for 250,000 Spanish reales in ransom, Jean du Casse stayed a few months later and dishonored the promise of the Baron of respecting the churches and holy places and left them with nothing. The city again, lost everything. The 18th century begins.
Other important events in the 16th and 17th centuries were:
16th century: The brother of the founder, Pedro de Heredia, Alonso de Heredia founded Santa Cruz de Mompox to honour the then governor of the province, José de Santacruz who was about to make another unjust Residencia, sort of appointment, to his brother, planned by his enemies in the city. Residencia project was successfully overcome by Heredia who later "residenced" Santacruz for his greed in the expedition made by him to Urabá in late 1537. In its typical decentralised and autonomistic state policy, Spain put in Cartagena de Indias, a most interesting seafaring town, many administrative offices:
The Royal Houses of Customs, "La Aduana": Technically the Main directorate for Customs policy in New Granada and its dependencies. Cartagena de Indias's mayors office today is now located there. The Royal Houses of Accountance: Most of its competences were in the State Finance area, making it analogous to a Ministry of Finance or a Secretary of the Treasury. This office was located in what is today Mapfre's House at La Inquisicion Street. The Royal Mail House: Although dealing already in 1540 it became developed in the 18th century, staying there till 1821 when it was renamed with the Independence, delivering most of the post in New Granada and to Europe. Today's SUDEB's house occupies its original place. The Royal Consulate of Commerce of Cartagena de Indias: A privately run institution with public charter, the Consulates of Commerce were express courts for trading quarrels and to promote trade and development in its area. Until 1790 was the only in the area, then succeeded by Caracas (1790), Santa Cruz de Mompox (1793), Panama (1798), Santa Fe (1805) and others. The sea farers Hospital: First and Only military hospital in the area, and until the foundation of the San Juan De Dios Hospital in Bogotá the only in New Granada. On its first floor a Poor People's Hospital worked until the San Carlos Hospital in 1730 and the Poors Hospital were opened up in the Santa Clara convent. Today's Naval Museum, with the poor's Hospital in its first floor for a while, they were replaced by those on Gastelbondo Street (San Carlos), and today's Sofitel Santa Clara Hotel, formerly the "Poors Hospital of Santa Clara of Assisi".