WHKMLA : History of Colombia, 1550-1717

Conquest, 1525-1550

Viceroyalty
1717-1819

Colombia under the Spanish : 1550-1717

Initially, the crown of Spain had given the administration of New Granada, as a security for financial credits, to the Augsburg banking house of the WELSER (1527); it was them who had dispatched Federmann, the German conquistador. The debt was repaid in 1546, New Granada thus reverting to the Spanish crown.
Administratively, the territory of modern Colombia became part of the VICEROYALTY OF PERU seated in Lima; Colombia constituted the AUDIENCIA OF SANTA FE (de Bogota), established in 1550. In 1564, a PRESIDENCIA was superimposed, the Audiencia reduced to mere judicial functions.
Although rich in emerald mines and also having gold and silver mines, the main economical importance of Colombia lay in it providing an essential stretch of the route over which the silver from Potosi was transported to the harbour of MARACAIBO (modern Venezuela), from which it was to be shipped across the Atlantic to Spain.
Colombia was opened for white settlement, which concentrated in and around the cities (Bogota, Cartagena, Medellin, Santa Marta etc.). As elsewhere, the white population regarded itself superior, and established a plantation economy thriving on the exploitation of native labor. To a limited extent, African slaves were brought into the country.
In 1564, the ARCHDIOCESIS OF SANTA FE DE BOGOTA was established. The CATHOLIC CHURCH suppressed indigenous religious cults and converted the native population to Catholicism. Thus, as in most other areas of Latin America, a clearly stratified class society emerged.
The colony's heartland was the fertile high MAGDALENA and CAUCA RIVER VALLEYS, with their relatively dry and cool climate. The coastal cities, economically crucial as they served to connect the colony with the motherland, are exposed to a hot and very humid climate.

Actually, the authority exercized in New Granada by the Viceroys of Peru was limited, and the territory was rather autonomous. Proclaimed a viceroyalty of it's own by Quesada in 1538, on the occasion of the foundation of Bogota, royal confirmation was not achieved and thus the territory came under Peru, the authorities in Bogota never giving up their ambition of establishing themselves as a separate viceroyalty.
The audiencia and presidencia of New Granada or Santa Fe de Bogota included Colombia, Panama and Venezuela. It's borders to the south and in the southeastern jungles and into the Caribbean were ill-defined. The LESSER ANTILLES were widely neglected by Spain. It was here the non-Iberian powers would establish their first colonies in the region. Seen from Bogota, the Dutch island colonies at CURACAO, ARUBA and BONAIRE and the coastal colonies of DEMARARA, ESSEQUIBO, BERNICE and PARAMARIBO (GUYANA/SURINAME), first English, then Dutch, were of most concern. Spain/Bogota was able to hold on to Trinidad until 1802.

EXTERNAL
FILES

Country Study : Colombia, from Library of Congress
Colombian History, from the Univ. of the Andes
Articles from Infoplease : Colombia, New Granada
Article from the Catholic Encyclopedia : Bogota

DOCUMENTS

Administrative Map of New Granada, by W. Blaeu, 17th century, from Royal Library, Brussels, click here for comment (in Dutch)