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Colombia THE SPANISH CONQUEST
The Pre-Columbian Era
Long before the arrival of the first Spanish explorers,
Indian
groups had settled in the area of present-day Colombia.
The
Mesoamericans (Indians originally inhabiting Central
America), who
arrived in approximately 1200 B.C., introduced the
cultivation of
corn. They were followed by a second wave of Mesoamericans
in 500
B.C. Artifacts from a number of distinct cultures, such as
those in
the areas around San Agustín (in present-day Huila
Department),
Tierra Dentro (Cauca Department), and Tumaco (Nariño
Department),
are believed to date from this period. Between 400 and 300
B.C.,
the Chibchas traveled from Nicaragua and Honduras and
reached
Colombia, shortly before the Arawaks arrived from other
parts of
South America, such as Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Near
the end
of the first millennium A.D., the Caribs migrated from the
Caribbean islands. These warlike newcomers supplanted the
Chibchas
in the lowlands and forced them to move to higher
elevations.
By the 1500s, the most advanced of the indigenous
peoples were
the Chibchas, who were divided into two principal tribes:
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 present-day La Guajira Department). The
Muisca
were the more prominent of the two groups and based their
economy
on agriculture, especially the cultivation of corn and
potatoes.
The Muisca centered their social organization on the
cacicazgo, a hereditary form of leadership
following
matrilineal succession. Two large Muisca confederations
existed at
the time of the Spanish conquest: Bacatá/Bogotá and
Hunsa/Tunja. A
chieftain known as a zipa headed Bacatá/Bogotá,
whereas a
zaque governed Hunsa/Tunja.
The Tairona formed two groups, one in the Caribbean
lowlands
and the other in the Andean highlands. The lowlands
Tairona fished
and produced salt, which they traded for cotton cloth and
blankets
with their counterparts in the highlands. The Tairona of
both
groups lived in numerous, well-organized towns connected
by stone
roads.
Data as of December 1988
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