Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada
Encyclopedia
Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada (149516 February 1579) was a Spanish
explorer and conquistador
in Colombia
. He explored the northern part of South America. While successful in many of his exploits, acquiring massive amounts of gold and emeralds, he ended his career disastrously; and has been suggested as a possible model for Cervantes' Don Quixote. He was a descendant of Henry the Navigator. His father was a hidalgo relative of Gonzalo Fransisco de Cordoba, and his mother was a descendant of El Cid. He has two known distant cousins: Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro. Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada was born in Cordova
, Spain
, into a Jewish family which had converted to Catholicism before he was born.
, trained in Granada. He was appointed chief magistrate in 1535 and second in command for an expedition to Colombia because, in that period, he wasn’t in good standing with the people at home because he had just lost an important law case in which his mother’s family was economically involved. The commander of the expedition, Pedro Fernández de Lugo
(governor of the Canary Islands), had bought the governorship of Colombia and had equipped a fleet and assembled over a thousand men. And so they set sail to Colombia, thinking they would find a very rich land, full of gold and pearls. But when, after two month of navigation, they reached the small coastal settlement of Santa Marta, all they found was a conglomeration of hovels and filthy, disease-ridden colonists who went about dressed in skins or roughly woven and padded cotton clothes made by the Indians. Soon food became scarce and tropical fevers began to smite down the strongest.
In 1536, Quesada was chosen by de Lugo
to command an expedition without any military experience to explore into the interior of New Granada, hoping to discover the dreamed El Dorado. A land party under Quesada, with Hernán Pérez de Quesada (his brother), Juan San Martín, Juan del Junco (as second in command) Lázaro Fonte and Sergio Bustillo, struck south from Santa Marta, crossed the Cesar River
, and arrived at Tamalameque
on the Magdalena River
. A support fleet of 6 (or 5) ships had also sailed from Santa Marta with 900 men to navigate the Magdalena. Only two of the vessels actually arrived at Tamalameque, and subsequently returned to Santa Marta with many of Quesada's men. Continuing up the Magdalena as far as La Tora (Barrancabermeja
), Quesada and his men ascended the Opon River into the cordillera, reaching the Opon hills, Chipata (near Vélez
) (March 1537) and the valley of the Suárez River. Passing Lake Fúquene and Lake Suesca, they reached Nemoncón and Zipaquirá
and finally entered the lands of the Muisca
(at the site of present day Bogotá
).
Only 166 men out of 900 survived, suffering terribly in the jungle: they were forced to eat snakes, lizards, frogs, and even the leather torn from their harnesses and the scabbards of their swords. In Bogotá, Quesada resigned and called for an election; he was elected captain-general, and threw off the last link that held him to the governor. The Muisca had two rulers. One, the Zipa Tisquesusa, ruled in Bogotá; the other, the Zaque Nemequene, ruled in Tunja
. Taking advantage of a war between the two chiefdoms, Quesada's force subdued Bogotá and then successfully attacked Tunja. At this point it was time to establish a colony so that the earth itself might properly belong to Quesada and his men. They chose a spot next to the towering peaks of the east, where the land was high and the rains would quickly run off, where the mountains would protect them from Venezuela and the jungles below. Quesada placed his right foot on the bare earth and said simply, “I take possession of this land in the name of the most sovereign emperor, Charles V.” The settlement was at first called New City of Granada, but later they changed it to Santa Fé de Bogotá, now known simply as Bogotá.
Quesada remained in the region until the arrival of two expeditions at the end of 1538: Sebastián de Belalcázar
from Quito, Ecuador
, one of the captains of Pizarro who had mutinied against his leader; and Nikolaus Federmann
, a German from Venezuela
who had rebelled against another German named Hohermuth. The three captains met on the savanna of New Granada. All three wanted to claim New Granada for themselves. In order to resolve their dispute, Quesada persuaded them to go back to Spain with him and to submit their rival territorial claims to the arbitration of the crown. In July 1539, they sailed for Spain
from Cartagena
. However, none of them obtained the governorship. Quesada, after nearly a dozen years of wandering disconsolately through the gaming halls of Europe, returned to New Granada in 1550. Here, he settled down to live for nearly twenty years. He was a respected colonist, becoming the most influential man in the colony. He protected his fellow colonists from the severity of the officials and restrained the comenderos' (large landholders) greed. But his own desire for wealth and gold continued to live inside him.
to the east of the Colombian cordillera. From Bogotá in April 1569 with 500 mounted soldiers, 1500 natives, 1100 horses and pack animals, 600 head of cattle, 800 pigs, a large number of Negro slaves and 8 priests, he first descended to Mesetas
on the upper Guejar River. There most of the livestock was destroyed by a grass fire. Quesada's expedition then moved to nearby San Juan de los Lllanos, where a course was set for east-southeast (by the guide Pedro Soleto), and maintained for the following two years. After a year or so some men returned with Juan Maldonado
, reaching San Juan after six months with few survivors. Quesada eventually reached (San Fernando de) Atabapo at the confluence of the Guaviare
and the Orinoco
(in December 1571), any further movement requiring the construction of ships. He therefore dejectedly returned to Bogotá, arriving in December 1572 with only 25 Spaniards, 4 natives, 18 horses and 2 priests. The expedition had been one of the most expensive disasters on record. After a brief period of service in a frontier command (during which he suppressed an Indian uprising) Quesada, afflicted with leprosy, overcome with despair at his debts, owing more than 60 thousand ducats, was forced to seek a milder climate and died quietly, aged 83, in Suesca
, a village of New Granada.
, the city founded by him.
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
explorer and conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. He explored the northern part of South America. While successful in many of his exploits, acquiring massive amounts of gold and emeralds, he ended his career disastrously; and has been suggested as a possible model for Cervantes' Don Quixote. He was a descendant of Henry the Navigator. His father was a hidalgo relative of Gonzalo Fransisco de Cordoba, and his mother was a descendant of El Cid. He has two known distant cousins: Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro. Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada was born in Cordova
Cordova
-Places:*Cordova, Alabama, USA*Cordova, Alaska, USA*Cordova, Cebu, Philippines*Cordova, Illinois, USA*Cordova, Maryland, USA*Cordova, Nebraska, USA*Cordova, New Mexico, USA*Cordova, South Carolina, USA*Cordova, Tennessee, USA*Córdoba, Argentina...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, into a Jewish family which had converted to Catholicism before he was born.
Conquest of the Muisca Confederation
Quesada was an Andalusian lawyerLawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, trained in Granada. He was appointed chief magistrate in 1535 and second in command for an expedition to Colombia because, in that period, he wasn’t in good standing with the people at home because he had just lost an important law case in which his mother’s family was economically involved. The commander of the expedition, Pedro Fernández de Lugo
Pedro Fernández de Lugo
Pedro Fernández de Lugo was the second adelantado of the Canary Islands and governor of Tenerife and La Palma, a title confirmed again by Charles I of Spain, in Barcelona, on August 17, 1519. It was an inherited title...
(governor of the Canary Islands), had bought the governorship of Colombia and had equipped a fleet and assembled over a thousand men. And so they set sail to Colombia, thinking they would find a very rich land, full of gold and pearls. But when, after two month of navigation, they reached the small coastal settlement of Santa Marta, all they found was a conglomeration of hovels and filthy, disease-ridden colonists who went about dressed in skins or roughly woven and padded cotton clothes made by the Indians. Soon food became scarce and tropical fevers began to smite down the strongest.
In 1536, Quesada was chosen by de Lugo
Pedro Fernández de Lugo
Pedro Fernández de Lugo was the second adelantado of the Canary Islands and governor of Tenerife and La Palma, a title confirmed again by Charles I of Spain, in Barcelona, on August 17, 1519. It was an inherited title...
to command an expedition without any military experience to explore into the interior of New Granada, hoping to discover the dreamed El Dorado. A land party under Quesada, with Hernán Pérez de Quesada (his brother), Juan San Martín, Juan del Junco (as second in command) Lázaro Fonte and Sergio Bustillo, struck south from Santa Marta, crossed the Cesar River
Cesar River
The Cesar River is a river in northern Colombia which is a part of the Magdalena Basin. It separates the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta from the mountain ranges of the Serrania del Perija an extension of the Cordillera Oriental...
, and arrived at Tamalameque
Tamalameque
Tamalameque is a town and municipality in the Colombian Department of Cesar.-External links:...
on the Magdalena River
Magdalena River
The Magdalena River is the principal river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of its lower reaches, in spite of the shifting sand bars at the mouth of its delta, as...
. A support fleet of 6 (or 5) ships had also sailed from Santa Marta with 900 men to navigate the Magdalena. Only two of the vessels actually arrived at Tamalameque, and subsequently returned to Santa Marta with many of Quesada's men. Continuing up the Magdalena as far as La Tora (Barrancabermeja
Barrancabermeja
Barrancabermeja is a city and municipality in Santander Department, in northeastern Colombia. It is located on the banks of the Magdalena River in the Middle Magdalena region, 110 km west of Bucaramanga. Founded in 1536, Barrancabermeja is home of the biggest petroleum refinery in Colombia,...
), Quesada and his men ascended the Opon River into the cordillera, reaching the Opon hills, Chipata (near Vélez
Velez
- Places :* Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, Spain* Vélez de Benaudalla, Spain* Vélez Sársfield , Buenos Aires, Argentina* Vélez-Blanco, Spain* Vélez-Málaga, Spain* Vélez-Rubio, Spain* Vélez, Santander, Colombia- Sports clubs :...
) (March 1537) and the valley of the Suárez River. Passing Lake Fúquene and Lake Suesca, they reached Nemoncón and Zipaquirá
Zipaquirá
Zipaquirá is a municipality and city of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca. Its neighboring municipalities are Tausa and Cogua to the north; Nemocón, Gachancipá and Sopó to the east; Cajicá and Tabio to the south; and Subachoque and Pacho to the west. Its seat of municipal government is 49...
and finally entered the lands of the Muisca
Muisca
Muisca was the Chibcha-speaking tribe that formed the Muisca Confederation of the central highlands of present-day Colombia. They were encountered by the Spanish Empire in 1537, at the time of the conquest...
(at the site of present day Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
).
Only 166 men out of 900 survived, suffering terribly in the jungle: they were forced to eat snakes, lizards, frogs, and even the leather torn from their harnesses and the scabbards of their swords. In Bogotá, Quesada resigned and called for an election; he was elected captain-general, and threw off the last link that held him to the governor. The Muisca had two rulers. One, the Zipa Tisquesusa, ruled in Bogotá; the other, the Zaque Nemequene, ruled in Tunja
Tunja
Tunja is a city and municipality located in the central part of Colombia, in the region of "Alto Chicomocha". As of the 2005 Census it had 152,419 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Department of Boyacá and part of the subregion of the Central Boyacá Province. It is approximately 145 km...
. Taking advantage of a war between the two chiefdoms, Quesada's force subdued Bogotá and then successfully attacked Tunja. At this point it was time to establish a colony so that the earth itself might properly belong to Quesada and his men. They chose a spot next to the towering peaks of the east, where the land was high and the rains would quickly run off, where the mountains would protect them from Venezuela and the jungles below. Quesada placed his right foot on the bare earth and said simply, “I take possession of this land in the name of the most sovereign emperor, Charles V.” The settlement was at first called New City of Granada, but later they changed it to Santa Fé de Bogotá, now known simply as Bogotá.
Quesada remained in the region until the arrival of two expeditions at the end of 1538: Sebastián de Belalcázar
Sebastián de Belalcázar
Sebastián de Belalcázar was a Spanish conquistador.-Early life:He was born Sebastián Moyano in the province of Córdoba, Spain, in either 1479 or 1480. He took the name Belalcázar as that was the name of the castle-town near to his birthplace in Córdoba...
from Quito, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, one of the captains of Pizarro who had mutinied against his leader; and Nikolaus Federmann
Nikolaus Federmann
Nikolaus Federmann was a German adventurer and conquistador in the colonies of Venezuela and Colombia. He worked in the service of the Welser brothers.- Life :...
, a German from Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
who had rebelled against another German named Hohermuth. The three captains met on the savanna of New Granada. All three wanted to claim New Granada for themselves. In order to resolve their dispute, Quesada persuaded them to go back to Spain with him and to submit their rival territorial claims to the arbitration of the crown. In July 1539, they sailed for Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
from Cartagena
Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...
. However, none of them obtained the governorship. Quesada, after nearly a dozen years of wandering disconsolately through the gaming halls of Europe, returned to New Granada in 1550. Here, he settled down to live for nearly twenty years. He was a respected colonist, becoming the most influential man in the colony. He protected his fellow colonists from the severity of the officials and restrained the comenderos' (large landholders) greed. But his own desire for wealth and gold continued to live inside him.
Later expeditions
In 1569, at the age of 70, Quesada received a commission to conquer the LlanosLlanos
The Llanos is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the Flooded grasslands and savannas Biome....
to the east of the Colombian cordillera. From Bogotá in April 1569 with 500 mounted soldiers, 1500 natives, 1100 horses and pack animals, 600 head of cattle, 800 pigs, a large number of Negro slaves and 8 priests, he first descended to Mesetas
Mesetas
Mesetas is a town and municipality in the Meta Department, Colombia....
on the upper Guejar River. There most of the livestock was destroyed by a grass fire. Quesada's expedition then moved to nearby San Juan de los Lllanos, where a course was set for east-southeast (by the guide Pedro Soleto), and maintained for the following two years. After a year or so some men returned with Juan Maldonado
Juan Maldonado
Juan Maldonado was a Spanish Jesuit theologian and exegete.-Life:...
, reaching San Juan after six months with few survivors. Quesada eventually reached (San Fernando de) Atabapo at the confluence of the Guaviare
Guaviare River
The Guaviare is a tributary of the Orinoco located in Colombia.The Guaviare has its source in two other rivers, the Ariari and the Guayabero, which in turn have their own sources in the eastern part of the Andes. At long, it is the longest river on the Orinoco and is navigable for of its total...
and the Orinoco
Orinoco
The Orinoco is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes called the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3% of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia...
(in December 1571), any further movement requiring the construction of ships. He therefore dejectedly returned to Bogotá, arriving in December 1572 with only 25 Spaniards, 4 natives, 18 horses and 2 priests. The expedition had been one of the most expensive disasters on record. After a brief period of service in a frontier command (during which he suppressed an Indian uprising) Quesada, afflicted with leprosy, overcome with despair at his debts, owing more than 60 thousand ducats, was forced to seek a milder climate and died quietly, aged 83, in Suesca
Suesca
Suesca is a town in Cundinamarca Department, Colombia.It is located at northern Bogotá, 59 km from Colombian Capital of Bogotá, part of the geographical region called Sábana de Bogotá, or plain of Bogotá. Suesca is a scenic countryside town very close to Bogotá which is well known because its...
, a village of New Granada.
Death and legacy
After his death in Suesca, Quesada's body was taken to Mariquita where he was interred in the Santa Lucia Abbey. His remains were there until 1597 when they were exhumed and transferred to BogotáBogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, the city founded by him.