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Bolívar was named after one of the original nine states of the United States of Colombia. It is in the north of the country, extending from the coast at Cartagena near the mouth of the Magdalena River, then south along the river to the border with Antioquia.
Cartagena (the capital of Bolívar) is a large city and seaport on the northern coast of Colombia. It was founded in 1533 by Don Pedro de Heredia, and named after the port of Cartagena in Spain's Murcia region. The city was a major center of early Spanish settlement in the Americas, and continues to this day to be an economic hub. Teh city is also a popular tourist destination.
Cartagena was founded in 1533 by Pedro de Heredia, in the area where the Caribbean Calamarí people lived. The native population was part of a tribe called the Mocanáes;. Spanish accounts describe them as fierce and warlike, where women fought along side men.
A few years after being founded, the Spaniards designed a defense plan which resulted in the construction of a walled military fortress to protect the city against the plundering of English, Dutch, and French pirates.
Despite this, the city was attacked many times. In 1544 the French pirate Roberto Baal (aka Roberval) forced Governor Pedro de Heredia to flee and to give him gold to avoid being handed over to the invaders. In 1559, the Frenchman Martín Cote plundered the city. Francis Drake also attacked the city. He disembarked his men at night and took the city at dawn;. Drake forced the authorities to pay him 107.000 ducats and took some jewelry and 80 artillery pieces. In 1568, the Englishman John Hawkins besieged the city for seven days, but Hawkins could not subjugate the city. This was also the case in 1697 when a combined fleet of regular French soldiers and buccaneers attacked Cartegena.
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