Bolívar is a department of Colombia. It 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 a border with Antioquia.
Cartagena also known as Cartagena de Indias (Cartagena of the West Indies), is a large city seaport on the northern coast of Colombia. Capital of the Bolívar Department, it has a population of roughly 895,400 (2005 Census). Founded in 1533 by Don Pedro de Heredia, and named after the port of Cartagena in Spain's Murcia region, it was a major center of early Spanish settlement in the Americas, and continues to be an economic hub as well as a popular tourist destination.
Cartagena was founded in 1533 by Pedro de Heredia, in the area where the Caribbean Calamarí people lived, their name meaning 'crab'. This native population was part of a native tribe called the Mocanáes; Spanish accounts describe them as fierce and warlike, and point out that even women fought on a par with men.
A few years after it had been founded, the Spaniards designed a defense plan in which the main strategy was the construction of a walled military fortress to protect the city against the plundering of English, Dutch and French pirates.
Despite the precautions, 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 at the mercy of the invaders.
In 1559, the Frenchman Martín Cote also dominated the city. He took huge plunder in spite of Cacique Maridalo's resistance.
Another pirate attack was that of Francis Drake, who disembarked at night and took the city at dawn; he forced the inhabitants to take refuge in the neighboring village of Turbaco, burned the houses and destroyed a nave of the Cathedral. Drake forced the authorities to pay him 107.000 ducats and took some jewelry and 80 artillery pieces.
And in 1568, the Englishman John Hawkins besieged the city for seven days because Governor Marín de las Alas did not want to carry out a commercial fair in the city; Hawkins could not subjugate the city.
This was the case in the Raid on Cartagena (1697) by a combined fleet of regular French soldiers under Pointis and buccaneers under Jean Du Casse.
Municipalities
|
All our photos can be licensed for commercial and non-commercial use, (unless otherwise specified).