CARTAGENA HISTORY

CARTAGENA HISTORY

Cartagena was founded on June 1, 1533 by Spanish commander Pedro de Heredia, in the former location of the indigenous Caribbean Calamarí village. The town was named after Cartagena, Spain, where most of Heredia's sailors had resided.

The city began with 200 people in 1533. During the remainder of the 16th century there was rapid growth. A major factor was the gold in the tombs of the Sinu Culture.

After those tombs were completely plundered, the inhabitants began to scatter to the countryside and to establish themselves as farmers, and the population of the city decreased.

Convento de Santo Domingo, it is the oldest church in Cartagena, being founded in 1551. In 1588, two years after the assault of Francis Drake to the city, it was given a handout of 500 pesos by Royal Decree, to proceed with the appropriate repair of the building, which was not affected by the attacks of English. Until 19th-century it was occupied by the Domincan order.

A little later, the city had fewer than 2000 inhabitants and one church; the dramatically increasing fame and wealth of the prosperous city turned it into an attractive plunder site for pirates and corsairs–French and English privateers licensed by their king. Thirty years after its founding, the city was pillaged by the French nobleman Jean-François Roberval. The city set about strengthening its defences and surrounding itself with walled compounds and castles.^] Pirate Martin Cote attacked years later. A few months after the disaster of the invasion of Cote, a fire destroyed the city and forced the creation of a firefighting squad, the first in the Americas.

In 1568, Sir John Hawkins of England tried to trick Governor Martín de las Alas into violating Spanish law by opening a foreign fair in the city to sell goods, which would have allowed Hawkins to ravage the port afterwards; the governor declined. Hawkins besieged the city, but failed to level it.

After this disaster, Spain poured millions every year into the city for its protection, beginning with Gov. Francisco de Murga's planning of the walls and forts; this practice was called Situado. The magnitude of this subsidy is shown by comparison: between 1751 and 1810, the city received the sum of 20,912,677 Spanish reales.The city recovered quickly from Drake's attack and subsequent occupation, and continued its growth and hence its inevitable attraction for predators, including a large group of pirates who attacked in late 1683.^] Nonetheless, trade began to increase, continuing into the 17th century. The city reached the peak of its development in 1698 before the arrival of the Baron de Pointis.