page_title: History of Cartagena, Colombia
section_title: Colonial era: 1533-1717
hierarchical_section_title: History of Cartagena, Colombia / Colonial era: 1533-1717
caption_attribution_description: Bust of Louis XIV of France
context_section_description: Cartagena de Indias was founded on 1 June 1533 by Spanish commander Pedro de Heredia, in the former seat of the indigenous Caribbean Calamarí village. Most of Heredia's sailors were from Cartagena, Spain, a city founded by the Phoenicians in 228 BC and also a seaport.  As the site had some geographical affinities with the newly discovered bay, thus they decided to name it as for their native city.  See Juan de la Cosa.
  Initially, life in the city was bucolic, with fewer than 2000 inhabitants and only one church. A few months after the disaster of the invasion of Cote (see below), a fire destroyed the city and forced the creation of a Firefighting Squad, the first in the Americas.
  The dramatically increasing fame and wealth of the prosperous city turned it an attractive plunder site for pirates and corsairs (French privateers, licensed by their king). Just 30 years after its founding, the city was pillaged by a French Huguenot  nobleman Jean-François Roberval, (circa 1500 - killed in France by a mob, 1560),  known as "Robert Baal".  The city then set about strengthening its defences and surrounding itself with walled compounds and castles. Martin Cote, a Basque from Biscay, soldier in Peru during the Peru Civil wars between the Spaniards,  attacked years later.
  Many pirates intended the same on Cartagena who was more and more notorious in the thieves' guilds in Europe:
  Sir John Hawkins (England), (1532–1595): Tried to trick Gov. Martín de las Alas in 1568 to open (against the Spanish Law) a foreign fair in the city to sell its goods for then ravaging the port. The Governor declined and Hawkins tried to siege but failed.
  Sir Francis Drake (England), (1540–1596): Nephew of Hawkins, the famed pirate came with a strong fleet and quickly took the city. The Governor circa 1574  Pedro Fernández de Busto and the Archbishop fled to the neighboring town of Turbaco and from there negotiated the costly ransom for the city: 107,000 Spanish Eight Reales of the time (Around 200 mill. of today's USD), in any case, the future "Sir" destroyed 1/4 of the city, the developing Palace of the Township and the recently finished Cathedral. After this disaster Spain poured millions every year to 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 equivalent of some 2 trillion dollars today.
  Sir Bernard Desjean, Baron de Pointis, (1645–1707),  Jean du Casse 1697. Raid on Cartagena (1697) The city recovered quickly from the horrible takeover of Drake and kept growing. The port now seat of the Inquisition in the Caribbean (with Lima's and Mexico's the only 3 seats in America), many public buildings and servants, its importance was confirmed. Desjean's plans were far more than pillage: it was an invasion by all means. King Louis XIV whose mother was a Spanish Habsburg Royal princess, whose son was also the son of a Spanish Habsburg Princess wanted his grandson Felipe V to assert his rights to take over the exhausted, no male succession,  Spanish Habsburgs throne  and Cartagena de Indias could help significantly if taken "manu military", too.
  The political vision behind this invasion  was shadowed by the governor of Saint-Domingue (today's Haiti) Jean Baptiste Ducasse who brought his soldiers just to steal,  the original plan ending  as pirates and thieves again destroying the city. In any case, the entry wasn't easy, because of the recently finished first stage of walls and forts which slowed and made costly the victory. While Desjean only asked for 250,000 Spanish reales in ransom, Jean du Casse stayed a few months later and dishonored the promise of the Baron of respecting the churches and holy places and left them with nothing. The city again, lost everything. The 18th century begins.
  Other important events in the 16th and 17th centuries were:
  16th century:
  The brother of the founder, Pedro de Heredia, Alonso de Heredia founded
caption: King of France, Louis XIV, deceased 1715,  dreamed with taking over the city and invade the New Granada territories, now Colombia, but failed.
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