Invading Colombia
Subtitle: Spanish Accounts of the Gonzalo Jimenez De Expedition of Conquest (Penn State Press)
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
Published: January 15, 2008
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 128
ISBN-13: 9780271029368
Subjects: American history: c 1500 to c 1800; European history: c 1500 to c 1750; Travel writing; c 1500 to c 1600; History; History - General History; History: World; Spain; Europe - Spain & Portugal; Latin America - South America; Modern - 16th Century; World - Colonial Studies; Colombia; Discovery and exploration; Jimâenez de Quesada, Gonzalo,; Sources; Spanish; To 1810; d. 1579
Description: "In early April 1536, Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada led a military expedition from the coastal city of Santa Marta deep into the interior of what is today modern Colombia. With roughly eight hundred Spaniards and numerous native carriers and black slaves, the Jimenez expedition was larger than the combined forces under Hernando Cortes and Francisco Pizarro. Over the course of the one-year campaign, nearly three-quarters of Jimenez's men perished, most from illness and hunger. Yet, for the 179 survivors, the expedition proved to be one of the most profitable campaigns of the sixteenth century. Unfortunately, the history of the Spanish conquest of Colombia remains virtually unknown." "Through a series of firsthand primary accounts, translated into English for the first time, Invading Colombia reconstructs the compelling tale of the Jimenez expedition, the early stages of the Spanish conquest of Muisca territory, and the foundation of the city of Santa Fe de Bogota. We follow the expedition from the Canary Islands to Santa Marta, up the Magdalena River, and finally into Colombia's eastern highlands. These highly accounts not only challenge many current assumptions about the nature of Spanish conquests in the New World, but they also reveal a richly entertaining, yet tragic, tale that rivals the great conquest narratives of Mexico and Peru." --Book Jacket.