The history of Bogotá refers to the history of the Colombian capital Bogotá. The area that is now Bogotá was first populated by groups of indigenous people that migrated from mesoamerica. Among these groups were the Muisca that settled on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense plateau in what is now the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá. With the arrival of the Spanish colonizers the area was developed into a major settlement founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada in 1538, and became capital of the Spanish Empire provinces and the seat of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. With independence, Bogotá became the capital of the Gran Colombia, and -subsequently- of the modern Republic of Colombia.
Pre-Columbian era
The first populations inhabiting the present-day Metropolitan Area of Bogotá were hunter-gatherers in the late Pleistocene. Dating to around 12,500 BP, the oldest evidence of human activity was discovered in El Abra, north of Zipaquirá. Other excavations in a rock shelter southwest of the city in Soacha provided ages of ~11,000 BP; Tequendama. Since roughly 0 AD, the local Muisca people domesticated guinea pigs as a source of dietary meat.Correal Urrego, 1990, p.13 The people inhabiting the Bogotá savanna in the late 15th century were the Muisca, speaking Muysccubun, a member of the Chibcha language family. At the arrival of the Spanish colonizers, the Muisca population was estimated to sit between 110,000 to two million people. The Muisca occupied the mild-climate highlands between the Sumapaz mountains to the southwest and the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy in the northeast. They lived within an approximate area of , which comprised Bogotá's high plateau, the current Boyacá department portion, and a small part of Santander. The most fertile lands were ancient Pleistocene lake beds, remnants of Lake Humboldt, forming the Bogotá savanna, an area called Bacatá, and regions irrigated by the Bogotá, Suárez and Chicamocha Rivers.
Politically, the area formed part of the Muisca Confederation with the northern ruler called zaque (ruling from Hunza, present-day Tunja) and the southern ruler, based in Bacatá, the zipa. The Muisca were predominantly farmers and traders and formed a dispersed population occupying numerous small villages and settlements with wooden and clay houses, called bohíos by the Spanish. The iraca of sacred City of the Sun Sugamuxi was the principal religious leader. Other rulers were Tundama in the city of the same name, now called Duitama and various independent caciques, mainly of Guatavita, Ubaté, Ubaque and Vélez. The original hunter-gatherer population of the Herrera Period, predating the Muisca, slowly changed into a sedentary community based on agriculture. The people cultivated maize, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, tubers, such as yuca, tobacco, arracacha, sweet potatoes and various fruits and vegetables. The Muisca people were called "Salt People", due to their extraction of salt from brines in large pots. The main salt mines were and are still in Zipaquirá, Nemocón and Tausa, at the northern edge of the Bogotá savanna. Emeralds were mined in Chivor and Somondoco and traded with the Muzo, who were called the "Emerald People". Cotton was cultivated by the higher-altitude neighbours, such as the Lache and U'wa to the north.
Bacatá in Muisca history
Mythology and religion
Chía was Zipa's territory ceremonial center, a place designed for moon worship, while the Zaque's ceremonial center was Sogamoso, where the Sun temple was located. Apparently, the major Muisca priest's function was astronomic observation. Numerous archeological monuments in the form of stone columns witness the relation, such as "Cojines del Diablo" (Devil's Cushions) two large discs carved high up in the rock within Tunja urban perimeter, which were probably Moon observation sites. At Saquenzipa, ceremonial center near Villa de Leyva, some 25 large cylindrical columns aligned in the east-west direction stand: from this place, on summer solstice day the sun rises exactly over Iguaque lake from where Bachué goddess emerged as the legend tells.
Bochica, the civilizing God taught them manual arts, gave them moral standards, and subsequently saved them from deluge and Sabana flood by breaking the rock and letting the water flow to form Tequendama falls. The goddess Chia was the moon, Zuhé the sun. They worshiped other various astral gods. For the Muisca, lakes were sacred places where they had their ceremonies. Their most important myths and legends mention Guatavita, Siecha, Tota, Fúquene, and Iguacu lakes, where gold and ceramic gifts have been found. They also worshiped the dead, nobles and chiefs were mummified and buried with all their belongings.
Gold-working and ceramics Although the Muisca Confederation had no gold, they obtained it from trading with other tribes. They manufactured diverse pieces, the most outstanding are tunjos; small anthropomorphic or zoomorphic figures they offered to their gods. Among the diverse techniques, they used to manufacture those pieces are lost wax, hammering, and repouseé. Gold objects served for funerary and sacred sacrifices. The Muisca also made necklaces, bracelets, earrings, pectorals, nose rings, and other pieces they used to decorate themselves with. The Museo del Oro and other private collection museums still preserve those pieces. The Muisca elaborated on clothes and produced ceramics.
Spanish conquest of the Muisca
Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada expedition From 1533, a belief persisted that the Río Grande de la Magdalena was the trail to the South Sea, to Peru, legendary El Dorado. Such was the target of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, the Granadanian conquistador who left Santa Marta on 6 April 1536 with 800 soldiers, heading towards the interior of current Colombia. The expedition divided into two groups, one under Quesada's command to move on land, and the other commanded by Diego de Urbino would go upriver in four brigantine ships to eventually meet Quesada's troops at the site named Tora de las Barrancas Bermejas. When they arrived, they heard news about Indians inhabiting the south and making large salt cakes used to trade for wild cotton and fish. Jiménez de Quesada decided to abandon the route to Peru and cross the mountain in search of salt villages. They saw crops, trails, white salt cakes and then huts where they found corn, yucca and beans. From Tora, the expedition went up the Opón River and found indigenous people wearing very finely painted cotton mantles. When they arrived in Muisca territories in the Andean Plateau, on 9 March 1537, of the expedition leaving Santa Marta, only 162 men were left. List of conquistadors led by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada – Banco de la RepúblicaAlong their journey they took a large amount of gold and emeralds. In Hunza the Spanish submitted zaque Quemuenchatocha and headed towards Sogamoso, where they raided and accidentally set the Sun Temple on fire.
On March 22, 1537 the Spanish arrived from the north crossing the salt mine villages Nemocón and Zipaquirá to a place they named Valle de los Alcázarea (Valley of the Fortress). Already in Muisca territory they found good roads and moved southwest. In a few days only they crossed several villages, among them Lenguazaque and Suesca. They continued through Cajicá, Chía and Suba, the start of the southern Muisca zipazgo of Bacatá, where they found an abandoned Bacatá . The zipa of Bacatá, Tisquesusa had fled the capital of his kingdom to the north (Cajicá), where he would be killed by a Spanish soldier.
Spanish colonization
Founding
Following conquerors motto to found and to populate, De Quesada decided to build an urban settlement to live in good order and under stable government. To the east on the foothills they found an Indian village named Teusaquillo near the residence of the zipa, supplied with water, wood and planting land and protected from winds by the mountains of Monserrate and Guadalupe.
Although no document recording the exact date of city foundation has been found, August 7, 1538 is accepted as the foundation date. According to tradition, that day friar Domingo de las Casas held the first sermon in a straw hut built near the current cathedral of Santander park. The Spanish colony was named New Kingdom of Granada, with as capital Santa Fe, later Santa Fe de Bogotá and later shortened to Bogotá, based on the Chibcha name for the southern Muisca capital; Bacatá.
Urban design The urban design consisted of squares and from that time the one hundred meters per lienzo de cuadra prevails. Traverse streets (east–west) were and current carreras . In 1553, the Main Plaza—now Plaza de Bolívar—was moved to its current site and the first cathedral construction on the eastern side began. On the other sides the Chapter and the Royal Hearing were located. The street joining the Major Plaza and Herbs Plaza—currently Santander park—was named «Calle Real» (Royal Street) now Carrera Seventh.
Population of Santa Fe Formed by whites, mestizos, indigenous Muisca, and slaves; from the second half of the 16th century the population began to grow rapidly. The census of 1789 recorded 18,161 inhabitants and by 1819 the city population amounted to 30,000 inhabitants distributed in 195 blocks. Importance grew when the diocese was created. Up until 1585, the only parish was the cathedral, later on Las Nieves to the north and Santa Bárbara south of the central square were created.
Government and administration City mayor and the Chapter formed by two council men assisted by the constable and the chief of police governed the city. For better administering these domains in April 1550 the Audience of Santafé de Bogotá was organized, for hearers to act. From that time the city became the capital and the home of New Kingdom of Granada government. Fourteen years later, in 1564, the Spanish Crown designated the first Royal Audience Chairman; Andrés Díaz Venero de Leyva. The Kingdom of New Granada became a Viceroyalty in 1739 and kept that condition until Liberator Simón Bolívar achieved independence from Spain in 1819.
Religion After dominating indigenous populations by war, conquest by religion began assisted by religious communities established in the entire Colombian territory from the 16th century, Churches and convents were built for the Franciscan, Dominican, Augustine communities and later on in 1604, Jesuits, Capuchin monks and Clarisse, Dominican and Barefooted Carmelite nuns. Such communities marked the spirit and uses of Santafereños, since they exercised ideology, political and cultural domination only slightly reduced when in 1767, Carlos III of Spain ordered Jesuit expulsion from Spanish colonies in the Americas.
Educational centers As for the rest of Spanish America, religious communities were fundamental in the field of education, which by order of the Crown took place in churches and convents. The first two universities are the deed of Dominican monks (1563 and 1573). In 1592 San Bartolomé seminar school was founded to provide higher education to Spanish children; Jesuits ruled the school, and in 1605 they founded the Maximum School located in one of the Major Plaza corners.
In 1580 Dominicans founded Pontificia Universidad of Santo Tomás de Aquino Arts and Philosophy school, and in 1621 Jesuits started San Francisco Javier or Javeriana University courses. In 1653 Fray Cristóbal de Torres founded Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario. In 1783 the first educational community and the first school for woman education were founded in New Granada: La Enseñanza school ruled by the community of María. From that time school lessons for women started, a right up to then reserved to men.
Fine arts