Hernán Pérez de Quesada | |
|---|---|
 Hernán, as Spanish conquistador | |
| Born | c. 1515 Granada, Spain |
| Died | 1544 |
| Cause of death | Lightning strike |
| Occupation | Conquistador |
| Years active | 1536–1542 |
| Employer | Spanish Crown |
| Known for | Spanish conquest of the Muisca Quest forEl Dorado |
| Title | Governor of New Kingdom of Granada |
| Term | 1539–1542 |
| Predecessor | Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada (1538–1539) |
| Successor | Luis Alonso de Lugo (1542–1544) |
| Criminal charge(s) | • Mistreatment of indigenous people • Murders ofTisquesusa,Sagipa &Aquiminzaque |
| Relatives | Gonzalo Jiménez (brother) |
| Notes | |
Hernán Pérez de Quesada, sometimes spelled asQuezada,[5] (c. 1515 – 1544) was a Spanishconquistador. Second in command of the army of his elder brother,Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, Hernán was part of the first European expedition towards the inner highlands of the ColombianAndes. The harsh journey, taking almost a year and many deaths, led through the moderndepartmentsMagdalena,Cesar,Santander,Boyacá,Cundinamarca andHuila of present-dayColombia between 1536 and 1539 and, without him,Meta,Caquetá andPutumayo of Colombia and northernPeru andEcuador between 1540 and 1542.
Hernán foundedSutatausa, Cundinamarca, and aided in the conquest of variousindigenous groups, such as theChimila,Muisca,Panche,Lache,U'wa,Sutagao and others. Under the command of Hernán Pérez de Quesada the last independentMuisca ruler;hoaQuiminza was publicly decapitated. As second in command under his brother, in the previous yearspsihipquiasTisquesusa andSagipa andTundama ofDuitama had suffered a similar fate. After returning from his expeditions to the south reachingQuito, where he reunited with his younger brother Francisco, both De Quesadas went back toSantafé de Bogotá. Hernán was tried and imprisoned there for the murders of the Muisca rulers by the governor of the capital of the New Kingdom of Granada. In 1544, en route to Cartagena with his brother Francisco, their ship was hit by lightning off the coast ofCabo de la Vela in theCaribbean Sea killing Hernán and Francisco and wounding several other conquistadors.
Knowledge of the life and expeditions of Hernán Pérez de Quesada has been provided by his brother Gonzalo andscholarsPedro de Aguado,Juan Freyle,Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita,Joaquín Acosta andLiborio Zerda.[6][7][8][9][10][11]
.jpg)
Hernán Pérez de Quesada was born around the year 1512 in theAndalusian city ofGranada.[1][2] His family was Catholic, but descended frommarranos (Sephardi Jews).[12] His elder brother was conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez and he had four other siblings; brother Melchor, Francisco, who also was conquistador in Peru, and sisters Magdalena de Quesada and Andrea Ximénez de Quesada.[2][3][4] In 1535, arriving early 1536, the brothers Gonzalo, Francisco and Hernán sailed fromSpain toSanta Marta, one of the first cities founded in modern-day Colombia, byRodrigo de Bastidas in 1525.
The firstindigenous group that was submitted to the Spanish Crown were theTairona, who inhabit the area around Santa Marta, presently living on the slopes of theSierra Nevada de Santa Marta and inTayrona Park. On April 6, 1536, triggered by the stories of themythical "City of Gold"El Dorado, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada organised two groups of conquistadors towards the inner highlands of the ColombianAndes, as first European explorers.[2] The army with the brothers De Quesada and more than 700 soldiers and 80 horses went over land and another, of more than 200 men, embarked in boats and ascended theMagdalena River fromCiénaga, in search of its origin. The list of the soldiers that eventually made it toFunza has been compiled by Juan Florez de Ocáriz (1612–1692).[13] The land army was led by Gonzalo with Hernán second in command.[14] The first indigenous group conquered, were theChimila people. Continuing south, the troops had to cross inhospitable terrains full of creeks and part of their supplies and equipment was lost when crossing theAriguaní River.[15]
The troops led by the De Quesadas passed through among other settlementsTamalameque,Barrancabermeja andChipatá where the Spanish for the first time learnt to drinkchicha, thefermented alcoholic beverage of the Muisca. The almost-naked conquistadors who suffered from the difficult expedition through the jungles receivedcotton mantles from the Muisca people in Chipatá. The expedition passed through halted inChía where they spent theHoly Week. After that week in April 1537, he ordered his men towardsFunza, the site of the domain of thezipa. Although the army of the brothers De Quesada was reduced to 170 men, the hundreds of guecha warriors couldn't resist their superior arms and were defeated. In the meantime,zipaTisquesusa sent messengers to thecaciques in the Muisca Confederation to inform them of the arrival of the light-skinned heavily armed men. Thecaciques considered the invaders sacred and didn't dare to attack them.[15] Funza was conquered and founded on April 20, 1537.[16] Of the more than 900 soldiers who left Santa Marta a year earlier, only 162 survived the harsh expedition.[13]
On the same day that his brother Gonzalo foundedTenza, June 24, 1537, Hernán foundedSutatausa.[17]
| Name | Department | Date | Year | Notes | Map |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sutatausa | Cundinamarca | 24 June | 1537 | [17] |  |
At the start of 1538, when the troops were exhausted after almost two years in foreign terrain, the soldiers asked what was their payment for the conquest they had done. De Quesada divided the conquered treasures over his men; 40,000 pieces of fine gold, 562 emeralds andtumbaga (gold-copper-silver alloys). Foot soldiers received 520 pieces each, horse riders the double amount, captains 2080 pieces, generals 3640 and some pieces were given as prizes for the most distinguished soldiers. Masses were organised to honour the many dead soldiers during the campaign and part of the treasure was given to Juan de las Casas. De Quesada was not pleased to hear about the advancement of another group of conquistadors in the east, led byNikolaus Federmann, coming from laterVenezuela across theLlanos Orientales. Another team of conquerors, commanded bySebastián de Belalcázar, was coming from the south, originating fromQuito. Gonzalo sent Hernán to meet the southern group who had traveled through the hot valley ofNeiva.[15] Hernán ordered thedecapitation ofAquiminzaque, the lastzaque of Hunza in late 1538.[18]
One and a half year after the victory of the conquistadors onTisquesusa, in the area ofTeusaquillo, the modern capital of Colombia was founded. Although some historians set the date at April 27, 1539, the common and celebrated date of foundation is August 6, 1538. The foundation was performed by the construction of 12 houses of reed, referring to theTwelve Apostles, and the construction of a preliminary church, also of reed. Father Juan de las Casas held his first mass in the improvised church. The city was named Santafé de Bogotá, a combination of the Spanish city ofSanta Fe and theChibcha name of the southern Muisca capitalBacatá, meaning "Enclosure outside of the farmfields".[19] The newly established country, part of theSpanish Empire was calledNew Kingdom of Granada, after the place of birth of the brothers De Quesada inAndalusia;Kingdom of Granada.[15]
The three leaders of the conquest expeditions; Gonzalo de Quesada, Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar, met inBosa and agreed to travel back to Spain to ask for compensation for their exploration for the Spanish Crown. Gonzalo assigned Hernán as interim governor of the New Kingdom and chose the first mayor and council for the capital. Thechaplain of the team of Federmann, Juan Verdejo, was named priest. Most of the soldiers of the expeditions of Federmann and De Belalcázar decided to stay in Bogotá, reinforcing the troops of De Quesada. Without having foundEl Dorado, three years after his departure from Santa Marta, in mid May 1539, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada returned to the Caribbean coast, to sail to Spain from Cartagena.[15]
In his search forEl Dorado, Hernán explored the departments of Tolima and Huila.[1] Hernán Pérez de Quesada was only one of many explorers in the search forEl Dorado.[20] After the destruction and looting of theSun Temple inSogamoso in September 1537, Hernán Pérez thought there was an even bigger place where the indigenous people hid theirgold, called "La Casa del Sol". In his quest, starting from Sogamoso along the right banks of theChicamocha River, he approached with a hundred men the terrain of theLache and enteredJericó, at that time called Cheva, where he and his troops gathered the food of the original inhabitants who promptly fled toChita.[21]
The city ofTunja, in the times of the Muisca called Hunza, was founded on 1541 byGonzalo Suárez Rendón in an expedition ordered by Hernán de Quesada.[22] In July 1541, the Chapter of Tunja told De Quesada that he couldn't leave his empire alone. Hernán responded that "whatever he did, was in the interest of the Spanish Crown".[23]
Later in 1541, Hernán Pérez de Quesada went northward towards the laterdepartment ofNorte de Santander, where he crossedPanqueba,Guacamayas,El Cocuy andChita, and reachedChinácota but had to return soon after that.[24][25] Soldiers of his army submitted theU'wa living in El Cocuy.[26]
On his southern expedition in the same year, Hernán Pérez de Quesada was the first European to reach the southeastern Colombian departments ofCaquetá andPutumayo.[22] One of his soldiers,Lázaro Fonte, the lover ofZoratama, died due to the natural dangers of the jungle.[27]
| Name | Department | Date | Year | Notes | Map |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motavita | Boyacá | 1540 | [5] |  | |
| Sasaima | Cundinamarca | Early | 1540 | [28] |  |
| Bituima | Cundinamarca | 1540 | [29] |  | |
| Nimaima | Cundinamarca | 1540 | [30] |  | |
| Sativasur | Boyacá | 1540 | [31] |  | |
| Jericó | Boyacá | 1540 | [32] |  | |
| Guacamayas | Boyacá | 1540 | [33] |  | |
| Chiscas | Boyacá | 1540 | [34] |  | |
| Chita | Boyacá | 1540 | [33] |  | |
| Panqueba | Boyacá | 1540 | [33] |  | |
| Güicán | Boyacá | 1540 | [35] |  | |
| El Cocuy | Boyacá | 1540 | [33][36] |  | |
| Pasca | Cundinamarca | Early September | 1540 | [7] |  |
| Nevado del Sumapaz | Cundinamarca | 1540 |  | ||
| San Martín | Meta | 1540 | [37] |  | |
| Florencia | Caquetá | 1540 | [38] |  | |
| San José de la Fragua | Caquetá | 1540 | [7] |  | |
| Mocoa | Putumayo | 1540–41 | [7] |  | |
| Sibundoy | Putumayo | 1541 | [7] |  | |
| Popayán | Cauca | 1541 | [7] |  | |
| Cali | Valle del Cauca | 1541 | [39] |  | |
| Quito | Pichincha | 1542 |  |
De Quesada reached Peru with an army of 500 men having failed to find the mythicalEl Dorado.[23] In 1542 he reached theKingdom of Quito where he joined his brother Francisco.[14] The brothers returned to Bogotá, where Hernán was tried and imprisoned byLuis Alonso de Lugo, the newgovernor of the capital, for his mistreatment of the indigenous peoples and the murders of Saymoso, Quiminza, Tisquesusa and Sagipa. In 1544 Hernán and Francisco embarked on a ship from Santo Domingo to Cartagena. Lightning struck the ship off the coast ofCabo de la Vela; both brothers died along with several other conquistadors and the Bishop of Santa Marta, friar Martín de Calatayud.[1]
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.jpg)
