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This article describes thewarfare of theMuisca. TheMuisca inhabited theTenza andUbaque valleys and theAltiplano Cundiboyacense, the high plateau of theColombianEastern Ranges of theAndes in the time before theSpanish conquest. Their society was mainly egalitarian with little difference between the elite class (caciques) and the general people. TheMuisca economy was based onagriculture and trading raw materials likecotton,coca, feathers, sea snails andgold with their neighbours. Called "Salt People", they extractedsalt from brines inZipaquirá,Nemocón andTausa to use for theircuisine and as trading material.
Being mostly traders and farmers, the Muisca also had a structure of combatants, calledguecha warriors. Between the northern and southern parts of theMuisca Confederation, battles were fought where thezipa, ruling over theBogotá savanna in the south and thezaque ofHunza in the north contested for control over terrains. The leaders of the communities fought with their warriors. The main enemy of the Muisca were thePanche people who inhabited the area to the west of the Altiplano in the hills leading to theMagdalena River. Fortifications of guecha warriors, a privileged class in their society, were built in the border region with the Panche. The guecha warriors were armed withblowpipes,spears,clubs, andslings; and defended themselves with long shields and thick multi-layered cotton mantles. Battles in the history of the Muisca are described aroundChocontá (~1490) andPascaaround 1470. When the Spanishconquistadors entered the Muisca Confederation in March 1537 after a long, deadly and sterunous expedition fromSanta Marta at theCaribbean coast, they found little resistance of the Muisca, except in later battles against theTundama ruling over the northernmost area aroundDuitama. The Spanish who already had conquered the Muisca and foundedBogotá, used the guecha warriors to submit the Panche in theBattle of Tocarema on August 20, 1538.
Knowledge about the Muisca warfare has been provided by the conquistadors who made first contact with the Muisca;Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, hisbrother Hernán,Juan de San Martín andAntonio de Lebrija. Laterscholars wereJuan de Castellanos,Pedro Simón andLucas Fernández de Piedrahita. Modern anthropological research has revised some of the accounts of the early chroniclers on the war-like status of the Muisca, who were even by the conquistadors considered more traders and negotiators than fighters.
In the ages before theSpanish conquest of the Muisca, the high central plains of theEastern Ranges of the ColombianAndes was inhabited by theMuisca. They established a rather egalitarian society of small settlements dotted across the valleys and flatlands in the mountains, based mainly onagriculture,trade and theextraction of salt, which gave them the name "The Salt People". TheAltiplano Cundiboyacense and neighbouringUbaque andTenza Valleys to the east the inhabited was very much isolated from the coast of later Colombia, but viatrade routes and many markets held frequently, they were connected with their neighbouringindigenous groups; to the west and northwest thePanche,Muzo andYarigui people, to the north theGuane,Lache andU'wa, in the eastern part towards the vast flatlands of theLlanos Orientales theAchagua,Guayupe andTegua people and to the south in the mountains ofSumapaz theSutagao.
The Muisca spokeChibcha, or in their own language called Muysccubun; "language of the people", and traded with their neighbours raw products to establish a self-sufficient economy where surpluses were traded forcotton,gold,emeralds, feathers, bee wax (for the fine goldworking of theirtunjo offer pieces) and tropical fruits not growing on the high plains. The people were veryreligious and honoured their two main deitiesSué, the Sun, andChía, his wife; the Moon in theirSun andMoon temples inSugamuxi andChía respectively. Each small settlement of maximum 100bohíos was headed by acacique and the major towns ofBacatá andHunza were ruled by thezipa andzaque. The Sacred City of the Sun Sugamuxi was ruled by a priest, callediraca and the northernmost area headed by theTundama based in the hills around the former lake ofDuitama.
The initiation ritual of the newzipa took place in theirsacredLake Guatavita where he would cover himself in gold dust and jump from a raft in the waters of the circular lake at 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) altitude, a ritual represented in the famousMuisca raft. It was this "Man of Gold" that formed the basis for themyth ofEl Dorado, known far outside of theMuisca Confederation, as their loose collection ofrulers was called. This legend formed the main goal for theSpanish conquest that took theconquistadors more than a year into the Andes, fromSanta Marta, where they left in early April 1536.[1]
Although early descriptions by Spanish chroniclers narrate about warfare, later revision of earlier beliefs has revealed that the Muisca were more a community oftraders than warriors.[2] Still, all researchers agree that the Muisca people had special classes in their society reserved for their warriors and that battles were fought mainly defending their terrain against thePanche in the west and southwest and between each other; the battles between thezipa andzaque.[3] TheChibcha word for "war" or "enemy" issaba.[4]
For the etymology of the wordgüecha various hypotheses have been presented. According toPedro Simón,guecha meant "brave",[5] whileEzequiel Uricoechea signals its derivation fromzuecha, meaning "uncle"; "brother of the mother".[5] Thelineage of heritage in the Muisca society was maternal. Uricoechea described the term as a combination ofgue- ("village") andcha, which means "man" or "male"; "man of the village".[5] The nameguecha has been changed in modernColombian Spanish asguache, meaning "uncivilised", "brute".[6]
The guecha warriors enjoyed special privileges and were considered a higher class of the society.[3] They ranked below the priests, but above the general people.[7] Both Pedro Simón andLucas Fernández de Piedrahita describe the guecha warriors as strong and brave men, recruited from the people in the various villages of the Muisca Confederation.[8][9] They went through years of training in combat before being assigned as guecha warrior. Their appearance was different from the other people, of which the men had long hair. To be more efficient and safer in battle, the guecha warriors cut their hair short.[8] While jewellery was not common among the general people, and after installation of theCode of Nemequene even prohibited, the guecha warriors wore jewels such asgolden ortumbaga nose pieces, pectorals, earrings and crowns with coloured feathers. The amount of earrings would indicate the number of enemies beaten. Their bodies were painted using inks from theGenipa americana tree.[10]
For their battles, and for hunting, the warriors usedclubs,poisoned darts withblowpipes,spears andslings, similar to theatlatl ofMesoamerica.[11] Thebows and arrows were not produced by the Muisca themselves, but taken from conqueredPanche slaves.[10] To defend themselves from the poisoned arrows the Panche used, the guecha warriors covered themselves with multiple layers ofcottonmantles.[12] To protect themselves, they use long shields.[11]
At the borders of the Muisca territories, the leaders organised fortifications of guecha warriors to defend their terrain. Although on the presence of a stone fortress inCajicá there is serious doubt if it existed in pre-conquest times,[13] fortifications around the Confederation have been described.[14]
| Settlement | Department | Neighbour(s) | Altitude (m) urban centre | Map |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | Cundinamarca | Panche | 1520 |  |
| Anolaima | Cundinamarca | Panche | 1657 |  |
| San Antonio del Tequendama | Cundinamarca | Panche | 1540 |  |
| Tena | Cundinamarca | Panche | 1384 |  |
| Tibacuy | Cundinamarca | Panche,Sutagao | 1647 |  |
| Silvania | Cundinamarca | Sutagao | 1470 |  |
| Fosca | Cundinamarca | Guayupe | 2080 |  |
| Chocontá | Cundinamarca | betweenzipa andzaque | 2655 |  |
| Turmequé | Boyacá | betweenzipa andzaque | 2389 |  |
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While some later scholars have described the Muisca as battling people, the conquistadors who made first contact with them tell a different story. ConquistadorsJuan de San Martín,Antonio de Lebrija and leader and writerGonzalo Jiménez de Quesada have said they were:[15]
...gente que quiere paz y no guerra, porque aunque son muchos, son de pocas armas y no ofensivas
...people who want peace and not war, because although they are many, their arms are few and not offensive
The battles that were fought, were mostly against the Panche to the west, who have been described by the first conquistadors as belligerent andcannibalistic. Pedro Simón interpreted their name, the wordpanche as meaning "cruel" and "murderer".[16] Between the two main parts of the Muisca Confederation; thezipa and thezaque two main battles have been described, the first happening around 1470 inPasca. During battles, the warriors wore themummies of ancestors on their backs to impress their enemies. Battles were fought according to theMuisca calendar, a complexluni-solar calendar the people used to indicate different types of years and months.[17]
Two main battles, one between the northern and southern Muisca and one with the southern neighbours, theSutagao, have been described by the chroniclers, mainlyDe Piedrahita.[18] The first battle was around the year 1470 in Pasca between thezipa of BacatáSaguamanchica, leading an army of around 30,000 guecha warriors, and thecacique of the Sutagao, resulting in a victory of the first and the inclusion of the southern region into the Muisca Confederation.[19]
The second battle, some twenty years later, took place aroundChocontá in the north of theBogotá savanna between thezipa and thezaque. Here again, Saguamanchica defeated his stronger enemyMichuá of around 60,000 warriors in a three-hour fight. Both leaders died because of the bloody battle.[19][20]
When the Spanishconquistadors entered the terrains of the Muisca in March 1537, when they foundedChipatá, they first found little resistance in the northern parts. CrossingBoyacá in the narrow part, they entered theBogotá savanna where inNemocón, an importantsalt-producing settlement, they encountered the first resistance.[21] The narratives of the exhausted conquerors talk about attacks of hundreds of warriors against the greatly reduced troops ofDe Quesada, which the Spanish fought off. Most of the time, the Muisca, excellent traders, tried to negotiate with the Spanish invasors to stop them from using their "thunder sticks"; weaponry unknown among and feared by the Muisca. Shortly after the Muisca Confederation was conquered and the capital of theNew Kingdom of Granada,Santafé de Bogotá was founded in August 1538, the conquistadors used the eternal conflicts of the Muisca with the Panche to ally withzipaSagipa and fight the Panche with only 50 Spanish soldiers and 12,000 to 20,000 guecha warriors in theBattle of Tocarema on August 20, 1538.[22][23]
