Viceroyalty of New Granada
The viceroyalty of Nueva Granada, viceroyalty of Santafé or viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada was a territorial entity, part of the Spanish Empire, established by the Crown (1717-1723, 1739-1810 and 1815-1822) during the Bourbon dynasty. Created in 1717 by King Felipe V, within a new territorial control policy, it was suspended in 1723 due to financial problems and restored in 1739 until the independence movement suspended it again in 1810. In 1815, when its territory was reconquered by King Ferdinand VII's army was restored.
After a quick military campaign, the rebel army commanded by Simón Bolívar entered Santafé de Bogotá on August 10, 1819 after defeating the royalist army in the Pantano de Vargas and in Boyacá. A day earlier, Juan de Sámano, the last effective viceroy, had left the capital and fled to Cartagena de Indias, an area still controlled by royalist authorities. On October 31, 1820, Juan de la Cruz Mourgeon was appointed captain general of the provinces of Nueva Granada, also being granted the title of viceroy on the condition that he recover the capital and most of the territory. By then, only the provinces of Panama, Quito and Pasto and the cities of Cartagena and Santa Marta remained faithful to the Crown. Mourgeon died in April 1822 in Quito, a month before the decisive patriot victory at Pichincha. After this battle, Melchor Aymerich, president of the Royal Court of Quito (the highest Spanish authority after the death of Mourgeon) signed a Capitulation (May 25) by which he surrendered the territories that were still under royalist control, putting an end to the Spanish rule in New Granada.
The territories of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama and the territory of Guayana Esequiba were part of this Viceroyalty. The entity was made up of the Courts of Santafé, Panama and Quito, and the General Captaincy of Venezuela. The capital of the viceroyalty was Santafé, for this reason its coat of arms was inherited by Bogotá.
History
Background
In 1508 Tierra Firme was divided between two jurisdictions: Diego de Nicuesa obtained the governorship of Veragua or Castilla de Oro, which ran from the Atrato River in the Gulf of Urabá to Cape Gracias a Dios; on the other hand, Alonso de Ojeda obtained that of Nueva Andalucía, from the Atrato river to Cabo de la Vela. Shortly after, from March 1511, Vasco Núñez de Balboa took charge of Veraguas and was appointed by Viceroy Diego Colón as his lieutenant in Darién.
In May 1513 Pedro Arias Dávila was appointed governor and captain general of Castilla de Oro, which included all the coastal territory from Cabo de la Vela to present-day Panama, with the exception of Veraguas, arriving in Darién in July of 1514. Nueva Andalucía was suppressed and Balboa received on September 23, 1514 the appointment of "Governor of Coiba and Panama and Adelantado of the South Sea" subordinated to Castilla del Oro. In 1525 Fernández de Oviedo tried to establish a government in the Cartagena area (Gobernación de Cartagena), but it did not prosper until the founding of the city in 1533. On February 26, 1538 it was established on the Isthmus, the Royal Audience of Panama by Royal Certificate issued by Carlos V. Around 1542 the governorates of Santa Marta (founded in 1525), Cartagena and Popayán (founded in 1536) existed.
In 1550 the Royal Audience of Santafé was created within the Viceroyalty of Peru with jurisdiction over the New Kingdom of Granada and the governorates of Santa Marta, Cartagena and Popayán. However, the dependency of the government of the New Kingdom of Granada in Santafé with that of the Viceroyalty of Peru in Lima was weak, there was difficulty for communications between the two cities, added to this the constant conflicts since the year 1582, between the government of the Presidents of the Royal Audience of Santafé and the Archbishopric of Santafé.
The Viceroyalty
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The conflictive situation was confirmed by visitors sent by the Crown, who recommended to Felipe V the creation of an independent viceroyalty in New Granada in 1717, finally erected provisionally on June 13, 1718 until the arrival of the first viceroy on November 25, 1719.
The crown's considerations for its creation included its geographical location between two seas (the Caribbean and the South Sea, today the Pacific Ocean) and as a gateway to the western part of South America, which would allow it to better face smuggling and attacks by pirates and filibusters with a point closer to the Caribbean Sea. However, the scarcity of appropriate roads made transit and communication within the viceroyalty difficult. The establishment of a captaincy general in Caracas and a royal audience in Quito, still legally subservient to the viceroy, was a response to the needs for effective government in the more remote regions.
After the war with the Quadruple Alliance ended, in 1724 another Royal Decree was issued that abolished the Viceroyalty of New Granada for economic reasons, which led to a return of the presidency. However, in 1740, by royal mandate, the Royal Audience of Quito was again incorporated into the Viceroyalty. By then, the king signed in San Ildefonso, the definitive Re-erection Certificate of August 20, 1739 of the Viceroyalty of New Granada with the same rights as the Royal Decree of 1717.
A little more than two years after its incorporation into the viceroyalty, the province of Venezuela was reinstated in 1742 to the jurisdiction of the Royal Audience of Santo Domingo, which in turn depended on the Viceroyalty of New Spain, jurisdictions to which it would continue belonging until its independence.
In this way, provinces of what today could correspond to Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, and regions of Peru, Brazil, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guyana Esequiba, until then under different jurisdictions, were united under the same imperial authority established in the city of Santafé de Bogotá, thus confirming the city as another of the main administrative centers of the Spanish possessions in America, along with Lima and Mexico City.
In 1764 the Government of Guayaquil was created. Later, by royal order of August 13, 1790, it was ordered to segregate the establishment of Sinamaica from the province of Riohacha and add it to the province of Maracaibo in the Captaincy General of Venezuela. On August 1, 1792, the transfer took place.
The Botanical Expedition
The archbishop-viceroy Antonio Caballero y Góngora, in 1783, undertook the transcendental work of the Botanical Expedition, taking advantage of the knowledge, talent and wisdom of the priest José Celestino Mutis. For this, the archbishop-viceroy made expenses out of his own pocket while the approval of the Court came, which he obtained at the end of that same year. The main purpose of the Botanical Expedition was scientific research and the study of the Colombian flora, as well as the realization of astronomical, geographical and physical observations.
Napoleonic invasion and Reconquest
The invasion in 1808 of the peninsular territory by Napoleonic troops produced a power vacuum in America. In August 1809 a group of Creoles, led by Juan Pío Montúfar, declared their own Governing Board in Quito, swore allegiance to Fernando VII and ignored the authorities appointed from Spain. In the same way in the current territory of Colombia there was a declaration in Valledupar in April 1810. The Government Junta of Cádiz ordered the retirement of Viceroy Amar y Borbón, news carried by the Royal Commissioner, Antonio Villavicencio from Quito.
On May 22 in Cartagena de Indias, a revolutionary movement created a Governing Board. The events continued in July 1810. On July 3, Santiago de Cali formed its juntas, followed by Socorro and Pamplona. Finally, on the 20th, the events known as El Florero de Llorente would occur in Santa Fe, which was the center of power of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. With the deposition and arrest of the viceroy, the Viceroyalty ceased to exist de facto.
The plan was to take advantage of the arrival of the Royal Commissioner Antonio Villavicencio in Santa Fe, to highlight the differences between the "eschapetones" and the Creoles and form a brawl in the middle of market day. In the midst of the brawl, the people were harangued to demand an open town hall, which was used to depose the Royal Court and create a new Governing Board. The militias in Santa Fe were commanded by Antonio Baraya.
The first Junta to declare absolute independence from Spain in the former territory of the Viceroyalty was Cartagena de Indias, on November 11, 1811. The events that occurred in Cartagena precipitated the declaration of absolute independence in the other cities of the New Kingdom. Then began a period where there were great internal conflicts that arose from conflicting opinions about the way to organize the new government. The constant fights between the federalists and centralists, and these in turn against the royalists, gave rise to this unstable period.
After his return to power, Ferdinand VII tried to restore monarchical power in America. In 1815, the Río de La Plata, Chile, New Granada and Venezuela were governed by different pro-independence factions and in many places power was in the hands of Fernandista juntas which, once dissolved, allowed the reconquest of New Granada and Venezuela, an action that will be in charge of Pablo Morillo, and the restoration of the Viceroyalty at the head of Juan de Sámano.
In this way, Morillo received the troops from the ports of Seville and Barcelona in Spain and from there he arrived at the port of Cartagena de Indias from where the troops ventured to blockade the ports of La Dorada and Puerto Salgar arriving at Santafé de Bogotá and taking the capital with the troops of the Spanish army in the Plaza Mayor.
Independence
Although during the terror regime, several republican groups remained active, exercising effective power in the Llanos, mainly in the Venezuelan Guayana and in Casanare, it would not be until 1819 when the final process of expulsion of the Spanish domain.
In 1819 a republican army commanded by Simón Bolívar crossed the mountains that separate Casanare de Tunja and Santa Fe and after the battles of Pore, Pantano de Vargas and Puente de Boyacá had a free hand to take control of Santa Fe, a city the one that arrived on August 10, 1819.
Viceroy Sámano fled the city, and the viceroyalty ceased to be effective. However, Spain exercised its power in various cities of the viceroyalty and its areas of influence: Quito, Pasto, Popayán, Cartagena de Indias, Santa Marta, Caracas and Panama, among others.
During 1820, Pablo Morillo, commander of the royalist army in New Granada, and Simón Bolívar agreed to a truce that was used by Bolívar to form the nascent Republic of Colombia. Hostilities resumed in 1821 with the Battle of Bomboná, which, being a tactical disaster for both armies, gave a strategic advantage to the Republican forces that soon achieved total control of the current territory of Colombia, thus achieving the liberation of present-day Ecuador. and Venezuela. Thus, for all intents and purposes, by 1822 the royalists had lost control of what had once been the Viceroyalty of New Granada.
The territories of the viceroyalty gained their independence from Spain, later unifying with those of the former Captaincy General of Venezuela to found the first Republic of Colombia, also known as Gran Colombia, the name by which it is remembered today. When Venezuela and Ecuador separated during the dissolution of Gran Colombia, Bogotá became the capital of the new Republic of New Granada.
Territorial organization
The Viceroyalty's territories were those corresponding to the Royal Audiences of Santafé de Bogotá, Panama, and Quito, and part of the subsequent territory of the General Captaincy of Venezuela. In this sense, the viceroyalty included territories of the current Republics of Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica and Venezuela, as well as regions of northern Peru and Brazil, and western Guayana Esequiba.
Chronology of the Viceroyalty
See also: Annex: Viceroys of New Granada
Royal decree of May 27, 1717
In Segovia (Spain) the royal certificate was issued that incorporated the Royal Audience of Quito (suppressing it) and the General Captaincy of Venezuela to the Royal Audience of Santafé, creating the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada, with the provinces of Santafé or New Kingdom of Granada and those of Cartagena, Santa Marta, Maracaibo, Caracas, Antioquia, Guayana, Popayán and those of San Francisco de Quito. The Royal Audience of Panama was suppressed and its territory added to that of Lima and to the Viceroyalty of Peru.
(...) I have resolved by my royal decree of 29 April of this year that Virrey be established and placed in the Audience that resides in the city of Santafé, new kingdom of Granada, and be governor and general captain and president of it, in the same manner as those of Peru and New Spain and with the same powers that are granted to him by laws, cédulas and royal decrees, and they are kept the preeminences and practice. And I have decided that the territory and jurisdiction of the expressed Virrey, the Audience and the Court of Accounts of the city of Santafé shall have, and that it is all the province of Santafé, the new kingdom of Granada, the ones of Cartagena, Santamarta, Maracaibo, that of Carácas, Antioquía, Guayana, Popayan and that of San Francisco of Quito, I am the King.
Royal decree of November 5, 1723
After the war with the Quadruple Alliance, another royal decree was issued, with which the viceroyalty of New Granada was abolished on November 5, 1723 due to some reports that were given to the king regarding its economic situation, and debts and expenses that he could never pay from his finances:
(...) I have decided on consultation of my Indian Council, to delete the reference Vireinate of the city of Santafé and new kingdom of Granada, and that the government of that district should run again, according to its old plant, as is prevented by the laws and under the rules that have been governed before the erection of the new Vireinate; from which it is prevented you to understand it. In San Ildefonso on 5 November 1723. - I am the King.
Royal decree of August 20, 1739
The Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada was erected again on August 20, 1739 at the request of some communities in the provinces that found themselves in the greatest decline. King Felipe V decided to recreate the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada with the same territories and rights that he had according to the Royal Decree of 1717.
The King. - President and hearers of my Royal Audience of Santa Fé in the New Kingdom of Granada. - Having had as convenient the year a thousand seven hundred and ten and seven erect Virreinato and New Kingdom with other aggregated provinces, I had for my service to extinguish him in 1723 leaving things in the state in which they were before this creation. And having experienced later greater decay in those precious Dominicans and that goes on every growing day as I have been represented by several communities in their district, suplicándole re-erigir el Virreinato so that with the widest faculties of this job the government will achieve the best order with which the faint spirits of their vassals will strive and Corona will apply to the cultivation of their precious minerals and abundant fruits. What I have seen and understood with other reports that I have had about the matter: and what my Council of the Indies has consulted above all, I have had it for good and have resolved, to erect again the mentioned Viceroy of that New Kingdom of Granada, being the Virrey that I will appoint to him together President of that my Rl. Hearing and Governor and Captain General of the jurisdiction of that New Kingdom and Provs. I have resolved to add to that Virreinato, which are those of the Chocó, Popayan, the Kingdom of Quito and Guayaquil, the province of Antioquia, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Rio del Hacha, Maracaibo, Caracas, Cumaná, Guayana, Islas de la Trinidad, Margarita and Río Orinoco, Provinces of Panama, Portovelo, Veragua and the Darién pays with all the cities, villas and places that the Audiences of Quito and Panama remain as they are; but with the same subordination and dependence of the Virrey, that they had the other subordinates in the Virtues of Peru and New Spain in order to their respective Virreyes and that the resources in the contentious of the whole territory remain as they were and go to their respective Audiences. There must be three General Commanders for all these districts, who, being subjects of the Virrey, like the others, must have superiority over others: and these must be the Governor, President of Panama, commander of Portovelo, Darién, Veragua and Guayaquil. With regard to which, and that I have appointed to establish and serve the referred Viceroyalty to the lieutenant General of my armies Don Sebastián de Eslava, I order you and command that by the present you observe what by my resolve and obey the aforementioned Virrey as subjects in everything and for everything, however of any Laws, Ordinaries, Cédulas Reales, particular commissions, preheminences. jobs or anything else to the contrary: As soon as this new establishment is opposed, I derogate them and cancel them, leaving them in their strength and vigor for all that is not contrary to him: that such is my will, and that you give me the receipt of this order on the first occasion that is offered. From San Ildefonso to August 20, 1739. - I'm the one
Royal decree of 1740
The Spanish crown in 1740 clearly and precisely set the definitive boundaries between the Viceroyalty of New Granada and the Viceroyalty of Peru. The same one that says like this:
Starting from Tumbez on the Pacific coast follows the line by the serranies and other Andes mountain ranges by the jurisdiction of Paita and Piura, to the Maranon at the 6th30's south latitude and the land in, leaving Peru the jurisdiction of Piura, Cajamarca, Moyobamba and Motilones and by the mountain range of Jeveros crossing the river Ucayali, to the 6th
This Certificate cut off a good part of the territories of the eastern region, which had been occupied for years by the Quito Jesuit religious missions that existed on the Alto Ucayali, Marañón and Amazonas rivers. This document reforms the limits of the Royal Audience of Quito, then incorporated into the Viceroyalty of New Granada.
Royal decree of February 12, 1742
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In 1739, when reporting on the reconstitution of the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada, the King refers to "Caracas, with the territory of its General Captaincy". In the year 1742, the Province of Venezuela or Caracas, became independent from the Viceroyalty.
I have resolved to relieve and exempt the Government and Capitanía General of the province of Venezuela from any dependence on that virreinate despite the provisions and sent by me in the 20th of August of the year of 1739, by which I was served to add the province to that new virreinate.
Royal decree of June 20, 1751
Due to economic problems in Tierra Firme, the Crown ordered the definitive extinction of the Royal Audience of Panama, passing its jurisdiction to that of Lima. A military government dependent on the Viceroyalty of New Granada was created in Panama, the General Command of Tierra Firme, with the same extension as the Audiencia of Panama, that is, the provinces of Panama, Darién, Veraguas and Portobello. On July 19, another royal decree ordered the jurisdiction of the territory to pass to the Audiencia de Santafé.
Royal decree of May 5, 1768
The king ordered that the missions of the lower and upper Orinoco and the Negro river remain under the personal subordination of the Governor and Commander of Guayana, who depended on the General Captaincy of Venezuela, except for that assignment in which he remained under the viceroy's dependency.
My Virrey, Governor and Captain General of the New Kingdom of Granada, and President of my Royal Audience of the city of Santa Fe. Don Joseph Iturriaga, Gefe of Squad of my real navy, ordered that the General Command of the new foundations of the bass and high Orinoco and the Black River that exertia, remain, as it is for his death, by the Governor and Commander of Guayana. I have conformed to this provision, and find it convenient to my real service that subsists invariable until new resolution of me, the expressed aggregation to the Governor and Commander of Guayana, as more immediate to the ones mentioned Parages, and that, so far, it has been in charge of the escort of Missions destined to them; so that it may be gathered in that command (always with subordination to that Southern Secretary General) — Given in Aranjuez on May 5, a thousand seven hundred sixty-eight. I am the King.
Royal decree of October 28, 1771
In 1771 the king ordered the reincorporation of the Guayana Commandery to the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada:
(...) that the reason for which the Government and Commander of the Province of Guayana was placed at the orders of the Captain General of Venezuela is subordinated to the Viceroy of Santa Fe the said command, united to it as they were by Cédula of 5 May 1768, the new populations of the High Orinoco and the Black River.
Royal decree of September 8, 1777
Thirty years after the independence of the Province of Venezuela, the territories of the provinces of Maracaibo, Guayana and Cumaná, until then dependent on the viceroyalty, were annexed; the province of Trinidad, dependent on the Royal Court of Santo Domingo and the province of Margarita, dependent on the Spanish Crown, to form the Captaincy General of Venezuela, with capital in the city of Santiago de León de Caracas.
(...) I have had to solve the absolute separation of the aforementioned provinces of Cumaná, Guayana and Maracaibo and islands of Trinidad and Margarita, of the viceroyalty and Capitanía General of the New Kingdom of Granada, and to add them in the government and military to the Capitanía General of Venezuela, in the same way that they are in respect of the management of my real estate to the new Intendencia erected in Caracas, and its capital. I have also resolved to separate the two expressed provinces of Maracaybo and Guayana, as is the case of Cumaná and the islands of Margarita and Trinidad, to the Primitive of Santo-Domingo, so that these territories may be found there will vary a single Audience, a General Captain and an immediate Intendent, be better governed and governed, with greater use of my Royal Service. (...)
Royal decree of July 15, 1802
By this royal decree, the territories that constituted the General Command of Maynas (current departments of Amazonas, San Martín and Loreto in Peru) returned to the Viceroyalty of Peru.
I have determined that it has to be segregated from the Virreynato of Santa Fe and from the province of Quito and added to that Virreynato the Government and General Command of Mainas with the peoples of the Government of Quijos, except that of Papallacta to be all of them on the banks of the river Napoand in their immediate vicinity, extending the General Command not only by the river Marañon below, to the borders of the Portuguese I have also resolved to place all those peoples and missions gathered by the Apostolic College of Santa Rosa de Ocopa of that Archbishop of Ocopa. I have also resolved to erect an Obispado in these missions (...)
Royal decree of July 7, 1803
Because on March 28, 1803, the Junta de Fortificaciones de América requested it, King Carlos IV issued the Royal Order of July 7, 1803, by which the Government of Guayaquil once again depended on the military Viceroyalty of Peru, although the mercantile administration of the city continued under the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada, dependent on Cartagena de Indias.
(...) the government of Guayaquil must depend on the viceroy of Lima and not that of Santa Fe, because it cannot give, as that in the necessary cases, the precise aid, being that of Lima for the ease and the brevity with which it can execute it, who must send him the mails of troops, money, goods, weapons and other effects of which that territory lacks; and therefore, it is in the case of better monitoring, and with the...
Royal decree of November 20, 1803
By this order, it was established that the military jurisdiction over part of Mosquitia and the San Andrés Islands, from Cape Gracias a Dios inclusive to the Chagres River, passed from the General Captaincy of Guatemala to that of the Viceroyalty of New Granada.
The King has determined that the Yslas of San Andres, and the part of the Costa Mosquito from the Cape of Thanks to God even lay the Chagres River, be segregated from the general captainship of Goatemala, and dependent on the Viceroy of Santa Fe, and S.M. has served to grant the governor of the Yslas Don Tomas O. Neille the salary of two thousand pesos a year instead of the thousand and two hundred he currently enjoys. I advise you of the Royal Order that by the ministry of your office those who correspond to the fulfillment of this sovereign resolution are issued. God save Your Excellency many years, Sn Lorenzo November 20, 1803.
Royal decree of February 10, 1806
The king ordered that the aggregation of the government of Guayaquil to the Viceroyalty of Peru was absolute and not only in military affairs:
In view of what you consult. en carta de 25 de marzo del año próxima anterior, sobre la provincia de Guayaquil, a consecuencia de la sumación al virreinato de Lima, debe depender de la parte mercantil de ese consulado o del dicho Lima; se ha sido Su Majesty, declarar que la sumación es absolute; y por consecuencia, que la parte mercantil debe depender del dicho consulado de Lima y no de ese.
Royal decree of June 23, 1819
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On February 18, 1808, the Guayaquil council requested the King of Spain to separate its province from the Viceroyalty of Peru and adhere it to the Viceroyalty of New Granada. On October 28, 1815, the request was reiterated. Thus, on June 23, 1819, the King of Spain granted the request that Guayaquil be annexed to the Presidency of Quito in the Viceroyalty of New Granada, but the war of independence, which crystallized with the Battle of Boyacá on August 7, 1819, prevented the jurisdictional pass.
(...) as a result I have come to declare that the Viceroyate of Santa Fé has been restored and the President and Audience of Quito has been exercised in all the civil and criminal cases of the Government of Guayaquil, as well as in the affairs of my Royal Treasury, while the same government is subject in the military to that Virreynato. And in order for this my Real determination to have its most punctual fulfillment, I have resolved to prevent you, as for the present my Royal Council prevents you, immediately arrange the rest of the city of Guayaquil and its province to the being and state in which it was before agreeing in the year of 1810 your predecessor the Marquis of the Concordia his aggregation to that Virreynato.