Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada y Rivera, also spelled as Ximénez and De Quezada, (; 1509Friede (1959)
/ref> – 16 February 1579) was a Spanish explorer and

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

in northern South America, territories currently known as

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. He explored the territory named by him, New Kingdom of Granada, and founded its capital, Santafé de Bogotá. As a well-educated lawyer he was one of the intellectuals of the Spanish conquest. He was an effective organizer and leader, designed the first legislation for the government of the area, and was its historian. He was governor of Cartagena between 1556 and 1557, and after 1569 he undertook explorations toward the east, searching for the elusive '' El Dorado''. The campaign didn't succeed and Jiménez then returned to New Granada in 1573. He has been suggested as a possible model for Cervantes' ''

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

''.

Family

His father, Luis Jiménez de Quesada, was a '' hidalgo'' relative of Gonzalo Francisco de Cordoba, and he had two well-known distant cousins, the conquistadores of

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

respectively:

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions o ...

and

Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro, Marquess of the Atabillos (; ; – 26 June 1541) was a Spanish ''conquistador'', best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. Born in Trujillo, Cáceres, Trujillo, Spain, to a poor fam ...

. He had three younger brothers; Hernán and Francisco, who also were conquistadors, and Melchor, a priest, and a sister, Andrea.Biography Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada
– Banco de la República

Conquest of the Muisca Confederation

De Quesada was an Andalusian

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

, trained in Granada."Jiménez de Quesada, Gonzalo"
(2008). Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 20 October 2008. He was appointed chief magistrate in 1535 and second in command for an expedition to present-day Colombia, because in that period he was not in good standing with the people at home because he had just lost an important court case in which his mother's family was economically involved.John A. Crow, ''The Epic of Latin America'', 116–26 The commander of the expedition,

Pedro Fernández de Lugo Pedro Fernández de Lugo (1475 Seville –1536 Santa Marta) was the second adelantado of the Canary Islands and governor of Tenerife and La Palma, a title confirmed again by Charles I of Spain, in Barcelona, on August 17, 1519. Pedro Fernández de L ...

(governor of the Canary Islands), had bought the governorship of

Santa Marta Santa Marta (), officially the Distrito Turístico, Cultural e Histórico de Santa Marta (), is a port List of cities in Colombia, city on the coast of the Caribbean Sea in northern Colombia. It is the capital of Magdalena Department and the fou ...

and had equipped a fleet and assembled over a thousand men. And so they set sail to Santa Marta, thinking they would find a very rich land, full of gold and pearls. But when, after two month of navigation, they reached the small coastal settlement of Santa Marta, all they found was a conglomeration of hovels and filthy, disease-ridden colonists who went about dressed in skins or roughly woven and padded cotton clothes made by the natives from surrounding areas. Soon food became scarce and tropical fevers began to smite down the strongest. In 1536, De Quesada (who had no military experience) was chosen by De Lugo to command an expedition to explore into the interior of New Granada, hoping to discover the dreamed El Dorado. A land party under De Quesada, with Hernán Pérez de Quesada (his brother), Juan San Martín, Juan del Junco (as second in command) Lázaro Fonte and Sergio Bustillo, struck south from Santa Marta, crossed the

Cesar River The Cesar River () is a river in northern Colombia which is a part of the Magdalena Basin. It flows through the Cesar-Ranchería Basin and separates the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta from the mountain ranges of the Serranía del Perijá, an exten ...

, and arrived at Tamalameque on the

Magdalena River The Magdalena River (, ; less commonly ) is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of its lower reaches, ...

. A support fleet of 6 (or 5) ships had also sailed from Santa Marta with 900 men to navigate the Magdalena. Only two of the vessels actually arrived at Tamalameque, and subsequently returned to Santa Marta with many of De Quesada's men. Continuing up the Magdalena as far as La Tora (

Barrancabermeja Barrancabermeja () is a municipality and city in Colombia, located on the shore of the Magdalena River, in the western part of the department of Santander. It is home to the largest oil refinery in the country, under direct management of ECOP ...

), De Quesada and his men ascended the Opon River into the

cordillera A cordillera is a chain or network of mountain ranges, such as those in the west coast of the Americas. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope'). The term is most commonly used in physical geogra ...

, reaching the Opon hills, Chipata (near Vélez) (March 1537) and the valley of the Suárez River. Passing Lake Fúquene and Lake Suesca, they reached Nemocón and Zipaquirá and finally entered the

Muisca Confederation The Muisca Confederation was a loose confederation of different Muisca rulers (''zaques'', ''zipas'', ''iraca'', and ''tundama'') in the central Andes, Andean highlands of what is today Colombia before the Spanish conquest of the Americas, Spanis ...

(ruled from Muyquytá, present day

Funza Funza () is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Western Savanna Province, of the Departments of Colombia, department of Cundinamarca Department, Cundinamarca. Funza is situated on the Bogotá savanna, the southwestern part of the Altiplano C ...

and Hunza, on which the Spanish city Tunja was founded). Only 180 men out of 800 survived, suffering terribly in the jungle: they were forced to eat snakes, lizards, frogs, and even the leather torn from their harnesses and the scabbards of their swords. In Bogotá, Quesada resigned and called for an election; he was elected captain-general, and threw off the last link that held him to the governor. The Muisca had two rulers. The ''psihipqua''

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

, ruled in Muyquytá; the other, the ''hoa'' Eucaneme, ruled in Hunza. Taking advantage of a war between the two chiefdoms, Quesada's force subdued Muyquytá and then successfully attacked Hunza. At this point it was time to establish a settlement so that the earth itself might properly belong to De Quesada and his men. They chose a spot next to the towering peaks of the east, where the land was high and the rains would quickly run off, where the mountains would protect them from attackers and the jungles below. Quesada placed his right foot on the bare earth and said simply, "I take possession of this land in the name of the most sovereign emperor, Charles V." Quesada remained in the region until the arrival of two expeditions at the end of 1538:

Sebastián de Belalcázar Sebastián Moyano y Cabrera, best known as Sebastián de Belalcázar (; c. 1490 – April 28, 1551) was a Spanish conquistador. Belalcázar, also written as Benalcázar. He is known as the founder of important early virreinal cities in the northw ...

from Quito, modern-day capital of Ecuador, one of the captains of Pizarro who had mutinied against his leader; and

Nikolaus Federmann Nikolaus Federmann (, ) (c. 1505, Ulm – February 1542, Valladolid) was a German adventurer and conquistador in what is modern-day Venezuela and Colombia. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Venedig (1528–1546), the concessio ...

, a German from

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. The three captains met on the savanna of New Granada. All three wanted to claim New Granada for themselves. In order to resolve their dispute, De Quesada persuaded them to go back to Spain with him and to submit their rival territorial claims to the arbitration of the crown. In July 1539, they sailed for

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

from Cartagena. However, none of them obtained the governorship. De Quesada, after nearly a dozen years of wandering disconsolately through the gaming halls of Europe, returned to New Granada in 1550. Here, he settled down to live for nearly thirty years. He was a respected settler, becoming the most influential man in the Kingdom. He protected his fellow colonists from the severity of the officials and restrained the ''

encomenderos The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish labour system that rewarded conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. In theory, the conquerors provided the labourers with benefits, including military protection and education. In pr ...

'' (large landholders) greed. But his own desire for wealth and gold continued to live inside him.

Later expeditions

In 1569, at the age of 63, De Quesada received a commission to conquer the

Llanos The Llanos ( Spanish ''Los Llanos'', "The Plains"; ) is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical grasslands, ...

to the east of the Colombian cordillera. From Bogotá in April 1569 with 500 mounted soldiers, 1500 natives, 1100 horses and pack animals, 600 head of cattle, 800 pigs, a large number of negro slaves and 8 priests, he first descended to Mesetas on the upper Guejar River. There most of the livestock was destroyed by a grass fire. De Quesada's expedition then moved to nearby San Juan de los Llanos, where a course was set for east-southeast (by the guide Pedro Soleto), and maintained for the following two years. After a year or so some men returned with Juan Maldonado, reaching San Juan after six months with few survivors. De Quesada eventually reached (San Fernando de) Atabapo at the confluence of the Guaviare and the

Orinoco The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers approximately 1 million km2, with 65% of it in Venezuela and 35% in Colombia. It is the List of rivers by discharge, f ...

(in December 1571), any further movement requiring the construction of ships. He therefore dejectedly returned to Bogotá, arriving in December 1572 with only 25 Spaniards, 4 natives, 18 horses and 2 priests. The expedition had been one of the most expensive disasters on record. After a brief period of service in a frontier command (during which he suppressed an indigenous uprising) De Quesada, affected by

leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a Chronic condition, long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the Peripheral nervous system, nerves, respir ...

, overcome with despair at his debts, owing more than 60 thousand ducats, was forced to seek a milder climate and died quietly, aged 70, in Mariquita, an important

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

town in the New Kingdom of Granada.

Death and legacy

After his death in Mariquita, he was buried in the Santa Lucía Abbey. His remains were there until 1597, when they were exhumed and transferred to

, the city founded by him.

Placed named for de Quesada

Avenida Jiménez Avenida Jiménez is a thoroughfare that runs through the locality of La Candelaria in Bogotá, Colombia. Laid out on the San Francisco River, the Environmental Axis of the city is currently established there. It extends over from Teleférico ...

, street in central Bogotá ** Avenida Jiménez (TransMilenio), TransMilenio station serving this avenue * Conjunto Multifamiliar Torres Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, a five-tower residential complex in Bogotá

Gallery

References

Bibliography

Works by Jiménez de Quesada

External links

*
Personajes de la Conquista a América
– Banco de la República *
List of conquistadors of the expedition led by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada
– Banco de la República *
Conquista rápida y saqueo cuantioso de Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jimenez de Quesada, Gonzalo 1579 deaths 16th-century Spanish explorers Andalusian conquistadors Spanish conquistadors Spanish city founders Explorers of Amazonia Scholars of the Muisca civilization Mayors of Bogotá University of Salamanca alumni Spanish Roman Catholics 16th-century Roman Catholics Burials at the Primatial Cathedral of Bogotá Quesada family 1509 births