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Spanish power in the conquered territory.[33] The indigenous population had fallen sharply not only due to wars of conquest, but also due to Eurasian diseases to which they had no immunity, such as smallpox. Faced with the risk of new lands being abandoned, the Spanish Crown distributed property rights to anyone interested in colonization: the creation of large farms and the ownership of mines.[34] In the 16th century, navigation and other maritime sciences reached their peak in Spain, in particular thanks to the work of the Casa de Contratación, which gave Spain a great advantage for expansion in South and Central America.

He converted the lands he passed through to Christianity, which he later named the Kingdom of New Granada. In August 1538, he founded a capital near the Muisca settlement of Bacata and named it Santa Fe. The city later became known as Santa Fe de Bogotá.[29] During this time, two other famous conquistadors also made significant journeys into the interior of South America. Sebastián de Belalcázar, famous for conquering the important Inca city of Quito, traveled north to the continent and founded the cities of Cali in 1536 and Popayán in 1537.[30] From 1536 to 1539, the German conquistador Nikolaus Federmann crossed the Orinoco River valley and traveled through the Cordillera Oriental in search of the "golden city" of El Dorado.[31] The legend of the Golden City played a key role in the desire of the Spanish and other Europeans to explore the territories of New Granada in the 16th and 17th centuries

The Spanish conquistador Alonso de Ojeda, who had previously sailed with Columbus, reached the Guajira Peninsula in 1499.[22][23] The Spanish began colonizing South America, including the territory of present-day Colombia, in the early 16th century. The first Spanish colonies were founded on the Caribbean coast, which Spanish explorers, led by Rodrigo de Bastidas, first explored in 1500.[24] In 1502, Christopher Columbus visited the Caribbean.[25] In 1508, Vasco Núñez de Balboa explored the Gulf of Urabá and in 1510 founded the first city on the continent, Santa María la Antigua del Darién.[26] Other cities were soon founded: Santa Marta in 1525 and Cartagena in 1533.[27][28] In 1536, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada led an expedition of 500 men into the interior of the continent.

At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. In the 1st century BC, groups of Indians, including the Muisca, Quimbaya, and Tayrona peoples, adopted the cacicazgos political system, which was a pyramidal power structure headed by a cacique. The Muisca people inhabited mainly the modern territory of the Boyacá department and the high plateau of Cundinamarca, where they formed the Muisca Confederation. They were engaged in the cultivation of corn, potatoes, quinoa, and cotton, and traded gold, emeralds, hand-made ceramics, and rock salt with neighboring peoples. The Muisca had a highly developed society for their time, being one of the most advanced civilizations in South America (after the Maya and Incas). They created jewelry from gold and gold-copper alloys, and gold plates served as a monetary equivalent. The Muisca worshipped the Sun God as the source of fertility and offered him animal sacrifices.

The indigenous population has lived in the territory of modern Colombia since about 12.5 thousand BC. Nomadic tribes of hunter-gatherers from the settlements of El Abra, Tibito and Tequendama, located near modern Bogota, traded with each other and other tribes that settled in the valley of the Magdalena River [18]. Between the 5th and 1st millennia BC, an agrarian society began to emerge, nomadic tribes began to create permanent settlements, and ceramics appeared. Since the beginning of our era, Indians (Caribs, Arawaks, Chibcha) lived on the territory of modern Colombia, with the Chibcha predominating among them. At the same time, the Chibcha tribe had two distinct cultural traditions - the Tayrona and the Muisca.

The Golden Raft of El Dorado. Muisca Culture
The first traces of human presence in the territory of present-day Colombia date back to the 17th-15th centuries BC. The territory of present-day Bogota was inhabited by Paleo-Indian tribes of hunter-gatherers, who lived mainly in the Magdalena River valley[16]. The settlement of Puerto Hormiga (Spanish: Puerto Hormiga) discovered by archaeologists dates back to the American Archaic period (8-2 thousand years BC). There is also evidence that the territories of El Arba and Tequendama, located in the Cundinamarca region, were also inhabited. An example of the most ancient ceramics in Colombia was found in the settlement of San Jacinto (Spanish: San Jacinto) and dates back to 5-4 thousand BC.

The country's name comes from the famous explorer and navigator Christopher Columbus, who discovered America for Europeans. It was used by the Venezuelan revolutionary and fighter for the independence of South America Francisco de Miranda in relation to the entire New World, but especially the lands under the rule of Spain and Portugal. The name was later proposed by Simón Bolívar in his "Letter from Jamaica" (Spanish: Carta de Jamaica). It was adopted during the formation of the Federal Republic of Colombia in 1819, which included the territories of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (the territories of modern-day Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador and northwestern Brazil)[14]. However, after the separation of Ecuador and Venezuela, the country became known as New Granada. Since 1858, the country has been called the Granada Confederation, and since 1863, the United States of Colombia. Since 1886, the current name has been established - the Republic of Colombia. It was disputed by the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela, as it encroached on the common heritage of these countries, but at the moment these disputes are suspended

The Spanish colonizers first set foot on Colombian soil in 1499. The first half of the 16th century saw a period of active conquests, which resulted in the creation of the Viceroyalty of New Granada with its capital in Bogotá. Independence from Spain was recognized in 1819, but in 1831 the federation of Gran Colombia fell apart. The Republic of New Granada (1832) was formed on the territory of modern Colombia and Panama, which was then transformed into the Granada Confederation (1858), and later into the United States of Colombia (1863). The final name of the Republic of Colombia was received in 1886, and Panama left the country in 1903.

The territory of present-day Colombia was once inhabited by indigenous peoples, the most developed of which were the Chibcha, Quimbaya, and Tayrona. The country is one of the richest in the world in terms of the number of peoples living there and the languages ​​they speak. The modern Colombian people emerged from the interbreeding of Europeans, Africans, and indigenous peoples; a significant number of people from the Middle East live in the Colombian Caribbean. The Amazon and Llanos Orinoco rainforests are located in Colombia. Colombia is the second country in the world with the greatest biological diversity.[10] There are 54,871 species registered here.[11] However, it is among the eight countries with the greatest damage to the environment

Colombia (Spanish: Colombia [koˈlombja], listen to the file[7]), officially the Republic of Colombia (Spanish: República de Colombia [reˈpuβlika ðe koˈlombja]), is a country in northwestern South America, with territories in Central America. The capital is Bogotá. It borders Brazil and Venezuela to the east, Ecuador and Peru to the south, and Panama to the west.[8] By sea, it borders Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.[9] It is washed by the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The country is the second largest in South America after Brazil in terms of population, 28th in the world, and second in terms of the number of Spanish-speaking people.