Spanish Colombians are Colombians of full or partial

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

descent. Due to

Colombia's history The history of Colombia includes its settlement by indigenous peoples and the establishment of agrarian societies, notably the Muisca Confederation, Quimbaya Civilization, and Tairona Chiefdoms. The Spanish arrived in 1499 and initiated a pe ...

as a

Spanish colony The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It ...

, many Colombians are of full or partial Spanish descent.

Colombian culture Many aspects of Colombian culture can be traced back to the early culture of Spain of the 16th century and its collision with Colombia's native civilizations (see: Muisca people, Muisca, Tayrona). The Spanish brought Catholicism, the feudal en ...

is heavily influenced by Spain's. Because of this, combined with the Colombian government using "

White Colombian White Colombians () are Colombians of total or predominantly European or West Asian ancestry. According to the 2018 census, 87.58% of Colombians do not identify with any ethnic group, being either White or Mestizo (of mixed European, African, ...

" instead of "Spanish Colombian", the term is rarely used.

History

Spanish explorers arrived in Colombia in 1499 to colonize the land. They built settlements in territories of the Musica Confederation, ignoring the views of the people who lived there. These establishments continued for three centuries with occupation, genocide, and war. While introducing a large African slave population, they displaced the

Indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

. In 1499, the first Spanish explorer,

Alonso de Ojeda Alonso de Ojeda (; c. 1466 – c. 1515) was a Spanish explorer, governor and conquistador. He is famous for having named Venezuela, which he explored during his first two expeditions, for having been the first European to visit Guyana, Curaçao ...

, arrived on the coast of northern Colombia (

Cabo de la Vela Cabo de la Vela (Spanish for "cape of sail") is a headland in the Guajira Peninsula in Colombia with an adjacent small fishing village. It is a popular ecotourism destination of the Caribbean region of Colombia. History Spanish explorer Juan ...

). n 1501

Rodrigo de Bastidas Rodrigo de Bastidas (; Triana, Seville, Andalusia, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, 28 July 1527) was a Spanish conquistador and explorer who mapped the northern coast of South America, discovered Panama, and founded the city of Santa Marta. Personal li ...

crossed the coast between Cartagena and

La Guajira La Guajira () is a departments of Colombia, department of Colombia. It occupies most of the Guajira Peninsula in the northeast region of the country, on the Caribbean Sea and bordering Venezuela, at the northernmost tip of South America. The ca ...

, discovering 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, ...

. In 1510 Alonso de Ojeda founded

San Sebastián de Urabá San Sebastián de Urabá was the first settlement established by Spaniards in the area of the Darién Gap in Colombia. Settlement This fortified settlement was founded on 20 January 1510 by Alonso de Ojeda on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Ura ...

, the first Spanish settlement there, but that same year its provisional ruler, Francisco Pizarro, left. The settlement was moved to a site in the

Gulf of Urabá The Gulf of Urabá is a gulf on the northern coast of Colombia. It is part of the Caribbean Sea. It is a long, wide inlet located on the coast of Colombia, close to the connection of the continent to the Isthmus of Panama. The town of Turbo, Co ...

and launched under the direction of

Martín Fernández de Enciso Martín Fernández de Enciso ( 1470 – 1528) was a Spanish lawyer, colonial official and geographer. He was instrumental in the colonization of the Isthmus of Darien, one of Spain's earliest attempts to occupy the mainland of the Americas. His ...

Santa María la Antigua del Darién Santa María la Antigua del Darién—turned into Dariena in the Latin of De Orbo Novo—was a Spanish colonial town founded in 1510 by Vasco Núñez de Balboa, located in present-day Colombia approximately south of Acandí, within the muni ...

. This city, the capital of the first Spanish government in the Castilla del Oro, was in abandoned in 1517. With

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 ...

(1525) and Cartagena (1533), the Spanish established control of the Colombian coast. ''

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 ...

Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada Gonzalo may refer to: * Gonzalo (name) * Gonzalo, Dominican Republic, a small town * Isla Gonzalo, a subantarctic island operated by the Chilean Navy * Hurricane Gonzalo, 2014 See also * Gonzalez (disambiguation) * Gonzales (disambiguation) * ...

entered the central region of Cundinamarca and Boyacá, conquering the powerful

Chibcha The Muisca (also called the Chibcha) are indigenous peoples in Colombia and were a Pre-Columbian cultures of Colombia, Pre-Columbian culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish colonizati ...

culture, founding the city of Santa Fe de Bogota, Tunja ordered Gonzalo Suarez Rendon to name it the

New Kingdom of Granada New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

region. To establish a civil government in New Granada, he created a Real Audiencia in Santa Fe de Bogota in 1548-1549. The Royal Court combined executive and judicial authority until a presidency/governorship in 1564 assumed executive powers. Until 1550 the territory of Colombia was formed by the governors of

and Cartagena, which were subject to the

Audiencia of Santo Domingo The Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo () was the first court of the Spanish crown in America. It was created by Ferdinand V of Castile in his decree of 1511, but due to disagreements between the governor of Hispaniola, Diego Colon and the Crown ...

, and Popayan who was subject to the

viceroyalty of Peru The Viceroyalty of Peru (), officially known as the Kingdom of Peru (), was a Monarchy of Spain, Spanish imperial provincial administrative district, created in 1542, that originally contained modern-day Peru and most of the Spanish Empire in ...

. The jurisdiction of the Real Audiencia de Santa Fe de Bogotá included these governorates since 1550 and extended in time over the surrounding provinces that were forming around the country corresponding to the New Granada. In 1717,

Santa Fe de Bogotá Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or Santa) is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Christma ...

became capital of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, although that was suspended in 1724 due to financial problems. It was reinstated in 1740 and continued until the loss of Spanish power over the territories in the 1810s, which led

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 ...

become one of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

's first independent nation and the third-oldest independent republic after

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The ''paisas'' are an isolated population, and therefore evolved differently. They are mostly of Spanish descent, because Spanish men who settled in the region during the 16th and 17th centuries were accompanied by their wives. The mountains isolated the population until the late 19th century, when Antioquia entered the industrial revolution.Bedoya G, Montoya P, Garcia J, Soto I, Bourgeois S, Carvajal L, Labuda D, Alvarez V, Ospina J, Hedrick PW, Ruiz-Linares A. Admixture dynamics in Hispanics: A shift in the nuclear genetic ancestry of a South American population isolate. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Apr 2, "Ancestro europeo de los antioqueños".

References

{{Colombian people * *