Cartagena of Indies

CARTAGENA of INDIAS, COLOMBIA - JANUARY 31, 2010: People spend a weekend day at the beach. In the background old Cartagena architecture and modern buildings are visible. Cartagena de Indias was founded on 1 June 1533 by Spanish commander Pedro de Heredia, in the former location of the indigenous Caribbean Calamarí village. The town was named after Cartagena, Spain, where most of Heredia's sailors came from. During the seventeenth century, the Spanish Crown paid for the services of prominent European military engineers to carry out the construction of the fortresses which are today Cartagena's most significant identitifying features. Cartagena was a major trading port, especially for precious metals. Gold and silver from the mines in the New Granada and Peru were loaded in Cartagena on the galleons bound for Spain via Havana. Cartagena was also a slave port; Cartagena and Veracruz, (Mexico), were the only cities authorized to trade with black people. The first slaves arrived with Pedro de Heredia and worked as cane cutters to open roads, in the desecration of tombs of the aboriginal population of Sinú, and in the construction of buildings and fortresses. The agents of the Portuguese company Cacheu distributed human 'cargoes' from Cartagena for mine exploitation in Venezuela, the West Indies, the Nuevo Reino de Granada and the Viceroyalty of Perú. (Photo by Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)