Economic and social vicissitudes of the city of santa marta to resist in the 16th and 17th centuries

Abstract

The city of Santa Marta, in the Colombian Caribbean, near the mouth from the Manzanares River, it was one of the first cities founded by the Spanish in America. In the words of the author, "the Spanish monarchy founded a large number of cities, towns and settlements in America whose primary purpose was to serve the imperial policy of territorial expansion." In the early days, neglected by the Spanish Crown -although Your Majesty has no income here - the city survived by the tenacity and efforts of the neighbors, who refused to abandon it despite the setbacks and the scarcity of mineral wealth. The shortage of soldiers made the city vulnerable, which did not even have enough to pay for the stay of 50 soldiers, and it never became a real force to contain the entry and landing of irregular armies dedicated to looting and looting. In the fifteenth centuries n a small town, with few neighbors, the houses did not reach thirty, spread over six or eight blocks.