Cartagena de Indias

Introduction

Cartagena de Indias, one of the most important port towns in the Spanish Caribbean, became a crucial pivot for European trade in the Americas, a neuralgic point in the Iberian strategy for the defense of the New World against foreign encroachment and an early enclave of pro-independence sentiment and anti-Spanish warfare. Located in present-day Colombia, Cartagena remained an important urban center in the Spanish Main from the 1530s to the 1810s, though its fortunes saw considerable changes over the generations. Founded by Spaniards in 1533 on the location of a Native American settlement, the early town was a modest enclave. However, it served Spaniards as entry point to the plains of northern South America, where incursions on horseback followed by strategic retreats to the coast yielded gold and agricultural produce taken from indigenous populations. Cartagena transitioned into a more stable place, the perfect base for conquest expeditions. From Cartagena, Spaniards planned and carried out reconnaissance missions into the Andean interior, paving the way for permanent European settlement. Blessed with a protected bay that proved useful early on, by 1600 Cartagena was one of three ports of call for the famed Spanish treasure fleets. It became, furthermore, the epicenter of the slave trade to the Spanish Americas until 1640. Spaniards, Africans, Indians, and even French, Portuguese, Italian, and Dutch individuals inhabited this thriving, multiethnic, and conflictive society. Cartagena’s economy stagnated from the mid-1600s to the mid-1700s. The population shrank, foreigners left, and it was not until the 1770s that the city began to grow again. Fearful of British attack, the Spanish Bourbons dramatically increased the local defense budget. As a result, the city became a magnet for military personnel, construction workers, artisans, and merchants. A new local elite soon emerged. Anxious for free trade with the outside world and home rule, the patricians in town finally allied with local artisans, who had also grown in economic influence and self-assertion, to declare independence from Spain in 1811. They established an independent state that lasted until 1815. Spanish re-occupation and the subsequent wars of independence took a big material and human toll on Cartagena, whose thriving merchant elite and political leaders all but disappeared after 1816. This article serves as an introduction to the Spanish period of the city’s history, concentrating on the urban area. Beginning in the 1970s, professional historians from Spain, Colombia, and (more recently) the United States have shed light on the role of this city within the Spanish world of the early modern period, providing at the same time an increasingly complex portrait of the urban microcosmos of Cartagena de Indias.

General Overviews

Early historical narratives on Cartagena, seldom based on systematic archival research, elaborated on the heroism and supposedly Hispanic character of the city, yielding romantic visions of the past in the idiom of literary and political paradigms of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the second half of the 20th century, professional research surpassed this perspective. Although Lemaitre 1983 remained somewhat influenced by early historians, this work offers a general narrative still relevant to modern-day historians. It was Spanish historians of the so- called Escuela de Sevilla who first systematically carried out archival-based research on Cartagena. Borrego Pla 1983 is an example of this trend and an overview based on findings from the 1970s and 1980s. Within this trend, Cartagena tends to be analyzed from the perspective of Spain’s imperial constraints and possibilities. Building on this Spanish historiography as well as on the New Colombian History approach, Colombian historians tackled the history of Cartagena with a more sophisticated and nuanced perception beginning in the late 1980s. Calvo Stevenson 2005, Meisel Roca and Calvo Stevenson 2007, Calvo Stevenson and Meisel Roca 2009, and Calvo Stevenson and Meisel Roca 2011 are the most useful overviews of Cartagena’s history, synthesizing the findings of the “new history” approach. Perhaps the most up-to-date introductions to the history of Cartagena de Indias, these volumes provide information on bibliography, cartography, art, literature, and archival and archeological sources. Within this trend, Cartagena takes on a protagonist role of its own, with analytical implications for regional and national history of Colombia. Camacho Sánches, et al. 2007 is the most complete bibliographical guide to Cartagena.

Aguilera Díaz, María, and Adolfo Meisel Roca. Tres siglos de historia demográfica de Cartagena de Indias. Cartagena de Indias, Colombia: Banco de la República, 2009.
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The first chapter of this book analyzes the demographic situation of Cartagena around 1777. The authors provide important information on the demography of Cartagena going back to the early Spanish period.
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Borrego Pla, Maria del Carmen, ed. Cartagena de Indias en el siglo XVI. Seville, Spain: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, 1983.
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Comprehensive study on early Spanish Cartagena, portraying the formation of the urban space, its influence on the surrounding region and the rise and decline of the encomienda (forced Indian labor) regime.
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Calvo Stevenson, Haroldo, ed. Cartagena de Indias en el siglo XVIII. Bogotá, Colombia: Banco de la República, 2005.
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Collection of articles on economics, politics, society, and culture in 1700s Cartagena. The articles are followed by commentaries and the volume ends with a roundtable discussion on the 1741 British siege of Cartagena.
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Calvo Stevenson, Haroldo, and Adolfo Meisel Roca, eds. Cartagena de Indias en el siglo XVI. Cartagena, Colombia: Banco de la República, 2009.
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Collection of articles on native peoples, Spanish conquest, and the settlement and urban development of the city and the piratical attacks it endured in the 16th century. The articles are followed by commentaries.
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Calvo Stevenson, Haroldo, and Adolfo Meisel Roca, eds. Cartagena de Indias en la Independencia. Cartagena, Colombia: Banco de la República, 2011.
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Collection of articles on the economy, politics, warfare, journalism, and literature of Cartagena over the early Independence period. The essays in this book are a useful introduction to the history of the independent State of Cartagena (1811–1815).
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Camacho Sánches, Miguel, Zabaleta Lombana, Alberto, and Covo Torres, Pedro C. Bibliografia general de Cartagena de Indias: Desde el siglo XV hasta 2007. 3 vols. Mompox, Colombia: Ediciones Pluma de Mompox, 2007.
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An extensive reference work on the existing bibliography on Cartagena, this useful guide includes biographical information on authors and commentary on their works. It covers history, politics, economy, the arts, and includes references on primary sources.
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Lemaitre, Eduardo. Historia General de Cartagena. 4 vols. Bogotá, Colombia: Banco de la República, 1983.
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An extensive history of Cartagena to 1944, the first three volumes provide a general account of the Spanish period. Although the work lacks extensive bibliographical references, it does provide a useful overview of Cartagena under Spanish rule.
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Meisel Roca, Adolfo, and Haroldo Calvo Stevenson, eds. Cartagena de Indias en el siglo XVII. Cartagena, Colombia: Banco de la República, 2007.
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Collection of articles on architecture, economy, and society in 17th-century Cartagena. The articles are followed by commentaries.
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Conquest and Early Spanish Period

Spanish historians paid close attention to the conquest and early european settlement of Cartagena and its surrounding area. Gómez Pérez 1984 and Borrego Pla 1991 approach the era through the contrasting topics of a Spanish conquistador and the issue of land tenure. Vila Vilar 1979 and Vidal Ortega 2002 explore the early Spanish period in connection with regional dynamics of the Caribbean area and the transatlantic connections forged by traders and bureaucrats. These works shed light on the role of Cartagena in the consolidation of the early modern Atlantic world and are useful for historians of the slave trade, labor regimes, and the formation of colonial institutions. Von Germeten 2013, in turn, probes the social history of the city from the vantage point of recent US-based scholarship on racial and gender dynamics in Latin America.

Borrego Pla, Maria del Carmen. “Los repartos de tierras en Cartagena de Indias bajo los Austrias.” Jornadas de Andalucía y América (1991): 91–119.
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Study on the history of land tenure and the formation of latifundia in Cartagena and its hinterland over the course of the early to middle Spanish period. This article provides information on the available sources on this topic and the challenges they pose.
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Gómez Pérez, María del Carmen. Pedro de Heredia y Cartagena de Indias. Seville, Spain: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, 1984.
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More than a biography of Cartagena’s Spanish founder Pedro de Heredia, this book is a study on the complexities of the Spanish conquest, the conquistadors as a social group, native responses to European invasion, and the early dynamics of the emerging urban area.
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Serrano Álvares, José Manuel. Ejército y fiscalidad en Cartagena de Indias: auge y declive en la segunda mitad del siglo XVII. Bogotá, Colombia: El Áncora, 2006.
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Based on quantitative primary sources, this book explores the fiscal administration strategies of the Spanish Crown in its effort to finance the military personnel and military architecture expenditures of Cartagena in the late Habsburg era.
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Vidal Ortega, Antonio. Cartagena de Indias y la región histórica del Caribe, 1580–1640. Seville, Spain: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, 2002.
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Comprehensive study of the commercial links between Cartagena, its surrounding mainland region, the Antilles, Mexico, Africa, and Europe during the heyday of the slave trade.
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Vila Vilar, Enriqueta. “Extranjeros en Cartagena (1593–1630).” Jahrbuch für Geschichte 16 (1979): 146–177.
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This article describes foreign presence in Cartagena (non-Spanish Europeans) at the turn of the 17th century, analyzing how those who were in theory forbidden to live in the Spanish Indies did actually become part and parcel of Cartagena’s thriving years as an enclave of transatlantic trade.
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von Germeten, Nicole. Violent Delights, Violent Ends: Sex, Race & Honor in Colonial Cartagena de Indias. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2013.
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Based mainly on criminal and inquisition records, this book studies sex and gender in Spanish Cartagena in connection with Iberian institutions, Spanish traditions of honor and purity of blood, and local practices of sorcery and witchcraft.
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Urban History and Architecture

Cartagena’s architecture from the Spanish period is impressive. Work by scholars focusing on the architectural and urban aspects of the city help understand Cartagena as part of larger defensive and commercial Spanish dynamics. Architects, archeologists, and urban social historians have closely studied the legacies of the role of Cartagena in the early modern Atlantic world. Following in the steps of Marco Dorta 1951, Zapatero 1979, and Redondo Gómez 2004 analyze military construction projects and the urban evolution of the city. More recently the connections between military architecture and the archeological record have been explored in del Cairo Hurtado 2009, while Segovia 2009 is perhaps the most useful introduction to these aspects of the city’s history available in English. Although these works can be useful for historians and contain valuable empirical information, their perspective tends to be more “antiquarian” than analytical.

del Cairo Hurtado, Carlos. Arqueología de la guerra en la batería de San Felipe: Isla de Tierra Bomba, Cartagena de Indias, siglo XVIII. Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad de los Andes, 2009.
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Perhaps the only historical archeology book on Cartagena, this work concentrates on the San Felipe battery (Tierra Bomba island), studying the consequences of the battle of 1741 between attacking British forces and Spanish defenders.
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Marco Dorta, Enrique. Cartagena de Indias: La ciudad y sus monumentos. Seville, Spain: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, 1951.
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A guide on the main buildings and fortresses from the Spanish period, this work includes images and transcriptions of primary sources on the urban and architectural development of the city.
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Redondo Gómez, Maruja. Cartagena de Indias: Cinco siglos de evolución urbanística. Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano, 2004.
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Based on secondary sources, this book offers an overarching narrative on the origins, evolution, and consolidation of the walled city and its neighborhoods throughout the Spanish period. This book also covers the Colombian period (19th and 20th centuries).
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Segovia, Rodolfo. The Fortifications of Cartagena de Indias: Strategy and History. Bogotá, Colombia: El Áncora, 2009.
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Highlights the strategic importance of Cartagena in the context of Spanish America and offers an introduction to the construction techniques and historical development of the fortifications of the city and sorrounding shores. This book includes useful graphic material.
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Téllez Castañeda, Germán. La historia de frente: Arquitectura de Cartagena. Bogotá, Colombia: Letrarte Editores, 2012.
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A introduction to the architecture of Cartagena, this book combines maps and modern photographs of building facades to guide readers through the history of a group of buildings in the walled city and the Getsemaní suburb. Each featured building is identified according to current nomenclature and accompanied by a short historical and architectural description.
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Zapatero, Juan Manuel. Historia de las fortificaciones de Cartagena de Indias. Madrid, Spain: Ediciones Cultura Hispanica, 1979.
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Comprehensive study on the history and architecture of the Cartagena fortifications and their stages of development from the mid-1500s to the end of the 18th century.
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The Slave Trade and Afro-American Society

Cartagena was the most important port for the arrival of slave ships from Africa in Spanish America to 1641. Studies on the slave trade in Cartagena are scarce. No book-length monograph covers the entire period. However, historians have studied some aspects of the slave trade in Cartagena and the origins and development of the local Afro-American society. Palacios Preciado 1973 is the classic study on the slave trade in Cartagena, while Gutiérrez Azopardo 1987 analyzes the local slave market from Spanish settlement to the end of slavery. These works, conceived with a Colombian history and slavery studies perspective, concentrate on quantitative information and comercial dynamics. Newson and Minchin 2004 and Wheat 2011 concentrate on the African origins of the people who arrived in Cartagena during the hight of the trade. Vila Vilar 1987, Wheat 2010, and Wheat 2011 complement this perspective by looking at the social origins and transformations of a complex local and regional black population of mixed ethnic and linguistic background. These works shoud be useful for historians working with an Atlantic perspective.

Gutiérrez Azopardo, Ildefonso. “El comercio y mercado de negros esclavos en Cartagena de Indias (1533–1850).” Quinto Centenario 12 (1987): 187–210.
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Provides an overview of the local dynamics of the slave trade in Cartagena, sketching the different periods of the trade as well as its demographic, social, and institutional dynamics.
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Landers, Jane. “Founding Mothers: Female Rebels in Colonial New Granada and Spanish Florida.” Journal of African American History 98.1 (Winter 2013): 7–23.
DOI: 10.5323/jafriamerhist.98.1.0007Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The first part of this essay probes the existence of the Maroon settlement of Matudere in the jurisdiction of Cartagena, one of whose members, a woman by the name Juana, claimed to be a founder and vicereine of this community.
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Newson, Linda A., and Susie Minchin. “Slave Mortality and African Origins: A View from Cartagena, Colombia, in the Early Seventeenth Century.” Slavery and Abolition 25.3 (December 2004): 18–43.
DOI: 10.1080/0144039042000302224Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In dialogue with researches working on slave health issues and mortality, this article compares the health status of enslaved Africans arriving in Cartagena from Upper Guinea and Angola.
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Palacios Preciado, Jorge. La trata de negros por Cartagena de Indias. Tunja, Colombia: Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, 1973.
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The classic study on the slave trade through Cartagena, this book continues to be a useful introduction to the topic, giving account of the periods, magnitudes, and organization of the trade.
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Vila Vilar, Enriqueta. “Cimarronaje en Panamá y Cartagena: El costo de una guerrilla en el siglo XVII.” Cahiers du monde hispanique et luso-brésilien 49 (1987): 77–92.
DOI: 10.3406/carav.1987.2341Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Comparative article on the challenges posed to Spanish society by, and the institutional responses to, the growth of runway communities in the jurisdictions of the cities of Panamá and Cartagena.
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Wheat, David. “Mediterranean Slavery, New World Transformations: Galley Slaves in the Spanish Caribbean, 1578–1635.” Slavery and Abolition 31.3 (September 2010): 327–344.
DOI: 10.1080/0144039X.2010.504541Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Studies the presence of oarsmen from the Islamic Mediterranean on board Spanish galleys in the Caribbean, some of whom joined Maroon communities in the vicinity of Cartagena.
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Wheat, David. “The First Great Waves: African Provenance Zones for the Transatlantic Slave Trade to Cartagena de Indias, 1570–1640.” Journal of African History 52.1 (March 2011): 1–22.
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853711000119Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Based on records from over four hundred slave ships arriving in Cartagena between 1570 and 1640, this article re-assesses the geographic regions of origin of African slaves who disembarked in Cartagena.
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The Church and the Inquisition

Cartagena was the seat of a Bishopric and home to the third Tribunal of the Inquisition established by Spain in the Americas (1610). The influence of the tribunal of the Inquisition of Cartagena reached well beyond the Spanish Main, as its jurisdiction included the Caribbean Islands. Unfortunately, the Inquisition papers have disappeared. Historians, however, rely on copies and summaries of Inquisition trials kept at the National Archives in Madrid. Although the history of the Cartagena Inquisition and its victims remains largely unknown, Splendiani, et al. 1997 offers an introduction to this institution while Álvarez Alonso 1997 and Álvarez Alonso 1999 study the internal workings of the tribunal and the heresies prosecuted in Cartagena in the 1600s. While the previous works provide substantial information on insitutional and ecclesiastical dynamics, more recent 21st-century work has concentrated on the social and cultural aspects by looking at the relationships among the Church, the Inquisiton, and common people. Ceballos Gómez 2002, Newson 2006, and Block 2012 provide close study of those prosecuted and condemned, as well as the connections between heresy, witchcraft, and sorcery with the larger worlds of Cartagena, the Caribbean area and the Spanish Main. Maya Restrepo 2005 offers a study of the intersections of religion and slavery in Cartagena. Historians of religious practices and of the social and cultural history of the Atlantic should find these works useful.

Álvarez Alonso, Fermina. “Herejes ante la Inquisición en Cartagena de Indias.” Revista de la Inquisición 6 (1997): 239–269.
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Overview of the heresies prosecuted by the Inquisition in Cartagena, the context of the accusations and the outcomes of the trials.
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Álvarez Alonso, Fermina. La Inquisición en Cartagena de Indias durante el siglo XVII. Madrid, Spain: Fundación Universitaria Española, 1999.
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Detailed study on the internal institutional workings of the Cartagena Tribunal of the Inquisition as well as the different types of heresies, sins, and faults prosecuted by the inquisitors.
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Block, Kristen. Ordinary Lives in the Early Caribbean: Religion, Colonial Competition, and the Politics of Profit. Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 2012.
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Covering six case studies across different cultural settings int the Caribbean, this book analyzes the life stories of individuals engaging with Christians and Christian practices as they strived to survive in a world of slavery and nascent practices of economic and social exclusion.
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Ceballos Gómez, Diana Luz. Quyen tal haze que tal pague: sociedad y prácticas mágicas en el Nuevo Reino de Granada. Bogotá, Colombia: Ministerio de Cultura, 2002.
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This study on magical practices in the New Kingdom of Granada makes extensive use of the extant records of the Tribunal of the Inquisition of Cartagena, drawing connections between the cultural and political dynamics of Spanish society and the persecution of specific cultural practices.
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Maya Restrepo, Luz Adriana. Brujeria y reconstrucción de identidades entre los africanos y sus descendientes en la Nueva Granada. Siglo XVII. Bogotá, Colombia: Ministerio de Cultura, 2005.
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Concevied from an “Africanist” perpsective, this book explores the continuities and tranformations of West African cultural patterns in the context of slavery in Cartagena and other provinces of the New Kingdom of Granada.
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Newson, Linda A. “Medical Practice in Early Colonial Spanish America: A Prospectus.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 25.3 (July 2006): 367–391.
DOI: 10.1111/j.0261-3050.2006.00203.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Sheds light on the roles played by the Church and the Inquisition in the control of medical practices. It draws on evidence from Cartagena demonstrating the hybrid character of medical traditions.
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Splendiani, Anna María, Sánchez Bohórquez, José Enrique, and Luque de Salazar, Emma Cecilia. Cincuenta años de Inquisición en el tribunal de Cartagena de Indias. 1610–1660. Vol. 1. Bogotá, Colombia: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Instituto Colombiano de Cultura Hispánica, 1997.
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History of the tribunal of the Inquisition in Cartagena with a special emphasis on its first five decades of existence.
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Viceroyalty and International Trade in the Bourbon Era

At the turn of the 18th century, Cartagena’s economy remained stagnated and susceptible to foreign attack, while suffering the consequences of the slow decline of the Spanish monopoly on trade. De la Matta Rodríguez 1979 portrays the last days of Cartagena under the Hapsburg dynasty, while Nowell 1962, Gómez Pérez 1984, and Marchena Fernández 1982 investigate the changing dynamics of Cartagena under Bourbon rule in the context of renewed international commerce and imperial warfare. Anrup and Chaves 2005 studies the local popular sectors of 18th-century society in comparative perspective.

Anrup, Roland, and María Eugenia Chaves. “La ‘plebe’ en una sociedad de «todos los colores». La construcción de un imaginario social y político en la colonia tardía en Cartagena y Guayaquil.” Caravelle 84 (June 2005): 93–126.
DOI: 10.3406/carav.2005.2880Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Comparative study between Cartagena and Guayaquil (Ecuador) addressing the origins and main elements of racial identification and political discourse in spaces and moments of confrontation between commoners and local elites.
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de la Matta Rodríguez, Enrique. El asalto de Pointis a Cartagena de Indias. Seville, Spain: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, 1979.
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Study on the international, Spanish, and local context of the French successful 1697 attack on Cartagena, which both closed the era of the Habsburg dynasty and let the city vulnerable to the rising power of the British.
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Gómez Pérez, Carmen. “El Consulado de Sevilla y la formación de las oligarquías en Cartagena de Indias a principios del siglo XVIII.” In Andalucía y América en el siglo XVIII. By Carmen Gómez Pérez, 329–348. Seville, Spain: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1984.
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Study on the social and political origins of the elites of Cartagena in the 18th century, highlighting the configuration of a renewed urban society on the basis of military reform and commercial links with Spain in the aftermath of the French attack of 1697.
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Marchena Fernández, Juan. La institución militar en Cartagena de Indias en el siglo XVIII. Sevilla, Spain: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, 1982.
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This book is a monograph on the military institution in Cartagena over the course of the Bourbon period. It pays special attention the counterpoint between monarchical strategies and on the ground realities and the differences between different types of military units.
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Nowell, Charles E. “The Defense of Cartagena.” Hispanic American Historical Review 42.4 (November 1962): 477–501.
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Provides a narrative of the role played by Cartagena in the establishment of the third Spanish viceroyalty in the Americas (New Kingdom of Granada), and the dynamics of the defense of the city from the British siege led by Admiral Vernon in 1740.
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The State of Cartagena, 1811–1815

The political elites of Cartagena openly opposed the viceregal government of Santafé as early as 1808 and were among the first Spanish American groups to declare independence from Spain. The revolutionary period of the city’s history has only recently garnered attention from historians. Sourdis de De la Vega 1988 and Bell Lemus 1991 pioneered research on independent Cartagena, while Múnera 1998 became a seminal work, exploring the long-lasting conflict between Cartagena and Santafé leading to the declaration of Independence in 1811 under pressure from local artisans of predominant African ancestry. Building on these early works, Helg 2004 and Lasso 2007 explore issues of racial representation, equality, and politics over the revolutionary period; Ripoll 2006 expands the long-term interpretation of the social origins of Independence by looking at elite formation across the 1700s, and Pérez Morales 2012 highlights the Atlantic and Caribbean connections of late Spanish and early independent Cartagena through an exploration of privateering sponsored by the independent city. Finally, Cuño Bonito 2008 is an extensive study on the fall of independent Cartagena and the reestablishment of the Spanish government. Most of these works are concevied within a Colombian history framework but often draw connections with the Caribbean and the larger Atlantic.

Bell Lemus, Gustavo. Cartagena de Indias. De la Colonia a la República. Bogotá, Colombia: Fundación Simón y Lola Guberek, 1991.
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Pioneering exploration of the politics, society, and economics of late Spanish, revolutionary, and early republican Cartagena in connection with the Greater Caribbean and Atlantic worlds as well as with regional and national dynamics.
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Cuño Bonito, Justo. El retorno del Rey. El restablecimiento del régimen colonial en Cartagena de Indias (1815–1821). Castelló de la Plana, Spain: Universitat Jaume I, 2008.
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A detailed study on the fall of the State of Cartagena after a long siege by the Spanish, this book further probes the dynamics and consequences of the Spanish reoccupation of the port town in the context of the “reconquest” campaign ordered by the restored Bourbon dynasty.
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Helg, Aline. Liberty and Equality in Caribbean Colombia, 1770–1835. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
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Concentrates on the provinces of Cartagena and Santa Marta, and explores the roles played by different social and ethnic groups in urban and rural settings during the political and economic transformations that spanned from the late Bourbon era to the early Republic of Colombia.
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Lasso, Marixa. Myths of Harmony: Race and Republicanism During the Age of Revolution, Colombia 1795–1831. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007.
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Placing the origins of the so-called myth of racial democracy in the Age of Revolutions, this book explores issues of race, black politics, and state formation in Cartagena and Caribbean Colombia as foundational stages of national political narratives of equality.
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Múnera, Alfonso. El fracaso de la nación. Región, clase y raza en el Caribe colombiano (1717–1821). Bogotá, Colombia: Banco de la República, 1998.
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The classic study on the confrontation between Cartagena and the viceregal capital (Santafé), this work sheds light on the complexities of the revolution of Cartagena and proposes that local Afro-Caribbean artisans played a definitive role in the declaration of independence in 1811.
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Pérez Morales, Edgardo. El gran diablo hecho barco. Corsarios, esclavos y revolución en Cartagena y el Gran Caribe. 1791–1817. Bucaramanga, Colombia: Universidad Industrial de Santander, 2012.
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This work probes the city’s interactions with the French Antilles, Cuba, and North America during the revolutionary and independent period through detailed study of the privateering policy of the State of Cartagena and its Caribbean context.
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Ripoll, María Teresa. La elite en Cartagena y su tránsito a la república: Revolución política sin renovación social. Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad de los Andes, 2006.
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This book is a social history of the merchant elite of Cartagena before and during the revolution of Independence. It traces the interactions of the elite with the popular sector of the city, the formation of a new political culture, and the legacy of the few surviving members of the elite to the mid-1800s.
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Sourdis de De la Vega, Adelaida. Cartagena de Indias durante la primera República, 1810–1815. Bogotá, Colombia: Banco de la República, 1988.
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The first detailed study on the origins, development, and downfall of the State of Cartagena, this book is a useful introduction to the revolutionary period of the city in the context of the early independence movements.
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