Colombia
Extractivism and the Governance of Indigenous Peoples in Colombia: Between Injury and Resistance
Since the violent imposition of Spanish colonial rule in the 1500s, indigenous peoples in Colombia have been subjected to multiple injuries produced by the extraction of natural resources and external forms of governance. This exhibition, authored and curated by Dr Jennifer Bates, uses visual and textual material including maps, photographs and documents to trace extractivism and the governance of indigenous peoples from the colonial era, to Colombia’s independence after 1819, through to the present day. It examines the continuities in dispossession and subordination of indigenous communities produced by the extraction of gold during colonial rule, and coal extraction since the 1970s. In parallel, the material explores changing forms of governance as they relate to and constitute indigenous rights, and the emergence of indigenous resistance centred on the reclamation of land. While revealing the significant strides made through indigenous political struggles for land, the exhibition also highlights the fundamental, historically rooted tension between indigenous land rights and the logics of extraction that lead to dispossession and damage to their lands.
Colonial Cartography of the Americas
This map, ‘a new and most exact description of America, or the fourth part of the world,’ was produced in 1562 by Diego Gutiérrez, a cartographer for the Casa de la Contratación, which was the Spanish empire’s institution to oversee trade. The map depicts indigenous peoples as cannibals in Brazil and giants in Patagonia. These constructions of indigenous peoples as primitive and barbaric underpinned Spanish colonisers’ violent treatment and dispossession of indigenous populations. The map also contains an illustration of King Philip II of Spain gliding across the water, emphasising the sovereignty of the
Zoom in on the map to explore its features further, and visit here for further information on the map..
Colonial Cartography of Colombia
This map, ‘Castilla de Oro (Castille of Gold) and its provinces,’ was published by the Flemish cartographer Cornelius Wytfliet in 1594. Colombia was part of the Spanish colony of Castilla de Oro in the first half of the sixteenth century. The naming of land after gold highlights the importance of the extraction of minerals to Spanish colonisers. Nevertheless, early colonial Spanish maps were defined by “cartographic silence” on the location of minerals (Scott 2012), motivated by the Crown’s fear of rival European powers gaining information on these sites.
Extraction Through Enslavement
This illustration shows indigenous slaves forced to extract gold from water running down a mountain. The text below, written in sixteenth century French, describes the harsh conditions of this forced labour.
The illustration comes from the volume Histoire Naturelle des Indes (Natural History of the Indies), published around 1586, which contains images of plants, animals and people in colonised areas of the Caribbean, including Colombia’s Caribbean coast. As such, the volume provides an early anthropological account of indigenous communities living under colonial governance. Although the identity of its authors and illustrators is unknown, experts believe they may have been travelling with the English explorer Sir Francis Drake (Klinkenborg 1996).
See the Morgan Library website for further information on the volume.
Invoking the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
In the Spanish metropole, the foremost criticisms of the treatment of indigenous peoples came from clergymen who had travelled to the colonies to convert indigenous populations, including. Published in 1552, Las Casas’ book A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies denounces the violence perpetrated by Spanish colonisers and argues that it breaches the rights of indigenous peoples across multiple spheres of law. Las Casas personally relayed its contents to King Charles V of Spain in 1540, two years prior to the King’s passage of legislation to regulate the treatment of indigenous peoples.
Legislating the Treatment of Indigenous Peoples
In 1542, King Charles V of Spain issued the “New laws and orders made by his majesty for the governance of the Indies and good treatment and preservation of the Indians: which are to be observed in the royal council and audiences that reside therein and by all other governors, judges and private persons thereof, with imperial privilege.” The laws sought to regulate the conquistadors’ treatment of indigenous peoples by prohibiting their enslavement and enhancing the Crown’s oversight of the encomienda, a system of forced labour which granted conquistadors and colonial officials the right to extract tributes from indigenous people in the form of goods or labour. The laws were met with significant resistance from conquistadors - the viceroy tasked with their enforcement was killed in a revolt in Peru - and were unevenly implemented (van Deusen 2023).
Transnational Critiques of Colonial Injury
A History of the New World, first published in 1556, contains a major early critique of the Spanish treatment of indigenous peoples. Written by the Italian merchant Girolamo Benzoni to recount his travels around the Spanish colonies between 1541-56, the book became a bestseller among European readers fascinated to learn about the “New World,” and was translated into Latin, German, French and Dutch. While Benzoni’s account constructs indigenous people as primitive, often describing cannibalism, his staunchest criticisms concern the cruelty of Spanish colonisers. The book was not published in Spain until 1989.
Territorial Confinement and Delimitation
This law ‘to limit Indians to towns,’ passed by King Charles V in 1551, formed part of colonial policies to territorially govern indigenous populations. Under these policies, indigenous communities were confined to living in designated towns separate from non-indigenous populations. They were also granted collective rights to small portions of land adjacent to these towns, called resguardos (reserves), which they could farm in return for paying tribute to the Spanish Crown. The resguardos strengthened colonial control over farming and freed the land that remained for exploitation. In New Granada, the viceroyalty which includes present-day Colombia, resguardos were introduced from 1595.
The Reduction of Towns and Resguardos
From the early 1700s, the Spanish Crown legally mandated reducciones (reductions) in the number of indigenous towns by transferring the inhabitants of towns with small populations to nearby towns. The resguardos adjacent to the emptied towns then became property of the Crown to be sold to the highest bidder. The reduction of resguardos was met with resistance from indigenous populations. For further information, see Pico (2022).