Contact and adaptation around the Magdalena River: A dual analysis of amphibious combat in fluvial environments (1536-1538)

Authors

  • Daniel Miguel Nieva Sanz Universidad de Cádiz

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53351/ruhm.v12i25.962

Keywords:

contact, amphibious combat, brigantines, canoes, conquering troops

Abstract

The relationship between humans and the aquatic environment was historically subject to a strong conditioning that permeated everything. This article analyzes the logistical, tactical and human conditioning factors that the fluvial landscape imposed on the expedition of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada (1536-1538), as well as the particularities of contacts and conflicts with the ethnic groups that populated the banks of the Magdalena River (Colombia). Thus, although the study of the Spanish expedition could be accommodated within the framework of international research on conquering armies, it is necessary to incorporate the analysis of its fluvial conditioning, considering the difficulty of marching through a natural landscape of dense vegetation and powerful water streams, the resulting high morbidity and mortality and the learning and adaptation processes required of a troop which combined Indies veterans and newcomers from the Peninsula. In this sense, the present study revolves around the marked amphibious nature of the combats, which involved the use of additional men and boats as land-water support on both sides together with other river warfare tactics mastered by the indigenous populations after centuries of experience in the river basin. From a methodological point of view, in addition to a marked ethnohistorical perspective regarding the dual study of the phenomenon, this research is based on a detailed historiographic work on primary sources ―handwritten and edited―, which opens the way for their critique and classification and, therefore, for a sufficiently nuanced definition of the present object of study. The conclusions will be put in dialogue with sectoral research on the subject in order to contribute to the generation of knowledge on a process of conquest in which rivers ―main access routes to the continental interior― played a fundamental role in the effective penetration into the southern American subcontinent.

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Author Biography

  • Daniel Miguel Nieva Sanz, Universidad de Cádiz

    Investigador y docente predoctoral contratado (FPU-Ministerio), doctorando de Historia y Arqueología Marítimas (Campus de Excelencia Internacional del Mar-UCA en codirección con IH-CSIC), Máster en Arqueología Náutica y Subacuática por la Universidad de Cádiz (UCA), Máster en Antropología de América por la Universidad Complutense (UCM) y graduado en Historia por la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). Ha sido galardonado en dos ocasiones con la beca de Excelencia de la Comunidad de Madrid, además de haber sido seleccionado como becario de colaboración del Ministerio en el departamento de Historia Moderna de la UAM y becario en prácticas de investigación documental en el IULCE. En 2020 fue uno de los candidatos mejor valorados a nivel nacional para el programa JAE-Intro del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), donde se incorporó en el grupo de investigación “Conformación de las Fronteras y Dinámicas Imperiales en el Mediterráneo y el Atlántico, 1500-1920”. En 2021 ha sido seleccionado en concurrencia competitiva para un contrato FPU del Ministerio de Educación, vinculado a su proyecto doctoral en el grupo de investigación HUM 313 (UCA). En lo relativo a la formación complementaria es patrón de embarcaciones e instructor profesional de buceo; ha realizado numerosos cursos de especialización en arqueología marítima con entidades como Universidad Southampton, UNESCO, CAS-IAPH o CEPOAT; y ha participado en aproximadamente una veintena de intervenciones arqueológicas de investigación en contextos costero, kárstico, subacuático e intermareal con instituciones como Centro de Arqueología Subacuática de Cataluña (CASC), University of Washington (UW), ArqueOcean, Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS), CENIEH y FIPEH. Sus ámbitos e intereses de investigación son: etnohistoria y dinámicas de contacto en contextos marítimo-fluviales americanos; arqueología náutica; navegación indígena; historia naval ibérica y construcción naval criolla; cultura marítima y fluvial; etnografía y ontología indígena; alteridad y expediciones castellanas ss. XVI-XVII.

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Published

2024-01-24

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 25 (2023): Mujeres en guerras, perspectivas discursivas

Section

Estudios

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Copyright (c) 2024 Daniel Miguel Nieva Sanz

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How to Cite

Contact and adaptation around the Magdalena River: A dual analysis of amphibious combat in fluvial environments (1536-1538). (2024). Revista Universitaria De Historia Militar, 12(25), 129-150. https://doi.org/10.53351/ruhm.v12i25.962

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