Cartagena Province (), also called Gobierno de Cartagena (Government of Cartagena) during the Spanish imperial era, was an administrative and territorial division of New Granada in the Viceroyalty of Peru. It was originally organized on February 16, 1533 as a captaincy general from the central portion of the Province of Tierra Firme. In 1717, King Philip V of Spain issued a royal decree creating the Viceroyalty of New Granada, by which the province was added to the latter. During the Spanish American wars of independence (1810–33), Cartagena Province was declared a free state and joined to the United Provinces of New Granada, a federation which existed from 1811 to 1816, when it was reconquered by Spain. With the declaration of the former Viceroyalty of New Granada as the short-lived (1819–30) republic of Gran Colombia in 1819, Cartagena province became part of the Magdalena Department which encompassed all of what is now the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Following the dissolution of Gran Colombia in 1830, the province belonged to the centralist Republic of New Granada until the federal system was introduced in New Granada in 1857; the province then became the Sovereign State of Bolívar. History Antecedents The region was originally inhabited by the Caribs, an indigenous people who had settled on much of the present-day Colombian Caribbean coast. In 1499, Rodrigo de Bastidas, accompanied by Juan de la Cosa and Vasco Núñez de Balboa, led an expedition to the New World. He mapped the northern coast of South America, discovered Panama, and founded the city of Santa Marta. Cruising off the Colombian coast in 1501, he discovered the mouth of a river he named the Río Magdalena, and landed in the Bay of Cispatá, which he gave the name "Golfo de Barú" (Gulf of Barú). Bastidas cultivated good relations with his Indian neighbors, unlike later Spanish explorers, who encountered fierce resistance from some of the natives. Among these was the conquistador Pedro de Heredia, who founded Cartagena on June 1, 1533, giving it the name "San Sebastian de Calamar". By the Royal Decree of February 16, 1533, the Magdalena River was set as the eastern border of Cartagena province dividing it from Santa Marta province, while the Atrato River was designated the western border. The first was governed by Pedro Fernández de Lugo, who depended on the Royal Audiencia of Santo Domingo, and the second by Pedro de Heredia, which