Sucre Department

This article is about the Colombian place. For other uses, see Sucre (disambiguation).
Sucre
Departamento de Sucre
Department

Flag

Coat of arms

Sucre shown in red

Topography of the department
Coordinates: 9°18′N 75°24′W / 9.300°N 75.400°W / 9.300; -75.400Coordinates: 9°18′N 75°24′W / 9.300°N 75.400°W / 9.300; -75.400
Country  Colombia
Region Caribbean Region
Established August 18, 1966
Capital Sincelejo
Largest city Sincelejo
Government
  Governor Edgar Enrique Martinez Romero (2016-2019)
Area
  Total 10,917 km2 (4,215 sq mi)
Area rank 27th
Population (2013)[1]
  Total 834,927
  Rank 21st
  Density 76/km2 (200/sq mi)
Time zone UTC-05
ISO 3166 code CO-SUC
Municipalities 26
Website www.gobersucre.gov.co

Sucre is a department in the Caribbean Region of Colombia. The department ranks 27th by area, 10,670 km2 (4,120 sq mi) and it has a population of 772,010, ranking 20th of all the 32 departments of Colombia. Sucre is bordered by the Caribbean on the northwest; by Bolívar Department on the east and by Córdoba Department on the west.

Sucre was named in honor of the Independence hero Antonio José de Sucre who was quoted by the founders of this department in reference to Simón Bolívar's death as saying "They have killed my heart", expression said while cruising the territory of the present day Sucre Department.

As of 2009, the Sucre Department has an estimated population of 802,733, of which 234,886 are in the department capital Sincelejo, according to the DANE projections.

History

Pre-Columbian

Before the Spanish Conquest, the land comprising the department of Sucre was mainly inhabited by two groups of indigenous people the Zenú and the Turbacos. The Zenú language was perhaps part of the Chibchan language family by the Arhuacos branch. The Turbaco people were part of the Cariban language family and they controlled the area adjacent to the Gulf of Morrosquillo. The Zenú people by the Finzenú and Panzenú branches controlled the rest of the territory, which used to be part of a bigger territory along the current department of Córdoba and parts of Bolívar and Antioquia sometimes known as Zenú kingdom or Zenú nation.

The area adjacent to the coast was inhabited by the Turbaco people and it was the border lands of the Carib's territories in the Cariibean Coast of Colombia. This specific part of the Carib's included the coasts of the present day departments of Magdalena, Atlántico and Bolívar.

The Zenú engineers were able to develop a complicated hydraulic infrastructure in the basin of the San Jorge river they also worked in the basin of the Sinú river in lands of the Córdoba Department involving flood control works as well as drainage and irrigation systems.[2]

Colonization

See also: Sincelejo

The first Spanish conquerors that sighted to the coastline of the present day Sucre Department were Alonso de Ojeda, Juan de la Cosa, Rodrigo de Bastidas and Francisco Cesar around 1499.

The conquerors thought the territory to be rich in precious metals since, but soon they would find out they were wrong about that. This situation led to the encomenderos to employ the indigenous workforce almost exclusively for cattle rising on the northern areas.

The territory had been under the tutelage of the government settled in Cartagena – except a brief period of time when it was under the jurisdiction of the central government in Bogotá – this control was effective by several denominations while the country evolved from its colonial institutions until its final republican form in 1886 and until the establishment of Sucre as a department independent from Bolivar.

Date Territory
1535 Province of Cartagena (art of the Audience of Panama)
17th-18th centuries Province of Cartagena (Part of the New Kingdom of Granada)
1810–1821 Department of Cundinamarca (Part of the Gran Colombia)
1821–1829 Department of Magdalena (Part of the Gran Colombia)
1830–1858 Province of Cartagena(Part of the Republic of New Granada)
1858–1863 Sovereign State of Bolívar (Part of the Granadine Confederation)
1863–1886 Sovereign State of Bolívar (Part of the United States of Colombia)
1886–1966 Departamento de Bolivar (Part of the Republic of Colombia)

Modern history

In 1963, the Second Assembly of Municipalities created the Department of Sucre. People vouched for its creation after a campaign led by CorpoSucre. On July 28, 1966 the Senate of Colombia started a debate on the creation of the Department and on August 18 of the same year approved its creation under the 47 Law of 1966 sanctioned by the then-President of Colombia, Carlos Lleras Restrepo.

Geography

Administrative Divisions

Provinces

Sucre is subdivided into 5 regions or provinces:

Mojana

  • Guaranda
  • Majagual
  • Sucre

Montes de María

Morrosquillo

  • Coveñas
  • Palmito
  • San Onofre
  • Tolú
  • Tolúviejo

Sabanas

  • Buenavista
  • Corozal
  • El Robel
  • Galeras
  • Los Palmitos
  • Sampúes
  • San Juan de Betulia
  • San Pedro
  • Sincé

San Jorge

  • Caimito
  • La Unión
  • San Benito Abad
  • San Marcos

Municipalities

Map of Municipalities in the Sucre Department.

Oceanic areas

The Archipelago of San Bernardo is within the Sucre Department.

A map of Archipelago of San Bernardo

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sucre (departamento).
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/18/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.