Province of Cartagena
Provincia de Cartagena | |
|---|---|
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
.svg) Location of Cartagena Province within Colombia | |
| Coordinates: 10°26′N 75°30′W / 10.433°N 75.500°W | |
| Country | Colombia |
| Provincia de Cartagena | February 16, 1533 |
| Founded by | Pedro de Heredia |
| Named for | Cartagena, Spain |
| Capital | Cartagena de Indias |
Cartagena Province (Spanish: Provincia de Cartagena), 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.