Nuevo Reino de Granada

New Kingdom of Granada Kingdom of the New Granada
Nuevo Reino de Granada Reino de la Nueva Granada
Colony of the Spanish Empire
16th century–1739
Burgundian Saltire Coat of arms of Bogotá
The New Kingdom of Granada
Capital		Santa Fe de Bogotá
Languages		Castilian
Religion		Roman Catholic
Government		Monarchy
King		Kings of Spain
Viceroy		Viceroys of New Granada
Historical era		Spanish colonization of the Americas
•	Established	16th century
•	Viceroyalty established.	July 17, 1712
•	Viceroyalty suppressed; kingdom autonomous again	November 5, 1723
•	Disestablished	August 20, 1739
Currency		Real
Succeeded by Viceroyalty of New Granada
Today part of		Colombia

The New Kingdom of Granada (Spanish: Nuevo Reino de Granada), or Kingdom of the New Granada, was the name given to a group of 16th-century Spanish colonial provinces in northern South America governed by the president of the Audiencia of Santa Fe, an area corresponding mainly to modern-day Colombia, Panama and Venezuela. The conquistadors originally organized it as a captaincy general within the Viceroyalty of Peru. The crown established the audiencia in 1549. Ultimately the kingdom became part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada first in 1717 and permanently in 1739. After several attempts to set up independent states in the 1810s, the kingdom and the viceroyalty ceased to exist altogether in 1819 with the establishment of Gran Colombia.

In 1514, the Spanish first permanently settled in the area. With Santa Marta (founded on July 29, 1525 by the Spanish conquistador Rodrigo de Bastidas) and Cartagena (1533), Spanish control of the coast was established, and the extension of colonial control into the interior could begin. Starting in 1536, the conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada explored the extensive highlands of the interior of the region, by following the Magdalena River into the Andean cordillera. There his force defeated the powerful Muisca and founding the city of Santa Fé de Bogotá (c. 1538, currently Bogotá) and naming the region El nuevo reino de Granada, "the new kingdom of Granada", in honor of the last part of Spain to be recaptured from the Moors, home to the brothers De Quesada. After Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada left for Spain in May 1539, the reign of the colony was transferred to his brother Hernán. De Quesada, however, lost control of the province when Emperor Charles V granted the right to rule over the area to rival conquistador, Sebastián de Belalcázar, in 1540, who had entered the region from what is today Ecuador, and named himself governor of Popayán.