Sebastián de Benalcázar

Sebastián de Belalcázar
Sebastián de Belalcázar
Born	1479 or 1480 Córdoba, Crown of Castille
Died	1551 (aged 70–71) Cartagena, New Kingdom of Granada, Viceroyalty of Peru
Nationality	Spanish
Other names	Sebastián de Benalcázar Sebastián Moyano
Occupation	Conquistador
Known for	Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire Conquest of the Muisca Founder of Cali Founder of Pasto Founder of Popayán

Sebastián de Belalcázar (1479 or 1480, Córdoba – Cartagena, 1551) was a Spanish conquistador. De Belalcázar, also written as De Benalcázar, is known as the founder of important early colonial cities in the northwestern part of South America; Quito in 1534 and Cali, Pasto and Popayán in 1537. De Belalcázar led expeditions in present-day Ecuador and Colombia and died after being sentenced to death in Cartagena, at the Caribbean coast in 1551.

He was born Sebastián Moyano in the province of Córdoba, Spain, in either 1479 or 1480. He took the name Belalcázar as that was the name of the castle-town near to his birthplace in Córdoba. According to various sources, he may have left for the New World with Christopher Columbus as early as 1498, but Juan de Castellanos wrote that he killed a mule in 1507, and fled Spain for the West Indies due to fear of punishment, and as a chance to escape the poverty in which he lived.

He was an encomendero in Panama in 1522. He entered Nicaragua with Francisco Hernández de Córdoba in 1524 during the conquest of Nicaragua, and became the first mayor of the city of León in Nicaragua. He remained there until 1527, when he left for Honduras as a result of internal disputes among the Spanish governors. Briefly returning to León, he sailed to the coast of Peru, where he united with the expedition of Francisco Pizarro in 1532.