Nikolaus Federmann
Encyclopedia
Nikolaus Federmann (born c. 1505 in Ulm
– died February 1542 in Valladolid
) was a German
adventurer and conquistador
in the colonies of Venezuela
and Colombia
. He worked in the service of the Welser brothers
.
(Baden-Württemberg
) around 1505. In 1529 he was sent to Santo Domingo
by the Welser family
of Augsburg
, who had signed an agreement to explore the territory of Venezuela
. As an agent of the Welser family Federmann brought settlers and miners from Seville
to Coro
in Venezuela in 1529 and 1530. Upon his arrival the governor Ambrosius Ehinger
appointed him as his deputy. On July 30, 1530 Federmann became responsible for the colony of "Little Venice” (Klein Venedig). As governor Ehinger temporarily handed over authority to Federmann, because he had to leave to Hispaniola
for health reasons.
Without the authorisation of the Audiencia of Santo Domingo, Federmann undertook an expedition in September 1530 in the northern river basin of the Orinoco
, searching for the "South sea" the Pacific), with 110 foot soldiers, 16 riders and 100 Indians
. However, he did not achieve his goal to open a new trade route to Asia
. On March 17, 1531 he returned to Coro with 5,565 pesos of gold. Because of the unauthorised expedition Federmann was banished to Europe
for a period of four years by Ehinger.
He returned to Augsburg, where he wrote "Indianische Historia. Ein schöne kurtzweilige Historia Niclaus Federmanns des Jüngern von Ulm erster raise" (published in 1557).
In 1536 Federmann undertook a second expedition searching for the legendary El Dorado
. During this expedition he founded the city of Riohacha
. First he travelled along the east edges of the Cordillera
, than he crossed the icy Andes
mountains, following the salt trade route, and encountered the advanced culture of the Chibcha, whose realm meanwhile already for the largest part was conquered and occupied by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada
. Together with Sebastián de Belalcázar
, Federmann re-founded the city of Bogotá
on April 27, 1539 after Jiménez de Quesada failed to fulfill the official requirements of the Spanish Crown concerning the founding of a settlement when he attempted to establish a first Bogotá on August 6, 1538.
On July 8, 1539 Federmann left the New World and traveled back to Europe via Jamaica
and Cuba
. In Europe Federmann was intercepted by the Welser family, who accused him of breaching his contract and the suppression of funds. The Welser family demanded a remuneration of 100,000 ducats in emeralds and 15,000 ducats in gold. Since Federmann could not pay, he spent weeks in an Antwerp prison. Federmann tried to defend himself in court, first in Ghent
and finally in Valladolid
before the Council of the Indies. He defended himself with counter-lawsuits and accused the Welser family, among other things, of evading taxes and acting against the interests of the king. On October 19, 1541 Ferdermann finally agreed to a settlement. The Welser family abandoned their financial revendications and Federmann ceded the property rights of his lands in Colombia.
Accused by the Welser family of unfaithfulness, from which the Inquisition
suspected he was a Lutheran, Federmann died in February 1542 in Valladolid
.
Ulm
Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and...
– died February 1542 in Valladolid
Valladolid
Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...
) was a German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
adventurer and conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
in the colonies of Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
and Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. He worked in the service of the Welser brothers
Welser
Welser is the surname of an important German banking and merchant family, originally from Augsburg. Along with the Fugger family, the Welser family controlled various sectors of the European economy, and accumulated enormous wealth through trade and the German colonization of the...
.
Life
Nikolaus Federmann was born in UlmUlm
Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and...
(Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
) around 1505. In 1529 he was sent to Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
by the Welser family
Welser
Welser is the surname of an important German banking and merchant family, originally from Augsburg. Along with the Fugger family, the Welser family controlled various sectors of the European economy, and accumulated enormous wealth through trade and the German colonization of the...
of Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
, who had signed an agreement to explore the territory of Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. As an agent of the Welser family Federmann brought settlers and miners from Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
to Coro
Santa Ana de Coro
Coro is the capital of Falcón State and the oldest city in the west of Venezuela.-History:The city was founded on July 26, 1527 by Spanish colonists. The name "Coro" is believed to be an indigenous word meaning "wind".The city had a turbulent history in colonial times and suffered a number of...
in Venezuela in 1529 and 1530. Upon his arrival the governor Ambrosius Ehinger
Ambrosius Ehinger
Ambrosius Ehinger, also Dalfinger, Thalfinger, was a German conquistador and the first governor of the Welser concession, also known as “Little Venice” , in New Granada, now Venezuela and Colombia.Ehinger was a factor in Madrid for the Welser...
appointed him as his deputy. On July 30, 1530 Federmann became responsible for the colony of "Little Venice” (Klein Venedig). As governor Ehinger temporarily handed over authority to Federmann, because he had to leave to Hispaniola
Hispaniola
Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...
for health reasons.
Without the authorisation of the Audiencia of Santo Domingo, Federmann undertook an expedition in September 1530 in the northern river basin of the Orinoco
Orinoco
The Orinoco is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes called the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3% of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia...
, searching for the "South sea" the Pacific), with 110 foot soldiers, 16 riders and 100 Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
. However, he did not achieve his goal to open a new trade route to Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. On March 17, 1531 he returned to Coro with 5,565 pesos of gold. Because of the unauthorised expedition Federmann was banished to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
for a period of four years by Ehinger.
He returned to Augsburg, where he wrote "Indianische Historia. Ein schöne kurtzweilige Historia Niclaus Federmanns des Jüngern von Ulm erster raise" (published in 1557).
In 1536 Federmann undertook a second expedition searching for the legendary El Dorado
El Dorado
El Dorado is the name of a Muisca tribal chief who covered himself with gold dust and, as an initiation rite, dived into a highland lake.Later it became the name of a legendary "Lost City of Gold" that has fascinated – and so far eluded – explorers since the days of the Spanish Conquistadors...
. During this expedition he founded the city of Riohacha
Riohacha
Riohacha, Rio Hacha or Rio de la Hacha , is a city in the Riohacha Municipality in the northern Caribbean Region of Colombia by the mouth of the Ranchería River and the Caribbean sea, capital city of the La Guajira Department. Founded by conquistador Nikolaus Federmann in 1535, Riohacha was named...
. First he travelled along the east edges of the Cordillera
Cordillera
A cordillera is an extensive chain of mountains or mountain ranges, that runs along a coastline . It comes from the Spanish word cordilla, which is a diminutive of cuerda, or "cord"...
, than he crossed the icy Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
mountains, following the salt trade route, and encountered the advanced culture of the Chibcha, whose realm meanwhile already for the largest part was conquered and occupied by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada
Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada
Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada was a Spanish explorer and conquistador in Colombia. He explored the northern part of South America. While successful in many of his exploits, acquiring massive amounts of gold and emeralds, he ended his career disastrously; and has been suggested as a possible model...
. Together with Sebastián de Belalcázar
Sebastián de Belalcázar
Sebastián de Belalcázar was a Spanish conquistador.-Early life: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...
, Federmann re-founded the city of Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
on April 27, 1539 after Jiménez de Quesada failed to fulfill the official requirements of the Spanish Crown concerning the founding of a settlement when he attempted to establish a first Bogotá on August 6, 1538.
On July 8, 1539 Federmann left the New World and traveled back to Europe via Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. In Europe Federmann was intercepted by the Welser family, who accused him of breaching his contract and the suppression of funds. The Welser family demanded a remuneration of 100,000 ducats in emeralds and 15,000 ducats in gold. Since Federmann could not pay, he spent weeks in an Antwerp prison. Federmann tried to defend himself in court, first in Ghent
Ghent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
and finally in Valladolid
Valladolid
Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...
before the Council of the Indies. He defended himself with counter-lawsuits and accused the Welser family, among other things, of evading taxes and acting against the interests of the king. On October 19, 1541 Ferdermann finally agreed to a settlement. The Welser family abandoned their financial revendications and Federmann ceded the property rights of his lands in Colombia.
Accused by the Welser family of unfaithfulness, from which the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
suspected he was a Lutheran, Federmann died in February 1542 in Valladolid
Valladolid
Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...
.
Works
- "Indianische Historia. Ein schöne kurtzweilige Historia Niclaus Federmanns des Jüngern von Ulm erster raise" (about the first expedition), 1557 in Hagenau
Miscellaneous
- As a homage to his figure, there is a neighbourhood in BogotáBogotáBogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
named Nicolás de FedermánNicolás de Federmán (neighborhood)Nicolás de Federmán is a residential neighborhood located in Teusaquillo locality, near the geographical center of the city of Bogotá, Colombia...
, the Spanish rendering of his own name and as he was known by his fellow Spanish conquistadoresConquistadorConquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
.