Round 3: History

The department was surocciente territory of the indigenous Cofan the Kamentxá northwestern, central and southern towns like Siona tukano languages ​​and east by towns Witoto language. Kamentxá part of the territory was conquered by the Inca Huayna Capac in 1492, which after crossing the Cofan territory, established in the valley of Sibundoy Quechua population, now known as the Incas. After the defeat of the Incas in 1533, the region was invaded by the Spanish since 1542 and managed since 1547 successive pr Catholic missions. The current territory was linked to Popayan Putumayo during the colonial and early Republican decades was part of the huge "Asuay Department" that included territories of the sister republics of Ecuador and Peru. After a long process of land redistribution as follows: 1831: Province of Popayan. 1857: Federal State of Cauca. 1886: Department of Cauca. 1905: Municipality of Putumayo. 1909: Municipality of Caqueta. 1912: Special Commissioner of Putumayo. 1953: Department of Nariño. 1957: Special Commissioner of Putumayo. 1968: Special Quartermaster Putumayo. 1991: Department of Putumayo. An episode in the history of Putumayo was the "rubber boom" period between the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, when the Casa Arana enslaved and exterminated thousands of Native Amazonia, used as labor for the rubber industry. Today however there are still several indigenous communities who resisted the passage of the conquerors of the sixteenth century, the rubber groves and environmental changes caused by exploitation of oil and the recent settlement. 


Andres Morales