Entre la riqueza y la gloria. El anhelo de poder como brújula de la conquista del Nuevo Reino de Granada en la “probanza de méritos” de Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, 1567

Abstract

This article seeks to demonstrate that beyond the indiscriminate pillage of indigenous populations, the conquest of the New Kingdom of Granada was guided by the desire for power and a lordly status expressed by conquerors such as Gonzalo Jime?nez de Quesada. Starting from the analysis of the “Probanza de Me?ritos” of the founder of Santafe? de Bogota?, our study proposes a critical review of the conquest process, based on the questioning of the “myth of the Dorado” and the “ambition of the conqueror”, questioned here under the vision of a colonial culture that wanders between the medieval and the modern thougt. The article seeks to demonstrate that the conqueror —in our case Jime?nez de Quesada— was guided more by a “Feudal” ambition, than by a simple desire for wealth.