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History of Medellín Colombia
A city northwest of Bogotá was founded in 1675. It started as a cattle, coffee and agricultural market in a mining region and has become the second largest city in the country, after Bogotá. The metropolitan area of Medellín, with a population of just over 3 million, lies within the Aburrá valley at an altitude of 1,538 meters and is bisected by the Medellín river which flows northward. North of the valley are the towns of Bello, Copacabana, Girardota and Barbosa. To the south of the valley Itagüí, Envigado, Sabaneta, La Estrella and Caldas.

Medellin History;

   In 1541, Marshall Jorge Robledo was in the nearby city of Heliconia when he happened to notice that below the cliffs, there was a valley. He sent Jeronimo Luis Tejelo to explore and on August 23^rd he reached the flat grounds Robledo had seen. The valley was named San Bartolome but later took on the name of Aburra', a native expression meaning painting.

As told in the Chronicles on the Indies, upon arriving at the Aburra Valley, the Spaniards found around 3,000 natives who put up fierce resistance to these strange people entering their domain. The Chronicles also relate the natives were very poor, made textiles, planted corn, red beans, and bred small rabbits, guinea pigs and dogs.

   These natives belonged to the ‘aburraes tribe and were probably direct descendants of the ‘Ferreria’ culture which settled the valley some 2,500 years ago. Nicely finished articles of gold and pottery made by these people have been found and can be seen today in museums around the city.

   Another group that inhabited the valley were known as Pueblo Nuevo although there are doubts this was a different group or merely a later development of the of the Ferreria culture.

   Besides the 3,000 warlike natives, the Spaniards found traces of roads which they said were wider than the ones found in other native enclaves. Intimidated by these wide roads, the Spaniards were reluctant to follow these paths for fear of finding their builders in large numbers.
At the Piedras Blancas Park, you will see some traces of the roads and pottery remains on display at the University de Antioquia museum.

The natives warlike spirit, poverty and the absence of gold, dissuaded the Spaniards from immediately settling in the area. In 1574, Don Gaspar de Rodas requested the town council to provide him with 4 leagues of property for him to start a cattle business and plant crops to provide food in the valley. He was given three.

Later, other dwellers such as Antonio Machado, Pedro de Aldana and Dona Maria de Quesada began making their homes and farms in the valley. The latter played an important role in developing the area now known as Itagui.

In 1615, inspector Francisco de Herrera Campuzano with 80 natives founded the area now known as Poblado.

Over the next 100 years, more and more settlers moved into the valley. Although exact Medellin information census records were not kept, this fact is born out by the increasing number of marriages performed by the church. There were rich gold deposits in the North East of Antioquia so the agricultural and textile products produced locally were well received by the miners. The Aburra Valley became the food stock for many surrounding areas. Laws required racial segregation of the mestizo and mulatto to live in indigenous reservations so a settlement was built which is now the center of Medellin. This is also why the race of the current Paisa population remains so pure because interracial marriage between the Spaniards and the local mestizos and mulattos was very much frowned upon by the local gentry.

   What followed were some bitter disputes between the ruling government of what is now Santa Fe de Antioquia and the outlying areas that wanted to form their own settlements and have their own ruling governments. Finally the ruling Queen of Spain, Dona Maria Ana de Austria in 1674, signed royal papers authorizing the formation of the settlements and the formation of many small cities including the Villa de Nuetra Senora de la Candelaria. One of Medellins largest and most visited churches by the same name remains there to this day.

   Throughout history, Medellin has gone by different names: Aburra de los Yamesies, San Lorenzo de Aburra, San Lorenzo de Ana, Valle de San Bartolome, Villa de la Candelaria de Medellin and Medellin. The name of Medellin originally came from "Metellinum", the ancient Latin name for today's town of Medellin, Extremadura in the province of Badajoz, Spain. "Metellinum", in turn, is derived from the name of the Roman founder of the city in 75 AD, the Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, who founded it as a military base for his operations in western Iberia. The capital of Antioquia was named after said Spanish town in honor of the earl of that city, Pedro Portocarrero, who was the president of the Consejo de Indias of Spain at the time.

    Religious life in Medellin was not very important at its beginning. All major ecclesiastical decisions were made in the Capital city, Santa Fe de Antioquia. As the new city became more and more important, so did the faith. Many young people chose the way of the cloth as a means to get an education and obtain respectability. Many priests and nuns were exported to other cities being settled.

   The University of Antioquia became the foundation for education in Medellin. Its first building was completed in 1803. It offered degrees in grammar, philosophy and theology. Over the years, the first school of arts and trades opened as well as the first botanical garden, the first school of mining and the first cultural broadcasting school in Latin America.

   Local Medellin Customs: Although Medellin today is totally framed in Western Culture, its roots are rural in their essence. Drawn by educational and economic opportunities, thousands of peasants flooded into the city bringing with them their cultural, religious and eating customs. Red beans for instance, more of a rural than urban meal are eaten daily in most homes. You will see entire aisles of beans in supermarkets devoted to various types of dry beans whereas in the US you might only see a few shelves devoted to dry beans. Along with meat, the ever popular Arepa (a corn tortilla type of daily staple) and rice (which was introduced to the area in the 19^th century) make up the staple diets of most Paisas. Aguardiente (an anise licorice tasting drink) is the national drink along with Rum and beer. Whiskey (scotch) is preferred by many but because it is imported, is out of the price range of many Paisas.

   The way of dressing for most locals is another sign of peasant simplicity. Jeans, long pants, T shirts, Golf type shirts and short sleeved multi colored cotton shirts for men; For the ladies, jeans, pants or skirts with various types of fashionable tops. You will not see many people in coats and ties as the locals deem that to be a Cachao (Bogotanian) custom. Men are rarely seen in shorts or flip flops (except in the coastal cities where there is a lot of tourism and beaches). Leave your flowered shirts at home unless you are planning a visit to Cartagena. The locals laugh at them. In Bogota, the dress is a little more formal because it is the Capital of the country and many businesses are headquartered there. Many US companies also have their Colombian headquarters in Bogota so the adaptation of Western office attire was a natural. They probably also wear more coats and ties in Bogota because it is quite a bit colder than Medellin.

About Medellin Commercial and Industrial leadership:
In 1905, the population of Medellin approached 60,000 and by 1951 it was nearly 360,000. In other words, the population increased 6 fold in the first half of the century. Gold based trade soon followed by coffee boomed largely thanks to the Antioquia Railway which connected Medellin to Bogota, Cali and the coastal town of Littoral. Although gold was a pillar in Medellins beginnings, it was the coffee trade and the bonanza of coffee prices world wide that increase the buying powers of the population. This bonanza led to the industrialization efforts in Medellin especially in the textile industries. Fortunes made in these businesses gave rise to the national light industry, glass manufacturing, beverage and food industry Medellin was seen as the place for industry to locate because of its available local labor pool, its educated citizens, its industry friendly governments, its quality of life and year round pleasant climate. Soon the Compania de Chocolates; Noel (maker of cookie and confectionery); The Compania Colombia de Tobacco Company; Simesa; Posada Tobon (postobon (local soft drink that is quite good); Coltejer, Fabricato, Vidiera de Caldas (glass factory), Haceb (appliance company) and many others dotted the landscape of Medellin.

   The present day economy of Medellin is one of the largest in Colombia and is led by a powerful group of people from the private sector known as the Sindicato Antioqueno (Antioquian Syndicate) and formally known as the Grupo Empresarial Antioqueno (Antioquian Enterprises Group). Represented by David Bojanini; who leads Suramericana de Seguros (an insurance conglomerate), Carlos Piedrahita; with the Compania Nacional de Chocolates (Food industry), Jose Alberto Velez; Cementos Argos (a multinational cement company) and Jorge Londono; leading Bancolombia, (Colombia's largest bank). Together they consolidated this group that has an aggregate market capitalization of approximately US $17 billion dollars and who employ more than 80,000 Colombians.

This group also participates in other sectors of the city industry and is an active trader in the Colombian stock exchange.
Medellin competes strongly with Bogota and Cali as an industrial center, having similar economies. The city serves as headquarters for many national and multinational companies and its centers of higher education constantly contribute to the modernization of the region and its industry.
The main economic products are steel, textiles, confections, food and beverage, agriculture (from its rural area), public services, chemical products and pharmaceuticals, refined oil and flower exports.
Seventy foreign enterprises now have their Colombian headquarters in Medellín, among them Phillip Morris, Kimberly Clark, Levi Strauss, Renault, Toyota and Mitsubishi.

Medellin info on Urban development
There are obvious signs of heavy urban development within the city of Medellin, particularly with the construction of new skyscrapers. In fact, Medellin is out pacing all other major Colombian cities in the construction and proposed development of new high rises, including Bogota, the nation's capital and economic center. As of May, 2007, there were 130 high rises under construction..

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Crime and Security:

   From the 1980s until the late 1990s, the city was known for being a base for the most powerful international drug trafficking organizations and the home base of the Medellin Cartel, led by Pablo Escobar, and for being constantly affected by the violent Colombian conflict. It was, however, primarily common delinquent elements such as street gangs that made Medellin one of the most violent cities in the world. In the year 1991 for example, the city recorded 6,349 homicides and a rate eleven times that of Chicago. The United States government considered the city so dangerous that it shut down its consulate in 1981 for security reasons. The U.S. State Department later issued a travel warning for US Americans not to travel to Medellin.
In the early 21st century, Medellin Colombia has become a much safer city for its residents and international travelers due to recent economic and social changes. The local government and its citizens in general have gone to great lengths to shake off its bad reputation and improve the image of the city, with tangible results of improved Medellin tourism. In 2005 the homicide rate was 35 per 100,000 people, the lowest in over 20 years, and one of the best improvements of any city in the world. Most of the homicides tend to occur in the poorer northern sections of the city, and much work is being done to build greater infrastructure, such as public libraries, new schools and strong community programs. However, by way of comparison, the homicide rate in Medellin is now lower than that of Caracas with 95 per 100,000, Cali with 65 and Recife with 59.

Today, Medellin is considered the commercial and industrial center of Colombia.   It is led by it dominance in the textile industries and sponsors the world renowned fairs Colombiamoda and Colombiatex each year which is attended by thousands from all over the world.

Medellin History

Medellin Colombia History