Sucre Department

History

Pre-Columbian

Before the Spanish Conquest, the land comprising the department of Sucre was mainly inhabited by two groups of indigenous people — the Zenú and the Turbacos. The Zenú language was perhaps part of the Chibchan language family by the Arhuacos branch. The Turbaco people were part of the Cariban language family and they controlled the area adjacent to the Gulf of Morrosquillo. The Zenú people — by the Finzenú and Panzenú branches — controlled the rest of the territory, which used to be part of a bigger territory along the current department of Córdoba and parts of Bolívar and Antioquia sometimes known as Zenú kingdom or Zenú nation.

The area adjacent to the coast was inhabited by the Turbaco people, and it was the border lands of the Caribs' territories in the Caribbean Coast of Colombia. This specific part of the Caribbean included the coasts of the present-day departments of Magdalena, Atlántico, and Bolívar.

The Zenú engineers were able to develop a complicated hydraulic infrastructure in the basin of the San Jorge river — they also worked in the basin of the Sinú river in lands of the Córdoba Department — involving flood control works as well as drainage and irrigation systems.

Colonization

The first Spanish conquerors that sighted to the coastline of the present day Sucre Department were Alonso de Ojeda, Juan de la Cosa, Rodrigo de Bastidas and Francisco Cesar around 1499.

The conquerors thought the territory to be rich in precious metals since, but soon they would find out they were wrong about that. This situation led to the encomenderos to employ the indigenous workforce almost exclusively for cattle rising on the northern areas.

The territory had been under the tutelage of the government settled in Cartagena – except a brief period of time when it was under the jurisdiction of the central government in Bogotá – this control was effective by several denominations while the country evolved from its colonial institutions until its final republican form in 1886 and until the establishment of Sucre as a department independent from Bolivar.

Modern history

In 1963, the Second Assembly of Municipalities created the Department of Sucre. People vouched for its creation after a campaign led by CorpoSucre. On July 28, 1966, the Senate of Colombia started a debate on the creation of the department and on August 18 of the same year approved its creation under the 47 Law of 1966 sanctioned by the then-president of Colombia, Carlos Lleras Restrepo.

Geography

Administrative Divisions

Provinces

Sucre is subdivided into 5 regions or provinces: Mojana Province

• Guaranda
• Majagual
• Sucre

Montes de María Province

• Chalán
• Coloso
• Morroa
• Ovejas
• Sincelejo

Morrosquillo

• Coveñas

• Palmito

• San Onofre

• Tolú

• Tolúviejo Sabanas

• Buenavista

• Corozal

• El Robel

• Galeras

• Los Palmitos

• Sampúes

• San Juan de Betulia

• San Pedro

• Sincé

San Jorge

• Caimito
• La Unión
• San Benito Abad
• San Marcos

Municipalities

1. Buenavista
2. Caimito
3. Chalán
4. Colosó
5. Corozal
6. Coveñas
7. El Roble
8. Galeras
9. Guaranda
10. La Unión
11. Los Palmitos
12. Majagual
13. Morroa
14. Ovejas
15. Palmito
16. Sampués
17. San Benito Abad
18. San Juan Betulia
19. San Marcos
20. San Onofre
21. San Pedro
22. Sincé
23. Sincelejo
24. Sucre
25. Tolú
26. Toluviejo

Oceanic areas

The Archipelago of San Bernardo is within the Sucre Department.

Climate

January through March are dry month of almost no rainfall.

Demography

According to the 2018 population census results, 12% of the population self identifies as indigenous people, gathering 5.5% of the national indigenous population; also, 11% of the population self identifies as black, creole, palenquero or afro-colombian. Venezuelans started to arrive to the department in 2016 and now represent almost 3% of the population, according to the official figures in 2022.

The rest of the population does not declare any ethnicity and are descendants mainly from Spanish, Indigenous and Black people; Arabs started to come in big numbers to Colombia after 1880 and they settled particularly in the Caribbean region of the country, including Sucre, they were mainly Lebanese, Palestinians and Syriacs arrived in smaller numbers, their descendants are estimated to be more than 3 million in the country, their contribution is noticeable in the culture, economy and politics in the Caribbean region.

As of 2022, the population is getting closer to more than 1 million inhabitants as the national and local population growth is propelled by the massive arrival of Venezuelan migrants. During the 80s and 90s the department had high fertility rates and low death rates, in recent years the growth has slowed down as the fertility rate fell below the replacement level and the demographic transition impacts the department.

Almost 32% of the entire population resided in the capital city Sincelejo and 62% of the department population lives in urban areas, specially around the capital city where Corozal, Sampues, Morroa and Los Palmitos are placed, gathering almost half a million people, according to the official population projections.

|1973 | 411000 |1985 | 561649 |1990 | 701105 |2005 | 772010 |2018 | 904863 |2025 | 1034102

References

References

1. "DANE".
2. "Producto Interno Bruto por departamento".
3. "Sub-national HDI - Area Database - Global Data Lab".
4. {{in lang. es http://fundacionlaberinto.mforos.com/1458445/6872641-departamento-de-sucre/
5. (1957). "HUMAN GEOGRAPHY AND ECOLOGY IN THE SINU COUNTRY OF COLOMBIA". CALIFORNIA UNIV BERKELEY.
6. "Censo Nacional de Población y Vivienda 2018".
7. "Distribución de Venezolanos en Colombia - Corte28 de febrero de 2022".
8. "Colombia y Medio Oriente".
9. "Proyecciones de población".
10. "Proyecciones de población municipales".
11. "Reloj de Población". Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadísitica.
12. "Estimaciones del cambio demográfico".