Quibdó 6.63

Quibdó is the capital city of Chocó Department, in western Colombia, on the Atrato River. The municipality of Quibdó has an area of 3,337.5 km² and a population of 100,000. mainly consisting of Afro Colombians and Zambo Colombians.HistoryIn prehistoric times the Chocó rainforest served as a major barrier isolating the Mesoamerican and Andean civilisations, and the extremely humid climate also failed to attract the Spanish colonists. The region was eventually granted by the Emberá Indians to the Franciscan order in 1648, but subsequent attacks by hostile tribes meant attempts at settlement were abandoned, only to be established again six years later.It was not until the nineteenth century when there was interest in finding a shipping route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to avoid traveling via the Straits of Magellan that the Chocó region again became of significant interest to European colonial powers, as the Atrato River Valley was thought the best possibility for this purpose by the explorer Alexander von Humboldt; however it was eventually shelved in favour of the Panama Canal. At the same time research on using the Chocó to connect the Pacific and Atlantic was being carried out, gold and platinum were discovered in the Atrato Valley and this ensured Quibdó’s growth and status as the chief town in the region.