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The Muisca, who inhabited the highlands of present-day central Colombia and numbered about 600,000 people, were organized in several major and lesser chiefdoms when Spanish forces entered their territory in 1537. Although some rulers accepted submission or negotiated with the newcomers, others resisted. Political fragmentation, particularly the rivalry between the major polities of Bogotá and Tunja, prevented a unified response, but resistance continued after the Spanish capture of the principal centers. The fiercest resistance was led by Tundama, ruler of Duitama. In 1537, as Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada’s forces advanced through the Muisca highlands, Tundama sought to delay the Spaniards while preparing a military response. He subsequently attacked Spanish forces at Bonza and refused to accept submission. In late 1539, after most of the Muisca territory had fallen under Spanish control, Tundama again mobilized his followers against an expedition led by Baltasar Maldonado. According to Spanish accounts, his forces numbered in the thousands and used the difficult terrain around Duitama to counter Spanish cavalry and weaponry, but they were ultimately defeated. Tundama was killed in December 1539, followed in early 1540 by the execution of the ruler of Tunja, Aquiminzaque, and the psihipquas of Toca, Motavita, Samacá, Turmequé, and Boyacá. This marked the end of the organized Muisca resistance to conquest. However, the conquest did not immediately erase Muisca political and social agency. During the following decades, indigenous authorities negotiated, adapted to, and contested the new colonial order. The Muisca case thus illustrates both the military defeat of indigenous polities and the persistence of indigenous agency during the early formation of Spanish rule in the New Kingdom of Granada.