Viceroyalty of Peru
Encyclopedia
Created in 1542, the Viceroyalty of Peru (in Spanish
, Virreinato del Perú) was a Spanish colonial administrative district that originally contained most of Spanish-ruled
South America
, governed from the capital of Lima
. The Viceroyalty of Peru was one of the two Spanish Viceroy
alties in the Americas from the sixteenth to the seventeenth centuries.
However, the Spanish did not resist the Portuguese expansion of Brazil
across the meridian. The Treaty of Tordesillas
was rendered meaningless between 1580 and 1640 while Spain controlled Portugal
. The creation of Viceroyalties of New Granada
and Rio de la Plata
(at the expense of Peru's territory) reduced the importance of Lima and shifted the lucrative Andean trade to Buenos Aires
, while the fall of the mining and textile production accelerated the progressive decay of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Eventually, the viceroyalty would dissolve, as with much of the Spanish empire, when challenged by national independence movements at the beginning of the nineteenth century. These movements led to the formation of the modern-day republics of Peru
, Chile
, Colombia
, Panamá
, Ecuador
, Bolivia
, Paraguay
, Uruguay
and Argentina
in the territories that at one point or another had constituted the Viceroyalty of Peru.
After the Spanish conquest of Peru (1532–37), the first Audiencia was constituted. In 1542, the Spanish created the Viceroyalty of New Castile, that shortly afterwards would be called the Viceroyalty of Peru. In 1544, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V
(King Charles I of Spain) named Blasco Núñez Vela
Peru's first viceroy, but the viceroyalty was not organized until the arrival of Viceroy Francisco de Toledo
in 1572. Toledo made an extensive tour of inspection of the colony.
Francisco de Toledo, "one of the great administrators of human times", established the Inquisition
and promulgated laws that applied to both Indians and Spanish alike, breaking the power of the encomenderos
and reducing the old system of mita
, or forced native labor. He improved the safety in the viceroyalty with fortifications, bridges and la Armada del Mar del Sur (the Southern Fleet) against the pirates. Francisco de Toledo also ended the indigenous state of Vilcabamba
, executing the Inca Tupac Amaru
, and promoted economic development from the commercial monopoly and the mineral extraction, mainly, from silver mines of Potosí
.
The Amazon basin
and some large adjoining regions had been considered Spanish territory since the Treaty of Tordesillas
and explorations such as that by Francisco de Orellana
, but the Treaty of Tordesillas was rendered meaningless between 1580 and 1640 while Spain controlled Portugal. However, Luis Jerónimo de Cabrera, 4th Count of Chinchón sent out the third expedition to explore the Amazon River
, under Cristóbal de Acuña. (This was part of the return leg of the expedition of Pedro Teixeira
.)
Many Pacific islands were visited by Spanish ships in the sixteenth century, but they made no effort to trade with or colonize them. These included New Guinea
(by Yñigo Ortiz de Retez
in 1545), the Solomon Islands
(by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa
in 1568) and the Marquesas Islands
(by Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira
in 1595).
The first Jesuit reduction
to convert and "civilize" the Indigenous population was founded in 1609, but some areas were occupied by Brazilians as Bandeirantes
gradually extended their activities throughout much of the basin and adjoining Matto Grosso in the 17th and 18th centuries. These groups had the advantage of remote geography and river access from the mouth of the Amazon (which was in Portuguese territory). Meanwhile the Spanish were barred by their laws from slaving of indigenous people, leaving them without a commercial interest deep in the interior of the basin.
One famous attack upon a Spanish mission in 1628 resulted in the enslavement of 60 000 indigenous people. In fact as time passed they were used as a self funding occupation force by the Portuguese authorities in what was effectively a low level war of territorial conquest.
In 1617, Francisco de Borja y Aragón
divided the government of Río de la Plata into two, Buenos Aires and Paraguay, both dependencies of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Viceroy Borja y Aragón also established the Tribunal del Consulado, a special court and administrative body for commercial affairs in the viceroyalty. Diego Fernández de Córdoba, Marquis of Guadalcázar
reformed the fiscal system and stopped the interfamily rivalry that was bloodying the domain.
Other viceroys, such as Fernando Torres
, Borja y Aragón, Fernández de Cabrera or Fernández Córdoba also expanded the colonial navy and fortified the ports to fight against pirate attacks, as those led by the Englishman Thomas Cavendish
. Fernández de Cabrera suppressed an insurrection of the Uru
and Mapuche
Indians.
Viceroys had to protect the Pacific coast from French contraband and English and Dutch pirates. They expanded the naval forces, fortified the ports of Valdivia
, Valparaíso
, Arica
and Callao
and constructed city walls in Lima (1686) and Trujillo
(1685–1687). Nevertheless, the famous English privateer Henry Morgan
took Chagres
and captured and sacked the city of Panama
in the early part of 1670. Also Peruvian forces repelled the attacks by Edward David (1684 and 1686), Charles Wager
and Thomas Colb (1708) and Woldes (1709–1711). The Peace of Utrecht allowed the British to send ships and merchandise to the fair at Portobello
.
In this period, revolts were common. Around 1656, Pedro Bohórquez
crowned himself Inca (emperor) of the Calchaquí
Indians, inciting the indigenous population to revolt. From 1665 until 1668, the rich mineowners José and Gaspar Salcedo revolted against the colonial government. The clergy were opposed to the nomination of prelates from Spain. Viceroy Diego Ladrón de Guevara
had to take measures against an uprising of slaves at the hacienda
of Huachipa de Lima. There were terrible earthquakes (1655, 1687
) and epidemics, too.
During Baltasar de la Cueva Enríquez
's administration, the laws of the Indies were compiled. Diego de Benavides y de la Cueva
issued the Ordenanza de Obrajes (Ordenance of Manufactures) in 1664 and Pedro Álvarez de Toledo y Leiva
introduced the papel sellado (literally, sealed paper). In 1683 Melchor de Navarra y Rocafull
reestablished the Lima mint, which had been closed since 1572. Viceroy Diego Ladrón de Guevara
increased the production of silver in the mines of Potosí
, and stimulated production in other mines at San Nicolás
, Cojatambo and Huancavelica
. He limited the manufacture of aguardiente
from sugar cane to authorized factories, which he taxed heavily.
The Churches of Los Desamparados (1672), La Buena Muerte and the convent of Mínimos de San Francisco de Paula were finished and opened. The Hospital of Espiritu Santo in Lima and San Bartolomé hospital were built.
was created from the northern territories, the Audiencias of Bogotá
, Quito
and Panamá
. This viceroyalty initially lasted only until 1724, but was reestablished permanently in 1740. With the creation of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
from southern areas that are now Argentina
, Bolivia
, Paraguay
and Uruguay
in 1776, the Charcas and Buenos Aires audiencias
were similarly lost. The 256-year-old Treaty of Tordesillas
was superseded by the 1750 Treaty of Madrid
which granted Portugal control of the lands it had occupied in South America in the intervening centuries. This Portuguese occupation led to the Guarani War
of 1756.
Several viceroys had scientific, political and economic impact on the Viceroyalty. Manuel de Amat y Juniet
organized an expedition to Tahiti
. Viceroy Teodoro de Croix
also decentralized the government through the creation of eight intendencias in the area of the Audiencia of Lima
, and two in the Captaincy General of Chile. Francisco Gil de Taboada
reincorporated the region of Puno
into the Viceroyalty of Peru. José de Armendáriz
stimulated the production of silver and took steps against fraud, corruption and smuggling. Amat y Juniet established the first Regulation of Commerce and Organization of Customs rules, which led to the building of the customshouse in Callao. Teodoro de Croix collaborated in the creation of the Junta Superior de Comercio and the Tribunal de Minería (1786).
An earthquake demolished Lima and Callao
, in 1746. Viceroy Amat y Juniet constructed various public works in Lima, including the first bull ring. Manuel de Guirior
also improved the medical care at ten hospitals in Lima and established a foundling home.
War between Spain and Britain again broke out (the War of Jenkins' Ear
, 1739-1748). Amat y Juniet constructed the fortress of Real Felipe in Callao
in 1774.
Nevertheless, throughout this period, the Native peoples
were not entirely suppressed. In the eighteenth century alone, there were fourteen large uprisings, the most important of which were that of Juan Santos Atahualpa
in 1742, and the Sierra Uprising of Tupac Amaru II
in 1780. The Comunero Revolt
broke out in Paraguay
from 1721 to 1732). In 1767, the Jesuits were expelled from the colony.
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Viceroy José Fernando de Abascal y Sousa
promoted educational reforms, reorganized the army, and stamped out local rebellions. During his administration, the Inquisition
of Lima was temporarily abolished as a result of the reforms taken by the Cortes in Spain.
When the wars of independence broke out in 1810, Peru was the center of Royalist reaction. Abascal reincorporated the provinces of Córdoba, Potosí
, La Paz
, Charcas
, Chile
and Quito
(Ecuador) into the Viceroyalty of Peru.
In 1812 occurred the great fire of Guayaquil
that destroyed half the city.
Lord Cochrane
, in command of the newly created Chilean Navy
, unsuccessfully attacked Guayaquil and El Callao, but on 4 February he captured Valdivia
, called at the time The Key of the South Seas and the Gibraltar of the Pacific, due to its huge fortifications
. However the viceroyalty managed to defend Chiloé Island
until 1826.
On September 8, 1820, the Expedición Libertadora of Peru, organized in Chile, landed on the beach at Paracas
, near the city of Pisco, Peru
. The army was under the command of José de San Martín
. After fruitless negotiations with the viceroy, San Martín occupied the Peruvian capital of Lima on July 21, 1821. The independence of Peru was proclaimed on July 28, 1821. Viceroy José de la Serna e Hinojosa
, still in command of a sizable military force, retired to Jauja
, and later to Cusco
.
On July 26, 1822, San Martín and Simón Bolívar
met in Guayaquil
to define a strategy for the liberation of the rest of Peru. The meeting was secret, and exactly what occurred is not known. However, afterwards San Martín returned to Argentina while Bolívar prepared to launch an offensive against the remaining royalist forces in Alto Peru. In September 1823 Bolívar arrived in Lima with Antonio José de Sucre
to plan the offensive.
In February 1824 the royalists briefly regained control of Lima. Having regrouped in Trujillo
, Bolívar in June led his rebel forces south to confront the Spanish under Field Marshal
José de Canterac
. The two armies met on the plains of Junín
on August 6, 1824, and the Peruvians were victorious in a battle fought entirely without firearms. The Spanish troops subsequently evacuated Lima for a second time.
As a result of a decree of the Congress of Gran Colombia
, Bolívar turned over command of the rebel troops to Sucre on October 7, 1824.
Royalist control was now reduced to a small area around the city of Ayacucho
, located in the south-central highlands. It was there that the final battle for the independence of Peru would be fought.
On 9 December 1824, the Battle of Ayacucho, or Battle of La Quinua, took place at Pampa de La Quinua, a few kilometers away from Ayacucho, near the town of Quinua
. This battle — between royalist (Spanish) and nationalist (republican
) troops — sealed the independence of Peru and South America. The victorious nationalist forces were led by Antonio José de Sucre
, Bolívar's lieutenant. Viceroy Serna was wounded and taken prisoner. The Spanish army had 2,000 dead and wounded and lost 3,000 prisoners, with the remainder of the army entirely dispersed. After the battle, Serna signed the final capitulation whereby the Spaniards agreed to leave Peru. Serna was released soon afterwards and sailed for Europe.
Spain made futile attempts to regain its former colonies, such as at the Battle of Callao
, but in 1879 it finally recognized Peru's independence.
The town of Lima
, founded by Pizarro on January 18, 1535 as the "Ciudad de los Reyes" (City of the Kings/Magi
), became the seat of the new viceroyalty. As the seat of a viceroy, who had oversight over all of Spanish South America except for Portuguese
-dominated Brazil
, Lima grew into a powerful city. During the 16th, 17th and most of the 18th centuries, all of the colonial wealth of South America created by the silver mines passed through Lima on its way to the Isthmus of Panama
and from there to Seville, Spain. The rest of the viceroyalty dependent upon Lima in administrative matters, in a pattern that persists until today in Peru. By the start of 18th century, Lima had become a distinguished and aristocratic colonial capital, seat of the 250-year-old Royal and Pontifical University of San Marcos
and the chief Spanish stronghold in the Americas.
At ground level during the first century, Spanish encomenderos depended on local chieftains (curaca
s) to gain access to the Indian population's tribute labor, even the most remote settlements, and therefore, many encomenderos developed reciprocal, if still hierarchical, relationships with the curacas. By the end of the 16th century the quasi-private encomienda had been replaced by the repartimiento
system (known in Peru by the Quechua term, mita), which was controlled by local crown officials.
Politically the viceroyalty was further divided into audiencias, which were primarily superior tribunals, but which also had administrative and legislative functions. Each of these was responsible to the Viceroy of Peru in administrative matters (though not in judicial ones). Audiencias further incorporated the older, smaller divisions known as "governorships" (gobernaciones, roughly provinces) headed by a governor. (See, Adelantado
.) Provinces which were under military threat were grouped into captaincies general
, such as the Kingdom of Chile
(established in 1541 and established as a Bourbon captaincy general in 1789), and which were joint military and political commands with a certain level of autonomy. (The viceroy was captain-general of the provinces which remained directly under his command).
At the local level there were hundreds of districts, in both Indian and Spanish areas, which were headed by either a corregidor
(also known as an alcalde mayor) or a cabildo
(town council), both of which had judicial and administrative powers. In the late 18th century the Bourbon dynasty began phasing out the corregidores and introduced intendant
s, whose broad fiscal powers cut into the authority of the viceroys, governors and cabildos. (See Bourbon Reforms
.)
Later Audiencias
* Later part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada
†Later part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
1783
1. Lima
, 2. Puno
1784
3. Trujillo
, 4. Tarma
, 5. Huancavelica
, 6. Cusco
, 7. Arequipa
, (10. Chiloé
, abolished in 1789)
1786
8. Santiago
, 9. Concepción
Once the Viceroyalty of Peru was established, gold
and silver
from the Andes enriched the conquerors, and Peru became the principal source of Spanish wealth and power in South America
. The first coins minted for Peru (and indeed for South America) appeared between 1568 and 1570. Viceroy Manuel de Oms y de Santa Pau
was able to send back an enormous sum of money (1,600,000 pesos) to the king to cover some of the costs of the War of the Spanish Succession
. This was possible in part because of the discovery of the mines in Caraboya. The silver from mines at Potosí, Bolivia circulated around the world. Peruvian and other New World silver was so plentiful that it caused inflation in Spain and a collapse in its price. Even today, Peru and Bolivia produce much of the world's silver.
Luis Jerónimo Fernández de Cabrera
prohibited direct trade between Peru and New Spain
(Mexico) and the persecution of Portuguese Jews, the principal traders in Lima
.
, the results were similar, largely resulting from smallpox
and other Eurasian diseases to which the natives had no immunity. Inca cities were given Spanish Christian names and rebuilt as Spanish towns, each centered around a plaza
with a church or cathedral facing an official residence. A few Inca cities like Cuzco retained native masonry for the foundations of their walls. Other Inca sites, like Huanuco Viejo, were abandoned for cities at lower altitudes more hospitable to the Spanish.
Viceroy José de Armendáriz
reestablished the system whereby Inca nobles who could prove their ancestry were recognized as hijosdalgo
s of Castile. This led to a frenzy on the part of the Indigenous nobility to legitimate their status.
In the 1790s Viceroy Francisco Gil de Taboada ordered the first official census of the population.
The last cargo of black slaves in Peru was landed in 1806. At that time an adult male slave sold for 600 pesos.
and Luis Jerónimo Fernández de Cabrera
founded two chairs of medicine. In the 1710s, Viceroy Diego Ladrón de Guevara
established a chair of anatomy. Teodoro de Croix
and Francisco Gil de Taboada founded anatomy centers. In 1810 the medical school of San Fernando was founded.
On the death of the Peruvian astronomer Doctor Francisco Ruiz Lozano
, Viceroy Melchor Liñán y Cisneros
(with the approval of the Crown) gave mathematics a permanent position in the University of San Marcos. Mathematics was attached to the chair of cosmography. Doctor Juan Ramón Koening, a Belgian by birth, was named to the chair.http://sisbib.unmsm.edu.pe/Bibvirtual/Tesis/Ingenie/Ccente_P_E/cap2.htm. Viceroy Manuel de Guirior created two new chairs at the university.
Luis Enríquez de Guzmán, conde de Alba de Liste founded the Naval Academy of the colony. Francisco Gil de Taboada supported the navigation school. Teodoro de Croix
began the Botanic Garden of Lima.
Francisco de Borja y Aragón also founded, in Cuzco
, the Colegio del Príncipe for sons of the Indigenous nobility and the Colegio de San Francisco for sons of the conquistadors. Manuel de Amat y Juniet founded the Royal College of San Carlos.
The first books printed in Peru were produced by Antonio Ricardo
, a printer from Turin who settled in Lima. Diego de Benavides y de la Cueva built the first theater in Lima. Manuel de Oms y de Santa Pau founded a literary academy in 1709 and promoted weekly literary discussions in the palace that attracted some of Lima's best writers. These included the famous Criollo
scholar Pedro Peralta y Barnuevo and several Indigenous poets. Oms introduced French and Italian fashions in the viceroyalty. The Italian musician Rocco Cerruti (1688–1760) arrived in Peru. Francisco Gil de Taboada supported the foundation of the newspaper El Mercurio Peruano in 1791 and founded the Academy of Fine Arts.
Jesuit Barnabé de Cobo (1582–1657), who explored Mexico and Peru, brought the cinchona bark from Lima to Spain in 1632, and afterwards to Rome and other parts of Italy.
In 1737 Jorge Juan y Santacilia
and Antonio de Ulloa
, Spanish scientists sent by the French Academy on a scientific mission
to measure a degree of meridian arc
at the equator, arrived in the colony. They also had the mission of reporting on disorganization and corruption in the government and smuggling. Their report was published later, under the title Noticias Secretas de América (Secret News From America).
Manuel de Guirior assisted the scientific expedition of Hipólito Ruiz López
, José Antonio Pavón and Joseph Dombey
, sent to study the flora of the viceroyalty. The expedition lasted from 1777 to 1788. Their findings were later published as La flora peruana y chilena (The Flora of Peru and Chile). Again a major concern was stimulating the economy, which Guirior did by adopting liberal measures in agriculture, mining, commerce and industry.
Another French influence on science in the colony was Louis Godin
, another member of the meridian expedition. He was appointed cosmógrafo mayor by Viceroy Mendoza.http://www.chimpum-callao.com/historia/manso.html The duties of cosmógrafo mayor included publishing almanacs and sailing instructions. Another French scientist in Peru at this time was Charles Marie de La Condamine
.
The Balmis Expedition
arrived in Lima on May 23, 1806. At the same time these viceroys adopted rigorous measures to suppress the thought of the Encyclopedists and revolutionaries in the United States and France.
On 1671, Saint Rose of Lima was canonized by Pope Clement X
. Rose was the first native-born American to become a Catholic saint. Pope Benedict XIII
elevated another two important Peruvian saints, Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo and Francisco de Solano
.
Diego Quispe Tito
was a famous artist before the age of Independence.
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Virreinato del Perú) was a Spanish colonial administrative district that originally contained most of Spanish-ruled
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, governed from the capital of Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
. The Viceroyalty of Peru was one of the two Spanish Viceroy
Viceroy
A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...
alties in the Americas from the sixteenth to the seventeenth centuries.
However, the Spanish did not resist the Portuguese expansion of Brazil
Portuguese colonization of the Americas
Portugal was the leading country in the European exploration of the world in the 15th century. The Treaty of Tordesillas divided the Earth, outside Europe, in 1494 into Spanish and Portuguese global territorial hemispheres for exclusive conquest and colonization...
across the meridian. The Treaty of Tordesillas
Treaty of Tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas , signed at Tordesillas , , divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a meridian 370 leagueswest of the Cape Verde islands...
was rendered meaningless between 1580 and 1640 while Spain controlled Portugal
Iberian Union
The Iberian union was a political unit that governed all of the Iberian Peninsula south of the Pyrenees from 1580–1640, through a dynastic union between the monarchies of Portugal and Spain after the War of the Portuguese Succession...
. The creation of Viceroyalties of New Granada
Viceroyalty of New Granada
The Viceroyalty of New Granada was the name given on 27 May 1717, to a Spanish colonial jurisdiction in northern South America, corresponding mainly to modern Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. The territory corresponding to Panama was incorporated later in 1739...
and Rio de la Plata
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, , was the last and most short-lived Viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire in America.The Viceroyalty was established in 1776 out of several former Viceroyalty of Perú dependencies that mainly extended over the Río de la Plata basin, roughly the present day...
(at the expense of Peru's territory) reduced the importance of Lima and shifted the lucrative Andean trade to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, while the fall of the mining and textile production accelerated the progressive decay of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Eventually, the viceroyalty would dissolve, as with much of the Spanish empire, when challenged by national independence movements at the beginning of the nineteenth century. These movements led to the formation of the modern-day republics of Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Panamá
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
in the territories that at one point or another had constituted the Viceroyalty of Peru.
Exploration and Settlement (1542–1643)
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...
Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
(King Charles I of Spain) named Blasco Núñez Vela
Blasco Núñez Vela
Blasco Núñez Vela y Villalba was the first Spanish viceroy of Peru, from May 15, 1544 to January 18, 1546. He was charged by King Charles I with the enforcement of the controversial New Laws, which dealt with the failure of the encomienda system to protect the indigenous people of America from the...
Peru's first viceroy, but the viceroyalty was not organized until the arrival of Viceroy Francisco de Toledo
Francisco de Toledo, Count of Oropesa
Francisco Álvarez de Toledo, Count of Oropesa was Spanish viceroy of Peru from November 26, 1569 to September 23, 1581.-Early years:...
in 1572. Toledo made an extensive tour of inspection of the colony.
Francisco de Toledo, "one of the great administrators of human times", established the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
and promulgated laws that applied to both Indians and Spanish alike, breaking the power of the encomenderos
Encomienda
The encomienda was a system that was employed mainly by the Spanish crown during the colonization of the Americas to regulate Native American labor....
and reducing the old system of mita
Mita (Inca)
Mit'a was mandatory public service in the society of the Inca Empire. Historians use the hispanicized term mita to distinguish the system as it was modified by the Spanish, under whom it became a form of legal servitude which in practise bordered slavery.Mit'a was effectively a form of tribute to...
, or forced native labor. He improved the safety in the viceroyalty with fortifications, bridges and la Armada del Mar del Sur (the Southern Fleet) against the pirates. Francisco de Toledo also ended the indigenous state of Vilcabamba
Vilcabamba, Peru
Vilcabamba was a city founded by Manco Inca in 1539 and was the last refuge of the Inca Empire until it fell to the Spaniards in 1572, signaling the end of Inca resistance to Spanish rule.- History :...
, executing the Inca Tupac Amaru
Túpac Amaru
Túpac Amaru, also called Thupa Amaro , was the last indigenous leader of the Inca state in Peru.-Accession:...
, and promoted economic development from the commercial monopoly and the mineral extraction, mainly, from silver mines of Potosí
Potosí
Potosí is a city and the capital of the department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the highest cities in the world by elevation at a nominal . and it was the location of the Spanish colonial mint, now the National Mint of Bolivia...
.
The Amazon basin
Amazon Basin
The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries that drains an area of about , or roughly 40 percent of South America. The basin is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela...
and some large adjoining regions had been considered Spanish territory since the Treaty of Tordesillas
Treaty of Tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas , signed at Tordesillas , , divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a meridian 370 leagueswest of the Cape Verde islands...
and explorations such as that by Francisco de Orellana
Francisco de Orellana
Francisco de Orellana was a Spanish explorer and conquistador. He completed the first known navigation of the length of the Amazon River, which was originally named for him...
, but the Treaty of Tordesillas was rendered meaningless between 1580 and 1640 while Spain controlled Portugal. However, Luis Jerónimo de Cabrera, 4th Count of Chinchón sent out the third expedition to explore the Amazon River
Amazon River
The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...
, under Cristóbal de Acuña. (This was part of the return leg of the expedition of Pedro Teixeira
Pedro Teixeira
Pedro Teixeira was a Portuguese explorer who became, in 1637, the first European to travel up the entire length of the Amazon River....
.)
Many Pacific islands were visited by Spanish ships in the sixteenth century, but they made no effort to trade with or colonize them. These included New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
(by Yñigo Ortiz de Retez
Yñigo Ortiz de Retez
Yñigo Ortiz de Retez was a 16th-century Spanish maritime explorer, who navigated the northern coastline of the Pacific - Melanesian island of New Guinea, and is credited with bestowing the island's name .-Spanish discovery:...
in 1545), the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
(by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa was a Spanish explorer, author, historian, astronomer, and scientist. His birthplace is not certain and may have been Pontevedra, in Galicia, where his paternal family originated or Alcalá de Henares in Castile, where he later is known to have studied...
in 1568) and the Marquesas Islands
Marquesas Islands
The Marquesas Islands enana and Te Fenua `Enata , both meaning "The Land of Men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9° 00S, 139° 30W...
(by Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira
Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira
Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira was a Spanish navigator. Born in Congosto, in León, he was the nephew of Lope García de Castro, viceroy of Peru...
in 1595).
The first Jesuit reduction
Jesuit Reductions
A Jesuit Reduction was a type of settlement for indigenous people in Latin America created by the Jesuit Order during the 17th and 18th centuries. In general, the strategy of the Spanish Empire was to gather native populations into centers called Indian Reductions , in order to Christianize, tax,...
to convert and "civilize" the Indigenous population was founded in 1609, but some areas were occupied by Brazilians as Bandeirantes
Bandeirantes
The bandeirantes were composed of Indians , caboclos , and some whites who were the captains of the Bandeiras. Members of the 16th–18th century South American slave-hunting expeditions called bandeiras...
gradually extended their activities throughout much of the basin and adjoining Matto Grosso in the 17th and 18th centuries. These groups had the advantage of remote geography and river access from the mouth of the Amazon (which was in Portuguese territory). Meanwhile the Spanish were barred by their laws from slaving of indigenous people, leaving them without a commercial interest deep in the interior of the basin.
One famous attack upon a Spanish mission in 1628 resulted in the enslavement of 60 000 indigenous people. In fact as time passed they were used as a self funding occupation force by the Portuguese authorities in what was effectively a low level war of territorial conquest.
In 1617, Francisco de Borja y Aragón
Francisco de Borja y Aragón
Francisco de Borja y Aragón, conde de Rebolledo, príncipe de Esquilache was a Spanish writer, official in the court of King Philip III of Spain, and, from December 18, 1615 to December 31, 1621, viceroy of Peru....
divided the government of Río de la Plata into two, Buenos Aires and Paraguay, both dependencies of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Viceroy Borja y Aragón also established the Tribunal del Consulado, a special court and administrative body for commercial affairs in the viceroyalty. Diego Fernández de Córdoba, Marquis of Guadalcázar
Diego Fernández de Córdoba, Marquis of Guadalcázar
Diego Fernández de Córdoba y López de las Roelas, Marquis of Guadalcázar and Count of Posadas , was Viceroy of Mexico from October 18, 1612 to March 14, 1621 and Viceroy of Peru from July 25, 1622 to January 14, 1629.-Early life:He was born in Seville.In 1598, aged 20, he was in Central Europe,...
reformed the fiscal system and stopped the interfamily rivalry that was bloodying the domain.
Other viceroys, such as Fernando Torres
Fernando Torres de Portugal y Mesía
Fernando Torres de Portugal y Mesía Venegas y Ponce de León, primer conde de Villadompardo was Spanish viceroy of Peru from 1584 to November 20, 1589.In 1576 he was named the first count of Villadompardo by King Philip II....
, Borja y Aragón, Fernández de Cabrera or Fernández Córdoba also expanded the colonial navy and fortified the ports to fight against pirate attacks, as those led by the Englishman Thomas Cavendish
Thomas Cavendish
Sir Thomas Cavendish was an English explorer and a privateer known as "The Navigator" because he was the first who deliberately tried to emulate Sir Francis Drake and raid the Spanish towns and ships in the Pacific and return by circumnavigating the globe...
. Fernández de Cabrera suppressed an insurrection of the Uru
Uros
The Uros are a pre-Incan people who live on forty-two self-fashioned floating islands in Lake Titicaca Puno, Peru and Bolivia. They form three main groups: Uru-Chipayas, Uru-Muratos and the Uru-Iruitos...
and Mapuche
Mapuche
The Mapuche are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina. They constitute a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage. Their influence extended...
Indians.
The last Spanish Habsburgs (1643–1713)
Valdivian Fort System
The Fort System of Valdivia are a series of Spanish colonial fortifications at Corral Bay, Valdivia and Cruces River established to protect the city of Valdivia, in southern Chile. During the period of Spanish rule , it was one of the biggest systems of fortification in the Americas. It was also a...
, Valparaíso
Valparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
, Arica
Arica
Arica is a city in northern Chile. "Arica" may also refer to:Places* Arica and Parinacota Region, Chile* Arica Airport , Chile* Arica, Amazonas, town in Colombia* Rio Aricá-açu, tributary of the Cuiabá River south of Cuiabá, BrazilOther...
and Callao
Callao
Callao is the largest and most important port in Peru. The city is coterminous with the Constitutional Province of Callao, the only province of the Callao Region. Callao is located west of Lima, the country's capital, and is part of the Lima Metropolitan Area, a large metropolis that holds almost...
and constructed city walls in Lima (1686) and Trujillo
Trujillo, Peru
Trujillo, in northwestern Peru, is the capital of the La Libertad Region, and the third largest city in Peru. The urban area has 811,979 inhabitants and is an economic hub in northern Peru...
(1685–1687). Nevertheless, the famous English privateer Henry Morgan
Henry Morgan
Admiral Sir Henry Morgan was an Admiral of the Royal Navy, a privateer, and a pirate who made a name for himself during activities in the Caribbean, primarily raiding Spanish settlements...
took Chagres
Chagres
Chagres, a village of the Republic of Panama in the Colón Province. It has a harbour from 10 to I ~ ft. deep, which is difficult to enter. The port was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502, and was opened for traffic with Panama, on the Pacific coast, by way of the Chagres River, in the 16th...
and captured and sacked the city of Panama
Panama City
Panama is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of the same name. The city is the political and administrative center of the...
in the early part of 1670. Also Peruvian forces repelled the attacks by Edward David (1684 and 1686), Charles Wager
Charles Wager
Sir Charles Wager was a British Admiral and First Lord of the Admiralty between 1733 and 1742.Despite heroic active service and steadfast administration and diplomatic service, Wager's reputation has suffered from a profoundly mistaken idea that the navy was then at a low ebb...
and Thomas Colb (1708) and Woldes (1709–1711). The Peace of Utrecht allowed the British to send ships and merchandise to the fair at Portobello
Portobelo, Panama
Portobelo is a port city in Colón Province, Panama. It is located on the northern part of the Isthmus of Panama and has a deep natural harbor. Today, Portobelo is a sleepy city with a population of fewer than 3,000...
.
In this period, revolts were common. Around 1656, Pedro Bohórquez
Pedro Bohórquez
Pedro Chamijo , more commonly known as Pedro Bohórquez or Inca Hualpa, was a Spanish adventurer in the Viceroyalty of Peru. He was probably born in Spain, but some sources say he was born in Quito...
crowned himself Inca (emperor) of the Calchaquí
Calchaquí
The Calchaquí were a tribe of South American Indians of the Diaguita group, now extinct, who formerly occupied northern Argentina. Stone and other remains prove them to have reached a high degree of civilization...
Indians, inciting the indigenous population to revolt. From 1665 until 1668, the rich mineowners José and Gaspar Salcedo revolted against the colonial government. The clergy were opposed to the nomination of prelates from Spain. Viceroy Diego Ladrón de Guevara
Diego Ladrón de Guevara
Doctor Diego Ladrón de Guevara Orozco Calderón was a Roman Catholic bishop and Spanish colonial administrator. From August 30, 1710 to March 2, 1716, he was viceroy of Peru.-Before his term as viceroy:...
had to take measures against an uprising of slaves at the hacienda
Hacienda
Hacienda is a Spanish word for an estate. Some haciendas were plantations, mines, or even business factories. Many haciendas combined these productive activities...
of Huachipa de Lima. There were terrible earthquakes (1655, 1687
1687 Peru earthquake
The 1687 Peru earthquake occurred at 11:30 UTC on October 20. It had an estimated magnitude of 8.4–8.7 and caused severe damage to Lima, Callao and Ica. It triggered a tsunami and overall about 5,000 people died.-Tectonic setting:...
) and epidemics, too.
During Baltasar de la Cueva Enríquez
Baltasar de la Cueva Enríquez
Don Baltasar de la Cueva y Enríquez de Cabrera, iure uxoris Count of Castellar and Marquis of Malagón was viceroy of Peru from August 15, 1674 to July 7, 1678.He was a younger son of the Duke of Alburquerque, and brother of Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, 8th Duke...
's administration, the laws of the Indies were compiled. Diego de Benavides y de la Cueva
Diego de Benavides y de la Cueva
Diego de Benavides de La Cueva y Bazán, 8th Count of Santisteban del Puerto and 1st Marquis of Solera , was a Spanish military officer, diplomat, writer and colonial administrator...
issued the Ordenanza de Obrajes (Ordenance of Manufactures) in 1664 and Pedro Álvarez de Toledo y Leiva
Pedro Álvarez de Toledo y Leiva
Pedro de Toledo y Leiva, 1st Marquis of Mancera , was a Spanish nobleman general, colonial administrator, and diplomat who served as Viceroy of Galicia and Peru from December 18, 1639 to September 20, 1648.-Early life:...
introduced the papel sellado (literally, sealed paper). In 1683 Melchor de Navarra y Rocafull
Melchor de Navarra y Rocafull
Don Melchor de Navarra y Rocafull, jure uxoris Duke of Palata, Prince of Massalubrense was a Spanish politician. From November 20, 1681 to August 15, 1689 he was Viceroy of Perú.-Early career:Navarra y Rocafull studied in the Universities of Oviedo and Salamanca...
reestablished the Lima mint, which had been closed since 1572. Viceroy Diego Ladrón de Guevara
Diego Ladrón de Guevara
Doctor Diego Ladrón de Guevara Orozco Calderón was a Roman Catholic bishop and Spanish colonial administrator. From August 30, 1710 to March 2, 1716, he was viceroy of Peru.-Before his term as viceroy:...
increased the production of silver in the mines of Potosí
Potosí
Potosí is a city and the capital of the department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the highest cities in the world by elevation at a nominal . and it was the location of the Spanish colonial mint, now the National Mint of Bolivia...
, and stimulated production in other mines at San Nicolás
San Nicolas
- Person :* San Nicolás de Myra or San Nicolás de Bari also called Nikolaos of Myra or St. Nicholas, see Saint Nicholas.- Argentina :* San Nicolás de los Arroyos, in the province of Buenos Aires** San Nicolás Agreement, signed there...
, Cojatambo and Huancavelica
Huancavelica
Huancavelica is a city in Peru. It is the capital of the Huancavelica region and has a population of approximately 40,000. Indigenous peoples represent a major percentage of the population. It has an approximate altitude of 3,600 meters; the climate is cold and dry between the months of February...
. He limited the manufacture of aguardiente
Aguardiente
Aguardiente , aiguardent , aguardente , and augardente are generic terms for alcoholic beverages that contain between 29% and 60% alcohol by volume...
from sugar cane to authorized factories, which he taxed heavily.
The Churches of Los Desamparados (1672), La Buena Muerte and the convent of Mínimos de San Francisco de Paula were finished and opened. The Hospital of Espiritu Santo in Lima and San Bartolomé hospital were built.
The Bourbon Reforms (1713–1806)
In 1717 the Viceroyalty of New GranadaViceroyalty of New Granada
The Viceroyalty of New Granada was the name given on 27 May 1717, to a Spanish colonial jurisdiction in northern South America, corresponding mainly to modern Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. The territory corresponding to Panama was incorporated later in 1739...
was created from the northern territories, the Audiencias of Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, Quito
Royal Audience of Quito
The Royal Audience of Quito was an administrative unit in the Spanish Empire which had political, military, and religious jurisdiction over territories that today include Ecuador, parts of northern Peru, parts of southern Colombia and parts of northern Brazil...
and Panamá
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
. This viceroyalty initially lasted only until 1724, but was reestablished permanently in 1740. With the creation of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, , was the last and most short-lived Viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire in America.The Viceroyalty was established in 1776 out of several former Viceroyalty of Perú dependencies that mainly extended over the Río de la Plata basin, roughly the present day...
from southern areas that are now Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
in 1776, the Charcas and Buenos Aires audiencias
Real Audiencia of Buenos Aires
The Real Audiencia de Buenos Aires, were two audiencias, or highest courts, of the Spanish crown, which resided in Buenos Aires. The authority of the first extended to the territory of the Governorate of the Río de la Plata and operated from 1661 to 1671...
were similarly lost. The 256-year-old Treaty of Tordesillas
Treaty of Tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas , signed at Tordesillas , , divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a meridian 370 leagueswest of the Cape Verde islands...
was superseded by the 1750 Treaty of Madrid
Treaty of Madrid (1750)
The Spanish–Portuguese treaty of 1750 or Treaty of Madrid was a document signed by Ferdinand VI of Spain and John V of Portugal on January 13, 1750, concerning their empires and status of their territories in what is now Brazil....
which granted Portugal control of the lands it had occupied in South America in the intervening centuries. This Portuguese occupation led to the Guarani War
Guarani War
The Guarani War of 1756, also called the War of the Seven Reductions, took place between the Guaraní tribes of seven Jesuit Reductions and joint Spanish-Portuguese forces...
of 1756.
Several viceroys had scientific, political and economic impact on the Viceroyalty. Manuel de Amat y Juniet
Manuel de Amat y Juniet
Felipe Manuel Cayetano de Amat y de Juniet was a Spanish military officer and colonial administrator. He was the Royal Governor of the Captaincy General of Chile from December 28, 1755 to September 9, 1761, and Viceroy of Peru from October 12, 1761 to July 17, 1776.-Origins and military...
organized an expedition to Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
. Viceroy Teodoro de Croix
Teodoro de Croix
Teodoro de Croix was a Spanish soldier and colonial official in New Spain and Peru. From April 6, 1784 to March 25, 1790 he was viceroy of Peru.-Background:...
also decentralized the government through the creation of eight intendencias in the area of the Audiencia of Lima
Real Audiencia of Lima
The Royal Audiencia and Chancery of Lima was a superior court in the New World empire of Spain, located in the city of Lima, capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru. It was created on November 20, 1542 as was the viceroyalty itself, by the Emperor Charles V...
, and two in the Captaincy General of Chile. Francisco Gil de Taboada
Francisco Gil de Taboada
Francisco Gil de Taboada y Lemos was a Spanish naval officer and colonial administrator in America. He was briefly viceroy of New Granada in 1789, and from March 25, 1790 to June 6, 1796 he was viceroy of Peru...
reincorporated the region of Puno
Puno Region
Puno is a region in southeastern Peru. It is bordered by Bolivia on the east, the Madre de Dios Region on the north, the Cusco and Arequipa regions on the west, the Moquegua Region on the southwest, and the Tacna Region on the south...
into the Viceroyalty of Peru. José de Armendáriz
José de Armendáriz
José de Armendáriz y Perurena, 1st Marquis of Castelfuerte was a Spanish soldier and colonial administrator. From May 14, 1724 to February 4, 1736 he was viceroy of Peru.-Early career:He entered the military and fought in the War of the Spanish Succession, on the side of Philip V of Spain...
stimulated the production of silver and took steps against fraud, corruption and smuggling. Amat y Juniet established the first Regulation of Commerce and Organization of Customs rules, which led to the building of the customshouse in Callao. Teodoro de Croix collaborated in the creation of the Junta Superior de Comercio and the Tribunal de Minería (1786).
An earthquake demolished Lima and Callao
Callao
Callao is the largest and most important port in Peru. The city is coterminous with the Constitutional Province of Callao, the only province of the Callao Region. Callao is located west of Lima, the country's capital, and is part of the Lima Metropolitan Area, a large metropolis that holds almost...
, in 1746. Viceroy Amat y Juniet constructed various public works in Lima, including the first bull ring. Manuel de Guirior
Manuel de Guirior
Manuel de Guirior was a Spanish naval officer and colonial administrator. He was viceroy of New Granada from 1772 to 1776 and of Peru from July 17, 1776 to July 21, 1780.Guirior was born into a noble family of Navarre. He entered the navy in 1733 as a lieutenant...
also improved the medical care at ten hospitals in Lima and established a foundling home.
War between Spain and Britain again broke out (the War of Jenkins' Ear
War of Jenkins' Ear
The War of Jenkins' Ear was a conflict between Great Britain and Spain that lasted from 1739 to 1748, with major operations largely ended by 1742. Its unusual name, coined by Thomas Carlyle in 1858, relates to Robert Jenkins, captain of a British merchant ship, who exhibited his severed ear in...
, 1739-1748). Amat y Juniet constructed the fortress of Real Felipe in Callao
Callao
Callao is the largest and most important port in Peru. The city is coterminous with the Constitutional Province of Callao, the only province of the Callao Region. Callao is located west of Lima, the country's capital, and is part of the Lima Metropolitan Area, a large metropolis that holds almost...
in 1774.
Nevertheless, throughout this period, the Native peoples
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
were not entirely suppressed. In the eighteenth century alone, there were fourteen large uprisings, the most important of which were that of Juan Santos Atahualpa
Juan Santos Atahualpa
Juan Santos Atahualpa was a leader of an indigenous rebellion in the Andean jungle provinces of Tarma and Jauja, near what was then Spanish Peru in the mid 18th century....
in 1742, and the Sierra Uprising of Tupac Amaru II
Túpac Amaru II
Túpac Amaru II was a leader of an indigenous uprising in 1780 against the Spanish in Peru...
in 1780. The Comunero Revolt
Revolt of the Comuneros (Paraguay)
The Revolt of the Comuneros is a series of uprisings by settlers in Paraguay against the Spanish authorities lasting from 1721 to 1732. Underlying causes were economic, but there were also issues of freedom and self-government...
broke out in Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
from 1721 to 1732). In 1767, the Jesuits were expelled from the colony.
End of the Viceroyalty (1806–1824)
José Fernando de Abascal y Sousa
José Fernando de Abascal y Sousa, 1st Marquis of La Concordia , was a Spanish military officer and colonial administrator in America...
promoted educational reforms, reorganized the army, and stamped out local rebellions. During his administration, the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
of Lima was temporarily abolished as a result of the reforms taken by the Cortes in Spain.
When the wars of independence broke out in 1810, Peru was the center of Royalist reaction. Abascal reincorporated the provinces of Córdoba, Potosí
Potosí Department
Potosí Department is a department in southwestern Bolivia. It comprises 118,218 km² with 709,013 inhabitants . The capital is the city of Potosí....
, La Paz
La Paz Department (Bolivia)
The La Paz Department of Bolivia comprises with a 2001 census population of 2,350,466 inhabitants. It is situated at the western border of Bolivia, sharing Lake Titicaca with Peru. It contains the mighty Cordillera Real that reaches altitudes of . Northeast of the Cordillera Real are the Yungas,...
, Charcas
Charcas Province
Charcas is a province in the northern parts of the Bolivian Potosí Department. Its capital is San Pedro de Buena Vista .-Location:...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and Quito
Quito
San Francisco de Quito, most often called Quito , is the capital city of Ecuador in northwestern South America. It is located in north-central Ecuador in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains...
(Ecuador) into the Viceroyalty of Peru.
In 1812 occurred the great fire of Guayaquil
Guayaquil
Guayaquil , officially Santiago de Guayaquil , is the largest and the most populous city in Ecuador,with about 2.3 million inhabitants in the city and nearly 3.1 million in the metropolitan area, as well as that nation's main port...
that destroyed half the city.
Lord Cochrane
Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald
Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, 1st Marquess of Maranhão, GCB, ODM , styled Lord Cochrane between 1778 and 1831, was a senior British naval flag officer and radical politician....
, in command of the newly created Chilean Navy
Chilean Navy
-Independence Wars of Chile and Peru :The Chilean Navy dates back to 1817. A year before, following the Battle of Chacabuco, General Bernardo O'Higgins prophetically declared "this victory and another hundred shall be of no significance if we do not gain control of the sea".This led to the...
, unsuccessfully attacked Guayaquil and El Callao, but on 4 February he captured Valdivia
Capture of Valdivia
The Capture of Valdivia was a battle in the Chilean War of Independence between Spanish forces commanded by Colonel Manuel Montoya and the Chilean forces under the command of Lord Cochrane, held on 3 and 4 February of 1820.-Background:...
, called at the time The Key of the South Seas and the Gibraltar of the Pacific, due to its huge fortifications
Valdivian Fort System
The Fort System of Valdivia are a series of Spanish colonial fortifications at Corral Bay, Valdivia and Cruces River established to protect the city of Valdivia, in southern Chile. During the period of Spanish rule , it was one of the biggest systems of fortification in the Americas. It was also a...
. However the viceroyalty managed to defend Chiloé Island
Chiloé Island
Chiloé Island , also known as Greater Island of Chiloé , is the largest island of the Chiloé Archipelago off the coast of Chile, in the Pacific Ocean...
until 1826.
On September 8, 1820, the Expedición Libertadora of Peru, organized in Chile, landed on the beach at Paracas
Paracas
Paracas may refer to:* Paracas culture, an important Andean society that existed in Peru between approximately 750 BC and 100 AD* Paracas Peninsula, located in the Ica Region of Peru* Paracas Bay, located in the Pisco Province of the Ica Region in Peru...
, near the city of Pisco, Peru
Pisco, Peru
Pisco is a city located in the Ica Region of Peru, the capital of the Pisco Province. The city is around 9 metres above sea level. Originally the villa of Pisco was founded in 1640, close to the indigenous emplacement of the same name...
. The army was under the command of José de San Martín
José de San Martín
José Francisco de San Martín, known simply as Don José de San Martín , was an Argentine general and the prime leader of the southern part of South America's successful struggle for independence from Spain.Born in Yapeyú, Corrientes , he left his mother country at the...
. After fruitless negotiations with the viceroy, San Martín occupied the Peruvian capital of Lima on July 21, 1821. The independence of Peru was proclaimed on July 28, 1821. Viceroy José de la Serna e Hinojosa
José de la Serna e Hinojosa
José de la Serna e Hinojosa, 1st Count of los Andes was a Spanish general and colonial official. He was the last Spanish viceroy of Peru to exercise effective power .-Background:...
, still in command of a sizable military force, retired to Jauja
Jauja
Jauja is a city and capital of Jauja Province in Peru. It is situated in the fertile Mantaro Valley, to the northwest of Huancayo , at an altitude of . Its population according to the 2007 census was 16,424....
, and later to Cusco
Cusco
Cusco , often spelled Cuzco , is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cuzco Province. In 2007, the city had a population of 358,935 which was triple the figure of 20 years ago...
.
On July 26, 1822, San Martín and Simón Bolívar
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...
met in Guayaquil
Guayaquil
Guayaquil , officially Santiago de Guayaquil , is the largest and the most populous city in Ecuador,with about 2.3 million inhabitants in the city and nearly 3.1 million in the metropolitan area, as well as that nation's main port...
to define a strategy for the liberation of the rest of Peru. The meeting was secret, and exactly what occurred is not known. However, afterwards San Martín returned to Argentina while Bolívar prepared to launch an offensive against the remaining royalist forces in Alto Peru. In September 1823 Bolívar arrived in Lima with Antonio José de Sucre
Antonio José de Sucre
Antonio José de Sucre y Alcalá , known as the "Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho" , was a Venezuelan independence leader. Sucre was one of Simón Bolívar's closest friends, generals and statesmen.-Ancestry:...
to plan the offensive.
In February 1824 the royalists briefly regained control of Lima. Having regrouped in Trujillo
Trujillo, Peru
Trujillo, in northwestern Peru, is the capital of the La Libertad Region, and the third largest city in Peru. The urban area has 811,979 inhabitants and is an economic hub in northern Peru...
, Bolívar in June led his rebel forces south to confront the Spanish under Field Marshal
Field Marshal
Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...
José de Canterac
José de Canterac
José de Canterac was a Spanish general of French origin who fought in the Spanish American wars of independence. As Field Marshal, he took command of the Spanish Army in South America in 1822. His defeats at the Battle of Junín and the Battle of Ayacucho led to his capitulation to the Patriot forces...
. The two armies met on the plains of Junín
Battle of Junín
The Battle of Junín was a military engagement of the Peruvian War of Independence, fought in the highlands of the Junín Region on August 6, 1824. The preceding February the royalists had regained control of Lima, and having regrouped in Trujillo, Simón Bolívar in June led his rebel forces south to...
on August 6, 1824, and the Peruvians were victorious in a battle fought entirely without firearms. The Spanish troops subsequently evacuated Lima for a second time.
As a result of a decree of the Congress of Gran Colombia
Gran Colombia
Gran Colombia is a name used today for the state that encompassed much of northern South America and part of southern Central America from 1819 to 1831. This short-lived republic included the territories of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, northern Peru and northwest Brazil. The...
, Bolívar turned over command of the rebel troops to Sucre on October 7, 1824.
Ayacucho
Ayacucho is the capital city of Huamanga Province, Ayacucho Region, Peru.Ayacucho is famous for its 33 churches, which represent one for each year of Jesus's life. Ayacucho has large religious celebrations, especially during the Holy Week of Easter...
, located in the south-central highlands. It was there that the final battle for the independence of Peru would be fought.
On 9 December 1824, the Battle of Ayacucho, or Battle of La Quinua, took place at Pampa de La Quinua, a few kilometers away from Ayacucho, near the town of Quinua
Quinua
Quinua can refer to* Quinoa , a species of goosefoot grown as an edible crop* Quinua, Peru, a small town in Huamanga Province...
. This battle — between royalist (Spanish) and nationalist (republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
) troops — sealed the independence of Peru and South America. The victorious nationalist forces were led by Antonio José de Sucre
Antonio José de Sucre
Antonio José de Sucre y Alcalá , known as the "Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho" , was a Venezuelan independence leader. Sucre was one of Simón Bolívar's closest friends, generals and statesmen.-Ancestry:...
, Bolívar's lieutenant. Viceroy Serna was wounded and taken prisoner. The Spanish army had 2,000 dead and wounded and lost 3,000 prisoners, with the remainder of the army entirely dispersed. After the battle, Serna signed the final capitulation whereby the Spaniards agreed to leave Peru. Serna was released soon afterwards and sailed for Europe.
Spain made futile attempts to regain its former colonies, such as at the Battle of Callao
Battle of Callao
The Battle of Callao occurred on May 2, 1866 between a Spanish fleet under the command of Admiral Casto Méndez Núñez and the fortified battery emplacements of the Peruvian port city of Callao during the Chincha Islands War...
, but in 1879 it finally recognized Peru's independence.
Politics
The town of Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
, founded by Pizarro on January 18, 1535 as the "Ciudad de los Reyes" (City of the Kings/Magi
Biblical Magi
The Magi Greek: μάγοι, magoi), also referred to as the Wise Men, Kings, Astrologers, or Kings from the East, were a group of distinguished foreigners who were said to have visited Jesus after his birth, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh...
), became the seat of the new viceroyalty. As the seat of a viceroy, who had oversight over all of Spanish South America except for Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
-dominated Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Lima grew into a powerful city. During the 16th, 17th and most of the 18th centuries, all of the colonial wealth of South America created by the silver mines passed through Lima on its way to the Isthmus of Panama
Isthmus of Panama
The Isthmus of Panama, also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country of Panama and the Panama Canal...
and from there to Seville, Spain. The rest of the viceroyalty dependent upon Lima in administrative matters, in a pattern that persists until today in Peru. By the start of 18th century, Lima had become a distinguished and aristocratic colonial capital, seat of the 250-year-old Royal and Pontifical University of San Marcos
National University of San Marcos
The National University of San Marcos is the most important and respected higher-education institution in Peru. Its main campus, the University City, is located in Lima...
and the chief Spanish stronghold in the Americas.
At ground level during the first century, Spanish encomenderos depended on local chieftains (curaca
Curaca
A curaca was an official of the Inca Empire, who held the role of magistrate, about 4 levels down from the Sapa Inca, the head of the Empire. The curacas were the heads of the ayllus . They served as tax collector, and held religious authority, in that they mediated between the supernatural sphere...
s) to gain access to the Indian population's tribute labor, even the most remote settlements, and therefore, many encomenderos developed reciprocal, if still hierarchical, relationships with the curacas. By the end of the 16th century the quasi-private encomienda had been replaced by the repartimiento
Repartimiento
The Repartimiento was a colonial forced labor system imposed upon the indigenous population of Spanish America and the Philippines. In concept it was similar to other tribute-labor systems, such as the mita of the Inca Empire or the corvée of Ancien Régime France: the natives were forced to do...
system (known in Peru by the Quechua term, mita), which was controlled by local crown officials.
Politically the viceroyalty was further divided into audiencias, which were primarily superior tribunals, but which also had administrative and legislative functions. Each of these was responsible to the Viceroy of Peru in administrative matters (though not in judicial ones). Audiencias further incorporated the older, smaller divisions known as "governorships" (gobernaciones, roughly provinces) headed by a governor. (See, Adelantado
Adelantado
Adelantado was a military title held by some Spanish conquistadores of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.Adelantados were granted directly by the Monarch the right to become governors and justices of a specific region, which they charged with conquering, in exchange for funding and organizing the...
.) Provinces which were under military threat were grouped into captaincies general
Captaincy
A captaincy is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. Each was governed by a captain general.-In the Portuguese Empire:...
, such as the Kingdom of Chile
Kingdom of Chile
The General Captaincy of Chile or Gobernacion de Chile, was an administrative territory of the Viceroyalty of Peru in the Spanish Empire from 1541 to 1818, the year in which it declared itself independent, becoming the Republic of Chile...
(established in 1541 and established as a Bourbon captaincy general in 1789), and which were joint military and political commands with a certain level of autonomy. (The viceroy was captain-general of the provinces which remained directly under his command).
At the local level there were hundreds of districts, in both Indian and Spanish areas, which were headed by either a corregidor
Corregidor (position)
A corregidor was a local, administrative and judicial position in Spain and its empire. He was the highest authority of a Corregimiento. In the Americas a corregidor was often called an alcalde mayor. They began to be appointed in fourteenth century Castile and the institution was definitively...
(also known as an alcalde mayor) or a cabildo
Cabildo (council)
For a discussion of the contemporary Spanish and Latin American cabildo, see Ayuntamiento.A cabildo or ayuntamiento was a former Spanish, colonial administrative council that governed a municipality. Cabildos were sometimes appointed, sometimes elected, but were considered to be representative of...
(town council), both of which had judicial and administrative powers. In the late 18th century the Bourbon dynasty began phasing out the corregidores and introduced intendant
Intendant
The title of intendant has been used in several countries through history. Traditionally, it refers to the holder of a public administrative office...
s, whose broad fiscal powers cut into the authority of the viceroys, governors and cabildos. (See Bourbon Reforms
Bourbon Reforms
The Bourbon Reforms were a set of economic and political legislation introduced by the Spanish Crown under various kings of the House of Bourbon throughout the 18th century. The reforms were intended to stimulate manufacturing and technology in order to modernize Spain...
.)
Audiencias
With dates of creation:- PanamáRoyal Audiencia of PanamaThe Royal Audiencia and Chancery of Panama in Tierra Firme was a governing body and superior court in the New World empire of Spain. The Audiencia of Panama was the third American audiencia after the ones of Santo Domingo and Mexico...
(1st one, 1538 - 1543), (2nd one, 1564 - 1751)* - Santa Fe de BogotáNew Kingdom of GranadaThe New Kingdom of Granada was the name given to a group of 16th century Spanish colonial provinces in northern South America governed by the president of the Audiencia of Bogotá, an area corresponding mainly to modern day Colombia and parts of Venezuela. Originally part of the Viceroyalty of...
(1548)* - Quito (1563)*
- Lima (1543)
- La Plata de los Charcas (1559)†
- ChileRoyal Audiencia of ChileThe Royal Audiencia of Chile were two Spanish, colonial courts of appeals with administrative and political authority under the oversight of the viceroy of Peru.*Royal Audiencia of Concepción, installed in 1565 and abolished in 1575...
(1563-1573; 1606)
Later Audiencias
- Buenos Aires (1661-1672; 1776)†
- Cuzco (1787)
Viceroyalty of New Granada
The Viceroyalty of New Granada was the name given on 27 May 1717, to a Spanish colonial jurisdiction in northern South America, corresponding mainly to modern Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. The territory corresponding to Panama was incorporated later in 1739...
†Later part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, , was the last and most short-lived Viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire in America.The Viceroyalty was established in 1776 out of several former Viceroyalty of Perú dependencies that mainly extended over the Río de la Plata basin, roughly the present day...
Intendancies
Listed under year of creation:1783
1. Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
, 2. Puno
Puno
Puno is a city in southeastern Peru, located on the shore of Lake Titicaca. It is the capital city of the Puno Region and the Puno Province with a population of approximately 100,000. The city was established in 1668 by viceroy Pedro Antonio Fernández de Castro as capital of the province of...
1784
3. Trujillo
Trujillo, Peru
Trujillo, in northwestern Peru, is the capital of the La Libertad Region, and the third largest city in Peru. The urban area has 811,979 inhabitants and is an economic hub in northern Peru...
, 4. Tarma
Tarma
Santa Ana de la Ribera de Tarma is a city in Junín Region, Perú. Tarma is the capital city of the Province of Tarma, and is also called the Pearl of the Andes. The city is located at around , at an elevation of around 3000 m...
, 5. Huancavelica
Huancavelica
Huancavelica is a city in Peru. It is the capital of the Huancavelica region and has a population of approximately 40,000. Indigenous peoples represent a major percentage of the population. It has an approximate altitude of 3,600 meters; the climate is cold and dry between the months of February...
, 6. Cusco
Cusco
Cusco , often spelled Cuzco , is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cuzco Province. In 2007, the city had a population of 358,935 which was triple the figure of 20 years ago...
, 7. Arequipa
Arequipa
Arequipa is the capital city of the Arequipa Region in southern Peru. With a population of 836,859 it is the second most populous city of the country...
, (10. Chiloé
Chiloé Province
Chiloé Province is one of the four provinces in the southern Chilean region of Los Lagos . It encompasses all of Chiloé Archipelago with the exception of the Desertores Islands. The province spans a surface area of...
, abolished in 1789)
1786
8. Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
, 9. Concepción
Concepción, Chile
Concepción is a city in Chile, capital of Concepción Province and of the Biobío Region or Region VIII. Greater Concepción is the second-largest conurbation in the country, with 889,725 inhabitants...
Economy
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
and silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
from the Andes enriched the conquerors, and Peru became the principal source of Spanish wealth and power in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. The first coins minted for Peru (and indeed for South America) appeared between 1568 and 1570. Viceroy Manuel de Oms y de Santa Pau
Manuel de Oms y de Santa Pau
Don Manuel de Oms y Santa Pau, 1st Marquis of Castelldosrius, Grandee of Spain , was a Spanish diplomat, man of letters, and colonial official. From July 7, 1707 to April 22, 1710, he was viceroy of Peru.-Before becoming viceroy:Manuel de Oms y de Santa Pau belonged to a noble family of Catalonia...
was able to send back an enormous sum of money (1,600,000 pesos) to the king to cover some of the costs of the War of the Spanish Succession
War of the Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was fought among several European powers, including a divided Spain, over the possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. As France and Spain were among the most powerful states of Europe, such a unification would have...
. This was possible in part because of the discovery of the mines in Caraboya. The silver from mines at Potosí, Bolivia circulated around the world. Peruvian and other New World silver was so plentiful that it caused inflation in Spain and a collapse in its price. Even today, Peru and Bolivia produce much of the world's silver.
Luis Jerónimo Fernández de Cabrera
Luis Jerónimo Fernández de Cabrera
Luis Jerónimo Fernández de Cabrera Bobadilla Cerda y Mendoza, 4th Count of Chinchón was a Spanish nobleman and captain general and viceroy of Peru, from January 14, 1629 to December 18, 1639...
prohibited direct trade between Peru and New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
(Mexico) and the persecution of Portuguese Jews, the principal traders in Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
.
Demographics
A census taken by the last Quipucamayoc indicated that there were 12 million inhabitants of Inca Peru; 45 years later, under viceroy Toledo, the census figures amounted to only 1,100,000 Indians. While the attrition was not an organized attempt at genocideGenocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
, the results were similar, largely resulting from smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
and other Eurasian diseases to which the natives had no immunity. Inca cities were given Spanish Christian names and rebuilt as Spanish towns, each centered around a plaza
Plaza
Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...
with a church or cathedral facing an official residence. A few Inca cities like Cuzco retained native masonry for the foundations of their walls. Other Inca sites, like Huanuco Viejo, were abandoned for cities at lower altitudes more hospitable to the Spanish.
Viceroy José de Armendáriz
José de Armendáriz
José de Armendáriz y Perurena, 1st Marquis of Castelfuerte was a Spanish soldier and colonial administrator. From May 14, 1724 to February 4, 1736 he was viceroy of Peru.-Early career:He entered the military and fought in the War of the Spanish Succession, on the side of Philip V of Spain...
reestablished the system whereby Inca nobles who could prove their ancestry were recognized as hijosdalgo
Hidalgo (Spanish nobility)
A hidalgo or fidalgo is a member of the Spanish and Portuguese nobility. In popular usage it has come to mean the non-titled nobility. Hidalgos were exempt from paying taxes, but did not necessarily own real property...
s of Castile. This led to a frenzy on the part of the Indigenous nobility to legitimate their status.
In the 1790s Viceroy Francisco Gil de Taboada ordered the first official census of the population.
The last cargo of black slaves in Peru was landed in 1806. At that time an adult male slave sold for 600 pesos.
Culture
Viceroy Francisco de Borja y Aragón reorganized the University of San MarcosNational University of San Marcos
The National University of San Marcos is the most important and respected higher-education institution in Peru. Its main campus, the University City, is located in Lima...
and Luis Jerónimo Fernández de Cabrera
Luis Jerónimo Fernández de Cabrera
Luis Jerónimo Fernández de Cabrera Bobadilla Cerda y Mendoza, 4th Count of Chinchón was a Spanish nobleman and captain general and viceroy of Peru, from January 14, 1629 to December 18, 1639...
founded two chairs of medicine. In the 1710s, Viceroy Diego Ladrón de Guevara
Diego Ladrón de Guevara
Doctor Diego Ladrón de Guevara Orozco Calderón was a Roman Catholic bishop and Spanish colonial administrator. From August 30, 1710 to March 2, 1716, he was viceroy of Peru.-Before his term as viceroy:...
established a chair of anatomy. Teodoro de Croix
Teodoro de Croix
Teodoro de Croix was a Spanish soldier and colonial official in New Spain and Peru. From April 6, 1784 to March 25, 1790 he was viceroy of Peru.-Background:...
and Francisco Gil de Taboada founded anatomy centers. In 1810 the medical school of San Fernando was founded.
On the death of the Peruvian astronomer Doctor Francisco Ruiz Lozano
Francisco Ruiz Lozano
Francisco Ruiz Lozano was a Peruvian soldier, astronomer, mathematician and educator.Ruiz Lozano was born in Oruro . He studied with the Jesuits in Lima at the College of San Martín. It was here that he acquired his love of mathematics. He also studied hydrography, as a mathematical science...
, Viceroy Melchor Liñán y Cisneros
Melchor Liñán y Cisneros
Melchor Liñán y Cisneros was a Spanish prelate, colonial official, and viceroy Peru, from July 7, 1678 to November 20, 1681)....
(with the approval of the Crown) gave mathematics a permanent position in the University of San Marcos. Mathematics was attached to the chair of cosmography. Doctor Juan Ramón Koening, a Belgian by birth, was named to the chair.http://sisbib.unmsm.edu.pe/Bibvirtual/Tesis/Ingenie/Ccente_P_E/cap2.htm. Viceroy Manuel de Guirior created two new chairs at the university.
Luis Enríquez de Guzmán, conde de Alba de Liste founded the Naval Academy of the colony. Francisco Gil de Taboada supported the navigation school. Teodoro de Croix
Teodoro de Croix
Teodoro de Croix was a Spanish soldier and colonial official in New Spain and Peru. From April 6, 1784 to March 25, 1790 he was viceroy of Peru.-Background:...
began the Botanic Garden of Lima.
Francisco de Borja y Aragón also founded, in Cuzco
Cusco
Cusco , often spelled Cuzco , is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cuzco Province. In 2007, the city had a population of 358,935 which was triple the figure of 20 years ago...
, the Colegio del Príncipe for sons of the Indigenous nobility and the Colegio de San Francisco for sons of the conquistadors. Manuel de Amat y Juniet founded the Royal College of San Carlos.
The first books printed in Peru were produced by Antonio Ricardo
Antonio Ricardo
Antonio Ricciardi, better known as Antonio Ricardo , was an Italian from Turin, who became the first printer in South America, working in Lima in Peru from 1584 until his death in 1605 or 1606.-Biography:...
, a printer from Turin who settled in Lima. Diego de Benavides y de la Cueva built the first theater in Lima. Manuel de Oms y de Santa Pau founded a literary academy in 1709 and promoted weekly literary discussions in the palace that attracted some of Lima's best writers. These included the famous Criollo
Criollo people
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...
scholar Pedro Peralta y Barnuevo and several Indigenous poets. Oms introduced French and Italian fashions in the viceroyalty. The Italian musician Rocco Cerruti (1688–1760) arrived in Peru. Francisco Gil de Taboada supported the foundation of the newspaper El Mercurio Peruano in 1791 and founded the Academy of Fine Arts.
Jesuit Barnabé de Cobo (1582–1657), who explored Mexico and Peru, brought the cinchona bark from Lima to Spain in 1632, and afterwards to Rome and other parts of Italy.
In 1737 Jorge Juan y Santacilia
Jorge Juan y Santacilia
Jorge Juan y Santacilia was a Spanish mathematician, scientist, naval officer, and mariner.-Family and Education:...
and Antonio de Ulloa
Antonio de Ulloa
Antonio de Ulloa y de la Torre-Girault was a Spanish general, explorer, author, astronomer, colonial administrator and the first Spanish governor of Louisiana.Rebellion of 1768]]....
, Spanish scientists sent by the French Academy on a scientific mission
French Geodesic Mission
The French Geodesic Mission was an 18th-century expedition to what is now Ecuador carried out for the purpose of measuring the roundness of the Earth and measuring the length of a degree of longitude at the Equator...
to measure a degree of meridian arc
Meridian arc
In geodesy, a meridian arc measurement is a highly accurate determination of the distance between two points with the same longitude. Two or more such determinations at different locations then specify the shape of the reference ellipsoid which best approximates the shape of the geoid. This...
at the equator, arrived in the colony. They also had the mission of reporting on disorganization and corruption in the government and smuggling. Their report was published later, under the title Noticias Secretas de América (Secret News From America).
Hipólito Ruiz López
Hipólito Ruiz López , or Hipólito Ruiz, was a Spanish botanist known for researching the floras of Peru and Chile during an expedition under Carlos III from 1777 to 1788...
, José Antonio Pavón and Joseph Dombey
Joseph Dombey
Joseph Dombey was a French botanist. He was involved in the “Dombey affair” which was precipitated by British seizure of a vessel his collections were on and diversion of the collections to the British Museum.-Biography:He ran away from home and acquired a thorough knowledge of botany in...
, sent to study the flora of the viceroyalty. The expedition lasted from 1777 to 1788. Their findings were later published as La flora peruana y chilena (The Flora of Peru and Chile). Again a major concern was stimulating the economy, which Guirior did by adopting liberal measures in agriculture, mining, commerce and industry.
Another French influence on science in the colony was Louis Godin
Louis Godin
Louis Godin was a French astronomer and member of the French Academy of Sciences. He worked in Peru, Spain, Portugal and France.-Biography:...
, another member of the meridian expedition. He was appointed cosmógrafo mayor by Viceroy Mendoza.http://www.chimpum-callao.com/historia/manso.html The duties of cosmógrafo mayor included publishing almanacs and sailing instructions. Another French scientist in Peru at this time was Charles Marie de La Condamine
Charles Marie de La Condamine
Charles Marie de La Condamine was a French explorer, geographer, and mathematician. He spent ten years in present-day Ecuador measuring the length of a degree latitude at the equator and preparing the first map of the Amazon region based on astronomical observations.-Biography:Charles Marie de La...
.
The Balmis Expedition
Balmis Expedition
The Balmis Expedition was a three year mission to the Americas led by Dr Francisco Javier de Balmis with the aim of giving thousands the smallpox vaccine. He set off from La Coruña on 30 November 1803...
arrived in Lima on May 23, 1806. At the same time these viceroys adopted rigorous measures to suppress the thought of the Encyclopedists and revolutionaries in the United States and France.
On 1671, Saint Rose of Lima was canonized by Pope Clement X
Pope Clement X
Pope Clement X , born Emilio Bonaventura Altieri, was Pope from 29 April 1670 to 22 July 1676.-Early life:Emilio Altieri was born in Rome, the son of Lorenzo Altieri and Victoria Delphini, a Venetian lady...
. Rose was the first native-born American to become a Catholic saint. Pope Benedict XIII
Pope Benedict XIII
-Footnotes:...
elevated another two important Peruvian saints, Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo and Francisco de Solano
Francis Solanus
Saint Francis Solanus, O.F.M., was a Spanish friar and missionary in South America, belonging to the Order of Friars Minor , who is honored as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.-Early life:...
.
Diego Quispe Tito
Diego Quispe Tito
Diego Quispe Tito was a Peruvian painter. He is considered the leader of the Cuzco School of painting.The son of a noble Inca family, Quispe Tito was born in Cuzco, and worked throughout his life in the district of San Sebastián; his house is still extant, and shows his coat of arms on its door...
was a famous artist before the age of Independence.
See also
- ColonialismColonialismColonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
- List of Viceroys of Peru
- Spanish colonization of the AmericasSpanish colonization of the AmericasColonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
- Spanish EmpireSpanish EmpireThe Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
- Viceroyalty of New Spain