This entry is a subtopic of Spanish Colonies.
The viceroyalty of Peru covered virtually all of Spanish-speaking South America, an area that today encompasses all or part of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay. Its topography and climates vary, from the deserts of coastal Peru and Chile to the rainforests of the upper Amazon basin, the Mediterranean climate of Chile's central valley, and the glaciated Andean peaks and nearby alpine meadows. The unifying element is the Andes Mountains, which stretch down the western coast of Central and South America from Panama to Tierra del Fuego.
Geographical Setting
The Andean mountain range extends south 4,971 miles (8,000 km) from northern Colombia to Tierra del Fuego. In Chile the range is narrow; in Bolivia it is broadest. South of the Gulf of Guayaquil the mountains seem to rise abruptly out of the Pacific, and there is a deep-sea trench along the coast. The highest summits approach 22,966 feet (7,000 m). The vertical distance from the deepest part of the trench to the Andean peaks reaches 45,931 feet (14,000 m). Numerous volcanoes—active, dormant, and extinct—occur throughout the chain, and there are frequent earthquakes. Although ferrous metals and coal are absent, there is abundant mineral wealth, and for centuries deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc have been exploited.
The cold-water counterclockwise Humboldt Current sweeps northward along South America's coast; in northern Peru it curves westward. This current, with its prevailing southwesterly winds, provides a temperate climate—even near the equator—and is responsible for the desert conditions of coastal Peru as well. During El Niño periods, the current shifts, and a warm coastal countercurrent from Ecuador filters southward. Rapid increases in humidity, heavy rainfall, and flooding along the normally desert coast occur, causing catastrophic damage. The Humboldt Current also nurtures rich marine life, providing a staple food in communities along the western coast of South America.
Preconquest Peru
When the Spanish arrived in the sixteenth century, the population was spread over the region, on the coast, highlands, and upper Amazon basin. Andean peoples were settled agriculturalists, supplementing their diets by fishing and hunting. In desert coastal valleys some had developed highly sophisticated irrigation and terrace agriculture. There is debate over the number of Amerindians when the Spanish came; 14 million in the polity established by the Inca is generally accepted as a reasonable estimate. That population was composed of several dozen ethnic entities. Quechua and Aymara were the principal language groups, and there were many dialects and other discrete languages. Under Inca Pachacuti in the mid-1400s, the Quechua-speaking Inca united many Andean ethnic groups in a period of rapid expansion from their base in and around the Cuzco Valley. This relatively recent empire was in turn quickly conquered by a small group of Europeans under Francisco Pizarro.
European Conquest and Settlement
In contrast to Mexico, where Spanish conquest and stable political organization came quickly, Peru's first years were characterized by native resistance, rebellion, and internal strife among the conquerors. A division of authority among partners Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, and Panamanian cleric Hernando de Luque (acting for a silent investor) led to dissension. Pizarro conducted most of the exploration along South America's west coast, Almagro supplied men by sea, and Luque handled affairs in Panama.
Hardships were extreme and many explorers died. The halting second expedition (1526 to mid-1528) reached the mid-coast of Peru, where they first encountered conclusive evidence of wealthy populations. The partners agreed to return Pizarro to Spain to report and secure royal authorization for conquest and settlement. The contract with the crown (26 July 1529) provided Pizarro with the lion's share as governor and captain general, leaving Luque bishop of Tumbes, and Almagro the administration of its fortress.
The suspicions of the partners in Panama were realized—Pizarro was untrustworthy—and future interactions among the men were based on distrust and greed. Almagro's complaints to the crown ultimately led to his appointment as governor of the land south of Pizarro's jurisdiction, but the boundaries and wealth of the territory were unclear.
The third and final voyage of discovery began in December 1530. Much time was wasted in coastal Ecuador, with the result that it was not until September 1532 that San Miguel de Piura was founded as a Spanish town on Peru's north coast. At San Miguel, Pizarro left the ill and old and marched toward the Inca heartland. There were only 168 Spaniards, but they took Indian allies with them. The Inca Atahualpa was resting with a large army near Cajamarca, following victories over his half-brother Huascar. Both had contested the succession after their father Huayna Capac succumbed to smallpox in the mid-1520s. Atahualpa was surprised, taken captive by the Spanish, and forced to rule as a puppet until his execution (26 July 1533). The Spanish were offered a ransom—Atahualpa promised to fill two large rooms, one with gold, the other with silver—but, in spite of his compliance, he was killed on the basis of dubious charges.
The Spanish then marched southward through the Andes toward the Inca capital, and finally entered Cuzco (14 November 1533). Native resistance was modest; not all Andean ethnic groups rallied to the Inca cause. Pizarro, as the expedition's governor and captain-general, held extensive political authority. His contract with the crown empowered him to distribute treasure, provide the conquistadors with tributary grants (encomiendas, a system that gave the Spanish control over native populations and required those populations to pay tribute to them), establish cities, and distribute unclaimed lands. His power was checked only by Spanish custom and the presence of a royal legal agent and treasury official.
Spanish cities were quickly founded: Cuzco (23 March 1534), Lima (6 January 1535), with Trujillo, Puerto Viejo, and Guayaquil before year's end; Chachapoyas and La Plata in 1538, Huamanga in 1539, and Arequipa in 1540. Personal rivalries and the internecine fight for spoils, however, prevented the early creation of a stable administration. To summarize a complex series of events: Almagro set out from Cuzco to explore his supposedly rich domain to the south in July 1535. Shortly thereafter a generalized rebellion against Spanish rule in the Andes, extending from north of Lima to Lake Titicaca, erupted under the leadership of Manco Inca. Cuzco was besieged by thousands of natives and communications were cut between the Spanish camps. Almagro returned from his disastrous reconnaissance of Chile in 1537 and helped lift the siege. He now claimed that Cuzco lay within his jurisdiction and captured Hernando Pizarro. But at the Battle of Las Salinas (26 April 1538), Almagro was captured, tried, and subsequently executed by Pizarro. Three years later (26 July 1541), a group of Almagrists under Almagro's mestizo son, Diego de Almagro the Younger, surprised and assassinated Francisco Pizarro in Lima and took control of the realm. The crown already had sent a new administrator, Cristóbal Vaca de Castro, who carried orders to investigate the problems besetting Peru and bring to justice those implicated in Pizarro's death. In the ensuing Battle of Chupas (16 September 1542), Governor Vaca de Castro defeated Almagro the Younger, who was later captured and executed.
At this juncture one might expect that royal authority had been fully established. Indeed, by the New Laws of 1542, the viceroyalty of Peru was created, and its audiencia (royal court) authorized. Both the justices (oidores) and the first viceroy, Blasco Núñez Vela, were authorized to sail to Peru and to found a government in the coastal capital of Lima, but the New Laws also included important provisions for the protection of Amerindians living under the encomienda regime. Most devastating for settlers hoping to establish American dynasties, the grant was to be only temporary. In Mexico, Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza suspended enforcement of the legislation pending review of its impact, thereby avoiding rebellion.
In Peru, Núñez Vela made clear his intent to enforce the new order no matter the consequences. Not surprisingly, the encomenderos (the Spaniards who collected tribute from the Indians) resisted. Their captain was a reluctant Gonzalo Pizarro, another Pizarro sibling. The new viceroy's arrogance and his involvement in the killing of a royal official convinced wavering colonists to join the movement. The viceroy was imprisoned and shipped to Spain, but escaped in Ecuador and collected a royalist force. The rebels under Pizarro defeated the viceroy at the Battle of Añaquito near Quito (18 January 1546), and the viceroy was killed.
Aware of the deteriorating situation in the Andes, the Council of the Indies named cleric Pedro de la Gasca president of the audiencia, gave him broad powers, and sent him to inspect the land and reestablish royal authority. Armed with blank papers signed by the king, he reached Panama in August 1546 and slowly began to collect adherents by issuing pardons and rewards. In spite of their rebellious nature, the Peruvian elite largely supported the monarchy; there was, after all, no alternative example of an independent Andean realm under European leadership.
There were two important battles. In the first, the Battle of Huarina (21 October 1547), royalists were soundly defeated by Caravajal's effective use of artillery. Pizarro, however, was unable or unwilling to complete his victory, and he moved southward toward Lake Titicaca instead. In the Battle of Xaquixahuana (9 April 1548), near Cuzco, Pizarro's supporters deserted and crossed the field to the side of La Gasca. Pizarro was taken and executed, along with Caravajal and other ringleaders, a few days later. This victory largely brought the Spanish settlers under royal authority, although there would be brief, weak uprisings in the mid-1550s.
Administrative Organization
By the early 1560s the administrative superstructure was largely complete and the viceroyalty system seemed firmly established. Lima was the capital. The viceroy, sometimes a relative of the royal family, who by birth and education could command respect, was appointed in Spain by the Council of the Indies. The viceroy's arrival in Peru with his large retinue of extended family and other officials was celebrated with festivities and civic displays. There were twenty-three Peruvian viceroys under the Habsburg dynasty; their average tenure was eight years. Frequently, they first served as viceroy of New Spain, a less prestigious post. The viceroy was the chief military and administrative officer: he sat as president of the audiencia when it was in session, appointed lesser officials and supervised administration, and was responsible for defense in times of emergency. His power was checked only by treasury officials with a direct link to the Council of the Indies, and individuals who were willing to communicate directly to the crown to voice their concerns. This occurred surprisingly frequently, for subjects could always directly petition the king. There could be open or secret investigations (visitas) of his administration, and, at the end of his term, he was subject to review (residencia).
The audiencia in the viceregal capital took precedence over lesser courts. Audiencias were established in Panama (1538), Lima (1542), Santa Fe de Bogotá (1549), Charcas (1559), Quito (1563), Chile (1565, 1609), Buenos Aires (1661, reverted to Charcas in 1671), and finally Cuzco (1787). The president presided with four to a dozen oidores ('chief justices'), depending on the period and importance of the jurisdiction. The president was usually the oldest oidor, and, when a viceroy died or was absent for some reason, the president of the audiencia served as chief official. In its normal activity as a court, the audiencia met several times weekly. Appeals of the court's decisions went directly to Spain's Council of the Indies. There were several associated officials of the court including a secretary, a recorder, a solicitor (procurador), a chaplain, and the crown's attorney (fiscal). Almost all the higher officials came from Spain.
The closest experience to local rule in the viceroyalty was the town councils (cabildos). The cabildo had jurisdiction over all the territory from the boundary of one Spanish city to another. Officials came from the local elite, those with land and Indian encomiendas; they were named by the leader when the town was founded. Pizarro, for example, founded towns such as Lima and Trujillo, and made the original land grants, both urban plots and rural agricultural lands, and named local officials. Afterward, the city, as a corporation, assumed the right to sell or rent lands, levy taxes, regulate trade and prices, oversee the markets and construct bridges, public buildings, and a water supply. The council met regularly. In the first meeting in January the body elected officials such as the two alcaldes ordinarios ('town magistrates'), the regidores ('town councilmen' or 'aldermen'), the alguacil mayor ('sheriff'), a jailor, and inspectors of weights and measures and other officials. The number of regidores, usually four to eight, depended on the importance of the place. Under the Habsburgs the crown sold many offices to relieve financial strain. The cabildo could act as a minor court in lesser crimes. According to Viceroy Francisco de Toledo's Ordinances, Indian towns had a similar administrative structure.
At first, control of the native population of the countryside was left to encomenderos, but because of their abuses of power this quickly changed. In the mid-1560s Governor Cristóbal Garcia de Castro introduced the corregimiento system that divided the viceroyalty into several dozen units under an Indian agent called a corregidor. By then the encomenderos were forced to reside in the nearest Spanish city rather than in their encomienda. The corregimientos, often composed of several encomiendas, paralleled Andean ethnic units or Inca provinces. The corregidores collected tribute in goods and cash, administered justice as judges in minor cases, supervised local church activities, and provided security. They also disbursed funds to pay the salaries of local leaders and teachers of religion, and doled out to the encomenderos their share of the tribute. Their term of office averaged three to five years, and, in order to avoid corruption, they were to come from the outside and not have relatives in the same district. There were frequent abuses, however, because their salaries were insufficient and there were numerous ways in which an enterprising corregidor could supplement his income.
The Colonial Economy
The colonial Andean economy was based on three pillars: a largely Amerindian labor force; mining, principally silver and, concurrently, mercury, which boosted silver output; and agriculture. Several economic cycles operated. In the first months and years the economy was blatantly exploitative; the goal of most Spaniards was to extract the maximum amount of wealth as quickly as possible and return to Spain. The sacking of local leaders and despoliation of burial sites went on as long as the treasures, amassed over generations, could be easily expropriated. Incredible riches were despoiled: 168 men, for example, shared the booty of Atahualpa's ransom. The astute and fortunate quickly returned to Spain. Unfortunately, the men who arrived earliest had control of the lion's share of the treasures. One quickly sought-out source of wealth and power was the encomienda, which provided a cash tribute payment plus access to labor in return for bringing Christianity and "good government" to the Indians. A large encomienda permitted a life of leisure for the Spanish recipient, so grants were worth fighting for. The first systematic distribution of encomiendas by Pizarro occurred in 1538, although he had made grants earlier when the first Spanish cities were founded.
Another avenue to wealth came through land. In early colonial Peru a land grant without laborers was almost worthless. Here the Spanish attitude of hidalguía ('nobility') prevailed: a gentleman did not labor with his hands. As long as there was an ample native population, or, later, African slaves, there was no problem, but the number of Amerindians began to decline steadily. Around 1560, however, land became a viable source of wealth and power; by then all the available Indians had been granted in encomienda. Outright enslavement of Indians was prohibited by the crown, and, except for a trickle of captives taken during rebellion or in frontier regions, Indian slavery did not provide labor for the colony.
The state played little economic role in the conquest; the enterprise was largely left to individuals or family investors, who pooled resources to join in the expeditions. Spain merely authorized the actions, naming someone to be the principal leader, and then made certain that royal treasury officials were present to take the king's share. At first the most important revenue for the crown was the quinto, or fifth, that the government received for any mineral wealth, precious stones, and other key products. With the mines, the crown received a stable and reliable source of quinto revenues for many decades. The crown also administered part of Indian tribute. The sales tax, or alcabala, was collected on petty commerce in the Spanish cities, but not in the barter economy of the rural countryside. There were many other minor sources of revenue: government monopolies on playing cards, ice, and stamped paper; taxes on the sale of slaves; and special taxes to assist in paying costs for transportation and defense. In the seventeenth century, the crown increasingly resorted to the sale of public offices.
Much gold was taken during the first years of the colony, with much of it being plundered. Gold was also extracted in many places in the viceroyalty; for substantial production, placer mining in riverbeds that carried alluvial gold dust and nuggets was preferred. Unfortunately, the costs of placer mining, which required a large labor force, often consisting of expensive imported slaves, were too high to warrant exploitation, save for a few very rich gold sources such as Carabaya in the upper Amazon basin or Colombia's Atrato River.
Silver ore, on the other hand, was ubiquitous, and silver mining was the key to the economy of colonial Peru, and, indeed, fueled Spanish imperial activities. There were dozens of quickly exploited mines. The most famous was Potosí; the mountain, which had been known by native miners, was "discovered" by Spaniards in April 1545. Within months there were more than a dozen significant mine operators, each vying to secure the richest veins and competing for laborers. A principal problem was extracting the silver from the crushed ore, which required substantial heat. There was no coal, or even wood for charcoal, at Potosí's elevation of 13,123 feet (4,000 m). Native technology relied on small puna-grass-fired blast furnaces located on the top of slopes where wind was strong and predictable. Such a method of combustion functioned only while the supply lasted. Fortunately, it was discovered that mercury has an affinity for silver, and under the right conditions combines with it, extracting silver from crushed ore. The amalgam can be heated at relatively low temperatures, the mercury comes off as a gas, and the molten silver remains to be poured into a mold to form an ingot. One of the world's richest sources of mercury was discovered at Huancavelica in Peru's central Andes in 1565.
With the technical problem of production solved, the labor supply once again became the primary issue. Viceroy Toledo solved that dilemma with the mita system. By his order, one-seventh of the tributary population of sixteen Indian provinces near Potosí was required to work in the mines one month each seven years as mitayos. It was paid labor, and there was a daily stipend and travel allowance, although the amount was less than the market price. Toledo partly borrowed the idea from the Incas, who used mitayos on great public works projects. Under Toledo, mitayos were also used in Spanish cities for the mita de plaza to help build churches, city offices, bridges, and water systems, and they were also used in other essential activities. Such labor demands could disrupt native subsistence activities, with damaging consequences. Furthermore, work in the mercury mines was unhealthy, and there were constant fatalities associated with all mining efforts: cave-ins, flooding, and dangerous gases.
Although colonial mining was the economic engine supporting Spain and her imperial demands in Europe, agriculture also played a role in the viceroyalty of Peru. Herding and the associated production of wool were a constant in the Andean highlands. The animals could be native llamas and alpacas, or imported sheep, and woolen cloth was required as part of the Indian tribute payment in wide sectors of the Andes. Production tended to be in the hands of families, with women doing most weaving, similar to "cottage production" in premodern Europe. Here, however, it was not for profit, but tribute payment. The amount varied, but was usually not more than one piece per adult male tributory each year. Quality also varied, with substantial cloth production consumed internally rather than being sold for export. In some regions small textile mills (obrajes) were established by European entrepreneurs, with production for export in mind. Indians worked in these—those in the audiencia of Quito district were famous for their blue woolens—and female and child labor caused cries of alarm by those witnessing abuses.
Wheat was introduced and proved adaptable to highland production. At first wheat production tended to be cultivated near Spanish cities, for the European populations, but by the eighteenth century much wheat produced in the viceroyalty was grown in the central valley of Chile. The native population continued to prefer native staples: corn, potatoes, quinua, or, in warm humid areas, corn and manioc. Of course there were a host of native plants that had been domesticated that continued to be preferred by the autochthonous population. Europeans introduced grape and olive cultivation, but these products competed directly with Andalusian wine and olive oil shipped by Sevillian merchants, and regulations against American production, coupled with technical difficulties, meant that they never achieved true export status in the colonial period.
For alcoholic beverages the native populations used chicha, a light corn beer, or aguardiente, produced from sugarcane. Sugarcane was introduced into some of the irrigated valleys of north and central coastal Peru, and by the early seventeenth century was produced in quantities ample for local supply. In Paraguay, however, sugarcane was planted for export. Jesuits often participated in the direction of the plantations in both locales.
The Social Order
Colonial society was hierarchical, with clear distinctions, making it possible to identify one's position in society. At the same time there was a near caste order, with the blocks of Amerindians, Europeans, and sub-Saharan Africans providing the human material for an evolving colonial society. Although the social groups were initially separate, the evolution was toward a mestizo world.
When the Europeans entered the Andean world, indigenous ethnic peoples varied; there were dozens of separate linguistic groups, with a wide range of possible cultural characteristics. The Inca empire covered much, but not all, of the territory that would be called the viceroyalty of Peru. The Inca had accepted and maintained local folkways, even as they were attempting administrative uniformity, religious acceptance of a general Inca cult, and the use of the Quechua language. The Spanish continued Inca policies, including quechuaization, with Christianity replacing the imperial cult. The common division of native society was between commoner and leader, called a kuraka ('chieftain'). Leadership was usually not hereditary, but based on merit, although the tendency was for leadership to be held within certain families. There was always a group of elders that commanded respect and was involved in any important community decisions. In Andean societies there was rough gender equality, with parallel inheritance. The fundamental social unit was the ayllu, an extended family unit that understood itself as having a common ancestor, generally not identified as a person, but as a physical place, such as a volcano, spring, or lake. The ayllu shared resources and production, and collaborated on various activities necessary for group survival. It was not a money economy; products were exchanged as needed among ayllu members on the basis of customary value equivalencies. In the central Andes there was also a moiety-like structure, with divisions into halves called saya. There is considerable debate about the nature of both ayllu and saya among ethnohistorians. There was competition between the saya, some of it ritualized, which may have contributed to community stability.
The Spanish adopted these rather complex structures as they set up the viceroyalty of Peru. They ruled in conjunction with the local kurakas, giving them a special status, permitting them to wear silk, bear arms, and ride horses, normally prohibited for the Indian commoners. The kuraka helped collect tribute for the Spanish officials, they chose the mitayos, and they helped maintain community solidarity. Although all Amerindians could participate in agricultural activities, there was specialization of labor.
Hierarchy also existed within the African community, and the legal condition of slave or free marked the first boundary. Africans came on the earliest expeditions, and their number increased rapidly after the Spanish began to found cities. The number of free blacks engaged in the trades was initially small, and they clustered in skills such as blacksmithing and tanning. Successful wealthy conquerors often purchased household slaves, who provided a status symbol representing conspicuous consumption, since slaves were costly in the early colony. With the collapse of the Amerindian population along the viceroyalty's coast, increasing numbers of slaves were imported to labor on coastal sugar and cotton estates. The Jesuits came to use large numbers on various plantations. Slaves were also used in placer gold extraction in the Esmeraldas district of coastal Ecuador and in rivers of the upper Amazon basin.
Labor conditions were so harsh in some of these that numerous slaves escaped and set up runaway communities of their own. Those of coastal Colombia and Ecuador are particularly well-documented. The Catholic Church viewed the soul of the African to be just as valuable as the soul of anyone else. As a result, the question of the immorality of holding another person in bondage worried the Spaniard, and manumission was viewed positively. There were frequent manumissions of slaves by their masters at important life events, such as a marriage, birth of a child, or the approach of death. The demographic consequence within the viceroyalty was a continuously growing population of free blacks, who tended to cluster in the Spanish cities, especially along the coast. Within that free black community there was also a hierarchy, with some slaves also owning slaves.
There were two principal elements in the European group, the peninsulares, those who were born in Europe, and the creoles, those born in the New World. The peninsulares usually held the political appointments, whereas the creoles tended to be wealthier. It is no surprise that there was friction between them. The European social ladder was based on wealth; nonetheless all Europeans, no matter how poor they might be, saw themselves as superior to the other groups. Hence, Spaniards of lesser status, including miners, artisans, and craftsmen, as well as drifters in search of fortune, attempted to throw off their low-status baggage and emulated the lifestyle of the elite. Although it was difficult to convince other Spaniards of their new status, the Indians, blacks, and mestizos had little choice but to suffer their overbearing ways. Given that only the first conquerors had any real chance of success in securing an encomienda, the newcomer might make it through trade, perhaps first as a merchant's factor, or in mining, given technical knowledge. Any excess capital would be invested in land, which provided the foundation for social recognition.
Preferred marriage was within the group. Although families played a large role in the selection of a spouse, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there was a remarkable degree of individual choice. The Spanish woman was expected to uphold all the Christian virtues and to be an emblem of the family; beyond this there was a remarkable range of possibilities. The married Spanish woman could expect to have a household servant or even a slave, which was less likely for her female relative in the peninsula. In the absence of a male in the household, either by death or prolonged absence, the woman assumed the full range of economic activities, administering the household, supervising business, even buying and selling properties. The Spanish pattern of inheritance was for equal distribution of the estate, which provided the daughters with virtually the same capital as their brothers. Only the very rich with an entailed estate (mayorazgo) provided the eldest son with the major property and title.
The process of mixing the three primary ethnic populations began immediately and continued throughout the colonial period. From the European standpoint the mixture was most pronounced in the first decades when there were few Spanish women. Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, and other leaders set the example. The mixed offspring foreshadowed the future population, but their access to high social standing was frustrated. In the first place many, if not most, were illegitimate. Many conquistadores took Indian women or black slaves as concubines and produced numerous progeny, only later to discard the mother and her brood and marry a Spanish woman. In some cases elite native women, for example the Inca princesses (ñusta), or daughters of kurakas, who brought land, livestock, and other sources of wealth into the relationship, might secure legal matrimony. There are several well-known cases of such matches, perhaps the best-known being the marriage of ñusta doña Beatriz Coya, one of the granddaughters of Inca Huayna Capac, to Captain Martín García de Loyola, a relative of the founder of the Jesuit Order. The possibility for social advancement of the mestizos was limited, for they were between worlds. Raised by their mothers and too often rejected by their fathers, they were portrayed in the popular literature as shifty, untrustworthy, and volatile. The church might have provided an avenue of social mobility for them, but after several notorious cases of misbehavior by mestizo clergy, the church rejected the idea. The church also rejected an Indian clergy. Not all mestizos were unsuccessful, however, and many gained status and recognition as majordomos, muleteers, petty merchants, and miners.
Spiritual Conquest
The process of effective Christianization of Andean South America was slow and required generations. Hernando de Luque, one of the three original participants in the conquest of Peru, was named "Protector of the Indians" and bishop of Tumbez in 1528, although he never reached his post. The first clergyman in Peru was friar Vicente de Valverde, who confronted the Inca Atahualpa with religious text in hand at the square of Cajamarca in 1532. The encounter boded ill for Christianization. Efforts to bring Christianity to the Indian populations were at first left to the leading figures. Pizarro invited clerics and friars, and with grants of encomiendas the Spanish recipients were initially required to find someone to catechize their Indian charges. By the 1540s representatives of the principal church orders were present: Dominicans, Franciscans, Mercedarians, and the Augustinians. The Jesuits arrived in 1569 and soon played a major role in educating the children of the region's elite. Much of the conversion of Indian parishes (called doctrinas) was left to the friars; the secular clergy preferred to work in the churches of the Spanish cities where opportunities for advancement were greatest. Soon convents were established in the major centers for daughters of the conquistadores and the native elite; Cuzco alone had the convents of Santa Clara (1558), Santa Catalina (1605), and finally Santa Teresa (1673).
The church's administrative hierarchy evolved rapidly. In 1538 Dominican friar Vicente de Valverde became first bishop of Cuzco, a diocese that extended from modern Colombia to Chile. Lima became the seat of a bishopric in 1541, under the leadership of another Dominican friar, Jerónimo de Loaysa, and by 1549 it had become an archbishopric holding spiritual jurisdiction over all Spanish South America. By the early seventeenth century, bishoprics were seated in Charcas, Paraguay, Buenos Aires, Tucumán, Santiago de Chile, and Concepción. For effective conversion it was necessary for the clerics to learn Amerindian languages, and dictionaries and grammars prepared by missionaries quickly began to circulate in manuscript form. The first book published in South America was the Doctrina Cristiana, a trilingual text in Spanish, Quechua, and Aymara, published in Lima in 1584.
There were several general church councils to oversee the Andean mission. One of the most important was the Third Lima Church Council of 1583, which resulted in the standard catechism, in conformity with the precepts of the Council of Trent. Purity of the faith of the Amerindians was handled by religious inspections ordered by the bishops, a principal task being to extirpate idolatries. The natives were exempt from the Inquisition, however, introduced into Peru by Viceroy Francisco de Toledo in 1570. During its active years, between 1573 and 1773, thirty people were condemned and executed for a variety of offenses, from witchcraft to Protestantism of various sorts to "converted" Jews who practiced Judaism in secret. Hundreds of others received lesser sentences, and the institution successfully checked the spread of nonconformity in the colony, as it reinforced respect for authority. Although the conversion of Andean peoples was largely successful, native traditions were deeply embedded and quickly blended into the daily practices of the colonial church.
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—NOBLE DAVID COOK
