| Content from Wikipedia under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license ⇔ Maps from OpenStreetMap under the ODbL license |
Viceroyalty of Peru
The Viceroyalty of Peru was a territorial entity of the Spanish Empire created by the Spanish Crown in 1542, with its capital in the city of Lima, during its rule in the New World. At first, its territory comprised almost all of South America, including Panama and some islands of Oceania. It did not, however, include Venezuela, which depended on the Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo, nor the territories east of the line of the Treaty of Tordesillas, which belonged to the Empire of Portugal.[4] Two centuries later, its immense territory suffered three major reductions. In 1717 the Viceroyalty of New Granada was created to the north. In 1776 the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata was created to the south. At the same time, the Portuguese colony of Brazil extended its borders by taking territories of the Amazon.
Despite the territorial losses, at the beginning of the 19th century the Viceroyalty of Peru was still the principal possession of the Spanish Crown, as it was one of its main sources of wealth.[5]
The process of Spanish American independence began the end of the viceroyalty, a conflict in which it remained on the royalist side and served as an important bastion and strategic center of the Spanish Crown in South America. This led to war with the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (created after the fall of the viceroyalty of the same name), which, by contrast, had chosen the path of independence and from 1810 sent liberating forces in all directions. After making independent the Captaincy General of Chile, the Río de la Plata general José de San Martín turned his attention once again to Peru and prepared a naval attack. The campaign was a success and San Martín declared the independence of Peru, only to withdraw immediately afterward from his military career. Areas still remained under royalist control, so the pro-independence task was continued by the Gran Colombian general Simón Bolívar with the intervention of Gran Colombia, who used the support of the Peruvian guerrillas and all the logistical resources of the Peruvian highlands, requisitioning everything necessary for a war of positions. After the Battle of Ayacucho the viceroyalty lost its course, with only a few pockets of loyalty to the Crown in the Andes and on the coast of Lower and Upper Peru. With internal divisions, without aid from peninsular Spain and practically isolated from the world, the resistance of the Peruvian viceroyalty succumbed in 1824.
History
Background
With the entry of the Spaniards into the city of Cuzco in 1534, the military conquest of Peru carried out by Francisco Pizarro came to an end, and the development of Spanish settlement began in the area dominated until then by the Inca Empire or Tawantinsuyu.
Creation of the viceroyalty
At the same time as the fall of the Inca Empire was taking place, a conflict broke out among the conquistadors. To end it, on November 20, 1542, King Charles I of Spain signed in Barcelona, by Royal Cédula, the so-called New Laws, a body of legislation for the Indies in which, among other things, he ordered the creation of the Viceroyalty of Peru to replace the former governorates of New Castile and New León, while the seat of the Real Audiencia of Panama was moved to the City of the Kings or Lima, capital of the new viceroyalty.
and we order and command that in the provinces or kingdoms of Peru there shall reside a viceroy and a royal audiencia of four lettered oidores, and that the said viceroy shall preside over the said audiencia, which shall reside in the city of the kings, as it is in the most convenient part, because from now on there is to be no audiencia in Panama.
— New Laws
The brand-new viceroyalty comprised from the outset, and for almost three hundred years, a large part of South America and the Isthmus of Panama, under various forms of control or supervision by its authorities. It covered an immense area corresponding to the present-day territories that form part of the republics of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and the entire western and southern region of Brazil. Excepted were Venezuela, under the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of New Spain through the Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo, and Brazil, which formed part of the Portuguese Empire.
Its first viceroy was Blasco Núñez Vela, appointed by royal cédula of March 1, 1543. However, he was unable to exercise royal authority because of the clashes between the supporters of Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro for control of Peru, and he was killed by Gonzalo Pizarro. The murder of the King's highest authority caused great consternation in Spain; the Crown resolved to punish severely whoever had attacked the Viceroy, the King's representative in the conquered territories. To that end, Charles I sent Pedro de la Gasca with the title of Pacifier to resolve this situation. Once in Peru, La Gasca, confident that he had sown the seed of treason among Gonzalo Pizarro's supporters, confronted the conquistador near Cuzco in 1548. Gonzalo Pizarro saw his captains go over to La Gasca's side, and the defeat was crushing for him. Taken to the City of Cuzco, he was executed for the crime of high treason against the King. A few years later, in 1551, Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco was appointed Viceroy, after having held the office in the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
Viceroy Álvarez de Toledo
After almost forty years of administrative disorder, the Peruvian viceroyalty found an efficient leader in Viceroy Francisco Álvarez de Toledo, who, between 1569 and 1581, succeeded in establishing the political-administrative framework that governed viceregal Peru for many years.
As soon as he arrived in Peruvian lands, Francisco Álvarez de Toledo informed himself of everything that had happened in the viceroyalty and of the policies followed until then. He recognized the absence of an adequate tax system, since there was no record of the total number of inhabitants of the viceroyalty. Álvarez de Toledo personally carried out several extensive general inspections of different parts of the viceroyalty, and for the first time there was a record of the human and natural resources of Peru. Having learned the number of possible tributaries, he established the reductions, indigenous towns in which around five hundred families were grouped together. In this way the amount of tribute they had to deliver was known exactly.
Viceroy Álvarez de Toledo promoted the distribution of indigenous labor by means of the mita. Through it, labor was supplied to the rich mines of Potosí, in the Province of Charcas, which produced immense quantities of silver ore, and to Huancavelica, from which mercury or quicksilver was extracted, necessary for the purification of silver, thereby turning Peru into one of the most important centers of silver production in the world.
Francisco Álvarez de Toledo was the most outstanding Viceroy of Peru since, owing to the successes he achieved as an official, he laid the foundations of the Peruvian viceroyalty, for he achieved the administrative ordering of the government and the political legality of its entire vast territory.
The silver cycle
1) Real Audiencia of Panama
2) Real Audiencia of Santa Fe de Bogotá
3) Real Audiencia of Quito
4) Real Audiencia of Lima
5) Real Audiencia of La Plata de los Charcas
6) Real Audiencia of Chile.
Between 1580 and 1650, the mercantilist economic system was definitively established in Peru with the rise of large-scale mining, thanks to the exploitation of the silver veins of Potosí by amalgamation with the quicksilver of Huancavelica.
In military matters, the Viceroyalty of Peru financed and militarily supported, by means of the real situado and the dispatch of soldiers and provisions from Peru, the campaigns against the Mapuche in the Arauco War, which extended over a large part of the viceregal period. In the year 1662 alone, 950 soldiers and 300,000 pesos were sent for war expenses;[9] likewise, the general directives for the conduct of the campaign came from the Peruvian viceroyalty, such as the one sent by Viceroy Prince of Esquilache ordering a defensive war against the Indians and the prohibition of their personal service.[10] The fortification of the port of Callao and the maintenance of a naval force to defend the vast territory from incursions by privateers and pirates were also the responsibility of the successive viceroys of Peru.
The Bourbon Reforms
In the 18th century, the figures of the viceroys who introduced the Bourbon Reforms, measures imposed by the House of Bourbon, stood out, especially Manuel de Amat y Junyent, who governed between 1761 and 1776, Manuel de Guirior, between 1776 and 1780, Agustín de Jáuregui, between 1780 and 1784, and Teodoro de Croix, between 1784 and 1790; these reforms were intended to revitalize the viceregal administration through actions such as the incorporation of the system of intendancies. With them an attempt was made to professionalize government, replacing the ineffective figures of the corregidores and the alcaldes mayores, and devoting special attention to everything related to the treasury.
The territorial reorganization carried out over the course of that century involved detaching two vast regions from the Peruvian viceroyalty to form with them two other new viceroyalties: the Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717, restored in 1739 after a period of suppression, and later the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, created in 1776. These losses of territory meant that the Viceroyalty of Peru lost its prominence as Spain's economic center in South America, although it continued to be the Crown's most valuable asset, owing to its political, social and cultural power.
The subsequent economic policy of the Bourbons, which allowed direct trade between Spanish ports and various South American ports (Maracaibo, Guayaquil, Arica, Valparaíso, etc.), reduced commercial traffic through the port of Callao and affected the revenues of the Viceroyalty, which, after the separation of the Río de la Plata, was confined to the secondary trade routes of the Pacific Ocean, while the most lucrative commercial traffic (that of the Atlantic Ocean) came under the control of the ports of Buenos Aires or Cartagena de Indias, outside the influence of the Peruvian viceroyalty.
The city of Lima, formerly the principal city of South America and possessed of a courtly and commercial life comparable to that of Madrid itself, lost much of its former wealth in the second half of the 18th century, to which was added the continual depletion of the rich silver deposits of Potosí that had sustained the viceregal economy for two centuries, until the entire territory of Charcas, also known as Upper Peru (present-day Bolivia), was joined to the Río de la Plata viceroyalty in 1776. The last years of that century, although they produced a more efficient administration and better management of the viceroyalty's resources for the benefit of Spain, showed a serious decline in the general wealth of the Peruvian viceroyalty.
The expulsion of the Jesuits in 1768 caused the territory of the Commandancy General of Maynas, belonging to the Viceroyalty of New Granada, to fall into almost total abandonment, given the difficulties of access, which made the Crown fear its loss because of the expansionist policy of the Portuguese in the Amazon basin. The King commissioned the former Governor of Maynas, Francisco Requena, to prepare a report on the situation of that territory. Requena reported that the civil and ecclesiastical officials of Quito and Bogotá were in no position to attend to the region, and therefore suggested that it be reincorporated into the Viceroyalty of Peru together with the Government of Quijos, and that a mission bishopric be established there.
Taking Requena's report into account, the King ordered on July 15, 1802 the creation of the Bishopric and the Commandancy General of Maynas. From the content of the cédula of 1802 it is clear that its main objective was to halt Portuguese advances into the territories of the Spanish Crown.
The Royal Cédula of 1802 says:
I have resolved that the Government and Commandancy General of Mainas, with the towns of the Government of Quijos, except that of Papallacta, since all of them are on the banks of the Napo River or in its vicinity, be considered segregated from the Viceroyalty of Santa Fe and from the Province of Quito and added to that Viceroyalty, that Commandancy General extending not only down the Marañón River to the frontiers of the Portuguese colonies, but also along all the other rivers that enter the Marañón from its northern and southern banks, such as the Morona, Huallaga, Paztaza, Ucayali, Napo, Yavari, Putumayo, Yapurá and other less considerable ones, up to the place where these same rivers, because of their heights and rapids, cease to be navigable: the towns of Lamas and Moyobamba also having to remain under the same Commandancy General... I THE KING
The effective fulfillment of the Royal Cédula of 1802 has been the cause of later disputes between the governments of Peru, Colombia and Ecuador.
Emancipation
From the beginning of the 19th century, revolutionary outbreaks took place in Spanish America. Viceroy José Fernando de Abascal y Sousa made the Peruvian viceroyalty the bulwark, stronghold and center of the counter-revolution in favor of the monarchy; from this viceroyalty the advance of the Argentine revolution was contained, Chile was reconquered and the uprisings of Quito were suppressed. All revolutionary attempts were also repressed—in particular the Cuzco rebellion—as was every manifestation of a pro-independence character in the viceroyalty itself. However, Guayaquil proclaimed itself an independent State in 1820 and received Gran Colombian aid from General Simón Bolívar.
End of the Viceroyalty
After the victory of the Army of the Andes over the royalists, Chile declared its independence in 1818 and, together with the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, organized a military expedition under the command of the Liberator General José de San Martín, which landed at the port of Pisco (south of Lima) on September 8, 1820. From that moment, various provinces and towns of Peru began to declare their independence from Spain, such as Huamanga, Tarma, Lambayeque, Ferreñafe, Trujillo and Cajamarca. Finally, in 1821 San Martín occupied the viceregal capital (Lima) and proclaimed the Independence of Peru on July 28 of that same year.
The viceregal seat was moved to Cuzco, and the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru held on in the territories that had not become independent until 1824, when—after the Battle of Ayacucho—the Capitulation of Ayacucho was signed between General José de Canterac and Antonio José de Sucre, in command of the revolutionary military forces, bringing the Viceroyalty of Peru to an end. The capitulation was accepted without resistance by Pío de Tristán y Moscoso, at the head of the viceregal government, upon the arrival in Cuzco of the Liberating Army three weeks later. On April 7, 1825, Upper Peru became independent as the Republic of Bolivia. In January 1826 all military resistance in Chiloé and in Callao came to an end.
Central or metropolitan bodies
The King of Spain
He was the supreme authority in Spain, in the Indies and in the rest of his Empire. His government was absolutist. The King had the power of decision and the last word in all kinds of decisions, although until 1700 the Cortes managed public resources, approved and repealed laws, minted coinage, accepted or rejected kings and regents, etc. Over the course of the three centuries during which the Viceroyalty of Peru existed, eleven monarchs grouped in two dynasties succeeded one another:
House of Austria (dynasty of Austrian origin, connected to the Habsburg royal family)
- Charles I (1542[1] – 1556)
- Philip II (1556 – 1598)
- Philip III (1598 – 1621)
- Philip IV (1621 – 1665)
- Charles II (1665 – 1700)
House of Bourbon (dynasty of French origin, connected to the Bourbon royal family)
- Philip V (1700 – 1724)
- Louis I (1724)
- Philip V (1724 – 1746)
- Ferdinand VI (1746 – 1759)
- Charles III (1759 – 1788)
- Charles IV (1788 – 1808)
- Ferdinand VII (1808[2] – 1824[3])
The Council of the Indies
The Council of the Indies was the highest peninsular body, in charge of everything concerning administrative and judicial policy and the exercise of the Indian Royal Patronage; ultimately, everything that might arise in the lands of Hispanic America.
Local bodies
These were bodies that functioned within the viceroyalty itself to carry out the provisions issued by European Spain. They were the following:
The Viceroy
He was the personal representative of the King of Spain in the viceroyalty: his "alter ego", that is, "his other self". As the supreme authority of the viceroyalty, he was responsible for dispensing justice, administering the public treasury and overseeing the evangelization of the indigenous people. The viceroy was appointed by the king on the proposal of the Council of the Indies, although on many occasions it was the king himself who took charge of reviewing the names of possible viceroys. The Viceroy of Peru resided in what is now the Historic Centre of Lima, in the sumptuous palace of the viceroys, surrounded by a brilliant court, amid great luxury and riches, and protected by a guard of honor. During the existence of the Viceroyalty of Peru, 40 viceroys governed.
The audiencias
The main function of the audiencias was the administration of justice, as the court of second instance in trials or judicial proceedings, at the level of superior courts. They also exercised political functions, that is, powers properly of government, since the Audiencia acted as adviser to the viceroy, and therefore it often answered the queries put to it by the viceroy. Likewise, it was responsible for taking the reins of the viceroyalty when the viceroy was ill or died suddenly. According to their rank, the audiencias were of two kinds: Viceregal Audiencias, of higher rank, presided over by the viceroy, as was the case of the Real Audiencia of Lima and the Real Audiencia of Mexico, which had under their authority the other audiencias of the same viceroyalty, called Subordinate Audiencias.
Nine extensive Reales Audiencias were established in the viceroyalty, which were the highest tribunals within it. These audiencias were the following:
- Real Audiencia of Panama (1538)
- Real Audiencia of Lima (1543)
- Real Audiencia of Santafé de Bogotá (1549)
- Real Audiencia of La Plata de los Charcas (1559)
- Real Audiencia of Quito (1563)
- Real Audiencia of Concepción (1565–1575)
- Real Audiencia of Santiago de Chile (1606)
- Real Audiencia of Buenos Aires (1661–1672; 1776)
- Real Audiencia of Cuzco (1787)
In Lima the Audiencia was presided over by the viceroy and was made up of the oidores (variable in number, reaching as many as twelve members for several years), two prosecutors, an alguacil mayor, a lieutenant of the Grand Chancellor and numerous subordinate staff.
The corregimientos
The corregimientos were administrative and territorial divisions of the Spanish Crown in Peru. In 1569 the governor and captain general Lope García de Castro created the corregimientos of Indians, subordinate to the corregimientos of Spaniards. The corregimientos were governed by a high official appointed, mostly, by the Council of the Indies, called the corregidor. The corregimientos had political powers (they maintained order and the proper running of the corregimiento), administrative powers (they collected tribute from the inhabitants living in the jurisdiction) and judicial powers.
The intendancies
The corregimientos were abolished in 1784 by Charles III, as a consequence of the revolution of Túpac Amaru II, and replaced by the Intendancies. From 1784 onward, they arrived to administer the seven new intendancies: Trujillo, Lima, Arequipa, Cusco, Huamanga, Huancavelica and Tarma. In 1796 the intendancy of Puno was added to Peru. The intendants also collected tributes and organized mitas, but they could not carry out "repartos mercantiles" (forced distributions of goods). There is a parallel between the viceregal and the republican periods with respect to political-territorial subdivision. The departments are equivalent to the intendancies; the provinces, to the partidos; and the districts, to the doctrinas.
The cabildos
Also called ayuntamientos, municipalities or municipal councils, they were institutions of Spanish origin transplanted to America. The cabildo had multiple administrative powers. Among them, it was responsible for administering local levies, presiding over public spectacles, organizing lavish celebrations upon the arrival of new viceroys, overseeing the cleanliness of the city, inspecting the streets and organizing the sanitation services.
Three types of cabildos are distinguished: those corresponding to towns and villages, to diocesan cities and to metropolitan cities.
In the towns, they were made up of an alcalde ordinario, elected annually in a ceremony presided over by the corregidor, and whose offices could be bought or inherited; four regidores, an alguacil and a mayordomo. In the diocesan cities: an electable alcalde, eight regidores, two fieles ejecutores, two jurados or deputies from each parish, a procurador general, a mayordomo, a council clerk, two public notaries, a mining clerk and another for registry, a chief town crier, a market broker and two doormen.
In the metropolitan cities: chosen from among the encomenderos and the notable residents who did not hold other incompatible offices, twelve regidores (in Mexico there were fifteen and in Lima there came to be eighteen) and the other perpetual officials. The alcaldes ordinarios were elected by the regidores by secret ballot, which in Lima was presided over by the viceroy. The regidores were chosen by the viceroy with the authorization of the monarch or by election of the cabildo.
Indigenous authorities: the curaca and the varayoq
The authorities of the Spanish government considered it advisable to continue relying on the services of the former Inca leaders at the level of towns and ayllus, so that domination over the Andes would be faster and more effective. An ancestral Andean institution that they used effectively was the curacazgo, the age-old custom of appointing a chief for each ayllu or community: the curaca, instituted under the name of cacique, a Central American word equivalent to curaca.
The curacas, who during the Tawantinsuyu had been accountable to the Inca apunchic (sent by the Inca), during the viceroyalty had to be accountable to the Spanish corregidor (sent by the King of Spain). Another Inca institution used was the varayoc, a civil authority in charge of the administrative government of the town, which, similarly to the alcaldes, oversaw the proper functioning of the hamlet or village.
Economic organization of the viceroyalty
The viceregal economy based its structure on:
Mining
It was the preferred activity in the viceroyalty, at least during the 16th century and a large part of the 17th, beginning to decline in the 18th century. Within mining activity two periods were distinguished: the first, which lasted until the establishment of the viceregal organization, was characterized by a system of intensive extraction of metal based on feverish surface activity, dismantling, appropriation and distribution of the riches of ancient Peru. The second was marked by the economic ordering that began with the Ordinances of 1542.
The best mines, for their quality and yield, were owned by the Spanish Crown. The smaller mines, by contrast, were exploited by private individuals with the obligation to pay the Quinto Real as a tax, that is, one fifth of the wealth obtained. The main mining deposits were: Castrovirreyna, Huancavelica, Cerro de Pasco, Cajabamba, Contumaza, Carabaya, Cayllama and Hualgayoc, all located in present-day Peru. But the largest at the mining level was the Potosí deposit, whose production was sustained by the mining mita. The Cerro Rico of Potosí provided two thirds of the silver there was in Peru until, in 1776, it became part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.
The mining centers were cities that quickly became commercial emporiums that meshed into an entire commercial circuit that included Mexico City (for Zacatecas and Guanajuato) and Lima (for Potosí, Cerro de Pasco and Huancavelica). For the extraction of silver, Andean techniques included the huayra method, which consisted of using a furnace into which the lead was placed, the silver finally being extracted. But this silver was notably impure.
In New Spain a technique was discovered that was applied in the mines of Potosí: it consisted of mixing the silver with mercury (called quicksilver). The silver was then separated, remaining in a state of purity. Mining production reached its peak between 1572 and 1580, ranging from 216,000 to 1,400,000 pesos annually; but its rate of extraction slowed toward the middle of the 17th century, and by the 18th century its decline was notable, due in large part to the empirical system and manner in which the mining centers were worked, as well as to the lack of roads to speed transport and to indigenous depopulation.
Between 1790 and 1795, according to the memoirs of Viceroy Francisco Gil de Taboada, there were in operation in his territory (present-day Peru) 728 silver mines, 69 gold, 4 mercury, 12 lead and 4 copper. Although mining was at the time a disorganized and risky activity, its boom was such that no less than 40% of the deposits currently in operation in Peru had already been discovered and worked in viceregal times.
Commercial regime of the viceroyalty
Viceregal trade was based on monopoly, owing to the exclusivist and mercantilist character that prevailed in the economy. Until the weakening, and later the repeal, of the universal monopoly, only the Spanish territories of Europe could trade with Spanish America. For this purpose, and that of collecting taxes, the so-called Casa de Contratación de Indias was created in Seville in 1503, a body responsible for ensuring compliance with the monopoly. In addition, in each viceroyalty there was a Tribunal del Consulado, which controlled commercial movement and intervened in everything related to it.
In 1561, Philip II established that the only ports for commercial traffic would be Seville in Spain, Veracruz in Mexico and Callao in Peru, while Cartagena de Indias and Panama were regarded as transit ports.
In compliance with this provision, two groups of ships loaded with merchandise and escorted by other ships of the Spanish Navy sailed from Seville every year. The group of ships that went to Mexico took the name of flota (fleet) and arrived at Veracruz. Those that came to Peru took the name of galeones (galleons) and arrived first at the port of Cartagena de Indias and, from there, went on to the port of Portobelo. There in Portobelo a great fair was held, attended by the Lima merchants, who reached that place by means of the so-called Armada of the South Sea as far as Panama, and then crossed the isthmus by land to reach Portobelo. Once purchases and sales had been made in Portobelo, the Lima merchants embarked again on the Armada of the South Sea and arrived at Callao, from where they sent the merchandise by land to the towns and cities of the interior of the viceroyalty such as Arequipa, Cuzco, Charcas, Buenos Aires, Santiago and Montevideo. In this way, the Viceroyalty of Peru became the axis of commercial movement. Callao, as the authorized port, maintained its preeminence over other minor ports, both on the Pacific coast and on the Atlantic.
The monopoly did not produce results for the Spanish Empire; instead, it fostered illicit trade, smuggling, carried out by the English, French and Dutch. The ships of the smuggling countries (from the Spanish point of view) arrived at minor ports, as well as at coves and landing places, from where the merchandise was brought into the neighboring settlements and cities of the interior of the Viceroyalty, places in which these products found greater acceptance, as they were sold at an extremely low price compared with the same articles brought by Spanish merchants. This illicit trade was most intense in the Atlantic ports, namely Montevideo and Buenos Aires, owing to their remoteness from the viceregal capital, Lima, and from the authorized port of entry, which was Callao. It has been estimated that for every two thousand tons of licit trade, thirteen thousand illicit tons, that is, contraband, entered the Viceroyalty of Peru.
The Spanish commercial monopoly was also broken by the terrible privateers (who robbed to benefit their own countries or a particular European nation) and the fierce pirates (who did so for their own profit).
Famous in this regard was the privateer Francis Drake who, acting under the ensign of the English Crown in the time of Elizabeth I, attacked ports of southern America, sacked Callao and Paita, then headed to Panama, where he managed to amass great booty, returning to England by way of Oceania, in the time of Viceroy Francisco Álvarez de Toledo.
All this determined, precisely, that Lima was surrounded by walls and that, likewise, the Real Felipe Fortress, or the Royal Castles, of Callao were built.
Among the pirates and privateers who attacked the coasts of the Peruvian viceroyalty were:
- Francis Drake (1578)
- Thomas Cavendish (1587)
- Roberto Achines (1590)
- Olivier van Noort (1596)
- Simón de Cordes (1596)
- Almirante Veraje (1596)
- Joris van Spilbergen (1607)
- Henry Morgan (1620)
- Jacques L'Hermite (1624)
- Carlos Ciere (1670)
- Juan Guerin (1678)
- Eduardo David (1685)
For various reasons the monopoly system gradually broke down. Thus, with the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Spain granted England the right to send each year to Atlantic ports one ship, or "navío de permiso" (permission ship), with five hundred tons of merchandise. In 1735 Spain itself granted the "navío de registro" (register ship) which, after registration in Spanish ports, came to the Pacific ports with merchandise for sale, until King Charles III, in 1778, decreed free trade, by which other Spanish and South American ports could carry on this activity. As a result, Valparaíso, Arica, Guayaquil, Montevideo and Buenos Aires arose and disputed the supremacy of Callao.
Taxes of the Viceroyalty
The so-called "Real Hacienda" or "Caja fiscal del Rey" (the King's fiscal chest) obtained direct resources through the collection of a series of taxes that affected economic activities. There were treasury chests spread throughout the viceroyalty that collected the funds, covered the expenses of the administration and remitted the surplus to the main chest located in Lima ("Caja Real de Lima"), which, after settling the expenses of the viceroyalty itself, then remitted them to Spain.
Among the taxes that the viceroyalty paid to the Crown were:
- The Quinto Real (Royal fifth), one fifth of the metals extracted or of the treasures found.
- The Personal Tribute of the Indian, which obliged the Andean inhabitant between the ages of eighteen and fifty to pay an annual sum.
- The Alcabala, the payment made on the purchase or sale of property.
- The Almojarifazgo, the tax paid on the entry and exit of merchandise (today tariffs or customs duties).
- The Media Anata, the tax levied annually on the salaries of public officials and bureaucrats.
- The Derrama, the extraordinary donations that the inhabitants of the viceroyalty were obliged to make when Spain was waging wars with its European rivals.
- The Estancos (state monopolies): of salt, tobacco, stamped paper, playing cards, etc., that is, the tax levied on such products, which had to be paid by the colonists.
Currency
At first, during the conquest, there was no currency for trade; afterwards the first form of currency appeared in Peru, the callana, a rudimentary cast piece with a specified weight and fineness that was used in Cajamarca, Lima, Cuzco and Piura. Later the peso was made, a disc crudely worked with a chisel, bearing a cross on each side; its value was 450 maravedíes.
Subsequently ducats, escudos and doubloons appeared, which made commercial transactions more expeditious. These coins were minted in the so-called Casas de Moneda (mints), which began to operate around the 16th century, especially in Lima and Potosí and, to a lesser extent, in Cusco.
Agriculture and livestock
Agriculture did not undergo significant development in the viceroyalty. As in other places conquered by the Spaniards, land tenure was upended, as was the use made of the land. With the arrival of the Spaniards came plant products, farm animals and poultry. From the outset the indigenous people were employed in agricultural work, and it was through this practice that they were able to pay their tributes. New techniques such as fallow and slash-and-burn, as well as different tools, were given to the natives so that they could exploit agriculture to the fullest.
The lands devoted to agriculture were relatively close to the cities, because many foods could not withstand more than five days of travel without spoiling. Around Lima and Potosí, for example, there were large areas devoted solely to local production. Within this production, local products such as olluco and coca were not neglected. By 1600 local production was stable enough to replace the imports that came from European Spain, causing great annoyance to Spanish merchants. It was from then on that intra-American trade began to flourish, mainly between the regions of Peru, Chile and Central America.
Products brought by the Spaniards
- Livestock: Cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses.
- Cereals: Wheat, barley and rye.
- Other plants: Sugarcane, lentils, chickpeas, beans, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, celery, asparagus, carrot, turnip, beetroot, radishes, bananas, orange, lemon, etc.
The obrajes
They were workplaces of great importance in the Viceroyalty, devoted to the manufacture of textiles and yarns of wool, cotton and cabuya. The first obraje was established by Antonio de Ribera in 1545. Their number grew rapidly because clothing was in great demand among indigenous miners (of different qualities: baizes, coarse cloths, blankets, saddlebags, stockings, hats, sacks). Their production could not go beyond the artisanal level because the peninsular monopoly did not allow it to expand or produce better-quality goods within its overseas territories.
The Church in the viceroyalty
Religious environment
One of the causes of the discovery of America was the spread of the Catholic religion, and from the creation of the Peruvian viceroyalty society was characterized by professing Catholicism and by possessing a profound religious spirit.
In the 17th century the Catholic Church prospered enormously: Lima, with 26,000 inhabitants, had nineteen churches and monasteries, and ten percent of its population consisted of priests, canons, friars and nuns, who penetrated deeply into the life of the people, in whose families it was almost a traditional attitude to dedicate one of the children to religious life and to observe rigorously the prayers of the Angelus at midday and of the Rosary, in addition to attending the various acts of worship.
Once Lima was founded, a bishopric was established in 1541 which, in 1548, was raised to the rank of archbishopric, during the government of the pacifier Pedro de la Gasca. This archbishopric had under its jurisdiction all the other bishoprics then functioning in South America, which were the bishoprics of Cuzco, Panama, Papayán, Quito, Charcas and Paraguay. The first archbishop was Fray Jerónimo de Loayza until, in 1581, Fray Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo was appointed archbishop; he is considered the true organizer of the ecclesiastical system in the viceroyalty, for which purpose he convened two provincial councils in Lima. Accordingly, the Peruvian church was organized into archbishoprics, bishoprics and curacies. There were also the doctrinero priests in the reductions.
The religious orders
Together with the members of the secular clergy came the religious of the regular clergy, organized under the patronage of a saint, whose fundamental task was the propagation of the Catholic faith and the indoctrination of the indigenous people scattered throughout the viceroyalty. All of them founded convents and monasteries and built beautiful churches in Lima and other cities of Peru.
The religious orders established in Peru were the Order of Preachers or Dominicans, the Order of Friars Minor or Franciscans, the Order of Mercy or Mercedarians, the Order of Saint Augustine or Augustinians and the Society of Jesus or Jesuits.
Dominicans
The Order of Preachers was the first to arrive in Peru, with Fray Vicente de Valverde in 1532 (who played a prominent role in the capture of the Inca Atahualpa and was the first bishop of Cuzco). It built its first convent on the Inca temple of Coricancha (Cuzco); it founded the University of San Marcos in Lima (1551) and initially set up the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition. It stood out for its defense of the Andean populations, following the struggle of the Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas, and for its great work of indoctrinating the indigenous populations (Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás was the first friar to study Quechua).
Franciscans
The Order of Friars Minor arrived in Peru in 1533, devoting itself especially to missions, that is, to the spread of Catholicism in the viceroyalty. It established convents in Arequipa, Huamanga, Trujillo, Chachapoyas and other cities (they built the Convent of Ocopa, in Huancayo). It was one of the orders that worked most on missions to the inhospitable regions of the jungle.
Mercedarians
The Order of Mercy arrived in Peru in 1533 and its center of operation was the city of Lima. However, the number of members of the order was not significant compared with the number of the other religious orders. Its missionary character led the Mercedarian order to reach the high mountain peaks in search of Indians to evangelize. Mercedarians included Fray Martín de Murúa, a chronicler who devoted himself to compiling the history of the Tawantinsuyu and author of the chronicle "Origen y Descendencia de los Incas", and Fray Diego de Porres, a missionary devoted to teaching the Catholic faith, relying on native instruments such as the quipu. It exploited real estate, venturing into haciendas and other types of business (repartimientos, encomiendas). It managed to control the Holy Inquisition from the middle of the 18th century.
Augustinians
The Order of Saint Augustine arrived in 1551 and settled in Lima as the Province of Our Lady of Grace of Peru, and in various parts of the Peruvian viceroyalty, mainly in the Sierra, extending even as far as Upper Peru. They took charge of the celebrated sanctuary of Copacabana, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, from which they preached the Catholic doctrine with great effectiveness to the indigenous populations.
Jesuits
The Society of Jesus came to Peru in 1568 as a modern and powerful organization in the service of the Counter-Reformation, that is, of the struggle against the European Protestants. With that background, it showed great drive in its missionary work in Peru, taking on the administration of haciendas with great success and founding a multitude of schools (they also ventured into the study of Quechua and Aymara). Over the years this work acquired great prestige and influence in local political, cultural and economic spheres. The Jesuits were expelled from Spain and America by order of Charles III in 1768, who was concerned about the power they wielded and the positions on political freedoms that they hinted at. This was a harsh blow to the culture and economy of the viceroyalty.
These five orders provided most of the religious who took on the task of evangelization in the Viceroyalty of Peru.[11]
Process of evangelization
Evangelization in the Viceroyalty of Peru began on the very day the Spaniards arrived in these lands and undertook their enterprise of conquest. The work of evangelization took place gradually as the religious orders arrived, but also with a certain disorder, since the dispersion of the missionaries prevented effective centralized work. The first important actions of evangelization began after the first Council of Lima in 1551. The first measure taken was the baptism of indigenous people, who in the act had to abandon native practices and all forms that went against ecclesiastical laws and contradicted Catholic commandments.
At the second Council of Lima (1567–1568) the idea of destroying the huacas and placing crosses in their place, or building a church or hermitage if the huaca had been an important place of worship, was taken up again.
The Third Council of Lima (1582–1583) marked a significant change in Peruvian evangelization. The novelty was in the matter of texts and catechisms. The different orders were to use the same teaching and indoctrination materials. To that end, the Quechua language (and its variants) had to be known thoroughly. The Jesuits were the most enthusiastic about this new methodology of evangelization, since catechesis was one of their main strengths.
Visual materials were especially important as persuasive methods for achieving the conversion of the indigenous people.[11] They also gave rise to the creation of art schools in the viceroyalty, such as that of Cuzco, which took charge of decorating the churches, monasteries and convents.[11] Gisbert points out that 70% of the artists of the Cuzco school were Indians.[11]
However, at the beginning of the 17th century, priests were still destroying Inca relics, burning mummies from the Incario and discovering llamas destined for sacrifice among the litters of the saints. It was then that the attempt to extirpate idolatries became more rigorous: the priests destroyed every Inca object considered heretical, the Indians were forced to attend Mass under penalty of flogging and to baptize their children with Christian names, and sorcerers and witches were persecuted.
Sanctity in the Viceroyalty
The faith professed by the population bore fruit in Peru having the greatest number of saints and servants of God of all the Spanish viceroyalties. Most appeared between 1570 and 1660, many of them coexisting in Lima society, as was the case of Saint Martin de Porres, Saint Juan Masías, Saint Toribio de Mogrovejo, Saint Francisco Solano and, very especially, Isabel Flores de Oliva, a virgin and mystic who was canonized under the name of Saint Rose of Lima, principal patron saint of the New World (America), the Philippines and the West Indies.
An active factor in the growth of viceregal religiosity was the earthquake of March 31, 1650 in Cuzco, which gave rise to the cult of the Señor de los Temblores (Lord of the Earthquakes), and that of October 20, 1687, in Lima, which gave rise to the festival of the Señor de los Milagros (Lord of Miracles).
The Inquisition in the Viceroyalty
In the Peruvian Viceroyalty, the Tribunal of the Holy Inquisition was established during the government of Viceroy Francisco Álvarez de Toledo, by royal cédula of January 25, 1569. It began to operate the following year, in 1570. The jurisdiction of the Lima Inquisition extended to the audiencias of Charcas, Chile and Quito, which at times acted with great autonomy, after a new district with its seat in Cartagena was created in 1610.
At first, its action focused on the white population, and therefore the indigenous people, who made up the greater part of the population, were excluded from its investigations. The primary mission of the Inquisition was to combat heresy, but its powers soon expanded to the persecution of blasphemy, bigamy or sorcery. Thus, from the very beginning, trials for heresy represented a small part of the total cases before the Lima tribunal. Among those condemned for Lutheranism, the number of foreigners was significant, including some English privateers, among them a nephew of Francis Drake, three of whom ended up at the stake. But the greatest number of sentences to the ultimate penalty was among the Judaizers, mostly Portuguese. Only one native of Lima was sentenced to the stake: the bachelor Juan Bautista del Castillo, for propositions against the faith. The greatest number of cases—blasphemy and offenses related to sexuality—sought to maintain the established order of values and morality and were settled with reconciliation and minor spiritual penalties.
From 1620 the tribunal's activity declined notably, with the exception of the trial of the Portuguese Judaizers of 1639, eleven of whom were burned.
In the 18th century only one public auto-da-fé was held, in 1736, and at it the last death sentence was handed down, against the Judaizer María Francisca Ana de Castro.
The last autillo de fe (minor auto-da-fé) was held on July 17, 1806. In the final period, a few cases of membership in Freemasonry and of reading prohibited books were added to the types of offenses. In 1813 the Tribunal of the Inquisition was abolished by the Cortes of Cádiz, and the Lima seat was sacked. It was restored once more after Ferdinand VII came to power, but its existence was little more than symbolic until its definitive suppression in 1820.
This rigid and severe tribunal, whose jurisdiction extended to the territories of Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina, sent thirty-two people to the stake in its more than two hundred years of existence, of whom twenty-three were condemned as Judaizers, six as Protestant heretics—all of them foreigners—, two for the offense of propositions and one as an alumbrado. All were white and only one was a criollo. In addition, the tribunal sentenced some 1,474 people to various penalties.[12]
Education in the Viceroyalty
Viceregal education was subject to European molds and was characterized by memorization, religiosity, rigor and classicism. The Church exerted influence and played a great role in it through its religious orders, the Jesuits standing out in this work. Education was established in the reverse order of present-day education; that is, higher education was established first, then the intermediate level and, finally, elementary education.
Elementary education or first letters
Basic education was provided through convent schools, parish schools and mission schools. There children were taught to read, write and sing, as well as the basic precepts. Women were almost excluded from the educational process. There were also minor schools directed at parish priests and indigenous people. The objectives were to teach reading and writing and, in addition, to catechize.
Intermediate education
Intermediate education in the Viceroyalty of Peru was provided in the colegios mayores and the schools for caciques; these took on a mixture of what is now known as secondary or intermediate education. The colegios mayores fulfilled a kind of auxiliary function for certain universities, as in the case of the colleges of San Felipe and San Martín, which served as boarding houses for the students of the University of San Marcos.
Among the main colegios mayores the following may be mentioned:
- Colegio Máximo de San Pablo de Lima, of the Jesuits, in 1568.
- Royal and Major College of San Felipe y San Marcos, in 1575.
- Royal College of San Martín, in 1582.
- Center of Studies of the Royal Secular College of the Augustinians of San Ildelfonso, of the Order of Saint Augustine, in 1608.
- College of San Buenaventura, in Cusco, run by the Franciscans, in 1611.
- College of San Antonio Abad, of the Jesuits in Cusco, in 1619.
- The College of Yungay, Ancash, founded on November 30, 1614, thanks to the generosity of Doña Inés de Salas, widow of López de Villoso, who bequeathed in her will her haciendas "Santa Catalina" and "Chorrillos" so that their income would serve for the education of the boys and girls of the Villa of Yungay. This educational institution was run, in its beginnings, by the Dominican friars.
- In 1619, the Jesuits established in the city of Cusco the College of San Bernardo, which functioned continuously, and in 1825 Simón Bolívar, on his passage through the city of Cusco, created on its basis the College of "Sciences and Arts"; but after the earthquake that devastated the city of Cusco, and following the construction of the new building, it ended up with the name "Colegio Nacional de Ciencias", which operates to this day, accumulating a total of 393 years of academic life.
- College of San Pedro de Nolasco, founded in Lima, run by the Mercedarians, whose facilities are preserved to this day.
- The College of the Prince, created by Royal Cédula of King Charles III after the expulsion of the Jesuits, was the former College of Caciques for noble Indians, created during the government of Viceroy Francisco de Borja y Aragón, Prince of Esquilache, in Lima. Its Cuzco equivalent was the Colegio San Francisco de Borja, intended for the sons of caciques, who received instruction in Castilian and religion.
- College La Victoria de Ayacucho in Huancavelica, founded by the Jesuits in 1709.
- College of the Villa of Moquegua, founded in 1711 by the Jesuits.
- College of Ica, founded in 1719 by the Jesuits.
- College of San Carlos, founded in 1770, when Manuel de Amat y Junyent was viceroy; it was created in compensation for the expulsion of the Jesuits and operated in what is now the Casona de San Marcos. It was in this college that Don Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza and Fray Diego Cisneros initiated the movements for educational reform.
- College of Santo Tomás in Lima, run by the Dominicans.
The schools for caciques, such as the Colegio San Francisco de Borja in Cusco, were established, among other reasons, as part of the measures for the extirpation of idolaters, in order to indoctrinate caciques and the sons of caciques in Catholic doctrine, Castilian grammar, Latin, religious chants, etc., so that they in turn would influence the indigenous populations not yet assimilated into Catholicism. Notable among them were the College of the Prince in Lima and San Borja in Cuzco.
In addition to these two types of schools, there existed in the colony the seminaries, which trained future priests. Among them were Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo (Lima), San Antonio Abad (Cuzco), San Cristóbal (Huamanga), San Jerónimo (Arequipa), and San Marcelo and San Carlos (Trujillo).
University education
Higher education proper was provided in the universities. University teaching in Peru was inaugurated in 1551 with the founding of the Universidad Mayor de San Marcos in Lima, through the work of the Dominicans; it was the oldest institution of higher education on the American continent and the first university in America to be officially and solemnly constituted, that is, with all the royal and canonical formalities required at the time.
Other important universities founded in the viceroyalty were:
- Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, in 1548
- Universidad Santo Tomás, in 1580.
- Royal and Pontifical Major University of San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca, present-day Sucre, in 1624.
- University of Córdoba, in 1664.
- University of San Cristóbal, in Huamanga, present-day Ayacucho, in 1677.
- University of San Antonio Abad, in Cuzco, in 1692.
- University of San Agustín, in Arequipa, in 1714.
- Royal University of San Felipe, in Santiago de Chile, in 1738.
The installation of the printing press in Lima in 1581, run by Antonio Ricardo, contributed to education, as well as to the spread of culture in the Peruvian viceroyalty. In 1583, after the respective licenses, the first book was published, Doctrina cristiana y catecismo para la instrucción de los indios, written in three languages: Spanish, Quechua and Aymara (established as the first of its kind in America). Other publications appeared in 1594, in the time of Viceroy García Hurtado de Mendoza, on the occasion of the capture of the privateer Hawkins.
The beginnings were restricted, since printing was allowed only with the permission and knowledge of the Crown. The works generally dealt with religious subjects and Quechua grammar. In the 17th century the printing press increased its output, and books of medical interest and historical chronicles were printed; but it would gain importance years later with the arrival of journalism.
Journalism proper made its appearance in the second half of the 17th century, with La Gaceta de Lima, which appeared in 1744; its informative purpose was local in character, without projection to the wider viceregal sphere, and it was published only until 1777. But the first daily newspaper, in every sense of the word, was founded by a twenty-six-year-old named Jaime Bauzate y Meza in 1790; it was called El Diario de Lima, Erudito y Comercial, and it carried in its pages varied news, information and notices (considered the first publication of its kind on the continent). The following year, in 1791, the most important newspaper in its intellectual, cultural and patriotic standing was founded, Mercurio Peruano, sponsored by the Sociedad de Amantes del País and a great disseminator of the Enlightenment. It was followed by El Peruano, El Satélite del Peruano, La Gaceta del Gobierno de Lima, El Peruano Liberal, El Verdadero Peruano, El Argos Constitucional and El Investigador, which were the newspapers that circulated almost at the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century; all of them disseminated the liberal ideas of the Enlightenment, becoming the voices of pro-independence activity.
Art and culture
During the first viceregal years, art was the exclusive domain of the religious, and its use had a practical purpose, mainly in indoctrination. The city of Lima played a leading role in the development of art in the Viceroyalty of Peru. Its rapid urban growth, the accumulation of wealth by the encomenderos and the construction of temples and churches drove the demand for paintings and sculptures from the main cities of the Spanish kingdoms. Works from Flanders and Italy were especially favored, although works from Seville and Andalusia were also in great demand.
As the political center of the most important viceroyalty during the 16th century, Lima was an important destination for prominent artists who did not hesitate to come and offer their art to the Church. Notable among them were Angelino Medoro, Bernardo Bitti and Mateo Pérez de Alesio, among others. Another important feature in the evolution of the arts during the viceregal period was the exquisiteness of religious architecture. The temples were entrusted to alarifes (master builders) who mastered the techniques of building in stone and mud, and they therefore erected well-crafted works, far superior to those built in other parts of the continent.
In the interior of the Viceroyalty the situation was no different. In Cuzco, Arequipa, Cajamarca, Huamanga, Puno and Trujillo there was a clear tendency toward the search for their own artistic languages, based on the use of local elements. The use of sillar in Arequipa or stone in Cuzco is a clear example of the adaptation of European art and its transformation for local use.
The Baroque dominated the arts in Peru for almost two centuries and left its stamp on painting, sculpture, architecture, music and literature. The 18th century was characterized by the arrival of new trends from France, Austria and Germany. The arts were no longer the exclusive domain of the religious; on the contrary, civilians and the court were the main buyers of these trends. One of these styles was the Rococo. Promoted by the Bourbon kings, this style displays an exquisite and refined taste, appearing mainly in painting and architecture. Notable is the tower of the cathedral of Santo Domingo, a beautiful example of Rococo in Peru, whose design is attributed to the Viceroy Manuel Amat y Juniet himself.
On the other hand, the indigenous people gradually appropriated the artistic language brought by the Spaniards. Others, the most skillful, managed to express their beliefs in paintings representing the Holy Family, superimposing Andean elements on sacred figures to do so.
Painting
In the initial stage of the Viceroyalty, painting received, apart from the evident Spanish influence, a certain Italian influence, owing to the arrival of many artists from that country in Peru. The first Italian to arrive was the Jesuit Bernardo Bitti, who from 1575 spread his work throughout the Viceroyalty, even though his workshop was in Lima. The arrival of Bitti marked the period of greatest influence of the Italian Renaissance in the Viceroyalty. Alongside the Jesuit master Bernardo Bitti, Mateo Pérez de Alesio and Angelino Medoro stand out within the Italian current that reached Peru.
The first signs of the new Baroque naturalist currents reached the Peruvian Viceroyalty with the paintings commissioned in 1608 by the provincial of the Order of Saint Dominic from the Sevillian painters Miguel Güelles and Domingo Carro for the convent of Nuestra Señora del Rosario, or of Santo Domingo, in Lima. The series, devoted to the life of Saint Dominic de Guzmán, was to consist of forty-one canvases, of which thirty-six survive. Although uneven in execution, they show a combination of still Mannerist idealism and incipient naturalism that was very characteristic of Sevillian painting of the time and that was also to be characteristic of local painting in the 17th century.[13] In this century the proliferation of Spanish artists led to the opening of several workshops not only in Lima but also in the main cities of the Peruvian Viceroyalty. These workshops had in Zurbarán (Spanish artist, 1598-1664) one of their main points of reference. Many of his paintings were copied or served as models for new productions. Likewise, some of his works reached Peru and were a source of pride and satisfaction for the religious order that had commissioned them (in Lima some of his works can be seen in the church of the Buena Muerte).
In the 17th century a mestizo painting emerged, whose greatest expression was undoubtedly found in Cuzco, which thus became one of the most important pictorial points of reference in the Viceroyalty. The presence of Bernardo Bitti (1583-1585 and 1596-1598) in Cuzco had a great impact on Cuzco's visual arts. However, although the "Italian movement" was the basis for many of the works produced in this city, the truth is that some elements began to be left aside and others proper to the region began to be incorporated. In other words, over the years a distinct personality and language developed that undoubtedly reflect the personality of the painters (the great majority Andean and mestizo) and also what their source of inspiration was (Rubens was the favorite artist of the Cuzco workshops), thus giving rise to the style known as the "Cuzco School of painting", which is characterized by brilliant coloring and the profuse richness of its portraits and frames. Its main representatives were Diego Quispe Tito, Basilio de Santa Cruz Pumacallao, Juan Espinoza de los Monteros, Marcos Zapata and Basilio Pacheco; although most of the works of this school are by anonymous artists, who were the true drivers of the Cuzco current, since they added to their work the elements proper to the local culture.
During the 18th century, Lima continued to produce Baroque paintings of strong Hispanic influence. However, art was no longer the exclusive domain of the Church. The viceregal court and the nobility gained access to painting through portraits. These paintings were more festive and had a much more profuse pictorial language than those of the previous century. The paintings of Cristóbal de Lozano and Cristóbal de Aguilar are the most famous, since they portrayed the most important viceroys of the Age of Enlightenment.
Architecture
Viceregal architecture reached its highest expression in the building of churches, cloisters, houses and stately mansions, and to a lesser extent fortresses and barracks. Its development was driven fundamentally by religious activity, which built cathedrals, cloisters and urban and rural convents scattered throughout its territory. Most churches of the late 16th century had an Isabelline Gothic plan with an elongated nave separated from the presbytery or main chapel by a large arch called the toral arch. However, there are few examples of 16th-century architecture. Some patio houses in Lima and Cuzco, and certain churches in the provinces, are the only examples of the buildings of that period. From the 16th century, notable examples are the house of Jerónimo de Aliaga in Lima, La Merced in Ayacucho, the Church of San Jerónimo in Cuzco and the Asunción in Juli, Puno.
The 17th century was marked by the arrival of the Baroque. This style reached Peru at a moment of great artistic maturity among the alarifes settled in Peru. The reinterpretation of the style and its adaptation to the local setting made Peruvian viceregal architecture a new and original expression of the American Baroque. While the Baroque was taking hold, there was a change in Peru in the construction and design of naves. Churches abandoned the Isabelline plans and adopted the Latin cross with a barrel vault and domes over the crossing. Examples of the Baroque are San Francisco el Viejo, the church of the Trinitarias, the church of La Merced, the Portada del Perdón of the Lima Cathedral, Santo Domingo, San Francisco, Santa Catalina in Cuzco, etc. The Torre Tagle Palace also belongs to this style. Another style that was widely accepted in viceregal Peru was the Churrigueresque; examples of this are the temples of San Agustín and San Marcelo in Lima, as well as the gold-leaf altarpieces of many of the viceregal churches of Peru.
In the second half of the 18th century the Rococo appeared in the Viceroyalty through French influence, leaving as examples of its style the church of the Nazarenas and the Quinta Presa in Lima, the Casa del Almirante in Cuzco, etc. At the end of the 18th century the Neoclassical architectural style emerged, inspired by the models of ancient Greece and imperial Rome. To this style belong the altarpieces of the Lima Cathedral, the façade of the church of San Pedro, the high altar of the church of San Francisco, etc.
In the cities, housing had a strong peninsular influence, especially Andalusian. They were houses of one or two stories, with a zaguán (entrance hall) at the entrance. This zaguán usually remained open all day, since street vendors and visitors came to it. A patio dominated the entrance, surrounded by the bedrooms and main rooms. On the first floor was the drawing room, which usually connected to a second patio and finally to the kitchen. Many houses in Lima had orchards in which staple food crops were grown. Two-story houses usually had an enclosed balcony from which the street could be observed. In the 16th and 17th centuries these balconies had lattices; at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries they were built according to the canons of Neoclassicism and the Empire style, with the use of sash windows prevailing, as can be seen in the Casa de Osambela in Lima. The balconies of Lima gave that city a personality of its own, since no other American city had as many balconies as the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
Sculpture
Sculpture, like all the arts, was introduced into the Peruvian Viceroyalty by the Church. Viceregal sculpture produced masterpieces, both for the delicacy and meticulousness of their details and for the magnificent expression of the whole. Mostly religious images were sculpted, to embellish the altars, in which gilding and polychromy predominated; likewise, other statues of saints, such as those that adorn the façades of the temples, as well as altars, pulpits and confessionals. In all cases wood was mostly used, and stone only exceptionally. The presence of Spanish masters during the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th consolidated Lima as an important source of sculptural production.
Among the most important sculptors of the Viceroyalty is Juan Martínez de Arrona, an excellent cabinetmaker specializing in religious cabinetry. His most important work is the Cajonería (set of vestment chests) of the Cathedral (1608), made according to Renaissance canons since it had to harmonize with the style of Francisco Becerra, the cathedral's alarife. Another important sculptor was Pedro de Noguera, author of the Choir Stalls of the Cathedral (1632), perhaps the most beautiful sculptural work built in Lima in the 17th century. From the workshops of the Andalusian Juan Martínez Montañés (1568-1649) comes the notable altarpiece of the Monastery of the Concepción (now in the Lima Cathedral). This great altarpiece depicts in its reliefs the life of Saint John the Baptist and was sent from Seville over fifteen years to the City of the Kings (1607-1622). Another important work is the sculpture by Melchor Caffa titled "El tránsito de Santa Rosa" (The Death of Saint Rose, 1699). Of Maltese origin, Caffa was educated in Rome, and so the work in honor of the Peruvian saint bears a strong resemblance to Bernini's Saint Teresa of Jesus.
In the 17th century, the work of the mestizo Baltazar Gavilán occupies a special place. With an exquisite command of the Baroque, his works convey a realism unprecedented in Peruvian visual arts. Notable are La Dolorosa, made for the convent of San Francisco, and La Muerte (Death), for the church of San Agustín. Measuring 1.95 m, this sculpture represents the end of life (a skeleton with a bow and arrow in its hand), and according to a tradition recorded by Ricardo Palma, Gavilán himself was a victim of this work, for, the legend goes, after a nightmare the artist got up and in the dim light came face to face with the horrible figure of "Death", dying of the shock.
Literature
The first literary manifestations of viceregal Peru received a marked Renaissance and Italian influence, expressed in the refined Greco-Latin models in prose and verse (aristocratic taste). Later, the flourishing of Spanish literature between the 16th and 17th centuries, the so-called Golden Age, made its influence felt on Peruvian letters, but its characteristics, on merging with the spirit of viceregal Peru, produced results that bring prestige to mestizo literature.
The main representatives were:
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, author of the famous historical-literary works Comentarios reales de los incas, La Florida del Inca and Historia General del Perú.
- Juan de Espinosa Medrano, author of Apologético en favor de Don Luis de Góngora and La novena maravilla.
- Antonio de León Pinelo, author of Paraíso en el Nuevo Mundo.
- Pedro Peralta y Barnuevo, who wrote numerous works, of which Lima Fundada stands out.
- Amarilis, an unknown poet from Huánuco, who wrote Epístola a Belardo (addressed to the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega).
- Diego de Hojeda, author of La Cristiada.
- Juan del Valle y Caviedes, author of Diente del Parnaso.
- Pedro de Oña, author of Arauco Domado.
- Juan de Miramontes y Zuazola, author of Armas Antárticas.
- Diego Dávalos Figueroa, author of Miscelánea Austral.
- Other notable viceregal writers were Juan Dávalos de Ribera, Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza, José Eusebio de Llano Zapata, Pablo de Olavide, Alonso Carrió de la Vandera and José Hipólito Unanue.
Theater
Stage or theatrical performances arose at the beginning of the Viceroyalty. The Jesuits, around the year 1568, were the first to inaugurate open-air performances in the small square of San Pedro (Lima). These performances were held in the afternoons, but were later scheduled at night.
Thus, at the beginning of the Viceroyalty, the first theatrical performances were held in the atriums of churches, with the audience in the square in front of the temple; over the years, performances were held on wooden platforms placed in the center of the square; finally, when the theater reached its height, theatrical performances were held in coliseums, such as the so-called coliseo de las comedias de Lima (comedies enjoyed the public's preference over drama). Viceregal theater, mainly in the City of the Kings (Lima), had already benefited from improvements in infrastructure up to the 18th century; unfortunately, the earthquake of 1746 destroyed the city's main theater. It was immediately rebuilt by the playwright and icon of the Enlightenment and of rebellious intellectual thought, Pablo de Olavide, which gave rise to a conflict between the Church and the viceregal administration, because the main temples of Lima were in need of repairs, and in that sense they denounced that reconstruction of the theater as an impious expense. As was to be expected, the Lima-born Pablo de Olavide was held responsible; then, disgraced, Olavide traveled to Spain, and it was there that he reformed the theatrical scene with his rebellious spirit. The Teatro Principal of Lima, today called the Teatro Segura, still exists.
Besides Olavide, the intellectual Pedro de Peralta Barnueva achieved fame as a playwright; he composed works that constitute Peru's representation in Hispanic American theater, such as the drama "Triunfo de amor y poder" and the comedy "Afectos vencen fuerzas". Also notable is the Inca drama composed in Quechua called Ollantay, which appeared in the 18th century, in which the parish priest Pedro Valdés collected the Inca legend and adapted it with a European mentality for staging in the theater.
In the 18th century a great actress stood out who became a forerunner of the great divas who proliferated in the following century: Micaela Villegas y Hurtado (1748-1819), better known as La Perricholi, considered the queen of the Lima stage. She was, and continues to be, a source of inspiration for a vast intellectual output spanning diverse genres of poetic, dramatic, musical, cinematographic and visual art works.
Oratory
During the Viceroyalty, the practice of oratory was limited to oratory of a religious and sacramental character. In this respect the Jesuits stood out for their Sunday sermons or those of the great festivities; this activity was also cultivated in teaching, especially in the colegios máximos and, preferably, in the university chair.
Medicine
Medical knowledge during the Viceroyalty was rudimentary and empirical. Although it was taught in the universities, medicine was restricted to alleviating ailments that did not cause death, such as a cold or sprained bones. When the patient worsened, the physician had little left to do, since he possessed neither the technique nor the knowledge needed to cure illnesses such as cancer, dropsy, apoplexy, "alfombrilla" or tertian fevers, which were very common and studied during the Viceroyalty.
It was common for barbers, among their many activities, to devote themselves to the empirical practice of medicine. Written records indicate that they were specialists in pulling teeth and in preparing ointments and "patches" for bones. Saint Martín de Porres was a barber and empirical physician before becoming a Dominican lay brother.
The viceregal capital
.jpg)
By decision of the Spanish Crown, the city of Lima, originally founded under the name City of the Kings, was the capital and the political and administrative center of the Viceroyalty of Peru. The trade of the region was concentrated in the port of Callao, where all the ships coming from Panama arrived, giving it a sort of monopoly over regional trade; this provoked the harassment of privateers, the most famous of whom was Francis Drake. To prevent these invasions, the Viceroy Melchor Navarra y Rocafull, Duke of la Palata, ordered the construction of the famous walls of Lima.
The opulence of Lima
The wealth found and extracted from the territory of the former Inca Empire, in addition to the mineral deposits of Potosí and Charcas, made possible an intense social life full of ostentatious extravagance[citation needed].
In Lima, the thrice-crowned city, a pomp, a magnificence, an opulence and a courtly life developed at a level reached by few European capitals[citation needed].
The authority of the Viceroy, as representative of the King, was particularly important, since this post meant a political and social promotion and the culmination of a career in the administration of the Indies.
The arrivals of new viceroys in Lima were especially lavish. For the occasion, the streets were paved with bars of silver from the gates of the capital city to the Palace of the Viceroy. All along this same route, arches in the style of the Roman Empire were raised[citation needed], adorned with paintings and sculptures. In addition, the Viceroy had at his personal disposal a corps of protection and escort, the Compañía de Gentiles hombres, Lanzas y Arcabuces.
Cuzco, the last capital
Under the government of the last Viceroy, José de la Serna, the City of Cuzco became the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru; he established himself there on December 31, 1821, and moved the seat of the viceregal government to Cuzco on January 30, 1822,[14] until Spanish rule ended in the year 1824 after the capitulation of its armies at the Battle of Ayacucho and the transfer of powers by the interim Viceroy and last representative of the Crown, Pío de Tristán y Moscoso.
See also
- List of viceroys of Peru
- Silverwork in the Viceroyalty of Peru
- Quinto del Rey
- Captaincy General of Chile
- Spanish expeditions to Tahiti
- Spanish expeditions to the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu
Other Viceroyalties
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 King of Spain since 1516
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Between 1808 and 1813 the throne was occupied by Joseph I, imposed by Napoleon. He was not recognized by Spain or by the overseas territories
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 King of Spain until 1833
- ↑ Between 1580 and 1640, Portugal shared the same monarch as Spain in an aeque principaliter dynastic union under the House of Habsburg, and was therefore, during that time, part of the immense Hispanic Monarchy. Brazil and all the Portuguese overseas territories in Africa and Asia were also included in this union.
- ↑ "El Imperio Hispánico en América" (Chapter V), Clarence H. Haring. Ed. Solar / Hachette (1966)
- ↑ Tres Cuestiones Históricas sobre Pizarro. Tradiciones Peruanas, Ricardo Palma*.
- ↑ Francisca Pìzarro/ una ilustre mestiza, María Rostworowski Tovar de Diez Canseco. Lima, IEP.
- ↑ Los hijos americanos de los Pizarros de la conquista, Cúneo-Vidal,R.
- ↑ Biografía de Don Diego Benavides y de la Cueva. VIII Conde de Santistevan del Puerto, Comendador de Monreal en la orden de Santiago Virrey del Perú en "Diccionario histórico-biográfico del Perú" Tomo II pág. 28
- ↑ Diccionario histórico-biográfico del Perú. Tomo segundo, formado y redactado por Manuel de Mendiburu
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Rosas, Fernando (2016). "El orden colonial". Breve Historia General de los Peruanos (in español). Ediciones El Lector S.R.L. pp. 146–7.
- ↑ "Museo del Congreso y de la Inquisición" (in español). Congreso de la República del Perú. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
- ↑ Halcón, Fátima, «El pintor Juan de Uceda: sus relaciones artísticas con Lima», Laboratorio de Arte, 15 (2002) pp. 373-381.
- ↑ Historia de España.Ramón Menéndez Pidal
Bibliography
- Jorge Luis Valdez Morgan y Gonzalo Villamonte Duffo. Educared Perú. El Virreinato del Perú (in español).
- Clarence H. Haring. El Imperio Hispánico En América (I PARTE) (in español).
- Guevara Espinoza, Antonio. Historia del Perú. (T III) (in español).
- Castillo Morales, Juan. Historia del Perú. (T. III) (in español).
- Chaunu, Pierre. Historia de América Latina (in español).
- Fisher, John. Gobierno y Sociedad en el Perú Colonial. Régimen de las Intendencias (in español).
- Levene, Ricardo. Historia de América (in español).
- Marban Escobar, Edilberto. Historia de América (in español).
- Ots capdequi, José María. El Estado Español en las Indias (in español).
- Pastells, Pablo. Historia de la Compañía de Jesús. En la Provincia del Paraguay (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Perú, Bolivia y Brasil) (in español).
- Roel Pineda, Virgilio. Esquema de la Evolución Económica (in español).
- Roel Pineda, Virgilio. Historia Social y Económica de la Colonia (in español).
- Sempat Assadourian, Carlos. El Sistema Económico Colonial. Regiones y Espacios Económicos (in español).
- Silva Santisteban, Fernando. Historia del Perú. (T. II) (in español).
- Vargas Ugarte, Rubén. Historia General del Perú. (Tomo III, IV, V) (in español).
- Zarate, Agustín. Historia de la Conquista del Perú (in español).
- Vicens Vives, Jaime. Historia Social y Económica de España y América (in español).
External links
