Administration and Policy in the sixteenth Reflection on the policy in Peru in the sixteenth century, the question of time and courage in decision-making. Three sites in particular: to impose the authority of the king to end encomiendas , manage and administer the men. It is in decisions about 1570 as the face of the Viceroyalty of Peru was modeled for two centuries ...
1. Impose the authority of the king.
After the conquest of Peru (1532), two opposing models: on one hand the conquistadors , between supporters of opposing Pizarro brothers and Almagro's supporters, often from poorer regions of Spain as Extremadura seek to establish the new world what they could not claim in the former: to create a feudal society, and become lords. Francisco Pizarro distributes titles marquis, duke and governor with a vengeance. On the other hand, the English crown sees this with suspicion, and seeks to break these noble desires. It separates America two, the Viceroyalty of New Spain to the north and the Vice-Kingdom of Peru to the south in 1542. Charles V sends the first viceroy in 1543, which is struggling to impose its authority and is killed by Gonzalo Pizarro in 1546, the conquistadors, now installed, we will not deprive the world they have only themselves same.
The second viceroy will succeed in ending the rebellion, to impose royal authority and centralize the country rather than around Lima Cuzco. The viceroy was Lieutenant personnel of the English king, more than an administrator appointed to manage a territory: it was King. Hence accuracy : Hispanic America was not a "colony" was a territory, ultramarine and without geographical continuity of the kingdom of Spain.
The consequence of this centralization was that reconstituted itself around the viceroy system and spirit of the court, with its label and its relationship to power. A researcher has published in 2007 PUCP Buscando a Rey ("In Search of a King: authoritarianism in the history of Peru"), where he shows how society, the manners and contemporary Peruvian politics can be explained by the original parsonage, this desire to please the king, these letters and petitions where one must stoop, humble, begging for a few bribes. There is some truth in all this!
2. Ending encomiendas
The other major project of the viceroys, to impose their authority, was to attack the privileges of the conquerors, mainly of their properties, encomiendas . English medieval old institution, it was adapted to the new world and established by an enactment of 1503, which allowed the conquistadors to receive a land management and Indians therein, to load for them to evangelize. This had enabled reward the conquerors, by their age and their bravery, but the inheritance of the encomienda froze the company by creating rents and a strong local authority, the encomenderos poorly performing their duty of evangelization and would prefer to use the available manpower for farm work or other, causing the slow decline of the Indians placed encomienda. "New Laws of Burgos," taken in 1542 under the inspiration of Bartolomé de la Casas , abolished the encomienda , but were never implemented because of resistance Local.
The issue was raised by Francisco de Toledo, the viceroy fifth (from 1569 to 1580, 11 years of government). He wanted to eliminate the perpetuity of encomiendas to transfer them to the death of the owner, the Crown. Faced with opposition from encomenderos and the threat of a new uprising, he had to retreat, the issue was debated, we sought to ease tensions, to weigh the pros and cons. The Crown wanted to protect the Indians and weaken the local power, the encomenderos argued that, should they make the property when they die, that does not encourage nor to improve care for Indians (this is not true). The issue of
encomiendas was never really resolved, and scored all the late sixteenth. Toledo managed to impose the transfer at the end of the third generation, acceptable compromise that could occur as a result of diversification of Peruvian society: the arrival of new immigrants, the development of merchants, lawyers, religious orders ... gradually erased the primacy of the conquistadors 'historical' in the hierarchy of society.
3. Manage and administer the population.
Last major project, the management of men.
At the social level, the initial policy was to separate the company into two distinct communities, the "República de Indios" and the "Republica de Españoles". The civilization was urban, the Spaniards founded cities (Trujillo, Lima ...) in the years 1530-1540 for themselves, and began to regroup under the Viceroy Francisco de Toledo, Indians of "
Discounts. In the Caribbean, Mexico or Peru, city and cuts were ordered in a checkerboard pattern, with a geometric path organized around a central parade ground, while the European cities of the time were more irregular, enclosed, narrow streets and labyrinth. But the separation never worked, and the towns became the scene of miscegenation between Spaniards, Indians and blacks, resulting in a very wide range of situations (mestizo, mulatto,
zambo ,
cholo, etc..) That we associate values social.
Economically, the main concern was to ensure the administrative operation of silver mines: Potosi, Huancavelica ... While the Indian population declined, due to disease, ill treatment, leaks and suicides, the generalization Toledo
mita, a system of forced or compulsory labor. Each reduction, village or community should contribute troops to workers (
mitayos ) by rotation for use in mines. The administrative history of the last thirty years of the sixteenth century is a succession of reforms to broaden the recruitment base, reduce escapes from Indians, miners together ...
The Viceroyalty of Peru in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, has largely lived on the foundations and structures placed between 1540 and 1580. Forty viceroys of Peru have followed from 1543 to 1824, appointed and dismissed by the English kings, who ruled from the Consejo de Indias
, but never went to the New World. The viceroys were sent, sometimes with a clear mission statement, which they reported to the king, but the slowness of communications gave them great freedom, and he sometimes took several years to run an application or transmit data . Faithful to the king, often good managers, their administrative decisions have been reaching up to today. For example, to better manage these vast territories, they created eight Hearings
gradually, sort of jurisdiction of the courts of justice: Panama, Lima, Bogota, Charcas, Quito, Chile, Buenos Aires, Cuzco. Six of the eight hearings today are the capitals of South American states.
