Viceroyalty of Peru

The viceroyalty of the Peru was one of the two principal administrative districts that the Spanish crown created in its possessions of overseas with the Nouvelle Spain centered on the Mexico. During the first two centuries of its existence, it included/understood most of the South America controlled by the Spain.

History

The viceroyalty of Peru was created on November 20th 1542 by Charles Ier with the signature of the royal Promise to pay in Barcelona, to manage to it quasi totality of South America.

Peru then underwent a civil war between principal the conquistadores, Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro for the domination of Peru.

The king sent the first viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela in 1543, but the civil war prevented it from exerting the royal authority and he was assassinated in 1546 by Gonzalo Pizarro, the brother of Francisco. It is finally Pedro of Gasca, named president of the audiencia of Lima then successor of Calved who managed to restore the order and the royal authority, and to put an end to the rebellion of Pizarro in 1548. The capital is established in the City of the Kings (Lima) founded by Pizarro on January 18th 1535.

39 viceroys succeeded Blasco Núñez Vela and controlled the viceroyalty between 1544 and 1824. Francisco de Toledo (1569-1581) was that which organized the colonial State and founded the “reductions” or villages of Indians where they were concentrated. At the 18th century, in front of the difficulty of the administration of an immense territory, the reforms bourboniennes will be carried out, with the creation of the viceroyalties of Nouvelle Grenade in north, created in 1717 and confirmed in 1739, and the Vice-royauté of Río of Plata in the south, created in 1776.

At the 19th century, whereas various territories of the viceroyalty became independent, the latter entered in decline and its history ended with the rendering of the Jose viceroy of Serna E Hinojosa in front of the forces grancolombiennes of Simón Bolívar after the battle of Ayacucho on December 9th, 1824.

Territory

The Peruvian viceroyalty exceeded the limits of the empire INCA and extended initially since the Isthme from Panama until the Patagonie, and from the Pacific Ocean until the Amazon forest and the Atlantic Ocean. The only parts of South America which did not form part of it were is Brésil, dominated by the Portuguese, and current the Venezuela which depended on the Viceroyalty of the Spain News.

It was divided into 9 administrative divisions called audiencias , which were controlled by a regional governor subordinate with the viceroy from Peru residing at Lima. They were the following ones by creation date:

  • Panama (1538)
  • the Lima (1543) largest and most important
  • Santa Fe of Bogotá (1548)
  • Plata of los Charcas (1559)
  • Quito (1563)
  • Chile (1563-1573; 1606)
  • Buenos Aires (1661-1672; 1776)
  • Caracas (1786)
  • Cuzco (1787)

Each audiencia in its turn was subdivided in minor administrative units called corregimientos , as well Spaniards as Indiens.

During the creation of the Viceroyalty of News-Grenade, the viceroyalty of Peru lost the Audiencias of Panama, of Santa Fe of Bogotá, and Quito; with the establishment of that of Rio of Plata, (today the Argentinian , the Bolivia, the Paraguay and the Uruguay), it lost the Audiencia Buenos Aires (this port started to develop starting from this date). Except for a short period between 1798 and 1814, the Audiencia and Capitainerie of the Chile continued to belong to the Peruvian viceroyalty until 1818.

In the reorganization of 1783, one created the intendances of Arequipa (1784), Puno (1783), Cuzco (1784), Huamanga (1784), Huancavelica (1784), Lima (1783), Tarma (1784), Trujillo (1784) in Peru and Santiago (1786) and Concepción (1786) in Chile.

At the military level the Viceroyalty of Peru financed, by means of the real situado , the military campaigns against the mapuches in the War of Arauco which lasted throughout the colonial period.

In the same way, one sent from Lima of powerful armies towards Chile, High Peru (current Bolivia), and Quito against the first insurgent separatists. The fortification of the port of the Callao was the last military place in the Spanish America to go in front of the separatists.

At the end of its existence, the viceroyalty counted approximately 1.115.207 inhabitants, including 58% of Indian concentrating on the mountains, 21% of Métis, 8% of black and 12% of white, for the majority living on the coast and in the town of Lima.

This one was then the most populated city of South America since it counted to 64.000 inhabitants.

See too

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