The Americas

Viceroyalty of Peru (Spanish Empire)
AD 1528 - 1824

Americas (Indices) All Modern States Pre-Columbian North Pre-Columbian Central Pre-Columbian South Colonial North Colonial Central Colonial South Post-Colonial Modern

The peopling of the Americas remains a complicated subject, and one which is open to a great deal of debate. While earlier migrations are especially debated, it is generally accepted that there was a broad phase of migration (involving several individual waves of migration) into the 'New World' of the Americas between 25,000 and 15,000 years ago. These first arrivals made the most of the Bering land bridge that joined Asia to North America during the most recent ice age. Others may have followed the coastline in canoes, moving much more quickly than they would on foot. Over thousands of years these new arrivals filtered eastwards and southwards to produce the native American civilisations that are known to archaeology and history. Elements of modern native American society prefer to propose that they have always been living in the New World and that a migration simply did not take place, despite overwhelming evidence which places human evolution firmly in Africa.

As part of the general exploration of the New World, Spanish conquistadors set out on various expeditions in the early sixteenth century. One such expedition was led by Francisco Pizarro in 1533, heading towards the western coast of South America where it was fortunate in discovering the vast Inca empire just as it was reaching the end of a civil war. With just forty soldiers (aided by friendly native warriors), Pizarro quickly conquered much of the empire, acquired vast new territories for the Spanish Colonies, and set up the foundations of Peru. Just a decade later, in 1542, the viceroyalty of Peru was created to rival that of New Spain in terms of the territory and potential wealth it controlled. At its height it ruled all of western, central and southern South America, often through governors such as the captaincy general of Chile.

Initial wealth was brought about through the mining and textile trades, but when Spain controlled Portugal between 1580-1640, there was no restriction on Portuguese settlement in Brazil. In the eighteenth century, the creation of the viceroyalties of New Granada and Rio de la Plata reduced the importance of the Peruvian capital at Lima and removed much territory from Peru's control. It also served to move some of the lucrative Andean trade to Buenos Aires. Added to the decline in productivity from the mining trade and textile production, this combination of events saw Peru lose much of its initial importance to the Spanish empire.

(Additional information by Dr Godofredo Arauzo.)

1524 - 1532

A tentative first expedition for the growing Spanish Colonies by Francisco Pizarro to conquer Peru from his base in Panama City fails when he is forced to turn back. The second expedition in 1526 finds the northern edges of Inca territory.

The third, in 1527-1528 sets up a temporary base on the edges of Inca territory, while the fourth requires a return to Spain and an interview with the king. This gains Pizarro the titles of governor and captain general of New Castile, the territory which is expected to be conquered by his expedition. By 1532 Pizarro is ready to head back into the lands which promise so many riches.

1528 - 1541

First Spanish governor of New Castile. Assassinated.

1533

Pizarro leads his small body of troops southwards from Panama to conquer the Inca empire, opening up vast new Spanish Colonial territories in South America. Pizarro is accompanied by his siblings, Hernando and Gonzalo Pizarro.

1534

The governor of Guatemala, Pedro de Alvarado, heads to the Andes, hoping to gain the rumoured riches of Peru, but he is warned off by the men of Francisco Pizarro. In the same year, Pizarro's leadership is questioned by Diego de Almagro, and the latter man leaves, given permission by the king of Spain to explore southern Peru (modern Chile).

1535 - 1536

Pizarro explores the west coast of northern Peru, and founds the city of Lima as the capital of the new territories. His brothers govern the Inca capital Qusqo (or Cusco), exhibiting great brutality towards the native subjects. An uprising results, almost recapturing the capital until the Pizarro brothers are able to defeat it.

The small number of conquistadors were able to defeat massively larger numbers in ferocious fighting thanks to their modern European weaponry

In the same year a former companion of Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, leads his band of conquistadors south into Chile in search of gold. He claims the territory for Spain but founds no cities, and returns in 1536 having abandoned his discoveries. Two years later he is executed after having failed to oust Pizarro as governor.

1537 - 1538

Almagro's return to Peru sees him temporarily imprison Gonzalo and Hernando Pizarro. Once reunited, the Pizarro brothers defeat Almagro's attempts to usurp control at the Battle of Las Salinas in April 1538. Almagro is executed on 8 July. One of Pizarro's captains, Hernando de Soto, becomes governor of Cuba in 1538.

1541 - 1544

Governor of New Castile.

1541 - 1546

Pizarro is assassinated by Almagro's followers on 26 June 1541. Gonzalo Pizarro returns from an expedition into the interior to find that the official representative of the Spanish crown has arrived to take control of Peru, and the assassins and their forces are defeated at the Battle of Chupas on 16 September 1542.

In 1544, the king of Spain appoints Blasco Nunez Vela as the first viceroy of Peru (which includes the captaincy general of Chile and the New Kingdom of Granada, and which forces a reorganisation of the governate of New Andalusia). He introduces new laws aimed at preventing the previous exploitation of the natives and Gonzalo Pizarro rebels, with the backing of the many conquistadors who lose out under the new laws. The situation is not fully resolved until Pizarro is defeated at the Battle of Jaquijahuana in 1548 and is immediately beheaded.

1544 - 1546

First viceroy of Peru.

1544 - 1548

Half-brother of Francisco. Claimant viceroy of Peru.

1545 - 1559

The viceroys continually attempt to persuade the Inca ruler to come down from his independent mountain capital and reside in his former capital at Qosqo, where he can be controlled by Spain. It takes until 1559 before Sayri Tupac does so, and he accepts Christianity at the same time.

1546 - 1549

President of the Audiencia.

1550 - 1552

Spanish viceroy of Peru (and of New Spain 1535-1550).

1552 - 1556

President of the Audiencia.

1556 - 1561

1561

Died before he could take office.

1561 - 1564

1564

President of the Audiencia.

1564 - 1569

President of the Audiencia.

1569 - 1581

1570 - 1572

Toledo makes an extensive tour of the viceroyalty and reorganises it. He establishes the Inquisition in Peru (1570) and promulgates laws that treats natives and Spanish equally. In 1572, the last Inca ruler, Tupac Amaru, is arrested, tried, and beheaded. His city is burned and its location forgotten.

1571 - 1574

The Inquisition arrives in New Spain, while also simultaneously setting up in Peru. By 1574 it is ready to begin hearing cases, with around two hundred people being processed in that year in New Spain alone. Most of them are burned alive in various plazas around Mexico City or in secret chambers.

1580

Spain gains control of its Iberian neighbour, the kingdom of Portugal, and any attempts to prevent the Portuguese colonisation of eastern South America in Brazil are relaxed.

1581 - 1583

Viceroy of New Spain (1568-1580). Spanish viceroy of Peru. Died.

1584

President of the Audiencia.

1584 - 1589

1589 - 1596

1596 - 1604

Viceroy. Also Spanish viceroy of New Spain (1590-95 & 1607-11).

1604 - 1606

Spanish viceroy of Peru. Died. (Viceroy of New Spain 1595-1603.)

1607

President of the Audiencia.

1607 - 1615

Spanish viceroy of Peru (and of New Spain 1603-1607).

1615 - 1621

1617

Francisco de Borja y Aragon divides the government of the districts of Rio de la Plata in two, creating Buenos Aires and Paraguay, both of which remain dependencies of Peru. The idea to divide the existing governate had been devised by Hernando Arias de Saavedra, governor of Rio de la Plata, but it requires royal confirmation (which it receives in 1618) before it can be officially enacted in 1620.

1621 - 1622

President of the Audiencia.

1622 - 1629

Spanish viceroy of Peru (and of New Spain 1612-1621).

1628

A Portuguese attack from Brazil on a Spanish mission results in the enslavement of 60,000 natives. The raid is one of a series in what is effectively a low level war of territorial conquest, despite Spain governing the Portuguese.

1629 - 1639

Later governor of Rio de la Plata (1641).

Cabrera puts down an uprising by the native Uros and Mapuche natives.

1639 - 1648

1648 - 1655

Spanish viceroy of Peru (and of New Spain 1642-1648).

1655 - 1661

Spanish viceroy of Peru (and of New Spain 1650-1653).

1656

Pedro Bohorquez, a Spanish adventurer, crowns himself emperor Inca Hualpa of the Calchaqui natives, inciting their tribes to revolt. He is captured and eventually hung and beheaded. Rich landowners also chose this period to revolt against the government.

1661 - 1666

1666 - 1667

President of the Audiencia.

1667 - 1672

1670

The English privateer Henry Morgan takes the Peruvian port of Chagres, before capturing and sacking the city of Panama in Granada.

1672 - 1674

President of the Audiencia, resumed interim vice-regency.

1674 - 1678

1678 - 1681

Archbishop of Lima (and interim governor of New Granada 1671).

1681 - 1689

1689 - 1705

Spanish viceroy of Peru (and of New Spain 1686-1688).

1705 - 1707

President of the Audiencia governing on an interim basis.

1707 - 1710

1710

President of the Audiencia governing on an interim basis.

1710 - 1716

1716

President of the Audiencia governing on an interim basis.

1716

1716 - 1720

1717 - 1724

The viceroyalty of New Granada is created from Peru's northern territories, Bogota, Panama, and Quito.

1720 - 1724

Restored.

1724 - 1736

1734

The viceroyalty of New Granada is recreated on a permanent basis.

1736 - 1745

1742 - 1756

There is a native uprising under the leadership of Juan Santos Atahualpa in the Andean jungle provinces of Tarma and Jauja. Although Atahualpa dies in 1756, the area is not fully regained until the 1780s.

The Cathedral of Santa Ana in Tarma lay at the heart of the rebellious provinces in 1742, although the present version is a 1952 rebuild

1745 - 1761

Former governor of Chile.

1750

The Treaty of Madrid between Portugal and Spain legitimises the established borders of the colonial territories in Peru and Brazil. The treaty also stipulates that Spain receives the Sacramento Colony and Portugal the Misiones Orientales, seven independent Jesuit missions in the upper River Uruguay. Spain and Portugal combine forces and crush the resisting colonies in the Guarani War of 1756 (as shown in the film, 'The Mission').

1761 - 1776

1776

The viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata is created from Peru's southern territories, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and the Eastern Strip (Uruguay).

1776 - 1780

Spanish viceroy of Peru (and of New Granada 1773-1776).

1780 - 1781

Shortly after Manuel de Guiror is removed from office by the Crown's inspector, the Inca begin an uprising in Peru led by Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui Noguera under the name Tupac Amaru II. It is a result of oppressive Spanish control, and it takes the new governor a year of fighting to regain control. Known as the Tupac Amaru Rebellion, its leader is killed during the fighting against the Spanish with the result that he becomes a near-mythical figure in the Peruvian struggle for independence.

1780 - 1784

Former captain-general of Chile.

1784 - 1790

1790 - 1796

1796 - 1801

Former captain-general of Chile.

1801

President of the Audiencia.

1801 - 1806

Formerly in Chile (1796) & Rio de la Plata (1799).

1806 - 1816

Named viceroy of Rio de la Plata in 1804 but took Peru instead.

1810

Following the French occupation of Spain and the subsequent weakening of the crown, various wars of independence break out across the Spanish Americas, including New Spain and Guatemala. Peru serves as a centre for the royalist Spanish Colonial opposition to these revolts.

When Buenos Aires revolts in May, Abascal reincorporates the provinces of Chile, Cordoba, La Paz and Potosi (both in modern Bolivia), and Quito (part of New Granada) from Rio de la Plata.

Thanks to France's occupation of Spain during the Napoleonic Wars, Spain's colonies in the Americas quickly took the opportunity to declare their independence

1816 - 1821

1820 - 1821

On 8 September 1820, the Liberation Expedition of Peru is organised in Chile and lands on the beach near the city of Pisco in Peru, under the command of Jose de San Martin. Lima is occupied on 21 July 1821 after negotiations with the viceroy fail. The independence of Peru from Spain is proclaimed on 28 July, with the viceroy retiring to Cusco with a sizable armed force under his command.

1821 - 1824

Acting viceroy.

1824

Despite temporarily recovering Lima, the acting viceroy is defeated in open battle against nationalist leader Simon Bolivar. Royalist control of Peru is reduced to a small area around the city of Ayacucho, in the south-central highlands. On 9 December the Battle of Ayacucho (or the Battle of La Quinua), is won by the nationalists under Antonio Jose de Sucre, Bolivar's lieutenant, at Pampa de La Quinua, close to Ayacucho. The viceroy, Serna, captured after the battle, agrees that the Spanish will leave Peru. Juan Pio de Tristan y Moscoso assumes the office of provisional viceroy in order to transfer power to the nationalists.

1824 - 1826

Nominal viceroy, but not exercising power. Died 1860.