Peru

Spanish Invasion

As with most of the Americas, contemporary race relations in Peru were born in the early 16th century with the Spanish invasion of the New World. In 1532, [Page 1040]Francisco Pizarro, seeking the riches and fame discovered by Hernando Cortez in Mexico, led a small team of Spaniards, battle ready from the recent Iberian wars with the Moors, into the Tawantinsuyo or Incan Empire. A recently ended civil war, most likely precipitated by the death of the last king (Inca) by smallpox, made the “Empire of the Sun” particularly vulnerable, with many Incan nobles greeting the Spaniards as liberators.

After quickly capturing the current Inca (Atahualpa), holding him for ransom of a room full of gold, and eventually executing him, the gold-hungry Europeans soon established an “economy of plunder” through which the newly servile native populations supplied their new Spanish overlords with a tremendous flow of goods and labor. A strict racial division between the Europeans and native groups fueled this system of exploitation. Yet at the same time, Spanish rule weakened the multiple Incan-wrought ties between the myriad indigenous groups, resulting in populations reforming their previous, much more highly localized ethnic identities, although now largely dependent on the beneficence of a new Spanish overlord for protection against rivals and enemies in other areas. A class of noble elites, called curacas, served as intermediaries between the Spanish and natives, capitalizing on their privileged position while also attempting to soften Spanish demands and native unrest.

Throughout the next four centuries, as the European population grew, the central authorities created various means to extract more native labor. For example, the Toledo Reforms at the end of the 16th century relocated a large portion of the native populations onto small areas of marginal lands called reducciones, thereby heavily limiting native alternatives and concentrating the populations in more manageable areas. As the crown hauled the fantastic fortunes from the mines of Potosí in Upper Peru (contemporary Bolivia), demand for labor accelerated in the mining sector and the vast array of supporting services. Europeans even imported African slaves for the mines, adding another distinct racial group to the country.

Insurrection, Repression, and Reform

The draconian policies of the colonial period proved to be genocidal, with this “great dying” reducing native populations by at least 95%, a demographic collapse from which the country did not recover until the 1980s. Although indigenous groups sporadically acted against Spanish rule, the 18th century truly became known as the age of Andean insurrection, culminating in the rebellion led by the curaca José Gabriel Condorcanqui (a.k.a. Tupac Amaru, assuming the name of the last Inca). Inspired by Enlightenment ideals and a glorification of the Incan past, this rebellion encompassed much of the southern highlands and thousands of indigenous and other individuals until it was brutally put down and its leaders were executed in 1781. Postinsurrection, the colonial authorities intensified their rapacious policies, including eliminating the native aristocracy and executing every fifth male of sympathetic communities.

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