The Inca emperor Atahualpa, at the height of his power, would never have imagined that an illiterate Extremadura native, Francisco Pizarro, could dethrone him. The bastard son of a Castilian warrior, Pizarro did not possess, unlike Hernán Cortés, a refined education. He did not leave any writings to vindicate his memory, so posterity has often ignored him, even though no one conquered a larger and richer empire with fewer men.
In conditions of relative social marginality, he embarked for the Indies, like so many others, in search of riches. He should not have planned the trip, as one of his biographers, Bernard Lavallé, points out, after mature reflection, but rather as an escape forward. If there was one thing clear to him, it was that he could lose nothing.
With barely 180 men and thirty horses, he left Panama on January 20, 1531. In Peru he would find an empire eaten away by discord between two brothers of royal blood, Huáscar and Atahualpa. In Cajamarca, the latter would fall into the hands of the Spanish despite their overwhelming numerical superiority. Overconfidence in the face of newcomers would be fatal.
In need of a headquarters for his government, Pizarro looked for a location for it in three valleys on the Pacific coast, Sangalla, Mala and Lurín. None had the expected characteristics. The one from Rímac, on the other hand, does. Lima was founded there on January 18, 1535, according to the records. On an empty space or, on the contrary, in the territory of Taulichusco, a local chief who had received the Spanish on friendly terms? The second possibility seems more plausible. According to researcher Berta Ares Queija, the conquerors, when building the city, expelled the majority of indigenous people to the surrounding area.
At that time, the territory of Lima was a fertile area that seemed paradisiacal to the Spanish. A quarter of a century after the creation of the city, a certain Dominican religious, Brother Gaspar de Carbajal, could still say that there was a grove so dense that the Spaniards could walk "two leagues without the sun shining on them."
The difficulties for the settlers began very soon. An indigenous rebellion, in the name of the sovereign Manco Inca, laid siege to Lima. The Spanish had made him the new emperor, but, instead of entertaining him to gain his loyalty, they subjected him to all kinds of humiliations. He was tied to a wall with an iron chain, forced to witness how they forced his women.
So many humiliations caused a very tense situation, which put Cuzco on the brink of indigenous rebellion. To avoid it, Hernando Pizarro, brother of the conqueror, agreed to soften the monarch's captivity. The Inca managed to convince him to let him leave without custody, in search of a gold statue, with the promise of returning. He then took the opportunity to escape and organize an army destined to expel the Spanish. The natives first besieged Cuzco, a city that he managed to resist amid great difficulties.
Lima's turn came in August 1536. Fifty thousand men, the cry of “To the sea, bearded men!”, placed Pizarro in a serious bind. Not in vain, the surprise effect had already dissipated and the natives had learned to confront the horses. In a daring maneuver, they managed to divert the course of the Rímac and flood the city. Only an exit commanded by Pedro de Lerma managed to stop them.
Pizarro was able to save himself thanks to the support given to him by local leaders who were enemies of the Incas. The besiegers, in turn, made two decisive mistakes. They gave the Spanish time to organize the defense, while awaiting the arrival of Prince Tito Cusi Yupanqui, son of Manco Inca. On the other hand, they continued to use an obsolete combat formation, as it had already proven ineffective in the confrontation against the Castilians.
The conquest, for the defeated, was a disaster. A religious, Brother Vicente Valverde, explained to Charles V a key to the violations against the Americans. It did not occur to Pizarro to establish stricter discipline among his men because otherwise he would have been left without men to follow him. Hence the abuses against the native population went unpunished.
A victim of dissension among the conquistadors, Pizarro was murdered in 1541. He was buried in the cathedral of Lima, as arranged in his will. He left numerous encomiendas, in which he counted on the services of about thirty thousand Indians. The man who had been all-powerful ends up buried in hiding by one of his faithful. The country he had conquered remained in the hands of his enemies.
In 1542 the viceroyalty was established, seven years after the creation of its Mexican counterpart. Lima became the center of the Peruvian kingdom, the point where civil and ecclesiastical institutions resided. Cuzco, the historic capital of the Incas, was relegated. From then on, the Lima-Cuzco duality would reflect the contrasts of a territory strongly divided between the coast, with a white majority, and the Sierra, with an indigenous majority.
At that time, the country was experiencing a time of civil wars between the conquerors. Gonzalo, Pizarro's brother, led a rebellion of the conquistadors against the Crown, in protest of the laws that limited his power over the indigenous people. Not in vain, in 1542 new provisions had suppressed the personal service to which the native population was subject.
During the clashes, the rebels defeated the first viceroy in Añaquito, Blasco Núñez de Vela, who died from an ax blow to the head in the middle of combat. Núñez de Vela had tried to apply the laws strictly, with which he only managed to earn the animosity of the encomenderos.
This made the monarchy understand that it could not be imposed solely by force. The possibility of sending a powerful army, as proposed by some advisors, proved to be completely impracticable. Hence, Pedro de la Gasca, the “Peacemaker”, alternated violent methods with political ones, in a masterful demonstration of diplomatic skill.
When he was sent to Peru, no one believed that this unimpressive-looking religious man could succeed in subduing the fierce conquistadors, but that is what happened. He had the position of president of the Royal Court of Lima and blank letters, granted by Charles V, that he could use at his discretion. Meanwhile, Gonzalo Pizarro dug his own grave by alienating his supporters with taxes and forced loans.
La Gasca obtained the victory of Jaquijahuana, a combat that more than a battle was a rout of the Pizarrista forces. On the other hand, he softened the measures that harmed the encomenderos, while at the same time granting amnesty to numerous rebels. However, he also ensured that, within the encomienda, the indigenous people were guaranteed certain rights.
Shortly before returning to Spain, he left a report to his successor, the second viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza, in which he pointed out his obligation to “defend the natives from bad treatment, from killing them with humiliations and cruelties that until now such and such great and foreign things have been used by Christians and even by men.”
Guaranteeing political stability implied accepting the autonomy of the colonists, the “you obey, but you do not comply” with which they could avoid the provisions of the metropolis without formally rejecting them, with the argument that those who lived on the ground knew much better. that a distant Court how to solve the problems.
In short, the path of consensus was chosen, since, otherwise, there was a non-negligible risk that Spain would have to conquer America for the second time, this time facing the peninsulars themselves instead of the Indians.
It would be the third viceroy, Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis of Cañete, who was in charge of achieving pacification after several years of continuous turbulence. He achieved this with expeditious methods: he ordered executions and banishments of seditionists, and organized military expeditions to get rid of problematic soldiers. In Lima he had weapons in the hands of private individuals confiscated. With these demonstrations of force, he became “the first viceroy of Peru capable of governing the region in peace.”
