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The encounter between the Inca culture and Hispanic culture got
underway as a result of the Spanish conquest in the early
sixteenth century. In 1532, the troops of Francisco Pizarro
captured Inca ruler Atahualpa in the northern highland city
of Cajamarca. The indigenous population was to dwindle during
the first few decades of Spanish rule, and the Vice-regency
of Peru was created in 1542 after a battle between the conquerors
themselves and the Spanish Crown.
Spain's foothold in the New World was consolidated in the sixteenth
century when Viceroy Francisco de Toledo laid down a set of
rules governing the colonial economy: the mita system used
indigenous labor to operate the mines and produce arts and
crafts. These activities, together with a monopoly over trade,
formed the basis of the colonial economy. But the changeover
in the dynasty and the Borbon reforms in the eighteenth century
sparked dissent among many social sectors. The main indigenous
uprising was led by Tupac Amaru II, which was to set rolling
the Creole movement that led to independence of Hispanic America
from the Spanish crown in the early nineteenth century.
Until the seventeenth century, the Peruvian vice-regency covered
an area stretching from Panama down to Tierra del Fuego.
The missionary work of the Catholic priests blended with ancient
Andean beliefs, forging a fusion of beliefs that still exists
today. The Spaniards also brought along African slaves, who
together with Spaniards and the indigenous population, form
part of the social and racial fabric of Peru.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Peruvian intellectual
writings and colonial art contributed to Spanish tradition. |
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