Latin American Liberation Theology

Front matter

Latin American Liberation Theology

David Tombs

BRILL

Contents

Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction

Part 1: Power and Privilege: 1492-1959 Chapter 1: Conquest and Colonialism, 1492-1808 Chapter 2: Independence and Neo-colonialism, 1808-1929 Chapter 3: From Depression to Development, 1930-1959

Part 2: Engaging the World: 1960-1969 Chapter 4: Reform and Renewal, 1960-1965 Chapter 5: An Atmosphere of Liberation, 1965-1969

Chapter One

Your Highnesses, as good Christian and Catholic princes, devout and propagators of the Christian faith, as well as enemies of the sect of Mahomet and of all idolatries and heresies, conceived the plan of sending me, Christopher Columbus, to this country of the Indies . . . to convert these regions to our holy faith.

Christopher Columbus, Diary!

Latin American liberation theology must be understood against the history of greed and violence, suffering and oppression, and death and destruction that have characterised Latin America for five centuries since the arrival of Christianity.? The so-called discovery of the Indies by Christopher Columbus was to have a cataclysmic effect on a vast continent, and its historical consequences have been etched deeply into today’s societies.

The driving force behind Columbus’s voyage was the quest for fame and financial profit. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the dominance of the Moors

! “The Diary of Columbus” cited in M. H. Goodpasture (ed.), Cross and Sword: An Eyewitness History of Christianity in Latin America (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1989), p. 7.

2 This is not to ignore the violence that existed before the Spanish and Portuguese arrived in 1492. The Aztec and Inca empires were as bloodthirsty as any other imperial system. On the major pre-Columban civilisations, see I. Clendinnen, Aztecs: An Interpretation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991); N. Davies, The Ancient Kingdoms of Mexico (London: Allen Lane, 1982); N. Hammond, Ancient Maya Civilization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982); A. Métraux, The History of the Incas (New York: Pantheon Books, 1969). On the role of violence in pre-Columban societies, see especially: D. Carrasco, City of Sacrifice: The Aztec Empire and the Role of Violence in Civilization (Boston: Beacon Press, 1999); R. C. Trexler, Sex and Conquest: Gendered Violence, Political Order, and the European Conquest of the Americas (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995).

© David Tombs, 2002 | DOI:10.1163/9789004496460_003 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

in the eastern Mediterranean made the spice and silk trade with the East much more expensive and hazardous. Most of the traders in the great Italian trading cities had no alternative but to continue to trade with the Moors and pay the increased prices. However, the Portuguese were more adventurous and led the search for an alternative sea route to Asia by going south and trying to sail around Africa. In 1434, Portuguese ships had rounded Cape Bojador which allowed them to trade directly for gold and slaves with what was then known as the kingdom of Sudan in the western and central regions of sub-Saharan Africa. When the need for a new route to India became pressing the Portuguese were already well situated to press south.

In 1480, the Genoese sailor Columbus was living in the Portuguese colony of Madeira—far out from the mainland into the Atlantic—and he was convinced that he could find a lucrative new trade route to Asia by sailing due west across the Atlantic.? Columbus approached the Portuguese monarch John II to ask support for his bold enterprise, but the commission that studied Columbus’s plan rejected it. Educated people knew that the world was round, not flat. A western route was therefore recognised as possible in principle, but it was thought to be impossible in practice. Ships were limited in the journeys they could undertake without fresh supplies. Columbus mistakenly believed his route to Asia was possible, because he dramatically underestimated the distance to Cipango (Japan). The Portuguese pointed this out, and because nobody— especially not Columbus—was expecting a whole new continent to lie between the Canary Islands and Asia, they rejected his proposal. Columbus, however, was not to be deterred and turned instead to Spain. He spent six years persuading the monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella to support him and promising plentiful gold waiting to be discovered in Asia. During this time, he was given a modest stipend by the Spanish crown, but this did not stop him from trying again to interest the Portuguese in his plan. His second attempt with the Portuguese was more successful at first but ended when Bartholomew Diaz rounded the Cape of Storms (promptly renamed the Cape of Good Hope) in 1488.* This forced Columbus to return to the Spanish court while his brother Bartolomé attempted to interest the French and English monarchs in the enterprise.

Eventually, with the help of Genoese bankers, he signed an agreement with Ferdinand and Isabella at Santa Fe in April 1492. The plan still seemed to be based on miscalculation, but the Spanish monarchs had now completed the

> A long-standing classic on Columbus and his voyages is S. E. Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus (2 vols; Boston: Little Brown, 1942). Regrettably Morison’s work is largely uncritical of the European imperialism that Columbus served. A much briefer (and less flattering) interpretation is offered in H. Koning, Columbus: His Enterprise (London: Latin America Bureau, 2nd ed., 1991 [1976]).

4 Ten years later Portuguese explorations to the south finally yielded the prize they sought when Vasco de Gama reached India (1497-1498). In the sixteenth century the Portuguese developed a highly lucrative trade with the Far East via bases at Colombo (on the coast of modern day Sri Lanka, founded 1517) and Macao (on the coast of China, founded 1557). They enjoyed a European monopoly on this route until the seventeenth century when the Dutch (who rounded the Cape in 1590) started to displace them.

teconquest of Spain and were eager to compete with Portugal in the quest for the Indies. Therefore, Queen Isabella was willing to take a chance on Columbus. With her support for his venture, Columbus finally set out from the Andalusian port of Palos with three ships on 3 August 1492. After repairs and restocking in the Canary Islands, they sailed west on 9 September into the uncharted Atlantic horizon.

THE “NEW” WORLD

On 12 October, Columbus landed at a small island in the Caribbean (in what is now known as Barbados).> Unaware of his mistake, he believed that he had at last found a new trading passage to India. Columbus claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand, gave thanks to God, and named the island San Salvador (the Saviour). His arrival was to have a momentous impact on the islands of the Caribbean and the huge landmass that came to be known as America. The discovery of the new lands came at a critical point in Spanish history. On 2 January 1492, Spain finally completed a nearly 800 year process of reconquest against the Moors in Spain. The Spanish monarchs were ready to extend their recently consolidated power out into new areas of the world and begin a new imperialist age.’ Sadly, this imperial glory would be built on the suffering of its victims.

> Columbus’s arrival in the Caribbean was a result of the north-easterly winds that prevail below the Tropic of Cancer. Columbus picked up these winds largely by chance when he sailed south from the Canaries, and they ensured that he arrived across the Atlantic at this latitude. His return to Spain was possible because when he sailed north, he picked up the westerly winds that prevail north of the Tropic of Cancer. During the colonial period, the Spanish trans-Atlantic shipping convoys (the carrera de las Indias) would follow more or less the same route

6 Even after encountering the mainland on his third voyage Columbus clung to his mistaken belief until his death. Columbus always referred to them as “the Indies” and to their inhabitants as the “Indians.” The term New World is credited to the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci who made three well-publicised journeys to the new territories a short time after Columbus. The continent came to be known as “America” in recognition of Vespucci’s travels.

? Moors invaded Spain in 711 and conquered the peninsula within seven years. The Spanish reconquest took over seven centuries. The final phase of reconquest became possible after Prince Ferdinand of Aragon and Princess Isabella of Castille married in 1469. When their respective fathers died (Henry IV of Castile in 1474 and John II of Aragon in 1479) their marriage resulted in the unification of Catholic Spain. Their united forces finally triumphed over the kingdom of Granada and took the Alhambra citadel in 1492. During this process the political importance of Spain’s Catholic identity came to the fore and was reflected in the institution of the Inquisition in Spain 1480. On the Spanish imperial period which was to follow under the Habsburg dynasty, see J. H. Elliott, Imperial Spain: 1469-1716 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2nd ed., 1972 [1963]); J. Lynch Spain under the Habsburgs (2 vols; London: Oxford University Press, 1964 and 1969); on the period under the Bourbon dynasty (which replaced the Habsburgs in 1700, introduced some notable reforms into Latin America in the later part of the eighteenth century and endured until Latin American independence in the early nineteenth century), see J. Lynch, Spanish Colonial Administration, 1782-1810: The Intendant System in the Vice-royalty of Rio de la Plata (London: Athlone, 1958).

Discovery and Destruction (1492-1519)

From San Salvador, Columbus explored the nearby small islands before going south. He sailed along the north coast of Cuba and then east along the north coast of the island of Hispaniola (La Isla Espanola, which today is Haiti and the Dominican Republic) where he founded an initial settlement La Navidad (Christmas). He then returned home in January 1493 to be greeted with all honours by the Spanish court.’ Allocation of newly discovered lands was under papal jurisdiction and Pope Alexander VI happened to be a Spanish Borgias. In 1493, he issued a papal bull that gave his support for further exploration to extend the Catholic faith to new peoples. He granted dominion over the isles that Columbus had already discovered and everything that was discovered west of them to the Spanish crown.'° To prevent clashes between the Spanish claims to the Indies in the west and Portuguese claims to new lands in the south, a demarcation line was drawn on maps of the Atlantic at a longitude one hundred leagues to the west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands, off the west African coast. Spain would have dominion to the west of these and Portugal to the east.!! A year later, at the treaty of Tordesillas (1494), the western extent of the Portuguese rights were extended a further two hundred and seventy leagues (about 1,400 miles). An unexpected result of this became clear a few years later. In 1500, Pedro Alvares Cabral tried to lead a Portuguese expedition to India around Africa. He was very badly off course, and then blown even further away from his proposed direction by a storm. Eventually, he landed on undiscovered territory that the amended treaty of Tordesillas unwittingly designated as Portuguese. It was Brazil.!

8 The settlement was known as La Navidad, because when Columbus lost a ship on Christmas day 1492, he took it as sign from God that he should establish a settlement at the point. In all probability, his belief that the island was the source for the gold that he had seen elsewhere also influenced his decision. The cruelty of the settlers when their greed for gold was frustrated, led to the destruction of the settlement by the Indians before Columbus could return on his second voyage.

? The terms of the Capitulaciones de Santa Fe signed before the voyage were extremely generous for Columbus. He was given the title Viceroy of the Indies and the hereditary title of Admiral of the Ocean. He was promised the governorship of all lands discovered on his voyage and one tenth of all the riches resulting from his discoveries.

10 Before his second voyage, the Pope mandated Columbus to take the Catholic faith to all the residents and inhabitants of his discoveries and Queen Isabella also emphasised that she was concerned for the conversion of those that he encountered on his travels (see Goodpasture, Cross and Sword, p. 5).

1! On Portuguese explorations, see J. H. Parry, The Age of Reconnaissance: The Age of Discovery, Exploration and Settlement, 1450-1650 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1963); C. R. Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books: 1973).

12 Although the land was claimed for Portugal as “the land of the true cross” on 26 April 1500, the first group of settlers did not arrive until the 1530s. The Portuguese were later able to extend their boundaries into the sparsely populated interior well beyond what had been agreed. Modern Brazil is about half of the landmass and half of the population of the South American continent as a whole. The name “Brazil” is derived from

Columbus was eager to return to the Caribbean. His second expedition (1493-1496) involved many more men and seventeen ships (which included a different Santa Maria as his flagship). He followed a similar trans-Atlantic course and reached the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean and Puerto Rico before coming to Hispaniola from the East. Since the fort he established at La Navidad had been destroyed, he founded a new coastal settlement—Isabella— to the west of it on 2 January 1494. From here, the Spanish started to search Hispaniola and the other nearby islands in the misguided belief that the gold jewellery of the inhabitants showed that great quantities of gold were available for the taking."

The quest for gold in Hispaniola was a disaster for the island’s indigenous people and subsequently, for the inhabitants of the whole continent.'* When the goldfields failed to materialise, the Spanish turned on the local inhabitants and forced them to supply a quota of gold every three months. Every man, woman, and child was liable for this quota; the Spanish cut a hand off those who failed and hanged or burned any who resisted. After only two years, an estimated half of the population had died or been killed—an estimated 125,000 to 500,000 people. Those who survived Spanish cruelty were vulnerable to European diseases for which they had no immunity. When it was clear that the little gold available was exhausted, the conquistadores forced the inhabitants to work the land for them instead.

The history of Hispaniola was the testing ground for the colonial patterns that would spread throughout the continent. In 1503, Queen Isabella decreed that the Indians were not to be enslaved, but—in order for them to be converted to Catholicism—should be forced to work as paid labourers on the estates of Spanish settlers, known as encomiendas. In theory, in exchange for the dyewood of that name that was its primary trade export in the sixteenth century until the Portuguese introduced sugar plantations from Madeira. For a helpful historical overview on Brazil, see E. B. Burns, A History of Brazil (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970).

3 Tt was not until the third voyage (1498-1500) that Columbus came to the mainland coast of what is now Venezuela just south of Trinidad. During his fourth and final voyage (1502-1504) he discovered the Caribbean coast of Central America. Even so, it appears that when he died two years later, he still believed that he had found the western sea passage to Asia that he had always hoped for.

4 Columbus went inland in search of the goldfields and established an inland colony called San Tomas under the control of his younger brother, Diego. However, the small quantities of gold that may have first drawn Columbus to settle in Hispaniola were from alluvial rivers rather than the bountiful gold fields that the Spanish believed must exist. Undeterred, in April Columbus sailed west to Cuba (which he believed was China), then south to Jamaica and back around the southern coast of Hispaniola. The whole voyage took about six months. Having failed to find gold, he rounded-up a large number of inhabitants and sent 500 of the best specimens back to Spain as tribute to the Spanish monarchs.

45 Abuse of the encomienda system was widespread and persistent despite a further attempt by Ferdinand in 1512 to regulate them more strictly under the Laws of the this labour, the settlers were required to treat the Indians well, pay them daily wages, protect them from dangers, and provide for their religious instruction. In practice, the laws were widely ignored and did little to prevent appalling conditions of abuse and virtual slavery on the encomiendas. War, disease, and the inhuman conditions of work took a terrible toll on the Indians.

The church failed to protect the people from the violence. Most of the church authorities colluded with the genocide of the native people. The social privileges enjoyed by the church, the close connection between crown and church, and firmly held beliefs in the moral and spiritual superiority of the conquistadores over the natives, prevented the church from criticising or acting against the genocidal destruction. When protests were made, they came from courageous individuals within the church rather than the church as a whole. In 1515 probably no more than 10,000 native inhabitants were left in Hispaniola, and by 1540 they were almost wiped out. The virtual disappearance of the indigenous peoples in Hispaniola started the practice of enslavement and transportation of African workers to replace them. A practice that was to add the iniquities of a slave trade to the horrors of the conquest without provoking the church to concerted protest.

Coercive and cruel labour practices laid the foundations for a colonial period, which would last over three centuries. The Spanish consolidated their settlement of Hispaniola and then moved out from the Caribbean to conquer and colonise the mainland.'® The fate of Latin America was determined by the wills of the Iberian monarchs and the missionary zeal of the Pope. The Spanish and Portuguese pioneered the European ideology in which the world was theirs to conquer and rule for the social and religious good of other peoples. For the indigenous people, there was little to distinguish between church and state power in their violent destruction.

Burgos. Continuing abuse led to the attempted abolition of the system, and New Laws of the Indies were introduced in 1542. However, faced by a revolt from Spanish settlers, the crown was forced to compromise and did not enforce the new laws. By the 1560s, traditional encomiendas were in decline and during the seventeenth century the hacienda (ranch estate) system emerged out of and replaced the sixteenth-century encomiendas. Although in the beginning, the haciendas were supported by a repartimiento system that forced Indians to undertake a certain amount of temporary labour, they gradually came to be based on a permanent resident labour force—often employed at such miserable wages they were little more than serfs; see E. Williamson, The Penguin History of Latin America (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1992), pp. 108-112; L. S. Simpson, The Encomienda in New Spain (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1950).

16 In the sixteenth century Spain's colonial centre of gravity shifted to the mainland, but maintained its presence on the Caribbean islands of Hispaniola, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. In the case of Cuba and Puerto Rico, Spanish rule continued until the end of the nineteenth century. Elsewhere in the Caribbean during the seventeenth century, other European nations—especially England, France, and the Netherlands—established themselves with bases on other islands, which allowed them initially to harass Spanish shipping and later to develop their own lucrative plantation export economies from the seventeenth century onwards. Britain wrested Jamaica from Spanish control in 1655 (recog-

Spanish America

The first expeditions to the mainland focussed on the Caribbean coast of Colombia and Venezuela and the Central American coastline adjacent to them.” In 1513, Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Panamanian Isthmus and sighted the South Sea. He waded into the water and claimed the Pacific Ocean and all kingdoms for Spain. There were rumours of a powerful province with great riches beyond the sea, but before Núñez de Balboa could undertake his planned expedition, he fell out with the crown representative and was beheaded. In the meantime, Spanish attentions turned to Mexico. In 1519, Hernán Cortés set out from Cuba with about 600 men to conquer the Aztec kingdom of Mexico.!® He landed on the Mexican coast on Good Friday 1519 and founded the city of Veracruz (City of the True Cross). The Aztec Emperor Montezuma feared that Cortés might be the god Quetzalcoatl (who in some accounts had been prophesied as returning from the east) and feared to strike against him. Instead, he sent lavish gifts which only fed Cortés’s desire for further riches. Cortés took advantage of the situation and proceeded to the Aztec centre Tenochitlan where he and his men were courteously welcomed. After a week as an honoured guest, Cortés suddenly turned against his host and took Montezuma hostage. However, shortly after this grab for power—while Spanish success was still very much in the balance—Cortés had to leave his lieutenant Pedro Alvarado in charge so he could return to the coast temporarily.” While nised by a treaty in 1670) and French presence in the western half of Hispaniola was formally recognised by a treaty in 1697. Under its new name “Saint Domingue,” it remained a French colony during the eighteenth century, until a slave revolt in 1793 established it as a free republic (Haiti) in 1804. On the eastern half of the island, Santo Domingo, there were periods of rule by both France and Haiti in the early nineteenth-century and the colony finally gained independence in 1844 as the Dominican Republic. On the history of the Caribbean, see E. Williams, From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean, 1492-1969 (London: Andre Deutsch, 1970).

7 On the conquistadors and their conquests, see E A. Kirkpatrick, The Spanish Conquistadores (London: A & C Black, 3rd ed., 1963 [1934]).

8 For a highly readable narrative account, see H. Thomas, The Conquest of Mexico (London: Pimlico, 1994 [1973]). The self-serving letters that Cortés sent back to court make fascinating reading of the Spanish political intrigues that accompanied the conquest, as well as his account of the conquest itself, see H. Cortés, Letters from Mexico (trans. and ed. A. Pagden; New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2nd ed., 1987 [ET 1972, Spanish orig. 1519-1526]). A further primary account is offered by the soldier Bernal Diaz who was part of the group, see B. Diaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain (trans. J. M. Cohen; Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1963). An interesting collection of sources giving the perspective from the indigenous peoples is offered in M. Leén- Portilla (ed.), The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest (trans. L. Kemp; Boston: Beacon Press, rev. ed., 1992 [1961]).

9 Cortés set out without waiting for the necessary royal permission, and in deliberate defiance of the Cuban governor Diego Velázquez, who was planning his own expedition. Velázquez had previously sent two scouting expeditions (in 1517 and 1518) and he was away, the situation deteriorated rapidly. Shortly after Cortés returned, Montezuma was killed and Cortés on 30 June 1520 was forced to withdraw from the city. The Spaniards suffered heavy casualties in their withdrawal, and it is remembered in Spanish tradition as the noche triste (sorrowful night).

After six months, Cortés returned in December and began to prepare for a stronger offensive. On 13 August 1521, the new Aztec emperor Cuauhtemoc surrendered the city after a brutal struggle in which most of the city was destroyed. The conquistadors replaced the Aztec rulers at the top of the social pyramid and inherited their subjects. Cortés renamed the kingdom “New Spain,” and in return, Charles V appointed him as governor and rewarded him lavishly with huge grants of land. The conquest of Mexico in the early 1520s was the first great prize of the Spanish conquest and inaugurated Spanish colonialism on the main land. In contrast to the Caribbean islands where the inhabitants had basic subsistence economies, in Mexico the Spanish took over a sophisticated, wealthy, and organised society with a developed religious system.’! They suddenly had control over a huge empire from which they could extract considerable riches. Furthermore, the amazing success of Cortés’s adventure fuelled the drive of other conquistadores to explore and conquer similar prizes. From Mexico, Pedro de Alvarado launched the conquest of Guatemala and El Salvador (1524-1534), and Francisco Hernández de Córdoba extended Spanish presence south to Nicaragua in 1524 where it connected with explorations north from the early settlements in the Isthmus which had begun in 1522.

Within ten years, the Spanish had a second success—the conquest of the Inca kingdom of Peru. In December 1530, Francisco Pizzaro set out from Panama’s pacific coast and landed in modern day Ecuador.” At the time, the was waiting for permission for his expedition when Cortés set out. Cortés’s departure from Tenochitlan was prompted by news that Velázquez had sent a force under PAnfilo de Narváez to Veracruz to force Cortés to return to Cuba. Cortés needed to continually protect himself from Velázquez, and at the same time he sought to go over Velézquez’s head with a direct appeal to the crown. In fact, it was not until October 1522 that Charles V finally judged in Cortés’s favour and made him safe from retribution.

0 Cortés served as governor until 1527, but faced a steady loss of power after 1526. In 1528, he left Mexico to defend his interests in Spain. He was well received, his landholdings confirmed, and his title elevated to Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca, but he was not re-appointed as governor. After 1527, formal authority in New Spain lay with an audiencia (royal court) until an official Viceroyalty was created in 1535. Cortés returned to live on his estates in Mexico in 1530 without an official appointment and retired back to Spain in 1540. As with Columbus before him, Cortés died a bitter man feeling that he had been cheated out of the proper rewards for his achievements.

2 For an analysis of the role that religion may have played in Aztec imperial society, see G. W. Conrad and A. M. Demarest, Religion and Empire: The Dynamics of Aztec and Inca Expansion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984).

2 In 1513, Pizzaro accompanied Vasco Núñez de Balboa in the discovery of the Pacific and made a disappointing first trip to Peru 1524. In 1527, a second trip was much more encouraging and convinced him that a serious attempt at conquest was worthwhile. A vivid account is offered by J. Hemming, The Conquest of the Incas (London:

Inca leader Atahuallpa had just established his power after a civil war, but had not been able to adequately consolidate his authority. The political wounds of the civil war were still fresh and had not had time to heal. Like Cortés, Pizzaro was able to take advantage of the situation, and following Cortés example, Pizzaro managed to take Atahuallpa hostage at Cajamara in November 1532. Atahuallpa’s subjects paid a huge ransom of gold, but nevertheless, the Spanish killed him. Pizzaro took advantage of the political turmoil that ensued to march on the capital of the Inca empire at Cuzco. After winning a number of battles on the way, he managed to enter Cuzco in November 1533.

From Cuzco the Spanish consolidated control over the central areas of the Inca kingdom (modern day Peru and Bolivia) and moved out to strike at the north (modern Ecuador) and south areas (Chile). Ecuador proved the more straightforward conquest. Quito was captured in 1534 and used to launch expeditions into Colombia and Venezuela (the area the Spanish referred to as New Granada). By contrast, Chile was more obdurate and resisted a first invasion in 1535, and then put up fierce resistance to the eventually successful Spanish campaign of 1540-1553. By this time, only forty years after their first incursions on the mainland, a Spanish empire had been established over a vast area.” It ran from Middle America (Mexico and Central America) along the Caribbean coast (Venezuela) and south for thousands of miles west of the Andes (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile).’* At this time, despite this vast stretch of territory, the Spaniards had made very little impact in South America to the east of the great Andes mountains. The new Spanish empire basically remained centered on the existing empires of the Aztecs and Incas and was organised as the viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru that extended out from Mexico City and Lima. Settlement of the New World was therefore

Macmillan, 1970). For personal accounts, see Agustin de Zárate, The Discovery and Conquest of Peru (trans. J. M. Cohen; Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1968).

23 The Spanish did not completely extinguish organised resistance until much later. It was not until 1572 that they finally overcame and executed Tupac Amaru (the last free Inca Ruler). Even then, his legacy remained potent and was taken up again in the eighteenth century in a major rebellion led by José Gabriel Condorcanqui who assumed the name of Tupac Amaru II, see L. E. Fisher, The Last Inca Revolt, 1780-83 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966).

2t Venezuela and the Caribbean came under the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico) while the rest of South America was under the Viceroyalty of Peru, which was organised into audiencias (royal courts). These audiencias included: Panama (1538); Lima (1542); Santa Fé at Bogotá for what is now Colombia (1549); Charcas (1559) which stretched from Bolivia to Buenos Aires (although very little east of the Andes was actually settled); and Chile (1565). These divisions later determined the basis for the emergence of nation states in the nineteenth century. Before that, in the eighteenth century the vast Viceroyalty of Peru was divided to create new Viceroyalties in the north at New Granada (1717) covering modern day Colombia and Ecuador, and in the southeast at La Plata (1776) covering modern-day Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. For a selection of helpful maps, see E. Williamson, The Penguin History of Latin America (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1992), pp. 605-616.