The Spanish colonization of the Americas began in 1493 on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola after the initial 1492 voyage of Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus under license from Queen Isabella I of Castile. These overseas territories of the Spanish Empire were under the jurisdiction of Crown of Castile until the last territory was lost in 1898. Spaniards saw the dense populations of indigenous peoples as an important economic resource and the territory claimed as potentially producing great wealth for individual Spaniards and the crown. Religion played an important role in the Spanish conquest and incorporation of indigenous peoples, bringing them into the Catholic Church peacefully or by force. The crown created civil and religious structures to administer the vast territory. Spanish men and women settled in greatest numbers where there were dense indigenous populations and the existence of valuable resources for extraction.
The Viceroyalty of Peru, officially known as the Kingdom of Peru, was a Spanish imperial provincial administrative district, created in 1542, that originally contained modern-day Peru and most of the Spanish Empire in South America, governed from the capital of Lima. Along with the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Peru was one of two Spanish viceroyalties in the Americas from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.
The Pimería Alta was an area of the 18th century Sonora y Sinaloa Province in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, that encompassed parts of what are today southern Arizona in the United States and northern Sonora in Mexico.
Atahualpa, also Atawallpa or Ataw Wallpa (Quechua), was the last effective Inca emperor, reigning from April 1532 until his capture and execution in July of the following year, as part of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
Huayna Capac was the third Sapa Inca of Tawantinsuyu, the Inca Empire. He was the son of and successor to Túpac Inca Yupanqui., the sixth Sapa Inca of the Hanan dynasty, and eleventh of the Inca civilization. He was born in Tumipampa and tutored to become Sapa Inca from a young age.
José Gabriel Condorcanqui – known as Tupaq Amaru II – was an Indigenous leader who led a large Andean rebellion against the Spanish in Peru as self-proclaimed Sapa Inca of a new Inca Empire. He later became a mythical figure in the Peruvian struggle for independence and indigenous rights movement, as well as an inspiration to myriad causes in Spanish America and beyond.
The Chachapoyas, also called the "Warriors of the Clouds", was a culture of the Andes living in the cloud forests of the southern part of the Department of Amazonas of present-day Peru. The Inca Empire conquered their civilization shortly before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. At the time of the arrival of the conquistadors, the Chachapoyas were one of the many nations ruled by the Incas, although their incorporation had been difficult due to their constant resistance to Inca troops.
The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, also known as the Conquest of Peru, was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. After years of preliminary exploration and military skirmishes, 168 Spanish soldiers under conquistador Francisco Pizarro, along with his brothers in arms and their indigenous allies, captured the last Sapa Inca, Atahualpa, at the Battle of Cajamarca in 1532. It was the first step in a long campaign that took decades of fighting but ended in Spanish victory in 1572 and colonization of the region as the Viceroyalty of Peru. The conquest of the Inca Empire, led to spin-off campaigns into present-day Chile and Colombia, as well as expeditions to the Amazon Basin and surrounding rainforest.
The Peruvian War of Independence was a series of military conflicts in Peru from 1809 to 1826 that resulted in the country's independence from the Spanish Empire. Part of the broader Spanish American wars of independence, it led to the dissolution of the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru.
Juan Santos Atahualpa Apu-Inca Huayna Capac was the messianic leader of a successful indigenous rebellion in the Amazon Basin and Andean foothills against the Viceroyalty of Peru in the Spanish Empire. The Juan Santos Rebellion began in 1742 in the Gran Pajonal among the Asháninka people. The indigenous people expelled Roman Catholic missionaries and destroyed or forced the evacuation of 23 missions, many of them defended, in the central jungle area of Peru. Several Spanish military expeditions tried to suppress the rebellion but failed or were defeated. In 1752, Santos attempted to expand his rebellion into the Andes and gain the support of the highland people. He captured the town of Andamarca and held it for three days before withdrawing to the jungle. Santos disappeared from the historical record after 1752.
José Antonio de Mendoza Caamaño y Sotomayor, 3rd Marquis of Villagarcía de Arousa was a Spanish colonial administrator in the Americas. From 4 February 1736 to 15 December 1745 he was Viceroy of Peru.
The 10-month siege of Cusco by the Inca army under the command of Sapa Inca Manco Inca Yupanqui started on 6 May 1536 and ended in March 1537. The city was held by a garrison of Spanish conquistadors and Indian auxiliaries led by Hernando Pizarro. The Incas hoped to restore their empire (1438–1533) with this action, but it was ultimately unsuccessful.
The Inca Civil War, also known as the Inca Dynastic War, the Inca War of Succession, or, sometimes, the War of the Two Brothers, was fought between half-brothers Huáscar and Atahualpa, sons of Huayna Capac, over succession to the throne of the Inca Empire. The war followed Huayna Capac's death.
The Yanesha' or Amuesha people are an ethnic group of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. Presently, the most recent census count puts their population at over 7,000 distributed among 48 communities located in Puerto Inca Province (Huánuco), Chanchamayo Province (Junín) and Oxapampa Province (Pasco). They are a relatively small group, making up barely 2.91% of indigenous inhabitants located in the Peruvian Amazon. Their communities are situated in altitudes ranging from 200 to 1600 meters above sea level and can also be found along the shores of various rivers including the Pichis, Palcazu, Pachitea, Huancabamba, Cacazú, Chorobamba, and the Yurinaqui Rivers.
Villa Rica District is one of eight districts of Oxapampa Province in Pasco Department, Peru. The district has an area of 896 square kilometres (346 sq mi) and a population of 18,673 in 2017. The capital of the district is the town of Villa Rica which had a population of 11,900 in 2017. The district is the location of the Cerro de la Sal or Salt Mountain, an important gathering place for indigenous people of the region and a center of Franciscan missionary activity in the 17th and 18th centuries. The town was founded in 1928 by settlers of German and Austrian origin from the town of Pozuzo.
The Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II was an uprising by cacique-led Aymara, Quechua, and mestizo rebels aimed at overthrowing Spanish colonial rule in Peru. The causes of the rebellion included opposition to the Bourbon Reforms, an economic downturn in colonial Peru, and a grassroots revival of Inca cultural identity led by Túpac Amaru II, an indigenous cacique and the leader of the rebellion. While Amaru II was captured and executed by the Spanish in 1781, the rebellion continued for at least another year under other rebel leaders. Amaru II's rebellion was simultaneous with the uprising of Túpac Katari in colonial-era Upper Peru.
The history of Cusco (Peru), the historical capital of the Incas.
Doña Tomasa Ttito Condemayta Hurtado de Mendoza was a leading force in the indigenous uprising against the Spanish colonial rulers under Tupac Amaru II in the 18th century in Peru. She was cacica of her people in the 1770s, the most powerful such ruler in her region. During the uprising, she served as both a strategist and a military officer. She was executed for her role in the rebellion alongside Tupac Amaru II, his wife Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua, and their son Hipólito Condorcanqui Bastidas.
The Cerro de la Sal or Cerro de Sal, is located in Villa Rica District of Oxapampa Province in Pasco Department, Peru. The Cerro de la Sal was an important source of salt for the pre-Columbian indigenous people of the Amazon Basin in Peru. Because of the seasonal concentration at the mountain by indigenous people (Indians), especially the Asháninka and Yanesha (Amuesha), Spanish missionaries, settlers, and soldiers were attracted to the Cerro de la Sal as early as 1635. Several attempts by Franciscan missionaries to establish Roman Catholic missions in the area were thwarted by uprisings of the indigenous people. In the late 19th century the Peruvian government established a foothold leading to the settlement of Europeans and Andean peoples in the area.
The Gran Pajonal is an isolated interfluvial plateau in the Amazon Basin of Peru. It is located in the departments of Ucayali, Pasco and Junín. The plateau is inhabited by the Asháninka or Ashéninka people along with late-twentieth century immigrants largely from the Andes mountains of Peru. In the 1730s, Roman Catholic Franciscan missionaries established missions in the Gran Pajonal, but the missions were destroyed in the 1740s by the Ashaninka under the leadership of Juan Santos Atahualpa.
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