Spanish Conquest

FIRST COLONIAL PERIOD: ESTABLISHMENT OF COLONIAL ORDER

​When the conquerors arrived in the new lands, the first official act they carried out was the foundation of a city. Which they assured the effective domination over the conquered lands. Sebastián de Benalcázar was responsible for taking possession of the territories in the north of Tahuantinsuyo (present-day Ecuador) and founding several cities.

The Spanish and the mechanisms for implementing their government

This way, they founded Quito (1534), Guayaquil (1538), and Cuenca (1557), among other cities. After the foundation, lots, or pieces of land, were given to the conquistadors, according to their importance. This was a mechanism of appropriation of territory.

​

The Spanish and the mechanisms for implementing their government

Evangelization

Evangelization was one of the main factors of cultural domination by force. However, despite the efforts made by the Spanish to destroy the ancestral beliefs of the natives, these survived. Although the Indigenous people were baptized and converted to Catholicism, they also maintained many of their beliefs. So, for example, even today the dancers of the Inti Raymi carry out the ritual baths of purification in the Cascada de Peguche.

​Pope Alexander VI imposed on the Spanish Crown the obligation to evangelize in order to grant them authorization for the conquest. This obligation was transformed into an instrument of exploitation and control over the Indigenous people. It was called "encomienda".​

Encomienda

The encomienda consisted of the Spanish Crown delivering a group of Indigenous people-sometimes whole communities-to a Spaniard to evangelize them. In exchange for this, the Indigenous people had to pay a tribute to the encomendero. The obligation of the tribute was inherited, in other words, it passed from parents to children. Many Spaniards demanded the fulfillment of a certain job, instead of the tribute.

The contract of the encomienda allowed the encomenderos to punish the Indigenous physically and economically when they did not respond to their demands. Abuses performed by the Spaniards transformed the encomienda into a system of forced labor in conditions of exploitation.