Early history According to research by
Max Planck Institute, the ancestors of the Aymara people have a continuous genetic heritage in the
Andean highlands dating back at least 8,750
years around 6750
BCE,
Late Mesolithic /
Early Neolithic, showing close ties to the region's earliest settlers and adaptations to the high-altitude environment. While
genetics supports Aymara's deep
human roots in the region, linguistic evidence suggests the modern
Aymara language developed later. The early history of the Aymara people is uncertain. Various hypotheses have been voiced. Archeological data of the
Titicaca basin in the
Altiplano (high plain) comes from the site of the ancient city of
Tiwanaku. A
radiocarbon dating study suggests the ancient city was founded in about 110 AD. Origin legends of the Aymara people in terms of time frame seem inconsistent to archeologists. Archeologist Carlos Mamani Condori suggests this is because the Aymara tradition may see the passage of time as a continuum rather than in terms of prehistory and history. The Aymara may have been settlers from elsewhere rather than the builders of the ancient city.
Inca era Kingdom of Cusco in
Tiwanaku, Bolivia When Inca migrants first arrived at the traditional lands of the Aymara people, some Aymara people and other ethnic groups were living side by side in the village of Acamaca. Acamaca, located to the north of Lake Titicaca, would grow to be the site of the later
Kingdom of Cusco, the capital of the
Inca Empire and the current day city of
Cusco. The Inca arrived not as an army but as migrants searching for agricultural land. The Aymara people of the Altiplano, the Titicaca basin, and the ancient city of
Tiwanaku to the south of Lake Titicaca, also encountered the
Inca civilisation prior to the rise of the Inca Empire. One of the Inca origin stories tells of
Manco Capac and
Mama Occlo being brought up from the waters of Lake Titicaca by the
Sun God to create an Inca dynasty. The rulers of the Kingdom of Cusco were obligated to travel regularly to the
Isla del Sol (Sun Island), a rocky island in the southern part of Lake Titicaca, for ritual worship of the Sun God. Charles Stanish writes:
Inca empire , a traditional aymara medical practitioner and community healer performing a ritual near
Lake Titicaca in
Bolivia The date of Inca conquest of the Altiplano is uncertain beyond that, it began later than 1438 and was well completed by 1500. The often quoted Spanish
conquistador and chronicler,
Pedro Cieza de León travelled through the Altiplano in 1548. He gives the ruler,
Viracocha Inca (–1438) as the first to expand Inca territory south from the Kingdom of Cusco but that he was unsuccessful in securing the area. However, more recent historians warn that the chronology of the spread of the Inca empire from Cusco, south to the Altiplano, may be more complex. For example, the names of Incan leaders are variable and may have been used across generations; there were revolts amongst the elite of the Inca Kingdom of Cusco itself; and the history given by the Inca to the Spanish chroniclers was given as part mythology. Furthermore, the dating of the conquest of the Incas by the finding of certain ceramics in archeological strata is, in this area, unreliable.
Spanish colonial era Conquistadors Christopher Colombus set sail from
Castile, Spain, in August 1492 to find a western sea passage to the spice rich
East Indies. In 1513,
Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the
Isthmus of Panama into the
Pacific Ocean. Twenty-nine years later, on 16 November 1532, explorer and
conquistador,
Francisco Pizarro, travelled south from
La Isla Gorgona lured by stories of silver, gold and precious gems. On reaching
Cajamarca, a town about 2000km north of Cusco, Pizarro met and captured
Atahualpa. Atahualpa, known for his tyrannical rule, was executed in July 1533. Pizarro reached Cusco by 1534. Some Native groups saw the Spaniards as liberators and lent support to Pizarro. Pizarro also secured a lineage of Inca
puppet rulers, including
Manco Inca Yupanqui. Manco Inca Yupanqui was ill treated by Pizarro's men. He escaped then returned with tens of thousands warriors, forcing Cusco into
siege. After ten months, and the arrival of Spanish reinforcements, Manco Inca Yupanqui withdrew. Having secured Cusco, Pizarro continued south with the resources, wealth and infrastructure of the Inca and Native labour. He benefited from the lack of cohesion between the Altiplano ethnic groups. In 1542, Spain created the
Viceroyalty of Peru.
Encomenderos In the new viceroyalty, explorers, conquistadors, governors and generals were given
encomiendas. These grants from Spain gave the encomenderos the right to demand taxes and labour from the Indigenous people in return for military protection and religious instruction. They were a sign of an elite status in society. Indigenous men between the ages of 18 and 50 were taxed in money and labour. Tax was collected by the village chiefs. One-sixth of taxable men were already assigned to encomenderos who collected the taxes. Twenty percent of the monies went to the crown. In practice, the responsibilities of the encomiendas were applied partially or not at all, while the taxes were. In 1870,
David Forbes,
Mineralogist and voyager, wrote to the
Ethnological Society of London, of his observations in Bolivia and Peru: Whatever may have been the condition of the Aymaras under the Incas, it became infinitely worse after the Spanish conquest; it is all but impossible to convey in words a true picture of the barbarous treatment which they, as well as the neighbouring Indian tribes, experienced at the hands of the Spaniards. Treated infinitely worse than slaves, they were torn from their homes and families to be driven like cattle either to the
Coca plantations and
Gold washings in the
Yungas, or hot unhealthy valleys to the east of the high Andes (where they rapidly fell victims to a climate altogether unsuited to their constitution), or to the
Silver mines of
Potosí,
Chayanta,
Oruro (where from forced labour, ill-treatment, and insufficient food, they succumbed equally fast, only to be replaced by fresh supplies similarly obtained). On 20 November 1542, in response to criticism,
King Charles I of Spain issued the
New Laws (
Ordenanzas de Barcelona or
Leyes Nuevas). Among the approximate 500 encomiendas in the viceroyalty of Peru, there were cases of corruption and circumvention of the new laws. There were skirmishes between Royalist soldiers and groups of encomenderos, culminating in the death of many encomenderos in an insurrection led by
Gonzalo Pizarro in 1548. The new laws started to streamline the encomienda system but Aymara numbers continued to fall. Furthermore, the Indigenous labour force was redistributed causing forced and permanent displacement to cities, factories, or mines. This involved forced resettlement which caused disruption to aspects of life of the Indigenous people such as importance of the extended family clan (
ayllu), authority of the clan and regional chiefs (
curacas), land ownership, farming, language, rituals and sacred life (for example, sacred places known as
huacas).
Evangelisation Toledo was also asked to consider the legitimacy of the Spanish conquest. Toledo concluded that the conquistadors were no more legitimate in their rule than the Inca. However, the viceroyalty of Peru was legitimate on the basis of the Spanish bringing Catholic Christianity to the Indigenous people. This was not an easy task due to a lack of clergy, lack of experience of the monastic orders in evangelising and the
language barrier between the Spanish and the Indigenous groups who spoke, for the most part, dialects of
Aymaran or
Quechuan. Some efforts were made to provide simple lexicons for religious teaching. However, this was difficult because the Aymara language had no
orthography and Aymara
phonetics did not compare well with those of the
Spanish language.
Ludovico Bertonio was an Italian Jesuit missionary who, in 1603, wrote about the Aymara language. On one hand, some clergy tried to adapt notable aspects of the Aymara people's spiritual life, for example,
rituals or seasons of the year, with the
liturgy and the
liturgical calendar. On the other hand, such efforts were shunned by those who saw the Aymara spiritual life as one of
idolatry and objected to the use of
alcohol or coca in rituals.
Aymara rebellion In the Spanish colonial era, the region of Aymara and Quechuan habitation was divided into eleven provinces. They were Canchi, Caranga, Chocarca, Colla, Collagua, Collahuaya, Omasuyo, Lupaca, Quillaca, Urbina, and Picasa. Insurrection in the region occurred in an intermittent, semi-organised manner from as early as 1629 through to the
Peruvian war of Independence (1809–1826) when Spanish colonial rule ended.
Annexation by Chile , 17th or 18th century The
War of the Pacific (1879 – 1883) or the nitrate war, was a conflict between Chile and an alliance of Bolivia and Peru. It was precipitated by a northward incursion by
Chile to control sources of
guano in the
Litoral province of
Bolivia and the
Tarapacá province of Peru. It resulted in Aymara people being politically separated between the three nations. The border between Peru and Bolivia transects Lake Titicaca. Chile denied Bolivia of its only seaport at
Arica. The Aymara people left living in Chile once again had most aspects of their lives torn asunder. In this case, it was Chilean military clergy who began the "
chilenisation" of the Aymara. The emphasis of this program was indoctrination of the ideology of Chilean
nationalism. == Demographics ==