Reducciones were not new to
Latin America, and had been a Spanish policy in many other regions, starting in the
Caribbean as early as 1503. From 1532 when
Francisco Pizarro invaded the Inca empire until the arrival of Francisco de Toledo as Viceroy in 1569, Spanish rule of the Andean population had largely been indirect. Except for
Roman Catholic priests, Spaniards were forbidden from living among the Indians and the Spanish extracted tribute and labor from the Andean population through their indigenous leaders, the
caciques or
kurakas. Although the Andean population was devastated by the internal wars of Spaniards and Incas, the ravages of European diseases, and forced, brutal labor in silver and mercury mines, the Andean Indian cultures remained in many ways little changed from the days when the Incas ruled. By the late 1560s, Spanish rule of the Andes was in crisis. Both Spanish residents and Indians threatened revolt, production from rich silver mines had declined, the diminishing Indian population meant less labor and tribute, and civil and religious authorities were in conflict. The new Viceroy Francisco de Toledo aimed to reverse the fortunes of Spanish rule in the Andes and to "aggrandize Spanish power by consolidating viceregal rule and to revive the flow of Andean silver to the metropolitan treasury." In order to achieve these economic and political goals efficiently, one of the measures Toledo proposed was to relocate the scattered indigenous populations of the
Andes into larger settlements, called "reductions." which was often near mining zones and agricultural valleys. Toledo also developed an immense and thorough body of rules that would set the framework for the colonial ambition of reorganizing Andean society.
Purpose Before the construction of the relocation towns, indigenous peoples throughout the Andes lived in small, localized and dispersed villages, which were difficult for Spanish colonial authorities to oversee. A primary motivation for the massive resettlement program "was to establish direct state control and facilitate the church's
Christianization of the native population, while enhancing the collection of the tribute tax and the allocation of labor." Toledo further justified the reducciones under the theory that they would protect natives from “being exploited by local landowners and miners, harassed by the colonial judicial system, and deceived by a false religion.” Such paternalistic attitudes were common among Spanish authorities who perceived indigenous groups as volatile and prone to lawlessness if not placed under strict administration. In the later-published
Comentarios Reales de los Incas,
Inca Garcilaso de la Vega uses the same term "reducciones" to designate the villages conquered by the Incas which were loyal to the Inca empire.
Organization Many Spaniards viewed Christianity as an inseparable component of town building in the colonial era, believing that it was necessary for the proper functioning of civilized urban life. This was based around the concept of
policia, which portrayed an idealized civic life that extolled cleanliness, strict organization, and virtuous citizenship. Reducciones were, in large part, conceived within this philosophy. The structural layout of the reducciones was based on a common template, modeled after a Spanish-style rural town. Each settlement was built with a quadrilateral, uniform street grid. Each reducción had a town square, around which were arranged the chief buildings: a church with an assigned priest, a prison, and a travelers lodge. They can best be described as a type of camp designed to model an ordered town. Special governors, under the titles of
corregidores de indios, were appointed to oversee the reducciones and were vested with authority. They were instructed to create
cabildos (municipal councils) in the reducciones of common natives who were recruited from the general population. The effort to recruit commoners was meant to undermine the influence of
caciques, the indigenous lords who still possessed power in Andean societies. However, many caciques used their knowledge and social capital as leverage against the corregidores, which made reducción governance less simple than Spanish authorities assumed. Though the caciques almost universally opposed the policy of resettlement, many of them took advantage of the opportunity to transition their positions of power into the reducciones and actively challenge Spanish authority. == Impact on indigenous people ==