The Spanish Crown organized a set of institutions for the administration and government of the lands taken from its owners in the New World.
The viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru headed the organization that were under control of the Crown up until the 18th century, when the viceroyalties of New Granada and Rio de la Plata were created.
The viceroyalties were divided into regional demarcations known as governments. Each of them was responsible for a territory with a specific numbers of towns or villages which were grouped together and controlled by magistracies.
Right from the start, cities were the nerve centers of all divisions of the administration, and the headquarters of all civil, ecclesiastical and military bodies were located there.
Each city was governed and administered by an institution imported directly from Spain. A flow of ideas, people and merchandise began to be exchanged between the viceroyalty of New Spain and the Philippine Islands, and over the centuries this created a permanent nexus between Asia and America.
The viceroyalty of Peru was created in 1542, and originally contained most of the South America land, and was governed from the capital of Lima. It was one of the two viceroyalties created in the Americas from the 16th to the 18th centuries.
The Spanish people did not resist the Portuguese expansion of Brazil. The creation during the 18th century of the viceroyalties of New Granada and Rio de la Plata, at the expense of Peru's territory, reduced the importance of Lima and shifted the lucrative Andean trade to Buenos Aires.
The "encomienda" was a labor system rewarding the labor of particular groups of people. It was established in the Old World during the Roman period and used also after the Christian re-conquest of Muslim territory. This labor system was applied on a very much larger scale during the formation of the cities in the New World and the Philippines. Conquered people were considered vasssals of the Crown and the awarding of an "encomienda" was grant from the crown to a particular individual. The grants were considered to be a monopoly on the labor of particular Andean people, held in perpetuity by the grant holder, called the "encomendero," and his descendants. In many cases natives were forced to do very hard labor in the highest parts of the Andes and subjected to extreme punishment and death if they resisted.
During the Inca times, "mita"( a ritualistic form of labor) was mandatory public service. It was a tribute to the forces of nature governing the spiritual energy of the land. The public service required was in a community-driven projects such as the building of their extensive road network beneficial to the community itself and others communities of Andean people. Military service was also mandatory and controlled by sacred and ritualistic laws. Also all citizens who could perform labor were required to do so for a set numbers of days out of a year. Actually the very basic meaning of the word "mita" in the Andean language is a "regular turn" or "a season."
The Incas elaborated creatively on a ancient preexisting system of not only the "mita" exchange of labor but also the exchange of the energy belonging to the objects of religious veneration of the peoples whom they took into their empire. The exchange ensured proper compliance among conquered people.
In this instance Huacas and Pacarinas became significant centers of shared worship and a point of unification of their ethnically and linguistically diverse empire, bringing unity and citizenship to often geographically disparate zones and its people. This led eventually to a system of pilgrimages throughout all these various shrines by the Andean people of the empire prior to the introduction of the European way of Christianity practiced in the Old World.
