The Central Andes, 1750-1880

This chapter examines inequalities in well-being among the populations of the Central Andean region-within the borders of the modern republics of Peru and Bolivia-from the mid-18th century to the closing decades of the 19th century. The period under consideration can be broadly divided into two halves. The first stretched from the mid-18th century to the end of the first quarter of the 19th century under colonial rule. The second, from the 1820s through 1880, unfolded in the wake of the Andean region’s independence from Bourbon Spain-a period during which the newly formed nations adopted republican forms of political organization. Under colonial rule, Peruvian society neither valued equality nor regarded inequality as a social flaw. The colonial period laid the foundations for sharp ethnic and economic divisions in Andean society, embedding the dualities of conquering versus conquered race, modern versus traditional race, and Christian-Western versus pagan-barbarian race in the relationship between European and Indigenous populations. However, throughout the period under analysis, inequality gradually lost its role as the foundation of social order. Recent studies suggest a decline in inequality between the end of the viceroyalty and the early republican period, largely driven by widespread impoverishment that hit the elites particularly hard. Inequality rose again between the early republic and the 1870s.