In collaboration with my colleague Josep del Blog "Perched on the network," we have jointly prepared this article on the Navy in the South.
With the arrival of the English in the city of Cuzco in 1534, concluded the military conquest of Peru, carried out by Francisco Pizarro and began the development of colonial settlement in the area hitherto dominated by the Inca Empire or Tahuantinsuyo . Thus, during the reign of the king of Spain, Charles I, by royal decree signed in Barcelona on November 20, 1542, it created the Viceroyalty of Peru.
For 44 years, trade in the South Pacific was completely free of pirates, but with the arrival of Drake and other foreign ship, the authorities were forced to create the South Sea Fleet to protect the Viceroyalty of Peru and maintain smooth , secure and control shipping lanes in the South Pacific.
View South Sea Fleet in a larger map
This fleet was based in El Callao. It was the Callao-Panama route, with stops Trujillo and Paita. In this way the call was joined by gold vessel, coming from Guayaquil to the flows of the kingdom of Quito. This fleet carrying silver from Potosi, previously brought to Callao from the port of Arica, and the flow of the kingdom of Chile, who had arrived from Valparaiso. In reality, the Navy South Sea business and gathered all the treasures of South America, except for those of Tierrafirme (Venezuela and Colombia) and led to his transfer to Panama to Portobelo. The Army of the Southern Ocean back then with European goods and foreign paintings, wines Andalusian and Mediterranean-type foods (oil, nuts, etc..) And mercury for the silver mines to Peru.
Fearing that the silver of Peru fell into the hands of pirates sought the Navy South Sea Fleet is synchronized with the galleons. Hence, when it authorized the departure of a fleet was leaving a ship notice or troublemaker to Portobelo, that was set in motion all the machinery in South America. The idea is that while the departing galleons of Cadiz also made the ships carrying the treasures of Chile (Valparaiso), Alto Peru (Arica), Peru (Callao) and Quito (Guayaquil) to converge in Panama while Portobelo reached the fleet. This will make a Silver simple manufacturing change through the Camino de Cruces, but this never happened. The money had to remain so in the isthmus for months, exposed to the danger of a pirate attack and what was worse, the systematic pillage of the traders and English authorities, who always used to impair its value considerably, using it to acquire contraband .
Pacific navigation was governed by the winds that blow between New Spain and Chile, which is one of the most difficult regions of the earth. Levaban ships anchor in late September and early February. The trip was easy to Nicaragua, then, the ships comrades heading southeast to sight land again in Ecuador. This route navigation is called the meridian.
The crew of the fleet was founded in the seventeenth century by 300 soldiers, who were recruited for each trip. When first created the navy had only one official who took care of everything related to the provision, officials later increased to four and finally, from 1613, the officers themselves Lima boxes took over management. Since 1616 had supported a garrison of 500 soldiers in the port of Callao, if deemed necessary, could join the fleet.
Silver Mines among the main and most famous was that of Potosi today in the territory of Bolivia, discovered by an Indian Juan de Villaroel, and wherein the silver veins were at ground level, other important mines were found in northern Mexico, Zacatecas, and Juanaguato Pachuca.
The alluvial gold was at natural in the jungle and in the Colombian region of Antioquia, and the Yanacocha mine in Peru.
For the separation of silver and gold casting method used until the early sixteenth century Bartolome de Medina found that the ore could be amalgamated with quicksilver silver (old name for mercury), or then get silver pure by washing and heating. Quicksilver what initially brought from the mines of Almaden, in Spain, until they found mercury or quicksilver mines in Huancavelica, Peru.
In the second half of the eighteenth century, there was a new organization to the Navy in the Viceroyalty of Peru, where he created a Port Captain in Callao, the entity that happened to have control of the area maritime and naval. At the same time, it also established the Royal Academy of Nautica in Lima and Callao Maritime Department, with subordinate port authorities in Valparaiso, Concepcion and Guayaquil.
The South Sea Fleet operated until 1778, year which definitively abolished in the fleet system.
Links:
Video: TVe Reporting on Almaden Mine.
