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29-578: The residence of the pre-Inca kings of Lupaca was probably what is today the archaeological site of Cutimbo. The capital of the Inca province was Chucuito , presently a village of the same name where the archaeological site of Inca Uyu is located. The Lupaca occupied seven urban centers, all of them present day cities and villages in the Puno region of Peru: Chucuito, Acora , Ilave , Juli , Pomata , Yunguyo and Zepita . The Lupaca were incorporated into

58-516: A few Spanish merchants and officials in the Lupaca kingdom, but the people of Lupaca had not yet been subjected to the encomienda by which Spaniards were granted large estates and control over indigenous peoples. Like the Incas and many other Andean peoples, the Lupaca were divided into two moieties each with its leader. The "Alassa" or upper moiety was headed by Qari and the lower moiety, the "Massaa"

87-463: A few centimetres every year. In 2014, UNESCO added Cerro Rico and Potosí to its list of endangered sites, owing to "uncontrolled mining operations" that risk "degrading the site". Originally, the Spanish Empire used a forced labor system called " Repartimiento de Indios " (also known as " Repartimiento ") to extract silver from Cerro Rico, though in region of the former Inca Empire , it

116-421: A lack of protective equipment against the constant inhalation of dust, many of the miners contract silicosis . They have a life expectancy of around 40 years. The mountain is still a significant contributor to the city's economy, employing some 15,000 miners. As a result of centuries long mining, in 2011 a sinkhole in the top appeared and had to be filled with ultra-light cement. The summit also continues to sink

145-535: A plural mining economy (state, private, and cooperative). However, over the last ten years much conflict has arisen between cooperative miners and state miners. In 2006, state miners and cooperatives clashed at Huanuni leaving 16 dead leading to the firing of Morales' first Mining Minister, a member of FENCOMIN. Most recently in 2016, Bolivia's Deputy Interior Minister Rodolfo Illanes was tortured and killed, allegedly by Bolivian cooperative miners. This outburst of violence has led to clashes between cooperative miners and

174-599: Is a mountain in the Andes near the Bolivian city of Potosí . Cerro Rico, which is popularly conceived of as being "made of" silver ore, is famous for providing vast quantities of silver for the Spanish Empire , most of which was shipped to metropolitan Spain. It is estimated that eighty-five percent of the silver produced in the central Andes during this time came from Cerro Rico. As a result of mining operations in

203-481: Is in Potosí, has been given many privileges including favorable tax treatment to miners and exemption from labor and environmental regulations for cooperatives since the election of socialist president Evo Morales in 2006. After centuries of brutal Spanish extraction and forced labor, decades of foreign control and private investment in the late 20th century, and the failure of the state-run mining company COMIBOL led to

232-542: The Desaguadero River flows from the lake. The battle went poorly for the Spanish for a time and Pizarro nearly drowned trying to cross the river, but was rescued by Paullu Inca , the Inca emperor installed by the Spanish. Despite the defeat, Lupaca continued to be rich and powerful. A Spaniard, Garci Diez de San Miguel, visited and wrote of the Lupaca in 1567. There were at the time 16 Dominican priests and

261-548: The Moquegua Region and provided agricultural products such as maize , cotton , and chili peppers to the Lupaca living on the Altiplano. The eastern colonies provided coca and a variety of tropical forest products. Communication with these outlying colonies was maintained via llama caravans. Sovereignty over non-contiguous areas appears to have been a characteristic of Andean kingdoms. The long distance control of

290-597: The Andean indigenous people. Chucuito 15°53′38″S 69°53′20″W  /  15.89389°S 69.88889°W  / -15.89389; -69.88889 Chucuito is a village in the Chucuito District , Puno Province , Peru . It is 18 kilometres (11 mi) from the city of Puno . It sits at 3,875 metres (12,713 ft) above sea level. The population is 7,913. The town was important in pre- Inca times and described by Pedro De Cieza De Leon , who

319-659: The Lupaca as his exemplar of what he called the " vertical archipelago ". The Lupaca and other high-altitude Andean people countered the limited potential for agriculture in their homeland by establishing colonies at lower and warmer elevations both westward toward the Pacific Ocean in the Chiribaya cultural area and eastward toward the Amazon River basin. The western colonies, located about 200 kilometres (120 miles) distant, were located in irrigated desert valleys in

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348-477: The Lupacas and other highland kingdoms, eroded the authority and influence of their traditional leaders, forced Aymaras to work in the silver mines of Potosí , to resettle in " reductions ", and appropriated much of the former Lupaca land, especially the lowland agricultural areas of the vertical archipelago. Adding to these factors were recurrent epidemics of Old World diseases which took a heavy demographic toll of

377-417: The colonies by the Lupaca implies a safe environment for transport and travel. Details of Murra's theory have been challenged, especially Murra's view that the vertical archipelago was a long-standing characteristic of highland peoples. Anthropologist Mary Van Buren suggests that the vertical archipelago as described by Murra operated only during the late Inca and early Spanish eras and further speculates that

406-419: The cooperatives. A former miner discussed the great risks of working at Cerro Rico with a reporter, but said that those working there had few other alternatives for earning a living. "You have to be crazy to work in the mines, with the conditions. But there are no other alternatives." Cerro Rico de Potosí was accidentally discovered in 1545 by Diego de Huallpa, a Quechua silver miner for the Spanish, while he

435-472: The displacement of 25,000 miners following plummeting mineral prices in the 1990s, "informal, self-managed associations" began selling "unrefined product to private operators". FENCOMIN (National Federation of Mining Cooperatives in Bolivia) was a vital player in insuring the successful popular election of Evo Morales and also functioned as one of the leaders in drafting Bolivia's new constitution establishing

464-430: The establishment of colonies at lower elevations by the Lupaca and other highland peoples was motivated more by production of luxury goods rather than being a critical source of food for the entire highland population. The Lupaca kingdom disappeared from Spanish records around the end of the 16th century and its people became submerged in the generalized Aymara population. The Spanish had increasingly asserted control over

493-506: The growing Inca Empire by the emperor Pachacuti (reigned 1438-1471). During the reign of Topa Inca Yupanqui (1471-1493), the Inca crushed a revolt by the Lupaca and their northern neighbors, the Colla . In the 16th century, the Incas conducted a census of the Chucuito province and recorded it on a Quipu that was interpreted for the Spanish. The total number of households in Chucuito

522-435: The introduction of a silver extraction method known as patio process , using mercury to form silver amalgams and extract silver from low-grade ores. Repartimiento was also a system of cyclical labor, so after their required time was done, many Amerindians would continue working at the mines as free wage laborers or mingas , despite the harsh conditions. Given the use of mercury and the high amount of silver extracted from

551-464: The mines, mercury poisoning among the Amerindian laborers was common, which caused many miners to die. Other harsh conditions at both the mines and refining patios also caused the deaths of miners during the Spanish rule, and it is believed that around eight million miners died in total. However, other sources estimate that it was "hundreds of thousands," and that eight million deaths were actually

580-511: The mountain, the city of Potosí became one of the largest cities in the New World . It is said that revolutionary hero Simon Bolívar once waved a flag from the top of this monumental mountain in a historic moment that symbolized the founding of a new nation. Just a year later, congress decided to change the colors to yellow-red-green and include a coat of arms featuring the iconic condor, alpaca and Cerro Rico mine. The Cerro Rico de Potosí

609-548: The police leaving five miners dead and severing a decade of strong ties between cooperative mining and the Morales government. Reports in 2019 indicate that the current output of the mines was predominantly tin and zinc by then and only small amounts of silver. One report estimates that a full 88% of the miners in Bolivia, roughly 8,000 to 10,000 (depending on the source making the estimate), including children, were working for

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638-542: The total number of deaths in the Viceroyalty of Peru, not just the mines in Potosí. It is known as the "mountain that eats men" because of the large number of workers who died in the mines. The work of historians such as Peter Bakewell, Noble David Cook, Enrique Tandeter and Raquel Gil Montero portray a more accurate description of the human-labor issue (free and non-free workers) with completely different estimates. Bolivia's cooperative mining sector, whose center

667-464: The year. Only about two percent of land in the Andean highlands is arable. A few crops -- potatoes , oca , olluco , and quinoa —can be grown in favored locations with techniques such as terracing, raised beds , and Waru Waru to moderate the cold temperatures. The wealth of the Lupaca was their herds of llamas and alpacas which grazed the barren uplands up to the snowline at about 4,800 metres (15,700 ft). Anthropologist John V. Murra used

696-459: Was 20,080 of which 15,778 were Aymara. 4.129 were Uru , and 173 were mitma . This implies a population of about 100,000 people in total. The Lupaca had little contact with the Spanish until 1538, when the Lupaca and Colla went to war. The Colla appealed for help from the Spanish in Cuzco and Hernando Pizarro led an army southward and defeated the Lupaca at the southern tip of Lake Titicaca where

725-460: Was headed by Kusi. Each of them directly controlled many of the people and much of the land in the kingdom, but other wealthy Lupaca also incited the envy of the Spanish chronicler. The Lupaca seemed "extraordinarily wealthy." The Lupaca lived on the Altiplano , a high cold plateau dotted with mountains. Lake Titicaca is at an altitude of 3,812 metres (12,507 ft); freezes occur every month of

754-532: Was known as mita. During the first decades of extraction, the mines in Potosí had vast deposits of pure silver and silver chloride deposits, which made the extraction of silver relatively easy. Native American labor in the Andean regions was eventually preferred by the Spanish Crown, as opposed to African slave labor, due to high mortality and low productivity rates. By 1565, Cerro Rico had run out of high-grade silver ores. Extraction began anew after

783-508: Was searching the mountain for an Inca shrine or traditional burial offering. The red mountain, now known as Cerro Rico, sits between the Porco and Sucre mines, which had previously been discovered, being at lower altitudes and therefore easier to mine. Once Cerro Rico was found to carry predominantly silver ores, mining focus shifted to the harvesting of the more lucrative ore over ores like tin, zinc, and lead found in Porco and Sucre. Now one of

812-489: Was the richest source of silver in the history of mankind. The extraction of mineral ores in Cerro Rico de Potosí began in 1545 by the Spanish Empire . Between the 16th and 18th century, 80% of the world's silver supply came out of this mine. After centuries of extractive mining methods that severely damaged the local ecology the mountain continues to be mined for silver to this day. Due to poor worker conditions, such as

841-547: Was told by the locals that Chucuito was the oldest site in the region and continued to be held as a sacred site by the Inca. The town previously consisted of large buildings and was a major center of power. This Puno Region geography article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Cerro de Potos%C3%AD Cerro Rico (Spanish for "Rich Mountain"), Cerro Potosí ("Potosí Mountain") or Sumaq Urqu ( Quechua sumaq "beautiful, good, pleasant", urqu "mountain", "beautiful (good or pleasant) mountain"),

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