ENCYCLOPAEDIA of Rebellions

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Encomenderos rebellion 1544-1548

Synopsis
The Encomenderos or Pizarrist rebellion was a major uprising of Spanish settlers in Peru against the authority of the Spanish Crown. Following the conquest of the Inca Empire, many conquistadores became encomenderos, a colonial elite whose wealth and power depended largely on the encomienda system. Tensions escalated in the mid-1540s when the Spanish monarchy sought to reassert control over its American territories not only by creating a new political structure —the Viceroyalty of Peru— but also by implementing the Leyes Nuevas of 1542, which aimed to curb abuses against Indigenous peoples and gradually abolish the encomiendas. The arrival of Blasco Núñez Vela, the first viceroy of Peru, in 1544 with orders to enforce these reforms provoked strong opposition from the encomenderos. Gonzalo Pizarro took the lead and launched a rebellion that began in Cuzco and quickly spread across the vast viceroyalty. In 1546, rebel forces defeated and killed the viceroy at the battle of Iñaquito. In 1547 they won another important victory over the royalist forces at the battle of Huarina. Meanwhile, the Crown had dispatched Pedro de La Gasca with broad powers to restore order. La Gasca, a skilled negotiator, exploited divisions among the rebels and persuaded many to defect. Pizarro, increasingly isolated, was defeated at Jaquijahuana, near Cuzco, in 1548 and executed along with his closest allies. The end of this rebellion marked a turning point in the consolidation of Spanish imperial authority in Peru, signaling the decline of the conquistadores elite and the rise of more centralized royal governance in the Americas.
Additional info

Starting date: . Ending: . Duration: 4 years. Name in sources: Rebelión de los Encomenderos, Rebelión Pizarrista. Location: Cuzco (starting point) and many other locations accross the Viceroyalty of Peru, e.g. Lima, Quito, Huarina, Charcas, etc. Country (current): Peru. Monarchy: Spanish. Main participants: Local elites, Settlers/Colonists. Number of participants: >500. Main reasons & motivations: Political. Leadership: Gonzalo Pizarro. Relevance: high.

Further reading
BATAILLON, Marcel (1964). “Interés Hispánico del Movimiento Pizarrista (1544-1548)”, in Actas del Primer Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas. Oxford: Dolphin Book, 47-56. FUERST, James (2018). “Die a King: Gonzalo Pizarro’s Rebellion”, in New World Postcolonial: The Political Thought of Inca Garcilaso de La Vega. Pittsburg: University of Pittsburgh Press, 148-76. LOHMANN VILLENA, Guillermo (1977). Las ideas Jurídico-Políticas en la Rebelión de Gonzalo Pizarro. Valladolid: Casa Museo Colón.
Cite this entry

González Lopo, Domingo L. (2020). "Encomenderos rebellion 1544-1548", in J. V. Serrão and M. S. Cunha (coord), Rebellions in the Early Modern Iberian World. http://atlas.cidehusdigital.uevora.pt/revolt/encomenderos-rebellion-1544-1548/ (accessed on 02 August 2025).