The colonization of Peru brought tremendous wealth to a few Conquistadors and their king. For the native Indians it brought slavery, misery, disease and the destruction of their culture. Various figures - from three million to eight million - have been put on the population of the [G 11 / Inca] at the time of the conquest. Within 100 years, it had fallen substantially.
The Spanish plundered the Inca Empire, killing those who resisted them. Traditional Inca villages were broken up and the land made into huge plantations given to individual Spaniards as reward for their part in the conquest. The Indians were drafted into forced labor for the mines and plantations, where they were often treated cruelly and often died from being overworked.
The Europeans also introduced diseases from Europe into South America with devastating results for the local population who had no immunity to them. Epidemics of smallpox, measles and the common cold wiped out hundreds of thousands of Indians in the first century after the conquest.
Inca culture, religion and language were suppressed: Inca religion was replaced by Roman Catholicism and Inca temples by Catholic churches; Spanish law and the Inquisition substituted Inca law; and the [G 14 / Quechua] dialect was replaced by Spanish as the official language. Inca society was destroyed and the Indians formed the lowest strata in the new colonial society, where their lives were spent serving the Europeans.
On the positive side, the Spanish enriched Peruvian agriculture by introducing European cereals, food plants and domestic animals. The Inca culture only survived in oral history and songs, textiles and ceramics. Today, a significant reminder of the grand Inca Empire is the Quechua language, still spoken by the [P 003 / V 005 / Andean Indians].
