Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
despite numerous military expeditions. In 1561 the city of
Santa Cruz de la Sierra
was
founded in the midst of the Eastern Lowlands by a group of conquistadors who had marched
across from Paraguay, the centre of Spanish power on the Atlantic side of South America.
Their aim was to reach the silver of the Andes and establish a strategic link across the contin-
ent, but the new settlement remained isolated, precarious and surrounded by hostile indigen-
ous groups.
THE RICHES OF ALTO PERU
With its dense
indigenous population
and rich
mineral wealth
- the two resources
sixteenth-century conquistadors were keenest to exploit - Alto Peru offered a rich prize,
though initial efforts to consolidate control of the region were delayed by an outbreak of
fighting between rival Spanish factions, an episode in which more Spaniards were killed
than in all the fighting with the Incas. The full extent of the region's potential became ap-
parent in 1545, when South America's richest silver deposit was discovered southwest of
La Plata at what became known as
Cerro Rico
(Rich Mountain). The mining city of
PotosÃ
that sprung up at the foot of this mountain shortly afterwards, quickly became the centre of
the colonial economy and the source from which vast wealth flowed to the Spanish crown.
