Abstract

ESCANDON, Patricia. Patronage Networks and Loyalties in Peruvian Wars: Mariscal Alvarado’s Career (1535-1554). Hist. Soc. [online]. 2024, n.46, pp.242-271.  Epub Nov 09, 2023. ISSN 0121-8417.  https://doi.org/10.15446/hys.n46.105218.

The life of Alonso de Alvarado, a minor Spanish hidalgo who took part in the Conquest and Spanish Wars in Peru in the first half of the 16th century, is suitable to exemplify the consideration of lineage and the way clientelistic networks operate when it to came to obtain, preserve and increase one’s wealth and social position. All of these in a context of conflagration, in which Castilian sovereignty in the territory was not yet consolidated in stable political institutions. This approach seeks to highlight the early projection of the hierarchical social order of the Hispanic world in overseas domains. My method consisted of collecting a large number of archival sources, and some secondary bibliography, and then analyzing it, in light of recent theories on patronage networks (from Hespanha, Millán, Imízcoz, etc.). These establish that the acceptance of social inequality among those involved was the support of a vertical economy of exchanges that favored them and gave full consistency to the system. The career of Alonso de Alvarado confirms this approach, since his acceptance of important patrons: Pedro de Alvarado and Francisco Pizarro and, later, his support for the royal representatives in Peru meant for him the social ascent.

Keywords : Conquest; clientelist networks; Alonso de Alvarado war; political culture; Peru; 16^th century.

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