Speaking the Language of Friendship: Partnerships in the Political Construction of the Late Sixteenth-Century South-East Charcas Frontier

Abstract

The present article discusses the importance of partnerships in the political construction of the south-east frontier of late sixteenth-century Charcas, focused on foundation and destruction of San Miguel de la Laguna. In a challenge to the narrative of ‘constant war zone’, the events are here framed as part of a process described as territorialisation, which transformed geographies into territories of the polycentric Catholic Monarchy, politically equipping the land with relations that were expressed through institutions. San Miguel was the product of the ‘friendship’ between its founder and the Chiriguanaes who inhabited the area. Its fate was not the result of untrustworthy natives.