ABSTRACT
The Hapsburg administrative organization in the Americas was based on a clear division of authority and power, centered on the two most important sites of conquest, Mexico and Peru. The Inquisition came to America and was installed at Lima, Mexico City, and Cartagena; however, it never rose to the same level of prominence as its European counterpart. The Viceroyalty of Peru covered a massive amount of territory, from Panama down to Chile, over to the treaty line of Tordesillas separating Portuguese territorial claims from those of Spain. The Latin American Inquisition was a formidable church bureaucracy that employed many people and maintained surveillance over society to protect good Catholics from foreign ideas—ideas that generally arrived by ship, from Europe. The Inquisition came to America and was installed at Lima, Mexico City, and Cartagena; however, it never rose to the same level of prominence as its European counterpart.
