It seems like they would have figured out…

It seems to me that the Spanish in Peru would have figured out that if you expose people to new diseases, disrup their entire way of living and producing their livelihoods, kill many in war, then it might only make the situation worse to force them to pay large amounts of tribute and work in dangerous silver mines and crowd into towns.  We’ve been discussing Viceroy Toledo and his solution to the rapidly decling Indian population (and what he cared about, rapidly declining contribution to Spanish wealth), which was the repartimiento.  And yet it only made it worse.  Couldn’t he have figured out that if something was working before you showed up, it might be a good idea?  Its remarkably arrogant to think that you can just toss out the old ways, completely unexamined, and then force your new ideas on the situation and think  they will work.  History of course proved Toledo wrong; his policies didn’t help.  And yet it shouldn’t have taken historical hindsight to figure it out: people who are dropping like flies from disease shouldn’t be forced into silver mines or have to pay large amounts of tribute.