The Spanish settlement in the Andean area in the sixteenth century determined a serious demographic crisis of the indigenous population (as happened with the European eruption in the Americas). The debacle of this one reached high magnitudes, taking to that the historiography refers to her with terms like "catastrophe", "cataclysm", or "collapse". Its effects were felt well beyond the period of "the conquest" or "settlement, " extending throughout the colonial period and decisively influencing the long-term economic and political organization erected in the Andean region. In this article we propose a discussion about the magnitude of the aboriginal population at the time of European arrival and the chronology of its debacle. Finally, we reflect on its economic consequences for Peru. Without a doubt, she changed the course of the country's economic organization, since the land became abundant and work was scarce, and those who enjoyed it became recipients of important rents; also, forced to rethink an economy that, in principle, had been organized to capture the economic surplus of the population conquered by the way of tribute.