The term Spanish colonial refers to the period of Spanish rule over its colonial territories in the Americas, and also to the artistic and architectural styles prevalent from the early-16th to early-19th century. Four viceroyalties governed Spain's holdings in the Americas, symbolically extending the monarchy's presence across the Atlantic.

Andean cultures did not have a recognizable written script prior to the Spanish conquest in the early 1530s; however, the Inca did utilize a method of recording through knotted cords, known as quipu (khipu; “knot” in Quechua). The Nora and John Wise Collection at the Dallas Museum of Art includes nineteen quipu fragments. The quipu (khipu) have Z-spun, S-plied cords.

The vast Inca (Inka) Empire expanded from the 15th to the early 16th century to encompass present-day Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and parts of Chile and Argentina. The Inca called this empire “Tahuantinsuyo” (Tawantinsuyu), or “land of the four parts,” defining regions north, east, south, and west of the capital, or seat of the king—Cuzco (Quzqu). According to Inca history, the ruler Pachacutic established the tenets of Inca imperialism, beginning with military success in the early 1400s.