RISE OF REBELLION

I. Introduction

II. Rise in Revolts

Why did rebellions occur in certain periods and places and not in others?

A. Number and Form

1. 18th century: increase in local, small scale revolts
2. Some becoming larger scale: geographically and programmatically

B. Participants: who joins and why?

1. Indigenous

a. population increases leads to resource/land scarcity and more people to take up arms
b. closing loopholes on forasteros
c. fewer gains by kurakas in court system; prestige and influence of indigenous leaders declining

2. Slaves:

a. increasing numbers
b. intensity of labor regimes in cash crop regions
c. in some areas more united identity

3. Castas

a. hurt by taxes and monopolies (as are poor whites)
b. attempts to make mixed race pay tribute lessen the division with Indians

4. Middling and elite creoles, especially in provinces

a. loss of power/access to government
b. creation of American identity and sense of entitlement
c. might believe they control alliances with nonwhites

III. From Riot to Rebellions

What was new about 18th-century rebellions?

A. Comunero Rebellion (1781) (New Granada/Colombia)

1. Royal Inspector to New Granada
2. Tobacco monopoly: prohibits production
3. Society around Socorro: small farmers, ½ “white,” ½ castas
4. Rebellion: growing coalition including local elites descends on Bogota (“army” of 20,000)
5. Resolution through negotiation and force
6. Creoles come to see Hapsburg-style of compromise and some local authority as right

B. Great Andean Rebellion (1780-82)

1. Kurakas and courts
2. Inca Revivalism (see portraits below)
3. Tried to forge multi-ethnic coalition

a. Some success at first, but creoles and mestizos increasingly scared off by armed mobilization of Amerindians, who might not recognize the difference between American and European-born exploiters
b. Ultimately also tension between Quechua and Aymara leaders

4. Program

a. claimed to loyalty to Crown and Church
b. anti-colonial: end slavery, end mita, end forced sales (repartimientos), reduce bourbon, Americans (especially Amerindians) should exercise home rule.

5. Differences of Aymara branch of rebellion in Upper Peru (Bolivia)

a. New Bourbon officials in Buenos Aires were receptive to complaints of indigenous communities (and promises of more effective tribute collection), but orders from Buenos Aires not carried out by local officials.
b. Leadership tended to be more grassroots (local leaders of indigenous communities as compared to elite kurakas)

6. Rebellion and Repression on massive scale

IV. Conclusions: Were the rebellions reformist, revolutionary, or precursors to independence?

ID Terms:

Viceroyalty of New Granada (1739)
Bogota (capital of New Granada)
Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata (1776)
Buenos Aires (capital of Rio de la Plata)
alcabala
intendancy system

Bogota
Socorro (New Granada, today Colombia)
Cuzco
José Gabriel Condorcanqui--Tupac Amaru II

Images:

Don Marcos Chiquathopa, ca. 1740-45. Museo Inka, Cuzco, Peru.
Portrait of a Ñusta (Inca Princess), early 18th c. Museo Inka, Cuzco, Peru

Questions:

Why did rebellions occur in certain periods and places and not others?

What was new about the rebellions in the 18th-century? Were they reformist, revolutionary, or precursors to independence?

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Last updated November 20, 2009
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