Túpac Amaru Rebellions

Revolution in the Andes: The Age of Túpac Amaru is a book which entails the cycle of indigenous rebellions focusing on the Túpac Amaru and Katarista uprisings in Peru and upper Peru in 1780-1781. The book serves as a summary which brings clarity to an intricate group of rebellions. Each uprising has its own reasons and primary actors, but Serulnikov does an amazing job at providing the reader with the disparities of each rebellion along with their connection to one another.

The author focuses his attention more on the southern uprisings led by Tomás Katari rather than the northern rebellions. On the other hand, we see Charles F. Walker’s work which is a rich character study of Túpac Amaru formerly known as José Gabriel Condorcanqui who was the leader of the most famous rebellion in Peru. Serulnikov’s take on the events is different compared to previous assessments of the Túpac Amaru rebellions in the sense that it does not center Túpac Amaru in the story. Serulnikov outlines the historiography of this complex subject into

three main categories of works. The studies are divided in the following three categories: one, he addresses the older works which stressed the significance of the rebellions and what role they played on the impact of the wars of independence. The second category is the publications that take a closer look at the causes of the insurgencies, especially the political and economic changes that were brought upon by the Bourbon Reforms. Serulnikov’s final category, is all of the scholars who have studied Inca nativism. The author builds his case on these studies in which he asks for a political analysis on what exactly the rebels looked for.
Serulnikov’s centralized approach can be drawn upon the idea that the Andean peoples who were involved in the rebellions were considered “political actors” that wanted to accomplish their goal of gaining socio-economic changes. He suggests the idea of a “new research agenda” (12) which can help understand this concept. His idea was to look at the way natives interacted the government and how they expressed their own ideas of justice. Serulnikov states that in order to do so, they must first look past the native’s wrong-doings and examine their political culture.
There was a series of regional movements that developed in 1780-1781.

The most important one is that led by José Gabriel Condorcanqui. This rebellion was set in the area between Lake Titicaca and Cuzco and began independently and simultaneously with Katari’s rebellion; it was unusual in the sense that it only had a single leader. José Gabriel Condorcanqui obtained the name Túpac Amaru II in honor of his descent from the Incas. Serulnikov argues that the Túpac Amaru uprising is a political movement at its core. His goal was to restore an Incan monarchy to relief and provide justice to those who have been exploited for centuries by the Spanish. Túpac Amaru was extremely influential along with his wife, Micaela Bastidas. They claimed to be taking action within the framework of the Spanish monarchy. Túpac Amaru and his wife were so influential, that even after their execution, their son and family continued to lead the rebellion in their

name.
Moving south, Serulnikov introduces Tomás Katari who was the leader of the popular rebellion in Chayanta. His goal was to allow the natives to choose their own caciques, instead of having them appointed by the Corregidor. He led the natives’ efforts to relieve themselves of the heavy taxing and harsh labor demands. After several attempts to decrease the exploitation of the people, Katari was convinced that the Spanish in Peru were, in fact, the problem and not so much the solution. Katari earned his fame by traveling to Rio de la Plata to deliver his people’s claims to the Viceroy in Buenos Aires. The non-violent act soon escalated quickly and what was at first a negotiation turned into a violent revolt. These events were a part of the colonial fold, as Serulnikov states. Katari was on his way back from Buenos Aires with the Viceroy’s orders to remove the Corregidor who at the time was Joaquín Alós. Alós was quick, and he had Katari arrested before he could even return home. This went to show the typical Spanish authoritarian response that was common in the age of the revolutions. Katari and his people became frustrated with Spanish rule, and the result of this rebellion was not a pleasant one due to the brutality it entailed especially causing the execution of Katari by Spanish authorities.
Soon after Katari’s death, rebels in the surrounding area formed an alliance with creoles who also resented the favoritism toward Spaniards born in Europe. Local Spaniards were terrified at this point. Katari’s brothers, Dámaso and Nicolás, continued his rebellion into Chuquisaca where they managed to form a mass army of rebels. Along with them, Julián Apaza, better known as Túpac Katari, managed to attack the region around La Paz which were perhaps some of the most gruesome moments in the uprising. By mid-1781, all leaders were dead but the Túpac Katari and Túpac Amaru rebellions managed to overlap in La Paz and looked forward to aligning with each other, but their defeat by the Spanish ultimately represented the end of the rebellions.
The fundamental question to the story is why did they rebel in the first place? Serulnikov writes that these uprisings were a possible result of the changes that were implemented by King Charles III throughout Spanish America. The percentage of American-born authorities decreased, the bureaucracy was restrained, and taxes were eventually increased for everyone. The indigenous’ political autonomy was challenged by the reformers. As taxes increased, the exploitation of the natives took a toll on Andean people. Alberto Flores Galindo was one to argue that the Bourbon Reforms were not the cause of the uprisings, but rather they were one of the main contributing factors that led up to them. Every rebellion had its own leaders, circumstances, and reasons. Tomás Katari wanted to defend the traditional balance of rule, where the Indians held partial autonomy in exchange for mita labor. His way of rebelling was not take a traditional violent route at first, he wanted to go against Spanish exploitation without challenging the colonial system directly. Túpac Amaru and his wife were on the same page, but they had trouble working with their acceptance of the colonial framework along with their Inca claims which clearly challenged Spain’s rule. Both conflicts gradually evolved in to caste wars.
The Túpac Amaru and Katari uprisings were, in fact, true attempts at a revolution. The fact that they failed does not make them any less a part of a revolutionary process. The author states that the different revolts evolved from within the colonial system itself. (xiv) The legitimacy of the Spanish authorities was lost over time as Indian efforts to rid themselves from reforms failed. This is what caused Indians to act accordingly to what they believes was acceptable within the Spanish political culture. Serulnikov aimed to show the reader that these were serious attempts towards a revolution, but if anything, they were a political event above everything.