The Tupac Amaru Rebellion

Introduction

The Tupac Amaru Rebellion raged across the Andes from 1780–1783. Centered in southern Peru, from Cuzco to Lake Titicaca, it also allied with the Katarista uprisings in Upper Peru (Bolivia). In addition, revolts inspired by Tupac Amaru took place in what became Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. José Gabriel Condorcanqui was a kuraka or ethnic intermediary in three small towns sixty miles south of Cuzco and a merchant who worked the Cuzco to Potosí circuit. Well-educated and bilingual (Spanish and Quechua) he claimed lineage from the Incas, thus the Tupac Amaru (e.g., Tupa or Túpac, Amaro) name. His wife, Micaela Bastidas, was an important commander in the uprising, overseeing the rebel base in Pampamarca and logistics. The rebellion began in November 1780 when Tupac Amaru seized and executed a local authority, the corregidor Antonio Arriaga. Tupac Amaru organized his indigenous followers and attacked other corregidors, ransacked haciendas, and razed the hated obrajes, or textile mills. He claimed to be fighting in the name of the King of Spain. He and Micaela sought a multiethnic and multiclass alliance, recruiting not only Indians but also mestizos, blacks, Creoles, and “good” Spaniards. Tupac Amaru returned from the Lake Titicaca in late 1780 to lay siege to the city of Cuzco, Peru’s second largest city and still considered the by many to be the “Inca capital.” Although he surrounded Cuzco with tens of thousands of troops, the rebels could not take the city. The royalists received important reinforcements from Lima in early January. After three months of intense fighting, they captured Tupac Amaru, Micaela Bastidas, and much of their inner circle in April 1781, executing them in a gruesome public ritual in Cuzco’s central plaza on May 17. Led by Tupac Amaru’s cousin, Diego Cristóbal Tupac Amaru, their son Mariano, and another relative, the rebellion continued for two years, centered in the area around Lake Titicaca. The rebellion became more of a caste or total war as neither side took prisoners. The exhausted rebel leaders signed an armistice in early 1783, but hardline royalists broke the treaty and executed Diego Cristóbal in even more horrific fashion than Tupac Amaru and Micaela Bastidas. Tupac Amaru became a hero in Peru. He became even more famous in 1968 when General Velasco Alvarado’s military regime made Tupac Amaru its icon. The Tupamaro (Uruguay) and MRTA (Peru) guerrilla groups as well as the rapper Tupac Amaru Shakur are named after him.

General Overviews

Numerous scholars have moved beyond the biography of José Gabriel Condorcanqui (or Tupac Amaru II) and placed the rebellion in a broader framework. From the late 1940s to the 1960s, the Polish-Argentine Boleslao Lewin, a Jewish refugee of Hitler’s Europe, wrote profound and sympathetic accounts. In the 1970s the Spaniard Eulogio Zudaire published a well-documented study of Viceroy Jáuregui and the rebellion: although the study was much more critical of the rebels and more supportive of the Spanish than other scholarship, it also contains great archival leads. Fisher 1966 provided a concise overview while Serulnikov 2013 and Walker 2014 present broader interpretations. These more recent overviews build on the wave of studies and published primary sources that have appeared since the late 1960s. They form a dialogue with works on the Katarista uprisings in Upper Peru or what became Bolivia. Markham 1892 is a highly readable account.

Fisher, Lillian. The Last Inca Revolt, 1780–1783. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Detailed yet accessible narrative history of the uprising. Although Fisher did not have access to the document collections and analyses published after her study, the analysis is solid and the narrative engaging.
Find this resource:
Flores Galindo, Alberto, ed. Sociedad colonial y sublevaciones populares: Tupac Amaru II-1780. Lima, Peru: Retablo de Papel Ediciones, 1976.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Leading essays by an international group of scholars on topics ranging from ideology to policy that remain at the analytical forefront in terms of the causes and repercussions of the uprising. These contributions broadened the analysis, incorporating more theoretical and comparative approaches.
Find this resource:
Lewin, Boleslao. La rebelión de Tupac Amaru y los orígenes de la emancipación Americana. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Hachette, 1957.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
One of numerous studies by Lewin on Tupac Amaru, this is arguably the best narrative history and still an indispensable guide. A refugee from Nazi Europe to Argentina, Lewin makes parallels between the rebellion’s defeat and the Holocaust. This detailed, sharply written text has stood the test of time.
Find this resource:
Markham, Clements. A History of Peru. Chicago: Charles H. Sergel, 1892.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A highly readable account by the 19th-century English geographer and explorer Clements Markham. Despite its Victorian worldview, this is a splendid read.
Find this resource:
Serulnikov, Sergio. Revolution in the Andes. The Age of Túpac Amaru. Foreword by Charles F. Walker. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013.
DOI: 10.1215/9780822378303Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The best synthesis of the Katarista uprisings in Charcas (what became Bolivia) and the Tupac Amaru rebellion. Serulnikov has a sharp eye for comparisons but also avoids getting too bogged down in details. A sophisticated and useful overview (translated from Spanish, Revolución en los andes: La era de Túpac Amaru, 2012).
Find this resource:
Walker, Charles F. The Tupac Amaru Rebellion. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2014.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A narrative history that pays particular attention to the role of the church and Micaela Bastidas, Tupac Amaru’s wife, as well as violence. It also stresses the latter period of the rebellion, 1781 to 1783, after the martyrdom of Tupac Amaru and the uprising’s repercussions.
Find this resource:
Zudaire, Eulogio. Agustín de Jáuregui, virrey del Perú. Pamplona, Spain: Diputación Foral de Navarra, Dirección de Turismo, Bibliotecas y Cultura Popular, 1971.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A well-documented study of Viceroy Jáuregui that has hundreds of pages on Tupac Amaru and the uprising. Although the apologetic views on Spanish repression and his hypercritical opinions on the rebels (he compares Tupac Katari to Idi Amin) are troubling, the book mines official Spanish correspondence like no other.
Find this resource:
Biographies

The difference between the works cited in this section and in General Overviews is a bit arbitrary, but these works tend to be more focused on Tupac Amaru himself and are less concerned with the South American or transatlantic context. Most of them were written before the boom of studies and document collections in the 1970s and present Tupac Amaru as a Peruvian hero and a precursor to independence. They are rarely critical of Tupac Amaru himself and pay insufficient attention to Micaela Bastidas, other than as a loyal wife. Peruvian authors such as Cornejo Bouroncle, Valcárcel, and Vega wrote widely read works that, surprisingly, had little dialogue with one another.

Acevedo, Juan. Túpac Amaru 1. Infancia y adolescencia. Lima, Peru: TAREA, 1988.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A beautifully drawn graphic history (or comic) of Tupac Amaru’s childhood that captures Andean geography and related social tensions. It includes an insightful introduction by Alberto Flores Galindo.
Find this resource:
Cornejo Bouroncle, Jorge. Tupac Amaru, la revolución precursora de la emancipación continental. Cuzco, Peru: Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cuzco, 2013.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This 1949 account, recently republished in a handsome edition, provides plenty of detail and stresses Tupac Amaru’s role as the heroic initiator of the wars of independence—an interpretation that continues to be the subject of debate.
Find this resource:
Del Busto Duthurburu, José Antonio. José Gabriel Túpac Amaru antes de su rebellion. Lima, Peru: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 1971.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A detailed and readable examination of Tupac Amaru before the uprising, his childhood in Surimana, his education in Cuzco, and his years as a muleteer-merchant. The author, a distinguished Lima historian, visited the rebel’s core area and uncovered many documentary gems.
Find this resource:
Glave, Luis Miguel. La Rebelión de Túpac Amaru, 1780. Cuzco, Peru: Centro de Estudios Rural Andinos “Bartolomé de las Casas,” 1982.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A twenty-page, well-illustrated text that stresses both Tupac Amaru and the indigenous people he defended. This is difficult to find and in Spanish but is a valuable summary.
Find this resource:
Valcárcel, Carlos Daniel. La rebelión de Túpac Amaru. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1947.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Published in Mexico in 1947, this was one of the more widely distributed books of the many that Valcárcel wrote on Tupac Amaru. He presents a clear narrative and stresses the importance of the rebellion in Peru and beyond.
Find this resource:
Valcárcel, Carlos Daniel. La rebelión de Túpac Amaru. Lima, Peru: Peisa, 1973.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Part of the ubiquitous Biblioteca Peruana series (PEISA) published during the Velasco Alvarado period (1968–1975), this summary of Valcárcel’s key arguments on Tupac Amaru and the uprising reached a broad audience.
Find this resource:
Vega, Juan José. Tupac Amaru y sus compañeros. 2 vols. Cuzco, Peru: Municipalidad del Qosqo, 1995.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Vega wrote numerous studies about Tupac Amaru, and these two volumes provide abundant information not only about Tupac Amaru himself but also Micaela Bastidas and the rebellion’s commanders. Vega took a more leftist tone than his predecessors. His footnotes leave much to be desired, but readers will find a wealth of biographical information.
Find this resource:
Document Collections

In the 1970s and 1980s, two essential documental collections appeared: the Colección Documental de la Independencia del Perú (CDIP) that celebrated the 150th anniversary of Peru’s independence and the Colección documental del bicentenario de la revolución emancipadora de Túpac Amaru that honored Tupac Amaru’s two hundredth birthday. Both sets boosted Tupac Amaru studies yet have not been fully utilized by researchers. The CDIP has a confusing system of authors as well as tomos and volumes. Previous document collections date from the early 19th century. Stavig and Schmidt 2008 offers a rich selection of documents translated into English, which is classroom friendly.

Angelis, Pedro de. Documentos para la historia de la sublevación de José Gabriel de Tupac-Amaru, cacique de la provincia de Tinta, en el Perú. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Imprenta del Estado, 1836.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In 1836 the Italian-Argentine Pedro de Angelis published this valuable collection of documents, reprinted in various editions and now available online. A 1910 edition includes an introduction by Angelis.
Find this resource:
Colección Documental de la Independencia del Perú. Vol. 2, La rebelión de Túpac Amaru. 4 vols. Lima: Comisión Nacional del Sesquicentenario de la Independencia del Perú, 1971.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The Juan Velasco Alvarado military regime in Peru (1968–1975) sponsored the eighty-six-volume (originally scheduled to be 106) collection on the war of independence in Peru, including these four weighty tomes on Tupac Amaru published in 1971. Volume 1 focuses on antecedents and the other three on the rebellion itself. Includes the indispensable trials found in the Archivo de Indias in Seville. These volumes have proven essential for generations of scholars.
Find this resource:
Colección documental del bicentenario de la revolución emancipadora de Túpac Amaru. Lima, Peru: Comisión Nacional del Bicentenario de la Rebelión Emancipadora de Túpac Amaru, 1980–1982.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
These seven tomes are an invaluable resource for studies on the uprising. While two volumes feature essays on the uprising, the others focus on documents: three include the trials against the key rebels, one on the antecedents and one on Bishop Moscoso y Peralta.
Find this resource:
De la Paz, Melchor, and Luis Antonio Eguiguren. Guerra separatista. Rebeliones de indios en Sur América; la sublevación de Tupac Amaru. 2 vols. Lima, Peru: Imprenta Torres Aguirre, 1952.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A contemporary of the uprising, Melchor de la Paz collected these documents, presented in the form of a dialogue between two men. This 1786 manuscript remained largely unknown in the New York Public Library until published in two volumes in 1952 by Luis Antonio Eguiguren. It contains top-notch documentation.
Find this resource:
Loayza, Francisco. Preliminares del incendio. Documentos del año de 1776 a 1780, en su mayoría inéditos, anteriores y sobre la Revolución Libertadora que engendró y dio vida José Gabriel Túpak Amaru, en 1780. Lima, Peru: D. Miranda, 1947.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This small volume includes documents on earlier uprisings in Arequipa, La Paz, Cuzco, and other towns and cities as well as an anonymous “diary” of the rebellion.
Find this resource:
Odriozola, Manuel. Documentos Históricos del Perú en las Épocas del Coloniaje después de la Conquista y de las Independencia hasta la presente. Vol. 1. Lima, Peru: Tipografía de Aurelio Alfaro, 1863.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Much of this valuable collection is taken from Angelis, Documentos, with no reference whatsoever to it. This is the most egregious (but not the only) case where an author republished documents originally collected by another author.
Find this resource:
Stavig, Ward, and Ella Schmidt, eds. The Tupac Amaru and Catarista Rebellions. An Anthology of Sources. Introduction by Charles F. Walker. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2008.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A valuable collection of documents, mostly from the Colección Documental de la Independencia Peruana, translated into English. This covers the Tupac Amaru and to a lesser extent the Katarista uprisings.
Find this resource:
The Church

The best studies such as Burns 1999, Cahill 1984a, and Cahill 1984b include the Tupac Amaru rebellion as one important moment in longer histories of the church (Burns focuses on nuns, while Cahill’s focus is on state-church conflicts). The role that priests played supporting or opposing the uprising or their efforts to remain neutral deserves more attention. Documents exist, including the 1983 collection Tupac Amaru y la iglesia. See also the works on Bishop Moscoso y Peralta.

Burns, Kathryn. Colonial Habits: Convents and the Spiritual Economy of Cuzco, Peru. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This splendid account of nuns in colonial Cuzco sheds new light on colonial Peru, including the rebellion and its economic impact. Burns also uncovered the interesting story of Mariano Tupac Amaru, the son of Micaela and José Gabriel, and his affair with María Mejía.
Find this resource:
Cahill, David. “Curas and Social Conflict in the Doctrinas of Cuzco, 1780–1814.” Journal of Latin American Studies 16 (1984a): 241–276.
DOI: 10.1017/S0022216X00007070Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Deeply researched analysis of priests and local society from the outbreak of the Tupac Amaru Rebellion to the culmination of the wars of independence.
Find this resource:
Cahill, David. “Crown, Clergy, and Revolution in Bourbon Peru: The Diocese of Cuzco 1780–1814.” PhD diss., University of Liverpool, 1984b.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Nuanced history of church and state in Cuzco with important findings about the rebellion and its aftermath. Based primarily on Cusco archival documents, this remains the best account of Church and state in late colonial Peru.
Find this resource:
Robins, Nicholas. Priest-Indian Conflicts in Upper Peru: The Generation of Rebellion, 1750–1780. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines the relationship between local priests and indigenous people in the decades prior to and during the uprisings in Peru and Upper Peru. Shows importance of the often tense relations between representatives of the church and local people in everyday life and in social movements.
Find this resource:
Tupac Amaru y la iglesia, Antología. Cuzco, Peru: Comité Arquidiocesano del Bicentenario Túpac Amaru, 1983.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An essential collection of documents that sheds light on topics such as church-state conflicts on the eve of the uprising, the role of parish priests in the rebellion, and subsequent accusations about the church’s responsibility in the rebellion.
Find this resource:
Juan Manuel Moscoso y Peralta

The debate and controversies about Juan Manuel Moscoso y Peralta in the uprising have continued until today. From the upper crust of the Peruvian city of Arequipa and bishop of Cuzco from 1778–1784, Moscoso y Peralta oversaw church reforms in rural doctrines in the late 1770s that proved to be important antecedents. Some royalists accused him of abetting the rebels while others praised him for overseeing their defeat. Moscoso y Peralta went to Madrid in 1785 to defend himself against charges that he had secretly aided the rebellion and engaged in other improper conduct, never returning to his native Peru. The paper wars raged for decades, providing a rich archival record for historians, much of it published in tomo II, Colección Nacional del Bicentenario de la rebelión emancipadora de Túpac Amaru 1980 and Moscoso y Peralta 2013. Bacacorzo 1982 provides biographical background, while the other works cited here primarily consist of informative collections of documents on the Bishop and the many controversies surrounding him.

Bacacorzo, Gustavo. Don Juan Manuel de Moscoso y Peralta. Ubicación en el proceso de la independencia Americana. Lima, Peru: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Dirección Universitaria de Biblioteca y Publicaciones, 1982.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An adequate biography, covering Moscoso y Peralta’s privileged youth in Arequipa to his final days as Archbishop of Granada.
Find this resource:
Colección Nacional del Bicentenario de la rebelión emancipadora de Túpac Amaru. Descargos del Obispo del Cuzco Juan Manuel Moscoso y Peralta. tomo II. Lima, Peru: Comisión Nacional del Bicentenario de la Rebelión Emancipadora de Túpac Amaru, 1980.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Seven hundred pages of documents from the Archivo de Indias in Seville, Spain (Cuzco, Legajos 77 and 78), on Moscoso y Peralta and his role in the rebellion.
Find this resource:
Moscoso y Peralta, Juan Manuel. Inocencia justificada contra los artificios de la calumnia. Prologue by Charles F. Walker. Lima: Biblioteca Nacional del Perú, 2013.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Published in Madrid in 1789 and recently republished in Lima, this is Moscoso y Peralta’s response to accusations that he participated in conspiracies prior to the rebellion, failed to do enough against Tupac Amaru, and had “illicit relations” with nuns. It provides good information and documentation about the uprising and late colonial Cuzco, including detailed accounts of the role of the church in defending Cuzco and defeating the uprising.
Find this resource:
Religioso Imparcial. La verdad desnuda, ó, Las dos faces de un Obispo. Lima, Peru: D. Miranda, 1943.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A biting critique of Moscoso y Peralta contending that the bishop had a hand in the execution of corregidor Arriaga and secretly supported the rebels. Although the author is listed as “an impartial religious man,” Eusebio Balza de Verganza, Arriaga’s nephew wrote it.
Find this resource:
Sahuaraura Titu Atauchi, Rafael José. Estado del Perú: Códice escrito en 1780 y que contiene datos importantes sobre la revolución de José Gabriel Túpac Amaru. Lima, Peru: D. Miranda, 1944.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Written by the prominent kuraka Raphael José Sahuaraura Titu Atauchi, the Estado del Perú defends Moscoso y Peralta from the accusation in verdad desnuda.
Find this resource:
The Military

Few of the more recent syntheses delve deeply into military history, although important sources and secondary works exist. Much more needs to be discovered about those who fought. For example, we have little information about the royalist troops, primarily black and mixed-race soldiers dragooned from Lima. We also have almost nothing about the women who accompanied both sides, preparing the camp, cooking, spying, and other tasks. Campbell and Marchena Fernández shed light on the officer corps and military reforms while Vega provides a wealth of information about many aspects of the army.

Campbell, Leon G. The Military and Society in Colonial Peru, 1750–1810. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1978.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A detailed history of military reforms in late colonial Peru and changes put to the test and accelerated by the rebellion.
Find this resource:
Marchena Fernández, Juan. “The Social World of the Military in Peru and New Granada: The Colonial Oligarchies in Conflict, 1750–1810.” In Reform and Insurrection in Bourbon New Granada and Peru. Edited by John R. Fisher, Allan J. Kuethe, and Anthony McFarlane, 54–95. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Comprehensive study of the officer classes of the colonial armies and militias. Includes eighteen tables with information on their social background.
Find this resource:
Vega, Juan José. Historia General del Ejército Peruano. El ejército durante la dominación española del Perú. Vol. 1. Lima: Comisión Permanente de Historia del Ejército del Perú, 1981.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In this study, 150 pages are dedicated to Tupac Amaru, including valuable maps, analysis, and information about weapons. Unlike his other studies, Vega concentrates on providing information more than developing an argument.
Find this resource:
Peasant Life

Ethnohistoric work on the Andes has flourished in recent decades, and Glave 1989, Glave 1992, and Stavig 1999 give us a closer look into Cuzco’s peasant society. Garrett provides a fascinating view of the indigenous aristocracy, while O’Phelan studies the changes in the kuraka office. Mörner 1978 examines political and economic changes.

Garrett, David. Shadows of Empire: The Indian Nobility of Cusco, 1750–1825. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511529085Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A landmark study of the Inca nobility, many of whom opposed Tupac Amaru and his uprising. Valuable source for Inca nationalism, the cacique office, and the intellectual history of the period.
Find this resource:
Glave, Luis Miguel. Trajinantes. Caminos indígenas en la sociedad colonial siglos XVI/XVII. Lima, Peru: Instituto de Apoyo Agrario, 1989.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A series of outstanding essays on indigenous people of the southern Andes and their important role in the economy. It stresses their mobility in the commercial routes that stretched from Lima to Potosí. The author sheds much light on the work of muleteers (Tupac Amaru was one) who served as intermediaries across the Andes.
Find this resource:
Glave, Luis Miguel. Vida, símbolo y batallas: creación y recreación de la comunidad indígena. Cuzco, siglos XVI–XX. Lima, Peru: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1992.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Ethno-historical essays on the communities at the heart of the Tupac Amaru rebellion. Several chapters focus on the uprising, its development, and the aftermath. Glave underlines the great differences among indigenous communities.
Find this resource:
Mörner, Magnus. Perfil de la sociedad rural del Cuzco a fines de la colonia. Lima, Peru: Universidad del Pacífico, 1978.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Well-documented overview of rural Cuzco in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with much information about economic and political changes. The lack of a table of contents and the error-plagued index (the pagination is wrong) proves to be a challenge.
Find this resource:
O’Phelan Godoy, Scarlett. Kurakas sin sucesiones. Del cacique al alcalde de indios (Perú y Bolivia 1750–1835. Cuzco, Peru: Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas, 1997.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Four informed essays on the transformation of the cacique or kuraka position. It examines the decline of the office, pressure from both the Bourbon Reforms as well as from local, indigenous society.
Find this resource:
Stavig, Ward. The World of Túpac Amaru: Conflict, Community, and Identity in Colonial Peru. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An insightful social history of the indigenous people in the Tupac Amaru area (Canas y Canchis and Quispicanchis in particular) in the 18th century. The work is particularly strong on daily life and tensions in the decades before the uprising.
Find this resource:
Politics and Economy

Authors have generally moved beyond the simple correlation of the uprising with the Bourbon Reforms, examining instead the long history of Spanish administrative change and the multiple effects and reactions in local society. Together these publications provide excellent background for further study. Escandell-Tur 1997 focuses on the textile industry; Mörner and Trelles 1987 is on demographics and uprisings; Fisher 1970, Fisher 2003, and O’Phelan Godoy 1995 is on politics. Golte 1980 looks at the relationship between administrative changes and revolts. Jáuregui y Aldecoa 1982 is an important primary source.

Escandell-Tur, Neus. Producción y comercio de tejidos coloniales. los obrajes y chorrillos del Cusco 1570–1820 (Colonial Textile Production and Trade. Cuzco’s Mills, 1570–1820). Cuzco, Peru: Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas, 1997.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A history of textile production in Cuzco that has important information on the mills or obrajes that served as prisons throughout the colonial period and that the rebels delighted in destroying. Much data on trade, prices, and land and mill ownership.
Find this resource:
Fisher, J. R. Government and Society in Colonial Peru: The Intendant System, 1784–1814. London: Athlone, 1970.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An informed political history of Peru from the defeat of the rebellion to independence. Fisher gives an important political narrative and economic and administrative detail. The book has stood the test of time well and provides valuable context.
Find this resource:
Fisher, John R. Bourbon Peru 1750–1824. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press, 2003.
DOI: 10.5949/UPO9781846312687Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Excellent synthesis of politics and the economy in the late colonial period, with suggestive information not found in Fisher 1970, which was about the rebellion and its period. Includes short biographical synopses of major administrators.
Find this resource:
Golte, Jürgen. Repartos y rebeliones: Túpac Amaru y las contradicciones de la economía colonial. Lima, Peru: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1980.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Correlates the rise of the reparto or forced sales and rebellions. Although criticized for a somewhat mechanical argument, it’s a rare social scientific approach to the uprising.
Find this resource:
Jáuregui y Aldecoa, Agustín de. Relación y documentos de Gobierno del Virrey del Perú, Agustín de Jáuregui y Aldecoa (1780–1784). Edited by Remedios Contreras. Madrid: CSIC, Instituto Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, 1982.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Includes not only an important chapter on the Viceroy’s (official) views of the uprising and its defeat but also a wealth of information about politics, society, and the economy.
Find this resource:
Mörner, Magnus, and Efraín Trelles. “A Test of Causal Interpretations of the Túpac Amaru Rebellion.” In Resistance, Rebellion, and Consciousness in the Andean Peasants World, 18th to 20th Centuries. Edited by Steve J. Stern, 94–109. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A rare social-scientific analysis of the uprising, particularly the question of why some communities supported the rebellions and others did not. It uses parish records to examine demographic factors in the rebellion.
Find this resource:
O’Phelan Godoy, Scarlett. La gran rebelión en los andes: De Túpac Amaru a Túpac Catari. Cuzco, Peru: Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas, 1995.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Six essays on social and political issues ranging from coca leaves to utopianism in the long 18th century in the Andes. All touch upon the rebellion and highlight changes within Andean society.
Find this resource:
18th-century Rebellions

The two edited volumes (Fisher, Kuethe, and McFarlane; Stern) not only feature excellent articles on the different facets of the uprising but also provide important contextualization and comparisons. O’Phelan Godoy 1985 examines a century of Andean uprisings while Phelan looks at that of the comuneros in Colombia.

Fisher, John R., Allan J. Kuethe, and Anthony McFarlane. Reform and Insurrection in Bourbon New Granada and Peru. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A valuable set of essays on the Bourbon Reforms, local and regional economic and policy changes, and uprisings from southern Peru to the northern tip of South America. Unites the analysis of Peru with that of New Granada, what became Venezuela and Colombia.
Find this resource:
Glave, Luis Miguel. “The ‘Republic of Indians’ in Revolt, (c. 1680–c. 1790).” In South America, Part 2. Vol. 3 of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas. Edited by Frank Salomon and Stuart Schwartz, 502–557. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A long-term analysis of change in indigenous society and the variety of political responses, including rebellion.
Find this resource:
O’Phelan Godoy, Scarlett. Rebellions and Revolts in Eighteenth-Century Peru and Upper Peru. Cologne: Bohlau, 1985.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The indispensable examination of the long socioeconomic history of uprisings in the 18th-century Andes. This book not only pushed studies chronologically but also geographically, linking events in Peru with those elsewhere in the Andes. Also available in Spanish.
Find this resource:
Phelan, John Leddy. The People and the King. The Comunero Revolution in Colombia, 1781. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1978.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A highly readable and incisive analysis of the Comunero uprising in Colombia, contemporaneous to that of Tupac Amaru. Important comparative study that underlines local people’s use of traditional political language or codes to question authorities and even Spanish rule.
Find this resource:
Stern, Steve, ed. Resistance, Rebellion, and Consciousness in the Andean Peasant World, 18th to 20th Centuries. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Not only includes essays by leading scholars on Tupac Amaru and the period but also excellent overviews and methodological suggestions by Steve Stern. A good starting point.
Find this resource:
Regional Histories

Cuzco was one of the key beneficiaries of a wave of historical studies dating from the 1970s that looked beyond Lima. Although the definition of “region” varies, most study an important city (Puno or Arequipa) and its countryside. All of these shed light on the southern Andes and the uprising itself. The three major southern Andean cities of Peru are covered here: Arequipa (Chambers); Puno (Jacobsen and Ramos Zambrano); and Cuzco (Walker).

Chambers, Sarah. From Subjects to Citizens: Honor, Gender, and Politics in Arequipa, Peru, 1780–1854. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A rich social history of Arequipa, the important city and region to the southwest of Cuzco, with particular attention to gender. Although the book does not focus on the rebellion, it contains valuable information on the uprising and the period.
Find this resource:
Jacobsen, Nils. Mirages of Transition: The Peruvian Altiplano, 1780–1930. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A profound analysis of the Lake Titicaca region or the Collao, especially long-term socioeconomic and political trends. Includes important data and arguments about the Andean economy and the relationship between Peru and Upper Peru.
Find this resource:
Ramos Zambrano, Augusto. Puno en la rebelión de Tupac Amaru. Puno, Peru: Universidad Nacional Técnica del Altiplano, 1982.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A well-documented history of Puno and the Lake Titicaca region in the rebellion. Contains much information about this understudied region.
Find this resource:
Ramos Zambrano, Augusto. Tupamarus, vilcapazas, cataris, ingariconas. Arequipa, Peru: Instituto de Estudios Pukara, 2009.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Although not exactly a regional history, these essays shed light on important figures who fought in the area between the Tupac Amaru forces in Cuzco and the Kataristas in Upper Peru, particularly Pedro Vilca Apaza and other rebel commanders. It overcomes the tendency to separate the Amaru and Katarista movements.
Find this resource:
Walker, Charles F. Smoldering Ashes: Cuzco and the Creation of Republican Peru, 1780–1840. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999.
DOI: 10.1215/9780822382164Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A history of the Cuzco region from the rebellion into the mid-19th century. Begins with an overview of the uprising and its impact and examines Cusco into the decades following independence.
Find this resource:
The Kataristas

Upper Peru or Charcas saw several mass, indigenous uprisings against the colonial order, known as the Katarista rebellions. Tomás Katari (e.g., “Catari” and thus “Catarista”) led the first wave just north of Potosí, which his brothers continued after his execution. Other rebellions broke out, most notably that of Julián Apaza around La Paz, who assumed the name of Tupac Katari in honor of Tupac Amaru and the Katari uprisings. Del Valle de Siles, Serulnikov, and Thomson have written masterful studies of the Kataristas, and agree that more needs to be known about the relationship between the Amaru and Katarista movements.

Cornblit, Oscar. Power and Violence in the Colonial City. Oruro from the Mining Renaissance to the Rebellion of Tupac Amaru (1740–1782). New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511665233Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Focused on the Upper Peruvian city of Oruro, the author examines in great detail the multiethnic alliance that the rebels formed in Oruro, as well as its rise and decline. This is an unusual case of an urban history of the long development to the uprising.
Find this resource:
Valle de Siles, María Eugenia. Historia de la rebelión de Tupac Catari. La Paz, Bolivia: Editorial Don Bosco, 1990.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A thorough history of the La Paz, or Tupac Katari, phase of the Katarista uprisings. Includes helpful documentation of these events and the key moments and individuals involved.
Find this resource:
Serulnikov, Sergio. Subverting Colonial Authority: Challenges to Spanish Rule in Eighteenth-Century Southern Andes. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.
DOI: 10.1215/9780822385264Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A monumental study that highlights changes in local political structures and practices in Upper Peru and the emergence of the Katari revolt. Moves gracefully from local history in the Potosí area to theories of colonialism and has reshaped our understanding of the great Andean uprisings. Essential for Katari brothers.
Find this resource:
Thomson, Sinclair. We Alone Will Rule: Native Andean Politics in the Age of Insurgency. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A path-breaking study that shows the complexity and importance of the Tupac Katari stage in Puno and its surrounding area. It focuses on changes throughout the 18th century that broke the pact between the colonial state and Andean people, prompting creative and violent alternatives. Excellent analysis of Julián Apaza or Tupac Katari.
Find this resource:
Robins, Nicholas A. Genocide and Millennialism in Upper Peru: The Great Rebellion of 1780–1782. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An examination of the Katarista movements in terms of genocide and mass violence. While the link to broader debates is a welcome move, the argument about the rebels’ violence as genocide is questionable. The term “genocide” is normally used to indicate violence of the state or those in power.
Find this resource:
Intellectual History and Legacy

The nature of Tupac Amaru’s political project and its intellectual lineage continues to fascinate historians. It’s a challenging issue, as he did not present a platform per se. Nonetheless, in his speeches, letters, and actions he stitched together a fascinating mix of ideologies, including Inca revivalism (see Flores Galindo’s groundbreaking work), notions of the “body politic” (Maticorena), and protonationalism (Durand Florez). Hidaldo Lehuade discusses the messianic elements of the uprising, while Lituma analyzes the conversion of Tupac Amaru into a symbol during the Velasco Alvardo government (1968–1975).

Durand Florez, Luis. Independencia e integración en el Plan Político de Túpac Amaru. Lima, Peru: PLV, 1973.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Interesting analysis of various aspects of Tupac Amaru’s project: its relationship to the wars of independence and his (or their) efforts to incorporate mestizos, Creoles, and other social groups.
Find this resource:
Flores Galindo, Alberto. In Search of an Inca: Identity and Utopia in the Andes. Edited and translated by Carlos Aguirre, Willie Hiatt, and Charles Walker. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
English translation of Buscando un Inca, an award-winning analysis of how Andean people have looked back at the Incas since the conquest, casting them as an alternative to colonialism or the republic. Includes two influential chapters on the Tupac Amaru rebellion and highly sophisticated arguments about utopianism.
Find this resource:
Hidalgo Lehuade, Jorge. “Amarus y cataris: Aspectos mesiánicos de la rebelión indígena de 1781 en Cusco, Chayanta, La Paz y Arica.” Revista Chungara 10 (1983): 117–138.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A much-cited article about messianic aspects of the uprising in several areas, including the rarely studied southwest fringes—what is 21st-century northern Chile. Remains the best analysis of messianism.
Find this resource:
Lituma Agüero, Leopoldo. El verdadero rostro de Túpac Amaru (Perú, 1969–1975). Lima, Peru: Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2011.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An analysis of a number of leading artists who collaborated with the Velasco Alvarado regime (1968–1975) and converted Tupac Amaru into a pop icon. Includes solid analysis of the iconography and symbolism, as well as beautiful illustrations.
Find this resource:
Lorandi, Ana María, and Cora Virginia Bunster. La pedagogía del miedo. Los Borbones y el criollismo en el Cuzco. 1780–1790. Lima, Peru: Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos and Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas, 2013.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An important study on the role of Cuzco Creoles during the rebellion and above all in its aftermath. Much of the book examines the campaigns against leading families accused of harboring rebel sympathies. Constitutes an insightful examination of the repressive campaigns and of the legal system.
Find this resource:
Marticorena Estrada, Miguel. “Prólogo.” In Los Procesos a Túpac Amaru y sus compañeros. Edited by Luis Durand Flores, 13–21. Lima, Peru: Comisión Nacional del Bicentenario de la Rebelión Emancipadora de Túpac Amaru, 1981.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
One of several texts by Maticorena on Tupac Amaru’s rethinking of the “body politic” and how he conceived of unifying vice-regal Peru. Provides important leads for further study.
Find this resource:
Rowe, John. “El movimiento nacional inca del siglo XVIII.” Revista Universitaria (Cusco) 107 (1954): 17–47.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A pioneering study of how pride in the Incas resurrected in the 18th century, a sentiment that inspired Tupac Amaru (as well as some of his kuraka rivals) and shaped this as well as other uprisings.
Find this resource:
Szeminski, Jan. La utopia tupamarista. Lima, Peru: Pontificia Universidad Católica, 1984.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An examination of the mindset or ideology of the rebels, stressing the tensions and differences between Spanish and Quechua concepts and western and Andean notions of time and warfare.
Find this resource:
Primary Accounts of the Rebellion and the Period

The document collections (see Document Collections) present thousands of documents and a few detailed accounts from the period. For first-person accounts on the rebellion or the period, see Concolorcovro 1965 for a fictitious version, or Tupac Amaru’s half-brother’s memoir (Tupac Amaru 1940). There are still few diaries or autobiographical accounts.

Concolorcovro. El Lazarillo: A Guide for Inexperienced Travelers Between Buenos Aires and Lima, 1773. Translated by Walter D. Kline. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1965.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A witty and insightful fictitious biography of a post-office inspector who worked the same circuit that Tupac Amaru did as a muleteer, also crossing the Andes. Written by Alonso Carrió de la Vandera in the 1770s.
Find this resource:
Hill, Ruth. Hierarchy, Commerce, and Fraud in Bourbon Spanish America. A Postal Inspector’s Exposé. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A vivid analysis of El Lazarillo that sheds new light on the flow of ideas across the Andes and the Atlantic Ocean, the various notions about Andean people, and Peru’s relationship with Spain.
Find this resource:
Tupac Amaru, Juan Bautista. Cuarenta años de cautiverio (memorias del inka Juan Bautista Túpac Amaru). Lima, Peru: Librería e Imprenta D. Miranda, 1940.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Tupac Amaru’s half-brother had an incredible odyssey. Royalists took him in chains to Lima and then to Spain, where he was imprisoned in a castle dungeon and then the Ceuta presidio for almost forty years. Freed in 1820, he reached Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he wrote his memoirs. He died there in 1827, never returning to Peru.
Find this resource:
Micaela Bastidas and Gender

Micaela Bastidas was not merely a loyal wife as many accounts intend, but instead a full partner and an important commander who oversaw the all-important logistics. She deserves further study, as do gender relations in the uprising and the period. These provide important leads. Fernández Domínguez 2005 studies the representations of Micaela, while Meléndez 2011 deconstructs her execution. Pacheco Farfán 2008 studies the other leading female commander and Loayza 1945 provides important documents.

Fernández Domínguez, Renata. “Micaela Bastidas en la Historia, Literatura, y Cultura Peruana: Análisis de sus Reconfiguraciones Discursivas.” PhD diss., University of Kentucky, 2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Thorough examination of how Micaela Bastidas has been viewed by historians, novelists, poets, and artists. This is a valuable source that deserves publication.
Find this resource:
Loayza, Francisco A. Mártires y heroinas: documentos inéditos del año de 1780 a 1782. Lima, Peru: D. Miranda, 1945.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Important documents regarding the leading women of the rebellion: Micaela Bastidas, Tomasa Tito Condemayta, and Cecilia Tupac Amaru.
Find this resource:
Meléndez, Mariselle. “Micaela Bastidas’s Legible Body: Public Spectacle, Violence, and Fear in Túpac Amaru’s Insurrection.” In Deviant and Useful Citizens. The Cultural Production of the Female Body in Eighteenth-Century Peru. Edited by Mariselle Meléndez, 11–40. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2011.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Important study about the symbolism of the brutal execution of Micaela Bastidas and her treatment as a subversive woman. Valuable contribution to the understanding of violence and gender in late colonial Peru.
Find this resource:
Pacheco Farfán, Juvenal. Tomasa Tito Condemayta, Heroína de Acos. Hito histórico y paradigma de liberación de la mujer. Cuzco, Peru: JL Editores, 2008.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The rare book is a passionate study about a female kuraka who led troops and died with the rebels.
Find this resource:
Genealogy

José Gabriel Condorcanqui claimed that he descended from one of the last Incas, Tupac Amaru, executed by the Spanish in 1572. In his lifetime he increasingly stressed this lineage, adopting the name and battling in court over a marquisate (the privileges of a marquis) that came with his lineage. These efforts involved long lawsuits, much examined by historians. Cahill provides an outstanding interpretation, as does Rowe. Loayza and Valcárcel make important documentation available.

Cahill, David. “Looking for an Inca: The Marquesado de Oropesa Litigation (1741–1780) and the Roots of Rebellion.” Jahrbuch fur Geschichte Lateinamerikas 42 (2004): 137–166.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Superior account of the legal conflict between José Gabriel Condorcanqui and don Diego Felipe de Betancur over lineage and the right to the Marquisate of Oropesa. Notes that no author has ever questioned Tupac Amaru’s appeal. Also available in Spanish.
Find this resource:
Loayza, Francisco. Genealogía de Túpac Amaru. Lima, Peru: D. Miranda, 1946.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Composed primarily of transcripts of a 1777 lawsuit by Tupac Amaru attempting to prove his royal Inca lineage and his rights to the Oropesa marquisate. Also includes two documents about the causes of the rebellion.
Find this resource:
Rowe, John. “Genealogía y rebelión en el siglo XVIII: algunos antecedentes de la sublevación de José Gabriel Thupa Amaru.” Histórica 6.1 (1982): 65–85.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Important study of Tupac Amaru’s lineage and the debates regarding his legal battle with don Diego Felipe de Betancur it in the 18th century.
Find this resource:
Valcárcel, Daniel. Índice de documentos referentes al juicio sobre legítima descendencia del ultimo Inca Túpac Amaru. Lima, Peru: Librería e Imprenta D. Miranda, 1948.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
List of documents from José Gabriel Condorcanqui’s legal efforts to confirm his descent from Tupac Amaru I. These are found in the Archivo Regional del Cuzco, although with a different numeration.
Find this resource: