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ccording to historian John H. Rowe, José Gabriel Condorcanqui was greatly influenced by his stay in Lima in 1777, when he lived in the city while defending himself in a lawsuit against a rival who also claimed descendancy from Tupac Amaru. New ideas from the Enlightenment in Europe were then circulating among the city’s intel-lectuals. In addition the impact of the revolt of the North American colonies against Great Britain was fresh and significant. Despite the efforts of the Peruvian colonial government to suppress books and dis-cussion of these matters, Condorcanqui probably was exposed to these ideas and events when he visited San Marcos University and spoke to his limeño acquaintances. His wife later said that this was a visit that opened his eyes.

Perhaps even more important influences were the contemporary ideas of a neo-Incan revival and Incan nationalism that were also circu-lating at the time. These ideas were circucircu-lating throughout the Andes during the latter decades of the 18th century, when the descendants of the Incan elites were making conscious efforts to rediscover and reclaim their indigenous traditions, which included a “nostalgic” (in Rowe’s characterization) affirmation of the glorious imperial Inca past (Rowe 1976, summarized in Klarén 2000, 116).

REVOLTS AND THE WARS FOR INDEPENDENCE

decided to send troops to Tinta under the leadership of Fernando Cabrera, the corregidor of Quispicanchis (another Cuzco province).

Cabrera was defeated by Tupac Amaru’s troops at Sangarara, and the rebels killed hundreds of royalists, including Cabrera, who died under the rubble of the local church where he had taken refuge.

As the rebellion expanded Condorcanqui’s cousin, Diego Cristóbal Tupac Amaru, joined the leadership of the rebel army, as did Tomasa Titu Condemayta, the woman curaca of Acos, in Quispicanchis. Not all curacas in and around Cuzco supported Condorcanqui, however, and some actually joined the royal army. Most notable of all was Mateo García Pumacahua, the curaca of Chinchero, who would himself lead an armed rebellion against royal troops 30 years later (in 1814–15).

As word spread of Tupac Amaru II’s rebellion, there were outbreaks of violence throughout the highlands. Indians rose up and attacked the cor-regidores, burned hated colonial institutions such as obrajes and churches, and killed anyone who was not an Indian. Tupac Amaru II him-self tried in vain to include Creoles and mestizos and even slaves in his rebellion, but as the situation grew more violent and more non-Indians suffered, the Creole and mestizo population turned on the Indian leader and his forces. Creoles might have agreed that corregidor Arriaga was a

A modern view of Cuzco, which in 1781 was captured by the rebellious forces of José Gabriel Condorcanqui, known as Tupac Amaru II, and became the center of his revolt against the colonial Spanish government. (Photofrenetic/Alamy)

corrupt state employee deserving to be put to death, they were less inclined to relinquish their properties or their Indian workers. It has been estimated that 100,000 people, around 10 percent of the viceroyalty’s population, died in the uprising. Tupac Amaru II was defeated after attempting to lay siege to Cuzco and captured in April 1781.

Soon after his capture, Tupac Amaru II was publicly executed. He was torn apart by horses after he had been forced to witness the torture and death of his children and wife. His dismembered body was dis-played at several locations in and around Cuzco as an example to would-be rebels. In spite of Condorcanqui’s defeat and horrendous death, rebellion had spread to the highlands in Oruro and Tupiza.

Under the commander Tupac Catari ( Julián Apaza), Indian troops con-tinued to attack colonial figures and institutions. The repercussions of this upheaval reached Ayacucho in the south of modern-day Peru, and even into modern-day northern Chile.

The Wars of Independence

Peru had for more than 300 years been the center of Spanish colonial domination in South America, and Lima in particular had strong, long-standing links with Madrid. Lima’s elites were tied through eco-nomic, political, and even kinship interests to their counterparts in Madrid. Moreover, the Tupac Amaru II rebellion had shown many Creoles how shaky their hold on the colony was and how much they needed Spain to legitimize and support their social and economic pre-eminence. Peru took much longer than other Spanish colonies to embrace the independence movement, and it remained for years a bastion of Spain in the midst of other colonies that had proclaimed their freedom. Yet as Madrid tried to reinstate its control on colonial territory after the Tupac Amaru II uprising, the Spanish government succeeded only in further alienating Peruvians. Increased taxes, the reorganization of the administrative boundaries of the viceroyalty (via the new intendant system), and the replacement of Creole high-state administrators with Spaniards were issues that triggered the move-ment toward independence.

Long-term structural conditions also explain what has been called the “colonial crisis.” Although in the 16th century silver and labor were abundant in the Peruvian viceroyalty by the 18th century both were scarce. The population decline (reaching its low point around 1720) affected all other economic endeavors in the colony, and Spain’s ability to finance and wage wars in Europe in defense of its hegemony declined

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PERU

accordingly. In need of ever more money, the Spanish Crown increased the pressures on the diminishing Peruvian indige-nous population. As a result the Peruvian viceroyalty witnessed increasing rural unrest in the decades leading up to indepen-dence.

Historian Scarlett O’Phelan cites more than 150 uprisings during the 18th century. Growing unrest was closely knit into the resur-gence of what has been labeled an

“Andean renaissance,” or varieties of Inca nationalism. This ideologi-cal revival was based on a reinter-pretation of preconquest history that envisioned and celebrated a benevolent Inca ruler and the exis-tence of an ideal society, the Tahuantinsuyo. The mounting dis-content had converged in the Tupac Amaru II rebellion, which in turn

set off continued distrust of everything indigenous by all non-Indians. In the long run, this wariness hampered common political and military efforts for independence, and to a large degree it explains why Peruvian Creole leaders were inclined to wage a political revolution without a social revolution (Manrique 1995, 37).

Peruvian intellectuals and politicians were also influenced by what was happening in other parts of the world. The generation of thinkers associated with the journal Mercurio peruano between 1790 and 1796 carefully watched and commented on worldwide issues. Both the suc-cessful war for independence against Britain by the North American colonies and the French Revolution put ideas such as the right of self-governance, popular sovereignty, the merits of nationalism, and the desire to do things differently (and inherently better) in the minds of many Peruvians. However, these Peruvians did not necessarily see separation from Spain as the solution. Rather, they envisioned a more moderate relationship in which the voices from the colonies could and would be heard in Madrid. The most prominent figures among

REVOLTS AND THE WARS FOR INDEPENDENCE

The entrance to the Church of San Francisco in Lima, built in an 18th-century baroque style that reflected the period of Bourbon rule in Spain. (Photofrenetic/Alamy)

these politicians and intellectuals were lawyers Manuel Lorenzo Vidaurre and José Baquíjano y Carrillo, the priest Mariano José de Arce, and the doctor Hipólito Unánue. One member of the group, Vicente Morales Duárez, in 1810 became a representative from the colonies in the Cortes de Cádiz, the assembly of elected representa-tives that replaced Ferdinand VII after his deposition by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1808.

Events in Europe played a crucial role in nudging Peru (and other Spanish colonies in South America) toward independence. Spain was thrown into chaos and turmoil when it was occupied by Napoléon Bonaparte’s troops in 1808 and King Ferdinand VII was deposed. At least temporarily, Spain was an occupied territory and had almost no control over its colonies. The situation became even more confused in 1810 when a national assembly, known as the Cortes de Cádiz, was called in the king’s absence, with Morales Duárez as its president. This assembly drew up a new, quite liberal constitution that would affect both Spain and the colonies. When this new constitution reached Peru in 1812, it produced much discussion, unrest, and even open rebellion.

The new proposed form of government was to be a constitutional monarchy, and the constitution abolished the Indian tribute and the mita and required that elections take place. Depending on the popula-tion size, the varied colonial dependencies were instructed to hold elec-tions to nominate local bureaucrats and representatives (all the way from cabildos to audiencias) and to send representatives to Spain. It was the first time in colonial history that the colonies’ voices would be heard in an open public forum in Spain.

Fernando de Abascal, the viceroy in Lima, refused to implement this liberal constitution, an action that led to several upheavals throughout Peru between 1812 and 1814. A Cuzco rebellion, co-led by the curaca Mateo Pumacahua, embraced most of the southern Andes and covered an area closely coincident with the region affected by the Tupac Amaru II rebellion. By 1814, however, King Ferdinand was back on the Spanish throne, and the rebellions in Peru were successfully sup-pressed through military actions and their leaders publicly executed.

Four years later, in 1818, Viceroy Joaquín de la Pezuela was able to report to Spain that in Peru few dared to discuss self-government or talk about a Peruvian nation, whereas a strong support for Spain had been demonstrated in very material ways. It has been calculated that between 1777 and 1814, Lima’s merchant guild (the Tribunal del Consulado), donated more than 5 million pesos to the Spanish Crown toward the payment of Spain’s wars in Europe. Over the following

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PERU

years, until it went bankrupt, the guild continued to loan and donate money to support the Spanish colonial government’s armed struggle against the invading patriotic armies and to help suppress local upris-ings (Manrique 1995, 62).

Outside forces now came into play and began to shape the direction of the independence movement in Peru. The Spanish colonies to the south (modern-day Argentina and Chile) had been liberated and declared independent after successful military campaigns led by the Argentine general José de San Martín, a veteran of the Spanish army who had proved brilliant in organizing a disciplined army, composed mostly of black slaves, mulattoes, and mestizos. In 1816, San Martín had defeated a royalist Spanish army in Argentina, then crossed the Andes into Chile and defeated the Spanish forces there in a series of bat-tles the following year. San Martín’s goals, however, encompassed more than gaining independence for Argentina and Chile. He understood that as long as Spanish authorities retained control of Lima and the rest of Peru, the newly won freedoms of the regions to the south would be in peril. He recruited and trained a new 4,500-man army of Argentines, Chileans, and expatriate Peruvians and he assembled a naval squadron, commanded by the British admiral Lord Cochrane. In August 1820, San Martín embarked on an invasion of Peru.

The patriot army landed at Pisco and then marched north and sur-rounded Lima, the center of Spanish royalist power, while Lord Cochrane blockaded the harbor at Callao. San Martín had hoped the presence of his forces would stimulate an independence movement among the Creole elite of Lima, but there was no organized response from the limeños and only scattered support for the independence movement from individuals.

San Martín was in a strong military position, but the Spanish viceroy Joaquín de la Pezuela was still in command of a huge army and had control of Lima. Moreover, earlier in 1820 the government in Spain had promulgated a new, more liberal constitution that granted equal civil status to Spanish subjects living in the colonies. In the eyes of the roy-alists in Lima, this obviated the need for Peruvian separation and weak-ened the patriot argument for independence. The situation was at a stalemate, which prompted Pezuela to open negotiations with San Martín, but in January 1821 Spanish general José de La Serna deposed the viceroy and took control of the royalist government and army. La Serna and San Martín had served together in Europe as officers in the Spanish army fighting the French. They now entered into discussions about the future of Peru, and for a short while appeared to reach an

REVOLTS AND THE WARS FOR INDEPENDENCE

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PERU

agreement to establish a constitutional monarchy, basing their ideas on the political theories of 18th-century Enlightenment political philoso-pher, Charles Montesquieu, who had believed only geographically small and socially homogenous nations could function well as democracies.

From this point of view, Peru’s sprawling, diverse topography and the acute racial, social, and economic divisions among the population made it an unlikely candidate for any form of government except monarchy.

In document El cambio en las universidades a partir del uso de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (página 118-122)