by Dubian Ade
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| Tupac Amaru II |
The very last ruler of the Incan Empire was publicly
assassinated before the people of Cuzco by the Spanish Viceroy Don Francisco de
Toledo in 1572. His name was Tupac Amaru, the rightful heir of the Incan throne
who was shafted in a series of political maneuvers by the Viceroy and his own
Incan officials. The crowd of thousands mourned over his death as the Spanish
crown moved in to begin the genocide in Peru. October of that year Toledo ordered
the Libro de Tasas, a document which began the process of systematically
annihilating all vestiges of Inca rule.
It is said that Tupac Amaru was survived by two daughters,
Juana and Magdalena, who found refuge with the Archbishop of Lima. Juana would
later marry the curaca of Surimani and Tungasuca named Condorcanqui. Her
decedent was Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui, who would later be known as Tupac Amaru
II.
The colonizing process in Peru moved forward with harshest domination.
The Spanish Crown regarded the Indigenous peoples as its immediate
subordinates. The Christianization of indigenous populations was made into
policy. The repartimiento system, which allotted plots of land and native labor
to Spanish colonizers, was introduced. The conditions on the repartimientos and
in the mines in which Indigenous workers toiled were absolutely deplorable. For
the native members of the mitta who were forced to work in the obrajes the
situation was particularly atrocious.
The country was divided into small jurisdictions called
corregimientos. Each corregimiento was overseen by a corregidor. Many of the
corregidors were Spanish viceroyalty and the unregulated abuse from the
corregidors ran rampent. The corregidors collected increasingly large amounts
of taxes from the Indigenous people living in these areas for the purpose of
keeping them in a perpetual state of debt to the Spanish colonizers. Native
rights to trade were restricted. The Christian church generally became an
extortion ring as tribute was demanded as well as fees for baptisms, weddings,
and burials. The native ruling class of the curacas generally aligned
themselves with the Spanish colonizers and served to reinforce the exploitation
of the impoverished native sectors. The gradual worsening of conditions for
Indigenous Peruvians continued for more than a century.
In the late 1700’s the Corregidor of Tinta, Antonio Arriaga,
had a notorious reputation for ruthlessness and colonial tyranny especially among
native people. Arriaga’s callousness was further amplified by the imposed
Bourbon Reforms which raised taxes significantly in the corregimientos. In 1777
a curaca of Tinta traveled to Lima to express his grievances and to represent
the natives of the region before the Spanish administration. After talks with
the corregidors proved fruitless, Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui traveled back to
his home in Tungasuca, Tinta. He changed his name to Tupac Amaru II.
On November 4, 1780 Tupac Amaru II and a few others ambushed
Antonio Arriaga on his way home from a dinner party. Arriaga was taken prisoner
in Tungasuca and large ransom was demanded from the Spaniards. On November 10th
before a crowd of dispossessed Indigenous people, the hated Arriaga was
executed.
Arriga's execution set all the conditions needed for a
massive Indigenous up-rising. Within a matter of days Tupac Amaru II had
assembled a crew of several hundred people. Amaru used the money secured from
Arriga’s ransom to win over the loyalty many more native people. On November 17th 1780, the rebel
force successfully attacked Sangarara as Spanish troops fled to a nearby
church. The church caught on fire after being pelted by the rebel forces. Over
500 Spaniards were killed. The victory at Sangarara greatly encouraged many
natives to join the insurgency.
It is said that Tupac Amaru’s forces numbered close to
60,000 at this point. The rebel forces moved southward and split into three
factions, some of which went to the region of Ayaviri and Azangaro. Many
cruelties and atrocities were committed by the forces in Ayaviri and Azangaro
against Spanish sympathizers.
Tupac Amaru returned to Tungasuca on December 14th
and with the partnership of his wife Micaela Bastidas staged two failed
attempts to take the city of Cuzco that January. Though the insurgency was widely supported by
the native curacas and the rebel army was significantly larger than the Spanish
forces, the insurgents were unable to overcome the Spanish defenses. Receiving
word of the revolts, the Spanish colonial administrator Jose Antonio de Areche
had heavily armed the colonial militias and ordered troops to be imported from
Lima and surrounding areas. Spanish defenses were able to successfully repel
the rebel forces.
The defeats at Cuzco were a serious blow for Tupac Amaru’s
army, which took refuge in Tinta to recuperate. By this time more than 17,000
of the Spanish forces from Lima had arrived under General Jose del Valle y
Torres. Fighting began on March 12, 1781 and a series of battles in the
Vilcamayu Alley led to the complete defeat of the rebel army at Checcacupe on
April 6, 1781. Tupac Amaru, Micaela Bastidas, their two children, and numerous
others were captured. Sixty-seven insurgents were hung in Tinta.
The captives were taken to Cuzco were they were tortured. On
May 18th, by order of Jose Antonio de Areche, Tupac Amaru was forced
to watch the execution of his wife and children. His tongue was ripped out of
his mouth and his limbs were tied to four horses running in different directions.
When that failed to dismember him he was beheaded, his body was burned, and his
remains were distributed among the native villages. Afterwards, Areche banned
the use of the Quechua language in the Peruvian territories and commanded that
all documents, folktales, and literature in Quechua be destroyed. In addition
all of Tupac Amaru’s property was thoroughly destroyed and all members of the
Incan royal family line were hunted down by the Spanish administration and
viciously murdered.
THE DECOLONIZER
December 2015
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