Túpac Amaru II (born José Gabriel Condorcanqui Noguera or José Gabriel Túpac Amaru, c. 1742 – May 18, 1781) was an Indigenous cacique who led a large Andean rebellion against the Spanish in Peru as self-proclaimed Sapa Inca of the new Inca Empire. He was later elevated to a mythical status in the Peruvian struggle for independence and indigenous rights movement, as well as an inspiration to myriad causes in Spanish America and beyond.
Of noble birth, he was a direct descendant of Túpac Amaru, the last Inca of Vilcabamba. He was educated in Cusco and inherited the curacazgo (chieftainship) of Surimana, Pampamarca, and Tungasuca after his father's death. He also amassed a fortune through muleteering, transporting goods and minerals in Upper Peru. As a curaca recognized by the colonial administration, he interceded between his communities and the colonial authorities, submitting petitions to alleviate the burdens of the indigenous tribute and the mining mita. His requests and demands for exemption were ignored in Tinta, Cuzco, and Lima. Consequently, on 4 November, 1780, after executing the corregidor Antonio de Arriaga, accused of repeated abuses, he began a rebellion seeking to restore justice for the Andean peoples. The rebellion spread through various regions of the Viceroyalty of Peru, extending to Upper Peru and the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.
The movement of Túpac Amaru II was not initially an independence uprising but a rebellion against the abuses of the administrative and economic system imposed by colonial institutions, especially after the Bourbon Reforms. Its main objective was the abolition of oppressive practices such as the mining mita, the forced distribution of goods, the obrajes (textile workshops) and others, which primarily benefited Spaniards and Creoles at the expense of the indigenous population. On 16 November, 1780, Túpac Amaru II decreed the abolition of slavery for Black people for the first time in Spanish America. He was executed after the end of the rebellion in 1781.
Although Túpac Amaru II was not a precursor to independence in the modern sense, his 1780 rebellion has been the subject of multiple political reinterpretations. Over time, various governments and ideological movements, mainly within the nationalist or left-wing political spectrum, especially during the regime of Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968-1975), have turned him into a symbol of social justice. In contemporary Peru, Túpac Amaru II is invoked as a symbol of resistance.
Túpac Amaru II was born José Gabriel Condorcanqui Noguera in around 1742 in Surimana, Tungasuca, in the province of Cusco, to Miguel Condorcanqui Usquionsa Túpac Amaru, kuraka of three towns in the Tinta district, and María Rosa Noguera. On May 1, 1742, Túpac Amaru II was baptized by Santiago José Lopez in a church in Tungasuca. Prior to his father's death, Amaru II spent his childhood in the Vilcamayu Valley; he accompanied his father to community functions, such as the temple, the market, and processions. Túpac's parents died when he was twelve years old and he was raised by his aunt and uncle. When he was 16, he received a Jesuit education at the San Francisco de Borja School, founded to educate the sons of kurakas. The Jesuits "impressed upon him his social standing as future kuraka and someone of royal Inca blood." When he was 22, Amaru II married Micaela Bastidas. Shortly after his marriage, Amaru II succeeded his father as kuraka, giving him rights to land. Like his father, he was both the head of several Quechua communities and a regional merchant and muleteer, inheriting 350 mules from his father's estate. His regional trading gave him contacts in many other indigenous communities and access to information about economic conditions. His personal contacts and knowledge of the region were useful in the rebellion of 1780–1781.
He was recognised as an elite Quechua from a kuraka family and was educated at a school in Cuzco for sons of indigenous leaders. He spoke Quechua and Spanish and learned Latin from the Jesuits. He was upwardly socially mobile, and in Cuzco he had connections with distinguished Spanish and Spanish American (creole) residents. "The upper classes in Lima saw him as a well-educated Indian".
Between 1776 and 1780 Condorcanqui went into litigation with the Betancur family over the right of succession of the Marquisate of Oropesa and lost the case. In 1760, he married Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua of Afro-Peruvian and indigenous descent. Amaru II inherited the caciqueship, or hereditary chiefdom of Tungasuca and Pampamarca, two towns in modern-day Peru from his older brother, governing on behalf of the Spanish governor.
At the end of the 1770s, the trade relations between Buenos Aires and Upper Peru ended with the commercial monopoly of Lima, which caused greater competition for the manufacturers of Cuzco. They needed to sell their merchandise in Potosí, but had to compete with producers of Buenos Aires and Spain. On the other hand, the widespread overproduction throughout the Andes pushed prices down. Furthermore, in the years 1778 and 1779, extremely cold weather damaged crops and made travel difficult. In 1780, Amaru, who also experienced this crisis, had considerable resources but also numerous debts. He also witnessed the economic discomforts the others were going through, from merchants who were on the brink of bankruptcy to communities that could not afford the growing tribute.
Condorcanqui lived the typical situation of the kurakas (tribal chiefs): he had to mediate between the local commander and the indigenous people in his charge. However, he was affected, like the rest of the population, due to the establishment of customs and the rise of the alcabalas (taxes). He voiced his objection against these issues. He also demanded that the indigenous people be freed from compulsory work in the mines. claims directed through the regular channels to the colonial authorities in Tinta, Cusco and later in Lima, obtaining negatives or indifference.
In addition, he adopted the name Túpac Amaru II, in honor of his ancestor Túpac Amaru I, the last Sapa Inca of the Neo-Inca State, seeking to be recognized for his royal Inca lineage.
The Corregidores and the exploitation of the natives
Although the Spanish trusteeship labor system, or encomienda, had been abolished in 1720, a seventh of the population living in native communities (pueblos de indios) as well as permanent indigenous workers at the time living in the Andean region of what is now Ecuador and Bolivia, who made up nine tenths of the population, were still pushed into forced labor for what were legally labeled as public work projects. This shift from the encomienda to the state sponsored and controlled draft labor system consolidated the indigenous labor force in the hands of the local government and not in the individual encomenderos. Most natives worked under the supervision of a master either tilling soil, mining or working in textile mills. What little wage that was acquired by workers was heavily taxed and cemented Native American indebtedness to Spanish masters. The Roman Catholic Church also had a hand in extorting these natives through collections for saints, masses for the dead, domestic and parochial work on certain days, forced gifts, etc. Those not employed in forced labor were still subject to the Spanish provincial governors, or corregidores who also heavily taxed and overpriced commodities to any free natives, similarly ensuring their financial instability.
In addition, the middle of the 18th century mining production intensified, putting more and more of a burden on the mita, or draft labor, system. While Potosi's mining mita had already been dangerous and labor-intensive work as well as forcing a migration by both the native worker and sometimes their families to Potosi to work, the labor became more extractive during this time, even though no new veins of ore had been discovered. Indeed, many future rebellious areas centered around Potosi and the mining district.