156 CHAPTER 7 THE BOURBON REFORMS AND SPANISH AMERICA
Nils Jacobsen, “the Choquehanca family remained
fi rmly loyal during the Tupac Amaru crisis.”
Although the principal base of the revolt was
the ayllus (free peasant communities), it also at-
tracted a number of mestizos and a few creoles,
mostly of middle-class status (artisans, shopkeep-
ers, clerks, urban wage earners), some of whom
formed part of the rebel command. Starting in the
corregimiento of Tinta, near the southeastern rim
of the strategic Cuzco valley system, the rebellion
exploded into the Lake Titicaca basin, the scene of
the longest and most intensive fi ghting. Encour-
aged by his initial victories, Tupac Amaru moved
south with a rebel army in the thousands and in
a short time took control of the whole altiplano
south of Puno. But he failed to take advantage of
those initial successes. Tactical errors that con-
tributed to his defeat included the failure to attack
Cuzco early, as was strongly urged by his wife
Micaela, a heroine of the revolt and his principal
adviser, who had wanted to capitalize on the po-
litical and psychological signifi cance of the ancient
Inca capital before the arrival of Spanish reinforce-
ments. In addition, communications among the
rebel forces were poor, and the royalist armies
possessed vastly superior arms and organization.
The Spaniards also mobilized large numbers of ya-
naconas, who helped break the siege of Cuzco and
suppress the revolt. Despite some initial successes,
the rebel leader soon suffered a complete rout. Tu-
pac Amaru, members of his family, and his lead-
ing captains were captured and put to death, some
with ferocious cruelty. In the territory of present-
day Bolivia, the insurrection continued two years
longer, reaching its high point in two prolonged
sieges of La Paz (between March and October of
1781).
The last Inca revolt moved the crown to enact
a series of reforms that included the replacement
of the hated corregidores by the system of inten-
dants and subdelegados and the establishment of
an audiencia or high court in Cuzco, another of
Tupac Amaru’s goals before the revolt. But these
and other reforms proved to be changes more in
form than in substance. The miserably paid sub-
delegados, many of whom were former corregi-
dores, continued the exploitative practices of their
predecessors, including the repartimiento de mer-
cancías, which was forbidden by the Ordinance of
Intendants but less regularly and on a smaller scale.
Meanwhile the death or fl ight of some Hispanic
landowners, clergy, and loyal kurakas as a result of
the revolt had led to the occupation of their estates
by peasant squatters. “In the last decades before in-
dependence,” writes Nils Jacobsen, “a sense of un-
certainty permeated social and property relations
in the altiplano. To say that the peasants lost the
Tupac Amaru Rebellion is only half true.”THE INSURRECTION IN NEW GRANADA (1781)
The revolt of the Comuneros in New Granada,
like that in Peru, had its origin in intolerable eco-
nomic conditions. Unlike the Peruvian upheaval,
however, it was more clearly limited in its aims to
the redress of grievances. Increases in the alcabala
and a whole series of new taxes, including one on
tobacco and a poll tax, provoked an uprising in
Socorro, an important agricultural and manufac-
turing center in the north. The disturbances soon
spread to other communities. The reformist spirit
of the revolt was refl ected in the insurgent slogan
Viva el rey y muera el mal gobierno! (Long live the
king, down with the evil government!).
In view of its organization and its effort to form
a common front of all colonial groups with griev-
ances against Spanish authority (excepting the
black slaves), the revolt of the Comuneros marked
an advance over the rather chaotic course of events
to the south. A común (central committee), elected
in the town of Socorro by thousands of peasants
and artisans from adjacent towns, directed the in-
surrection. Each of the towns in revolt also had its
común and a captain chosen by popular election.
Under the command of hesitant or unwilling
creole leaders, a multitude of indigenous and mes-
tizo peasants and artisans marched on the capital
of Bogotá, capturing or putting to fl ight the small
forces sent from the capital. Playing for time un-
til reinforcements could arrive from the coast, the
royal audiencia dispatched a commission headed
by the archbishop to negotiate with the Comune-
ros. The popular character of the movement and
the unity of oppressed groups that it represented