Volta
Conflict4 November 1780 – 1781

Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II

Also called: Túpac Amaru Rebellion, Great Rebellion of 1780

Túpac Amaru II, who claimed descent from the Inca rulers, led a great indigenous uprising in Peru against Spanish exploitation. It was crushed, but it was the largest revolt of the colonial era.

Watercolour of Túpac Amaru II (late 18th–early 19th century), the oldest known image of him, made public in 2015
Watercolour of Túpac Amaru II (late 18th–early 19th century), the oldest known image of him, made public in 2015

Unknown author · Public domain · Source

In the 18th century Spain’s Bourbon kings raised colonial taxes, while officials (corregidores) continued to force goods on native people at inflated prices and forced labour in the mines (the mita) went on. On 4 November 1780 the indigenous leader José Gabriel Condorcanqui, styling himself Túpac Amaru II, seized and executed a corregidor and rose in revolt. The rising spread through the southern Andes but failed to take Cusco; he was captured in 1781 and executed in the main square of Cusco on 18 May together with his wife Micaela Bastidas. Fighting went on until about 1782. In 1780 Pak Ji-won of Joseon travelled to the Qing and wrote his Yeolha Diary.

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States at the time
Viceroyalty of Peru
Spain · colonial power
Places
Cusco

People

  • Túpac Amaru II1738 – 1781

    leader · Indigenous leader in Peru who claimed descent from the Inca rulers and in 1780 led a great revolt against Spanish colonial rule

Before and after

Earlier
1545 Discovery of Silver at Potosí

Themes that include this event

  • Islamic Empires and the Atlantic World1500 – 1800

    Three centuries in which the Ottomans of Suleiman I, the Mughals of Akbar and the Safavids of Abbas I flourished and then faltered, while across the Atlantic the slave trade and colonies transformed the Americas, leading to American independence