Church and State in Colonial Peru: The Bishop of Cuzco and the Tupac Amaru Rebellion of 1780

Abstract

With the end of the Tupac Amaru rebellion in Peru in 1783, representatives of the Spanish crown began to investigate closely the activities of many prominent Creoles, or American-born whites, whom they suspected of complicity in several of the numerous uprisings that had wracked the viceroyalty.1 The growing convic tion of Spain's Bourbon rulers that Americans were a disloyal lot was heightened in Peru with the arrival in 1777 of Visitor-General Jose Antonio de Areche. Areche was aghast at the inefficiency and corruption of the creole-dominated bureaucracy of Lima, the City of the Kings, that served as the viceregal capital and primary commercial entrepot. Initially he directed his attentions toward ousting the creole judges of the prestigious Audiencia de Lima, the superior tribunal which also exercised enormous executive and legislative authority over the viceroyalty. With the outbreak of several tax revolts, notably in Cuzco and Arequipa early in 1780, Areche's efforts to extirpate creole influence in Peru were momen tarily deflected. The outbreak of a rebellion near Cuzco led by the cacique, or Indian chieftain, Jose Gabriel Tupac Amaru II on 4 November 1780, required that Areche assume the role of military commander. During the three years they spent in suppressing several related rebellions in Cuzco and Upper Peru (present-day Bolivia), Areche