Enlightenment, reform, and revolution in the Viceroyalty of Peru*

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the complex relationship between Enlightenment, control and subversion in the Viceroyalty of Peru during the last decades of the eighteenth century, focussing on two key moments: the Tupac Amaru rebellions sparked in 1780 in the south Andean region, and the impact of the French Revolution during the 1790s. In these political events we observe the reach and limits of the Enlightenment and its implementation through Bourbon reforms. Although at first subversive Enlightenment ideas were greatly rejected, at the same time, the Enlightenment facilitated the circulation of information, the development of the periodical press, debates of Enlightenment ideas in spaces of sociability, and the formation of public opinion. Slowly these ideas, which were not necessarily revolutionary, tore down the foundations of the ancien regime.