Linking the American Revolution and Túpac Amaru - photo 1
Linking the American Revolution and Túpac Amaru - photo 2
Linking the American Revolution and Túpac Amaru - photo 3
Linking the American Revolution and Túpac Amaru - photo 4

Linking the American Revolution and Túpac Amaru

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$ 22 500
Auction dateClassic
16.10.2020 10:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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ID 411448
Lot 41 | Linking the American Revolution and Túpac Amaru
[TÚPAC AMARU II (1738-1781) and KATARI, Tomás (d.1781).] Manuscript letter signed ("Jerónimo de Ruedas", "Juan de Dios Calvo y Antequera", "Pedro Antonio Cernadas y Bermúdez", "Alonso Gonzáles Pérez", "Manuel García de la Plata", Lorenzo Blanco y Cicerón", and "Juan del Pino Manrique"), to King Charles III of Spain, [La] Plata, 15 June 1781.

96 pages (305 x 210mm) in 25 bifolia (several pages bear wormholes, affecting several words in text, scattered foxing at ends, some marginal wear, especially at corners).

The only known contemporary manuscript referencing a connection between the South American Indigenous uprisings of the 1770s and the American Revolution. An unpublished, confidential report commissioned and signed by the seven Oidores of the Royal Audiencia of Rio de La Plata y Charcas to Charles III offering remarkably frank analysis of the uprisings in South America led by Túpac Amaru and Tomás Katari. While squarely blaming the troubles on gross colonial mismanagement and onerous taxation, the report also cites the ongoing revolution against the British Empire in North America as a significant influence on the Indigenous uprising. The judges offer an unfiltered assessment of the volatile political situation to the King, observing that "such an unfortunate catastrophe" has yet to be "registered in history,” but placing the blame squarely on Spanish colonial policy, and concluding that excessive taxation had "caused ineffable harm" and that "these excesses have led the Indians to an active readiness to shock Spanish religion and dominance.” The report recounts the events leading up to the rebellions, including the abusive administration of the Corregidor of Chayanta, which led Tomás Katari, a Quechua chief, to travel to Buenos Aries in 1778 to air his people's grievances to the Spanish authorities, as well as Katari's arrest and execution and the violent rebellion that followed. The Oidores also discuss, at great length, the revolt under Túpac Amaru II and the bloody Spanish reprisals to suppress it.

Most tantalizing perhaps is a passage that suggests that the ongoing American War of Independence against British rule proved an inspiration: “Thus we saw that in the city of La Paz people would distribute dailies depriving from peace, with threats against the Corregidor, royal officers and customs intendents, they continued giving out several papers encouraging the entire common people and patricians to shake themselves from the mild dominance of your majesty, promoting amongst them to embrace the example of English colonists and Americans." It was a report that confirmed the worst fears among members of the court at Madrid: that the anti-colonial struggles in North America would set an unfortunate example for their fellow sufferers in Spanish America. Some officials even suspected that the British were supporting the South American rebellions—a supposition that was discredited in the present report. An important document from the birth of the South American independence movement. Provenance: the family of a European gentleman, mid-nineteenth century – by descent to the present owner.
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