Genocide and Millennialism in Upper Peru

The Great Rebellion of 1780-1782

Nicholas Robins

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 2002
• Print ISBN: 9780275975692
• eBook ISBN: 9780313012334
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Genocide & War Crimes
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Exploring one of the least studied genocides in post-conquest South America, Robins calls into question many of the central assumptions currently held by genocide scholars. Victims of genocide usually lack the organization and weaponry to battle their enemies. During the 1780-1782 Great Rebellion in Peru and Upper Peru (now Bolivia), however, the Indian revolutionaries faced the better-organized and armed loyalist army. Whereas genocidal policies are usually characterized by centralized leadership, the Great Rebellion was highly fragmented and confederational in nature, undercutting the widely-held assumption that only the State is capable of committing genocide. The Rebellion is one of the rare cases when the victims of genocide emerged victorious. Focusing on the events occurring in the region south of La Paz, Robins examines how a native millennial movement evolved into an Indian-led attempt at genocide, dealing an unprecedented challenge to Spanish rule in the Americas. In the eyes of the rebels, this revolt fulfilled prophecies of an inevitable, divinely assisted, and long-awaited return of native rule. Just like at the dawn of the colonial period, this new era was to be born of pachacuti, or cataclysm. But this time the Spanish interlopers and their culture would be targeted for destruction.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 The Historiography of the Great Rebellion
• Chapter 3 Colonial Control and Indian Consciousness in 18th-Century Peru and Upper Peru
• Chapter 4 The 1780–1782 Rebellion in Peru and Upper Peru
• Chapter 5 The Futility of Litigious Resistance: The Cataris and the Rebellion in Chayanta and Yamparaez Provinces
• Chapter 6 Conflict and Ethnic Contradictions in the Provinces of Paria, Oruro, and Carangas
• Chapter 7 The Insurgency Erupts in the Provinces of Cochabamba, Misque, Chichas, Lipes, and Porco
• Chapter 8 Prophecy in Action: Messianism and Genocide in Upper Peru
• Chapter 9 The Semiotics of Rebellion
• Chapter 10 Andean Antinomies: Ambivalences and Contradictions in the Rebellion
• Chapter 11 Conclusion
• Appendix A: Map of Towns Involved in the Great Rebellion of Upper Peru (Modern Bolivian Departments)
• Appendix B: Chronology of the Great Rebellion
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index