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On Top of the World


Jul 20, 2018

Matt and Dave discuss the story of the worst (best?) dinner party in World History! Starting in 1780 in colonial Peru, the rebellion that followed said dinner party was one of the bloodiest of the Age of Revolutions.  Led by the charismatic José Gabriel Condorcanqui Túpac Amaru II and the brilliant Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua, the Andean rebellions threatened the 200-year-long order of the  república de indios in South America. 

Your hosts discuss the unique geography of the Andes, the endurance of Inca and sub-Inca authority and culture, the Bourbon reforms that helped spark the rebellion, and the bloody civil war that nearly toppled Spanish control of Peru.


Matt and Dave argue for the inclusion and importance of Túpac Amaru and Túpac Katari revolts alongside the Atlantic Revolutions.  When included in our World History these rebellions challenge the straightforward Enlightenment-to-revolution model and force us to consider both the intensification of economic change in the late 18th-century and resistance to racial hierarchies from below.  

“There are no accomplices here but you and I. You the oppressor, and I the liberator. Both of us deserve to die.”

Recommendations: 

Matt - The Tupac Amaru Rebellion by Charles F. Walker

Dave - The World of Túpac Amaru: Conflict, Community, and Identity in Colonial Peru by Ward Stavig