Tension spread throughout the Andes in the eighteenth century. Colonial authorities increased taxes, demanded more free labor from rural people, and chipped away at indigenous communities’ autonomy. Dozens of revolts erupted. None, however, approached the scale, violence, or impact of the Túpac Amaru rebellion, which took place between 1780 and 1783.

On November 4, 1780, José Gabriel Condorcanqui Noguera, who increasingly used his Inca royal name Túpac Amaru, had lunch with Antonio Arriaga, a local Spanish authority. They met in Yanaoca, a largely indigenous (Quechua) town fifty miles south of Cusco, the ancient capital of the Incas. Túpac Amaru was the kuraka or cacique, the ethnic authority in charge of collecting the head tax and keeping order in three nearby towns. As corregidor, Arriaga collected tax revenues, organized the hated Potosí labor draft (mita), and oversaw the region. The two men knew each other well, and even if they discussed debts and other disagreeable topics, they probably shared a nice meal and conversation. They began the journey home together, but Túpac Amaru split off along the way.

Túpac Amaru and his allies rushed ahead to a hiding place in Arriaga’s route. They leaped into the corregidor’s path and, after much confusion and an escape attempt, took them in chains to Tungasuca. Túpac Amaru forced Arriaga to request money and weapons from his treasurer and expropriated muskets, bullets, gunpowder, gold, silver, mules, and other goods. Túpac Amaru invited regional property owners and military figures to Tungasuca and instructed kurakas to send their Indians.