On November 4, 1780, Indigenous leader Túpac Amaru II (1738 – 1781) sparked a 3 year long revolt against Spanish rule in Peru. 

Túpac Amaru II, Leader of 1780 Rebellion  and Micaela Bastidas, wife of Túpac Amaru II 
From the Towards Independency Bicentenary series
Released in 2021 by Peru’s post office

Born Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui, Amaru became leader of the local indigenous peoples on his father’s death. Initially, he tried to work with Spanish governors to make life better for his people who were weighted down by heavy taxes, working conditions that included forced labour, and for some slavery. On November 4, 1780 Amaru, fed up with his concerns being ignored, arrested Antonio Arriaga, the local Spanish official in his town Tinta. This was the start of  long battle for Peruvian independence and indigenous rights. For 6 days, Amaru gathered people and arms until Antonio was dragged before a crowd of thousands of  Indians, mestizos, and criollos and publicly hanged. Amaru adopted the name Túpac Amaru II after an ancestor, the last ruler of the Incas.  

Both Amaru and his wife Micaela Bastidas led the rebellion against European rule. Bastidas led her own battalion into battle. Eventually the revolt spread across the border into Bolivia, and alliances were formed with the Quechua to fight  Spanish rule.  But this alliance doomed both Amaru and Bastidas. In March 1883 they  were betrayed to Spanish authorities and captured in Cuzco, Peru.  In an attempt to crush the revolt, Spanish leaders ordered the gruesome and barbaric execution of both Amaru and his wife in front of their children. 

Accounts of the exact events differ, but it is clear that Túpac’s execution was particularly barbaric – reflecting the fear the insurrection caused to colonial powers. He was forced to witness the execution of a number of his family including his wife and one of their sons. His tongue was cut out and his arms and legs tied to four horses which all pulled in opposite directions. When this failed to separate his limbs from his body, he was beheaded. The couple’s youngest son was forced to witness this before being sent to Spain and imprisoned. The heads and limbs of the dead were displayed in various places as a warning to others. Túpac Amaru II – Age of Revolution

Their deaths did not stop the revolt. It slowed it for a few years and then flared back up under the leadership of Túpac’s remaining relatives, including a son.  By 1811, after decades of unrest and violence, Peru gained its independence.