Letters Of Insurrection Analysis

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The Andes had a legacy of resistance that was unseen in other Spanish occupied place during the colonial period. There were rebellions of various kinds as a continued resistance to conquest. In the “Letters of Insurrection”, an anthology of letters written amongst the indigenous Andean people, between January and March 1781 in what is now known as Bolivia, a statement is made about the power of community-based rebellion. The Letters of Insurrection displays effects of colonization and how the “lesser-known” revolutionaries that lived in reducción towns played a role in weakening colonial powers and creating a place of identification for indigenous people. The Age of Resistance is named for the period in which the native Andean people methodically …show more content…

One of the letters, which was a circular letter to the rebel communities, went across two provinces and different communities and was signed by a local representative of each (Letters of Insurrection). This letter displayed how important literacy was for resistance. The letters served as a way for the people to communicate among the reducción towns in order to produce cohesive forms of rebellions and protect themselves from the growing fears of the Spaniards as the potential for rebellion became more widespread. These letters reveal how the rebellions were able to weaken the Spanish empire and they display how they aided the destabilization of the Spanish government and the faith the people had in it. They also offer the indigenous view of the functions of colonial Andean society. The native Andean society created a structure in these reducción towns that had an immense role in constructing the opposition to colonial rule. The Andean communities were able to maintain their own traditions and community organization while they adopted the structures thrust upon them by the colonial

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