These patterns were partly an expression of demographics, geography, and the Spanish Crown’s geo-political strategy of rule: those areas of densest Indian settlement yielded more labor,
Trang 1several large-scale rebellions erupted during the colonial
period These patterns were partly an expression of
demographics, geography, and the Spanish Crown’s
geo-political strategy of rule: those areas of densest Indian
settlement yielded more labor, more wealth, and thus,
were more worth controlling and defending Areas with
fewer people had less labor, less wealth, were costlier to
control, and were thus less worth defending
Because their power was far from absolute, the
Spanish in effect gave up large parts of the Americas
as unconquerable, launching occasional forays into
those areas, but for the most part leaving their generally
seminomadic inhabitants alone It was on the boundary
between these zones of Spaniards’ unequivocal
domi-nation and generalized absence that the largest and
most violent Indian rebellions erupted Each of these
collective outbursts can be traced to a unique confl
u-ence of long-term causes and short-term triggers; each
followed a distinctive trajectory and each produced a
different outcome All can also be seen to have had
cer-tain features in common
On the northern periphery, in 1680 a major
rebel-lion broke out among the sedentary Pueblo Indians of
the Upper Río Grande Valley, the result of decades of
extreme exploitation, oppression, and violence at the
hands of Spanish encomenderos, combined with
epidemic diseases, drought, widespread hunger, and an intensifi
-cation of religious persecution by Franciscan missionary
friars After 1692 when the Spanish managed to retake
the area, the Pueblo Revolt (or Popé’s Rebellion) led to a
major restructuring of Spanish colonial rule throughout
the region, resulting in decreased exactions in tribute and
labor, greater religious autonomy, and an overall easing
of the most oppressive features of colonial rule In 1740
in the highland valleys of the Sonora desert, the Yaqui
and Mayo Indians rose in rebellion against the Jesuit
missionaries and the small number of Spanish miners
and hacienda owners The revolt, which lasted some six
months and extended across large parts of the north, was
rooted in intensifi ed labor demands by secular Spaniards,
grievances against specifi c Jesuit friars, and an erosion of
the autonomy of individual communities, and was
trig-gered by fl oods and famine In the wake of the uprising,
the mission and mining system on the northern frontier
was considerably weakened, while the Yaqui exercised
greater political, economic, and cultural autonomy for
the rest of the colonial period and after
On the southern periphery, the Tzeltal (Maya) Revolt
in Chiapas in 1712 was similarly rooted in decades of
excessive labor demands compounded by extreme
politi-cal and religious persecution This revolt was triggered
by the vision of a 13-year-old Tzeltal girl named María López, of the Virgin yearning for her own kingdom Dissident Maya leaders and thousands of their Tzel-tal, Tzotzil, and Chol-speaking followers embraced her vision; the revolt spread throughout large parts of Chi-apas before being suppressed by the Spanish military Subsequent decades saw a lessening of exactions and greater religious autonomy among Tzeltals and other Mayan-speaking peoples throughout the region The Maya Insurrection of 1761 in Yucatán, led by Jacinto Canek, had similar long-term causes and was triggered
by Canek’s argument with a priest that escalated into a major, regionwide rebellion Its aftermath saw a diminu-tion of Spanish labor and tribute demands and a relax-ation of friars’ religious intolerance, along with a legacy
of struggle that inspired later generations of rebels (most notably, the Caste War of Yucatán from 1848) All of the foregoing were major regional events that offered direct and sustained challenges to Spanish authority and power, and whose repercussions endured for decades
In central and southern Mexico, episodes of vio-lent collective action by Indian communities followed
a different pattern Large-scale regional rebellions were impossible here; the Spanish were simply too strong Instead, Indian communities devised and pursued a host
of strategies intended to more effectively endure the weight of colonial rule From the mid-1500s on, Indi-ans became adept at using the judicial system against specifi c infringements of their collective rights in land and labor, initiating litigation and pursuing legal cases through the courts that could and often did last for decades Many Indian communities became renowned for their savvy and skill in using the courts
Another way Indians in central and southern
Mexi-co defended the rights of their Mexi-communities was through violent collective action Such violent outbursts did not assume the character of sustained frontal challenges to the overall structure of Spanish domination and Indian subordination Instead they were localized, spontane-ous, without identifi able leaders, of relatively brief dura-tion, and focused on specifi c sets of grievances against individual agents of state and ecclesiastical authority Targets most often included specifi c authorities such
as priests, municipal offi cials, hacienda overseers, land surveyors, census takers, tax collectors, and government buildings like jails and administrative offi ces Women often played key roles in these unplanned outbursts Weapons were makeshift, consisting of diggings sticks, hoes, clubs, slings, rocks, and powdered chili peppers used to temporarily blind and disable the targets of the community’s wrath Few such revolts lasted more than
276 Mexico, New Spain revolts in