Spanish colonial rule relied on indigenous curacas to extract taxes and labor, aligning them with the state. Yet José Gabriel Condorcanqui, a curaca, leveraged his position, networks, and legitimacy to lead the anti-colonial uprising as Túpac Amaru II. Intermediary elites can flip when the costs to their communities and their own status outpace the benefits of collaboration.
— States that govern through local intermediaries risk sudden regime-threatening reversals when incentives shift, a lesson for modern patronage systems and fragile states.
Aporia
2025.10.08
86% relevant
The article argues slave revolts were frequently led by relatively privileged intermediaries—drivers, artisans, preachers, and former African nobles (e.g., Tacky)—whose status and networks fostered the belief they could seize power, mirroring the Túpac Amaru II case where an intermediary elite flipped against the state.
a reader
2025.08.22
100% relevant
The review details Condorcanqui’s rise as a wealthy curaca and his break with the system to launch the 1780 rebellion.
Librarian of Celaeno
2025.07.05
40% relevant
The piece argues the British state used borderers (later Scots‑Irish in Ulster and then America) as buffer settlers who eventually turned their martial culture against imperial control, echoing the mechanism where groups cultivated by a regime later flip and lead revolt.