Shadows of Empire: The Indian Nobility of Cusco, 1750–1825(Series Number 90 Cambridge Latin American Studies)

The Indian nobility of the Andes - largely descended from the Inca monarchs and other pre-conquest lords - occupied a crucial economic and political position in late colonial Andean society, a position widely accepted as legitimate until the Túpac Amaru rebellion. Shadows of Empire traces the history of this late colonial elite and examines the pre-conquest and colonial foundations of their privilege and authority. It brings to light the organization and the ideology of the Indian nobility in the bishopric of Cusco in the decades before the rebellion, and uses this nobility as a lens through which to study the internal organization and tension of late colonial Indian communities. The work analyzes the significance of the collapse of the Indian nobility, both repudiated by the Indian commons and the crown in the last years of Spanish rule, following the rebellion to the emergence of the creole-dominated republican order after 1825.

Table of Contents:
Part I. Indian Elites and the Colonial Order: 1. Spanish conquest and the Habsburg reforms; 2. The long seventeenth century; Part II. The Indian Nobility of Bourbon Cusco: 3. Cacical families and provincial nobilities; 4. Communal economies and Indian fortunes; 5. The politics of the Cacicazgo; Part III. Crisis and Collapse: 6. From reform to rebellion; 7. The breakdown of colonial order.

About the Author :
David T. Garrett is Associate Professor of History at Reed College. He is the author of articles in the journals Revista Andin and Hispanic American Historical Review. He has traveled extensively in the Andes, particularly in Peru and Bolivia.

Review :
"This is a fine-grained study, meticulously researched and scrupulously written, and it represents a considerable achievement. It should remain the standard reference on the late colonial vicissitudes of the Inca nobles and other indigenous elites in southern Peru. Its emphasis on social divergence within interlocking indigenous, and even non-indigenous, elites and local governance has significant implications for the study of politics, society, and power well beyond the colonial era. -David Cahill, University of New South Wales, American Historical Review