Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II in the context of "Quechua language"

Quechua (/ˈkɛtʃuə/, Spanish: [ˈketʃwa]), also called Runa simi (Quechua: [ˈɾʊna ˈsɪmɪ], 'people's language') in Southern Quechua, is an indigenous language family that originated in central Peru and thereafter spread to other countries of the Andes. Derived from a common ancestral "Proto-Quechua" language, it is the most widely spoken pre-Columbian language family of the Americas, with an estimated 8–10 million speakers in 2004, and just under 7 million from the most recent census data available up to 2011. Approximately 13.9% (3.7 million) of Peruvians speak a Quechua language.

Although Quechua began expanding many centuries before the Incas, that previous expansion also meant that it was the primary language family within the Inca Empire. The Spanish tolerated its use until the Peruvian struggle for independence in the 1780s. As a result, various Quechua languages are still widely spoken, being the majority language in a number of regions of Peru, the most-spoken or co-official language in many others, and, as the Kichwa language, the second most-spoken language of Ecuador, after Spanish.

A cacique, sometimes spelled as cazique (Latin American Spanish: [kaˈsike]; Portuguese: [kɐˈsikɨ, kaˈsiki]; feminine form: cacica), was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the Indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European contact with those places. The term is a Spanish transliteration of the Taíno word kasike.

Cacique was initially translated as "king" or "prince" for the Spanish. In the colonial era, the conquistadors and the administrators who followed them used the word generically to refer to any leader of practically any indigenous group they encountered in the Western Hemisphere. In Hispanic and Lusophone countries, the term has also come to mean a political boss, similar to a caudillo, exercising power in a system of caciquism.

The Peruvian War of Independence (Spanish: Guerra de Independencia del Perú) was a series of military conflicts in Peru from 1809 to 1826 that resulted in the country's independence from the Spanish Empire. Part of the broader Spanish American wars of independence, it led to the dissolution of the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru.

Throughout the colonial period of Peru, there were early attempts of independence movements. The Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II, although not the first or the last, was the most significant and culminated in violent repression by the viceregal authorities. This uprising erupted in response to the Bourbon Reforms and was the first time that viceregal documents used the term "insurgents." It was also a movement that proclaimed the abolition of slavery in Peru. However, there is debate as to whether the purpose of this rebellion was truly independence or a revolution of the viceregal social order.

Túpac Amaru II (born José Gabriel Condorcanqui Noguera or José Gabriel Túpac Amaru), c. 1742 – May 18, 1781) was an Indigenous cacique who led a large Andean rebellion against the Spanish in Peru as self-proclaimed Sapa Inca of the new Inca Empire. He was later elevated to a mythical status in the Peruvian struggle for independence and indigenous rights movement, as well as an inspiration to myriad causes in Spanish America and beyond.

Of noble birth, he was a direct descendant of Túpac Amaru, the last Inca of Vilcabamba. He was educated in Cusco and inherited the curacazgo (chieftainship ) of Surimana, Pampamarca, and Tungasuca after his father's death. He also amassed a fortune through muleteering, transporting goods and minerals in Upper Peru.  As a curaca recognized by the colonial administration, he interceded between his communities and the colonial authorities, submitting petitions to alleviate the burdens of the indigenous tribute and the mining mita. His requests and demands for exemption were ignored in Tinta, Cuzco, and Lima. Consequently, on 4 November, 1780, after executing the corregidor Antonio de Arriaga , accused of repeated abuses, he began a rebellion seeking to restore justice for the Andean peoples. The rebellion spread through various regions of the Viceroyalty of Peru, extending to Upper Peru and the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.