17th Century
Art Gallery
Politcal Resistance throughout history
How does this work relate to resistance?
Guáman Poma refused to accept the injustices he and his fellow Peruvians were subjected to under Spanish rule. In functioning as an account of the corruption apparent in colonial Peru and an attempt to change the set governmental infrastructure, the Primer Nueva Corónica acts as evidence of the Andean peoples’ unwillingness to simply accept the unjust terms the Spanish attempted to impose on them.
Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno (Guaman Poma)
Felipe Guáman Poma de Ayala, Colonial Peru
Manuscript on paper
​​c. 1612-1615
Guáman Poma was a native Peruvian of noble Inca descent working as an administrator under the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. After being accused of falsifying his noble status, he was stripped of certain land claims, given 200 lashes, and exiled from his hometown of Huamanga for two years. This incident lead to Guáman Poma’s decision to create the Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno in an effort to help the situation of other indigenous Peruvians under Spanish rule. (Britannica)
Guáman Poma showed intense dedication to this extensive chronicle of Andean civilization, as the piece took three decades to complete, contained 1,189 pages with 398 drawings, and was written in four languages — Spanish, Latin, Quechua, and another Andean language, Aymara (Britannica and Olson).
The book consists of two sections. The first section, the Nueva Corónica, taking up about two-thirds of the piece, chronicles Andean civilization before the Spanish conquest, even including societies before the Incas. It also addresses how the culture and overall societal structure was negatively impacted by the arrival of the Spanish. The second section, Buen Gobierno, records the injustices of the colonial authorities while suggesting a new means of governing. This piece was specifically meant for the eyes of King Philip III of Spain, in hopes of receiving his attention to change the corruption occurring in the Viceroyalty. (Olson)
In order to deliver the Primer Nueva Corónica to authorities who could pass it on to King Philip, Guáman Poma travelled hundreds of miles from Huamanga to Lima. However, it is uncertain that the King ever actually received the piece. (Olson)
The detail to which Guáman Poma described and illustrated Andean society makes the Primer Nueva Corónica an integral piece in current studies of Andean life during the colonial period. Thus this work has been analyzed by countless scholars over the years. (Olson)
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Queen Nzinga: 1583 - 1663, Ndongo and Matamba
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Queen Anna Nzinga of Ndongo was the ruler of the ambundu people from 1631 - 1663 in present-day Angola. She is recognized for her political and diplomatic prowess as well as her brilliant military tactics. She was baptized and converted to catholicism taking the name “Dona Anna de Sousa” but this was primarily a political move.
During this period, the Portuguese had expanded their position and influence in the Atlantic slave trade and demanded West AFrican kingdoms pay tribute to them in the form of slaves. Like her father and brother, Nzinga refused the continued raiding of her kingdom but was forced into diplomatic relations with the Portuguese.
After those talks failed, Nzinga’s Mbundu rivals moved in to seize power and she fled to Matamba. At Matamba she was able to consolidate her power and build a fighting force while offering asylum to escaped slaves and refugees.
When the Dutch occupied and the Portuguese held Luanda, Nzinga took the opportunity to form an alliance with them and the Kingdom of Kongo in 1641. In 1644 Nzinga led a force to defeat the Portugurese at Ngoleme.
She then lost a battle with the Portuguese at Kavanga in 1646, but with the help of
Dutch reinforcements was able to strike a devastating blow to the Portuguese forces in the 1647 Battle of Kombi.
The Portuguese were forced to reroute their troops as Nzinga moved in and laid siege to several of their outposts.
Despite numerous efforts to dethrone her, especially by Kasanje, whose Imbangala band settled to her south, Nzinga would die a peaceful death at the age of eight on December 17, 1663, in Matamba.
Powhatan Uprising: Virginia, 1622
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The first successful English colony in North America was established in Jamestown in 1609. English colonizers and the native Powhatan people had great trade relations until the colonists started raiding and burning down Powhatan villages.
The colonists also kidnapped Pocahontas, daughter of the Powhatan chief. After realizing the English colonizers plan to expand their territory in Virginia, including carving the land up into tobacco plantations and ruining Native hunting grounds, the Powhatans saw their centuries-old way of life being destroyed. The Powhatan waged a series of guerrilla attacks on the English settlements on March 12, 1622, under the leadership of Opechancanough.
At least 350 settlers were killed by the attacks and the uprising came very close to wiping the English colony off the face of the North American continent.
The colonists’ retaliatory raids in the summer and fall of 1622 were so successful that Opechancanough, who had been unprepared for such massive offensives, decided to negotiate with his enemies out of desperation, using the captured women as his trump card.
A truce was made allowing the Powhatans to plant corn in the coming year. In exchange for this temporary truce, Opechancanough promised to return the English women.
In May 1623, the colonists arranged a spurious peace parley with Opechancanough through friendly Native intermediaries. On May 22, Captain Wlliam Tucker and a force of musketeers met with Opechancanough and other prominent Powhatans on neutral ground along the Potomac River, allegedly to negotiate the release of the other captives. Instead of a peaceful parley, the Native American leaders were poisoned and shot. Opechancanough escaped, meaning the captured women wouldn’t be returned (some were later ransomed back), and all the corn that the Powhatans had planted was harvested by the English.
Opechancanoughwas captured and killed in the Third Anglo-Powhatan War in 1644.
Zumbi’s Rebellion: Brazil, 1675 - 1695
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African slaves began arriving to the Portuguese colony of Brazil in 1530. Many of them escaped further inland where they formed autonomous maroon communities called quilombos.
Zumbi was the last of the kings of the Quilombo dos Palmares, a settlement of afro-Brazilian people who had liberated themselves from slavery and served as symbol of anti-slave and anti-colonial resistance.
Over time these quilombos consolidated themselves and formed the fugitive kingdom of Quilombo dos Palmares in 1605 deep within the Brazilian interior.
Palmares comprised a number of villages, small towns and cities, which was established as the capital at Macaco.
Members of quilomobos often returned to plantations or towns to encourage their former fellow Africans to flee and join the quilombos. The people offered asylum to escaped slaves, often actively engineering their escape from the colony and recruiting them into the kingdom.
At its height, it is said that nearly 20,000 people lived in Palmares, including Indigenous Brazilians and poor white settlers, making it one of the largest maroon communities in history.
Zumbi was captured by the Portuguese and given to a missionary when he was six. He escaped at the age of fifteen and returned to his birthplace soon after.
For decades the Porguese were unable to suppress the kingdom and demanded that the Palmares king Ganga Zumba hand the former slaves back over to the colonists. Zumba prepared to give in to the request but was overthrown by Zumbi who refused to give in to the Portuguese.
Zumbi was distrustful and refused to accept freedom for the people of Palmares while other Africans were still slaves. When Zumbi gained authority, tensions with the Portuguese quickly escalated.
As the new king of Palmares, Zumbi would lead a strong resistance against the colonist for fifteen years, and from 1680 - 1686 was able to defeat six attempts by the Portuguese to conquer the kingdom.
On February 6, 1694, the Portuguese succeeded in destroying Cerca do Macaco, the kingdom’s central settlement.
On November 20, 1695, Zumbi was killed and decapitated, his head displayed on a spike. November 20 is celebrated as a day of afro-Brazilian consciousness.