What invoking the king’s name meant (and what it did not)

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• Department of History

The paper addresses expressions of popular monarchism among Indians and urban groups in late colonial Charcas. It explores the ideological underpinnings of collective actions, symbolic representations, and political practices that invoked the King´s image. It draws from various historical events such as the Tupac Amaru and Katarista indigenous rebellions, popular protests in the city of La Plata (present-day Sucre) in the 1780s, and the Charcas uprising of May 25, 1809. The central argument is that in Spanish America the king was an empty signifier. As it lacked all the material and symbolic attributes associated with government officials and bodies, it could be deployed to convey compliance to the existing political order as well as to subvert in radical ways the relations of power on which that order was predicted. Therefore, the profound implications of monarchical legitimacy cannot be inferred exclusively from formal statements, programs, and declarations of principles, but from the political nature of the collective practices and their inscription into the public sphere.

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