Karanka

Karanka refers to the Karanqas, also written Carangas or Karankas, an Aymara polity of the Bolivian high plateau. Its core territory belonged to Qullasuyu under Inca rule. Spanish colonization reorganized communities into concentrated settlements called reducciones, while tribute and the Potosí mining labour draft placed heavy demands on their inhabitants. Carangas became a colonial corregimiento, divided into districts including Totora, Sabaya and Urinoca. Silver discoveries within Carangas brought some renewed activity in the mid-seventeenth century, but did not remove the burdens of compulsory service. Eighteenth-century changes also weakened the links between highland communities and their Pacific-valley enclaves as Spanish and Creole estates expanded. Resistance ranged from avoiding colonial obligations to open revolt, including the Llanquera rising of 1732 and participation in the upheavals of 1781.