HIST 8B Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Plebs, Caudillo
Document Summary
Popular groups influencing and intervened to make things worse for elites. Plebeians actually mean something; the majority actually counts. People weren"t united even though they were in the same popular group. Even indigenous people from the same region would fight against each other. But they were still key to political process from the start. Elites had no real control over large segments of the population. Competition for power on elites needed many followers on the ground. Couldn"t do as they pleased because there were so many angry popular groups. If they wanted to beat rivals in provinces they needed to mobilize people on the ground. Coercion and force played a very small role. Up to 70% of resources came from taxes that indigenous people paid to government. 70% of what government could do came from those who had access to land. Reciprocity didn"t mean equality; didn"t require symmetry of power.
