In the colonial era, the province of Huanta was larger than it is currently, with traditional ties to the central sierra of Peru, and largely indigenous. The province's capital, also called
Huanta, was the site of an ecclesiastical
doctrina and the center of a civil administrative district,
corregimiento. In a royal census of 1795, Huanta province had 27,337 inhabitants, of which 10,080 (36%) were mixed-race
mestizos. Huanta was the site of a major rebellion (1825–28) against the newly-formed Peruvian state. The
Huanta Rebellion, led by
Antonio Huachaca, is characterized as a monarchist rebellion. It brought together different ethnic and occupational groups in complex interactions. The peasants of Huanta, called Iquichanos, were monarchist rebels and were transformed into liberal
guerrillas. They allied with Spanish officers and merchants,
mestizo land owners, and priests to attack the Peruvian republic in the name of the Spanish king
Ferdinand VII. It was led by
Antonio Abad Huachaca, an illiterate
arriero or muleteer, an occupation that brought him into contact with areas outside his home base, since mules were the primary means of hauling freight and trade goods in the colonial era. The Huanta rebellion was defeated militarily, but the local leaders did not suffer the severe repression that characterized earlier rebellions, most notably the
Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II. In the late twentieth century, the Maoist insurgency of
Shining Path was active in the region. In the town of
Uchuraccay eight journalists investigating the insurgency were murdered in 1983, apparently by
comunero peasants. A presidential commission overseen by
Mario Vargas Llosa sought to uncover the truth about the incident and produced a report. == Geography ==