This chapter analyzes the general uprising of Chuquisaca. On May 25, 1809, a coalition of audiencia ministers, town council officials, the university senate, and residents in general, backed by the mobilization of popular sectors that engaged in bloody clashes with the military garrison and then organized themselves into standing militia units, seized power after deposing the intendant of Charcas and forcing the archbishop to flee the city. The chapter maintains that these events represented a drastic break with all established Hispanic traditions of governance, both Bourbon and Habsburg. It possessed deep revolutionary overtones. While generic allegiance to the Crown may still have been solid, the political foundations of that allegiance came under widespread criticism, threatening the viability of the entire system. On the other hand, this rupture was the outcome of a cumulative erosion of the structures of command and obedience stretching back to the late 1770s. Notwithstanding its momentous impact, the French invasion served as a catalyst rather than as a causal factor in the demise of colonial rule. For it was those discrete historical experiences that equipped local actors with a guide for action, a sense of collective belonging, and a horizon of political intelligibility.