In 1533 Pizarro, after a brief trial, ordered the execution of the Inca Atahualpa. The death of this remarkable prisoner, at the hands of the Hispanics since the Cajamarca ambush, is the event normally considered the end of the Tahuantinsuyu. But the death of Atahualpa did not mean the fall of the great Inca imperial apparatus. For Pizarro and his men, the best strategy to dominate all the territory they claimed for the King of Spain was to use the Inca system of domination.
For this reason, he named the young descendant of Huayna Cápac as the new Inca. (1), One-armed. The young Inca received the Spanish when they arrived in Cuzco. Manco saw in the arrival of the foreigners an opportunity to adjust in his head the mascaipacha (2), for which he agreed to be named by strangers (Before naming Manco Pizarro, he named Toparpa, who mysteriously died shortly after).
But Manco was not the submissive puppet that Pizarro and his brothers thought. The young monarch, tired of the greed and domination exercised by Pizarro’s brothers over his dominions, began to prepare his rebellion. Manco was clear that in order to recover his prestige and power, it was necessary to gain control of the Inca capital: Cuzco. For this, the Inca slipped away and prepared his offensive.
In 1536 the attack on the sacred Inca city began. Knowing that Almagro had left with part of the Hispanic troops, Manco gathered the Inca and allied forces that he was able to summon and surrounded the capital of the Tahuantinsuyo. The young monarch knew how the Spaniards worked, so while he remained in the siege of Cuzco, his general Quizo yupanqui went to Lima. The idea was both to damage Pizarro’s forces and to prevent Hispanic reinforcements from the City of the Kings from being able to rescue Cuzco.
The fence to the navel of the world
Manco with the help of Villac Umu (3) managed to corner Pizarro’s brothers in the indigenous city with some 200,000 thousand native warriors. The offensive was well planned and they launched attacks on different points and set fires around the perimeter of the city. This strategy forced the Spaniards and their allies, mainly the Cañaris (Pardo, 1972:45), not only to defend themselves against the fierce native warriors, but also to fight against the fire that threatened to devour the city (dangers that they were able to repel thanks to to Cañari support).
The siege acquired special drama in the battle of the fortress of Sacsahuaman. The natives took the fortress and defended it by throwing stones at the Spanish and their allies. During this battle, Juan Pizarro was mortally wounded. One of the stones thrown by the Inca defenders of the fortress hit brother Pizarro on the head, who died shortly after. Hispanics took six days to recover Sacsahuaman. In the final assault on the fortress, many of Manco’s warriors defending it were killed. The brutality of that battle was reflected when the pile of corpses of fallen warriors from the top of the building served, so that those who rushed later were saved by cushioning their fall.
However, the Inca forces squandered much of their initial advantage by rituality in the war of the Inca world. The Villac Umu only attacked the city when the moon was full.. This ritual performance had important repercussions, since it gave the besieged the opportunity to recover and even go out for provisions and materials to repair the damaged defenses (Regalado de Hurtado, 1997:32).
The March on Lima
Meanwhile the troops sent by Francisco Pizarro to lift the siege on Cuzco failed. The different expeditions sent by the Hispanics failed to take the main steps. Gonzalo de Tapia, the first envoy from Lima, clashed with Quizo’s troops at the Battle of the Pampa River. After the defeat of Tapia, the Inca general disrupted another expedition in the passes of the mountains. The expedition commanded by Juan Mogroviejo was ambushed and totally destroyed, most of the Spaniards dying along with their commander. After two other fights in which he was victorious, Quizo Yupanqui was at the gates of the newly founded capital of Hispanic Peru: The City of the Kings.
However, Quizo’s luck ran out when he launched his attack on the city of Pizarro. He had received vital reinforcements from the mother of one of the women of the indigenous elite with whom he had a son: Contarguacho. The cacique sent a strong reinforcement of Huanca warriors just in time for battle. The fight took away a large part of the indigenous army, including their general Quizo Yupanqui. With this defeat and the arrival of Spanish reinforcements from the hand of Pedro de Alvarado, the famous companion captain of Hernán Cortés, the Inca forces dissolved.. Once the army sent by Manco over Lima was eliminated, the road to reach the ancient Inca capital was left open.
Failed but not finished: The birth of Vilcabamba
After the defeat in the Hispanic capital and, the clear failure after nine months of siege of Cuzco, the Inca forces were worn out (Gift of Hurtado, 1997:36). Lacking supplies to support the army, Almagro returning with the remnants of his failed expedition to Chile, and the connection to the coast reestablished, Manco had to accept that the capital of his former empire was no longer his.
The clash against Alvarado’s forces at the Battle of Rumichaca (April 1537) and the assault against the indigenous seat at Vitcos led by Rodrigo de Ordoñez (and which ended with a monumental disaster for Manco’s forces), put the final point to the possibility of an indigenous counterattack that would put the new Hispanic power in real danger. The Inca leader and part of the native elite retreated after the defeat to take refuge in Vilcabamba, a mountainous zone of difficult access and a favorable geography for defense.
Vilcabamba was located in the Antinsuyu (4), in the mountainous area close enough to the old Inca capital and the city of Huanamanga (5) to keep the authorities uncomfortable. Also, guarding Cuzco was motivated not only to threaten the Hispanics, but also to spy on the remains of the Inca elite that had remained in the citysince in many cases they were allies of the Spanish (eg Manco’s brother Paullu who was named Inca) and rivals for Manco’s legitimacy.
The Spanish tried to achieve the end of the Inca threat of Vilcabamba since its establishment as an independent kingdom. Diego de Almagro unsuccessfully negotiated the surrender of the Inca and later, Gonzalo Pizarro and Paullu assaulted Vilcabamba with a very poor result (6). Francisco Pizarro also tried to negotiate with Manco the surrender of Vilcabamba through the delivery of the coya Cura Ocllo. However, the negotiation ended in failure due to the murder of the coya as well as several imprisoned members of the elite faithful to Manco, such as the Villac Umu (to which the Inca responded by executing the Spanish prisoners that he had in his possession).
Manco maintained the independence of his territory and consolidated his power above all through his religious and military role. From Vilcabamba the Inca forces harassed and kept in suspense with assaults and skirmishes both the Spanish and their indigenous allies.. The negotiations between Manco Inca (and later his heirs) and different Hispanic authorities took place without any real success, largely due to the mistrust created between both sides.
The defensive position of his kingdom and the instability of those years in Peru (the civil war between Almagro and the Pizarros or the rebellion of Gonzalo Pizarro, to give a few examples) guaranteed the continuity of Manco’s government until his death. Manco’s death came from the hand of a group of Spanish almagristas whom he sheltered. This handful of fugitives fled from justice after participating in the death of the Marquis Francisco Pizarro and the civil war that followed the assassination. Ignoring the warnings that had reached him about the malevolent intention of his supposed friends, Manco met with them and during a game (7) they stabbed him to death. Before dying, during his agony, Manco named his son Titu Cusi his heir (Pardo, 1972: 100).
This son of Manco was present at the murder but managed to escape from the assailants, although not without sustaining a leg injury during the flight. It is assumed that this murder was perpetrated with the idea that by killing the Inca, the fugitives would be pardoned and be able to return to Hispanic territory.. The reality was different, since the assassins did not manage to escape from Vilcabamba. They were captured, executed and their heads turned into a bloody warning for everyone who entered the new Inca kingdom.
Grades
1-Father of Atahualpa and Huascar, half-brothers who were immersed in civil war at the arrival of the Hispanics.
2-The symbolic headdress of the Incas. It could be considered the Inca crown.
3-The most important priest of the Inca elite.
4-The division of Tahuantinsuyo which corresponds to the east. The Collasuyo corresponds to the south continue west and the Chinchaysuyu the north, leaving Cuzco as the center.
5-Currently called Ayacucho since the Bolívar decree to commemorate the 1824 victory over the royalists.
6-The expedition managed to capture some members of the elite and relics but Manco was free and Vilcabamba under his control. The casualties suffered by the Hispanic side made this assault considered a failure.
7-Manco was playing horseshoe (Spanish game) with the refugees.
Biography
Lavalle, Bernard (2005): Francisco Pizarro and the conquest of the Inca empire, Madrid, Editorial Espasa Calpe.
Regalado de Hurtado, L. (1997): The Inca Titu Cusi Yupanqui and his time, first edition, Peru, Editorial Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
Brown, L.A. (1972): The Vilcabamba empire, the reign of the last four Incas. Cuzco, Illustrated Edition.