La Conquista 5

History: Sucedió en el Perú

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Summary

The Inca Manco escapes from Cuzco to Yucay to lead the 1536 revolt against the Spaniards. Three Inca armies attack in parallel the Huanca - for collaborating with the enemy - the Spaniards in Cuzco and those in Lima. Manco, defeated by unfortunate alliances retreats to Olantaytambo and Vilcabamba and there holds out for another 40 years. The Battle for Lima may well have been more significant and ferocious that the events of Cajamarca four years previously.

The text and translation in English

Manco Inca goes to Yucay to lead the 1536 rebellion.

00.11 Narrador. Al llegar 1536, Manco Inca había tomado conciencia de que el dominio español implicaba el sometimiento colonial a un nuevo poder que trascendía al mundo andino. Ese año se produjo el levantamiento de los incas y el llamado a sublevación de todos los andinos contra los invasores europeos. Empleando una estratagema, Manco salió del Cuzco y juntó a su gente en Yucay donde llamó a la rebelión. //

410px|left By 1536, Manco Inca had realized that Spanish dominion meant subjection to a new power whose reach extended beyond the Andean world. That year saw a major revolt by the Incas and the call to all the Andean people to rebel against the invading Europeans. Using a ruse, Manco left Cuzco and joined his people in Yucay where he called them to arms.

Manco Inca divides his forces in three.

00.36 Narrador. Comenzó la resistencia general. Manco dividió sus tropas en tres ejércitos. El primero fue enviado contra los huancas, para castigarlos por su apoyo a los españoles y para anunciar que el Inca no aceptaría más el colaboracionismo. El segundo fue dirigido contra Lima y tenía por consigna, “a la mar barbudos”, queriendo echar a los españoles del mundo andino y obligarlos a regresar por dónde habían venido. El tercer ejército de Manco se lanzó a reconquistar el Cuzco y aniquilar a los españoles que habían hollado la capital sagrada. //

Overall resistance began. Manco divided his forces into three armies. The first was sent against the Huancas, to punish them for their support of the Spanish and to announce that the Inca would no longer accept collaborateurs (colaboracionismo). The second was directed at Lima and had as its war-cry "Barbarians, back into the sea.” (a la mar barbudos). Its aim was to throw the Spaniards out of the Andean world and force them to return to where they had come from. Manco’s third army was ordered to retake Cuzco and annihilate the Spaniards who had desecrated their capital.

Siege of Cusco April 1536

01.13 Guillermo Cock. Interview to be transcribed and translated.

The Spanish cavalry defeated

01.56 Rafael Varón. Interview to be transcribed and translated. Inca’s victory at Huaytara, Huancavelíca. The Spanish relief column en route to Cuzco was completely destroyed. This is only one of the examples of battles won by the Incas.

The burning of Cuzco and the Battle of Saqsawaman, the resistance of Cahuide.

02.25 Narrador. El cerco del Cuzco se prolongó casi todo ese año, pero al llegar la temporada de labores agrícolas, Manco tuvo que licenciar a sus tropas porque era un ejército campesino que sumaba millares cuando tenían tiempo libre, pero que tenía pocos profesionales de la guerra. Los españoles habían resistido sostenidos por los cañaris y su momento de mayor angustia fue cuando Manco incendió el Cuzco y ellos se refugiaron en la iglesia del Triunfo. Cuando vieron que el cerco aflojaba, montaron una expedición que salió del Cuzco hacia el sur y dio la vuelta por las alturas para caer sobre la fortaleza templo de Saqsawaman, donde se habían concentrado los guerreros profesionales de Manco. La batalla fue tremenda, murió uno de los Pizarro, Juan, y sin embargo los españoles se impusieron. Al final resistió en una torre el mítico Cahuide, uno de los grandes capitanes de la resistencia indígena. //

The siege of Cuzco lasted almost throughout that year, but on reaching the farming season, Manco had to give leave to his troops because his was a peasant army that numbered thousands when they had free time, but which had few (full-time) professional soldiers. The Spaniards had resisted – supported by the Cañaris - and their moment of greatest danger was when Manco burned Cuzco, and they had taken refuge in the church of el Triunfo. (But . . . in the farming season) When they saw that the noose had loosened, they mounted an expedition which left Cuzco to the south and turned north into the hills to fall on the temple-fortress of Saqsawaman, where Manco’s professional warriors were concentrated. The battle was ferocious and one of the Pizarros, Juan, died but the Spaniards were victorious. The legendry (mythical) Cahuide – one of the great leaders of the revolt - resisted to the end.

The seige of Lima by the Inca army of Quiso Yupanki with allies from p.d. Ate, using the river. The Huaylas reinforce the Spaniards.

3.24 Narrator. (p.d. present day / modern name for) En forma paralela, un ejército inca puso cerco a Lima. En el camino recibieron el apoyo de los curacas locales del valle de Lima. Queda evidencia por ejemplo que los Latis apoyaron al Inca, ellos tenían su centro en el moderno Ate. Para evitar a los caballos, intentaron tomar Lima por el río, puesto que las piedras dificultaban la maniobra de los equinos. El ejército de la resistencia inca estaba comandado por el general cuzqueño Quiso Yupanqui, quien murió peleando cuando los españoles recibieron refuerzos de los Huaylas. // At the same time, an Inca army laid siege to Lima. On the road they received the support of the local curacas of the Lima valley. There is evidence that the Latis supported the Inca. They had their centre in modern Ate. To avoid the Spanish horse, they tried to take Lima by river (from the river side), as the boulders (piedras) hampered the movement of horses. The army of the Inca resistance was commanded by the Cuzco General Quiso Yupanqui, who died fighting when the Spaniards received reinforcements from the Huaylas.

4.00 Guillermo Cock. Quiso Yupanqui beseiged Lima to prevent the Spaniards sending reinforcements to Cuzco.

Pizarro's Peruvian in-laws save the day (his daughter Francisca had already been born)

4.11 Francisco Pizarro había pedido ayuda a los parientes de su mujer y la madre de doña Inés, había enviado un ejército proveniente del callejón de Huaylas, para defender Lima con los hispanos contra los cuzqueños.

De este modo, en cada una de las grandes batallas de la conquista, se hallan ejércitos de indígenas en ambos bandos, garantizando que al final el triunfo será de occidente.

No se trató solamente de una superior tecnología militar, sino sobre todo de una capacidad política para desintegrar un imperio antiguo, de composición multiétnica, que no resistió la presión y se fragmentó ante el choque de civilizaciones. //

Francisco Pizarro had asked for help from his wife’s relatives and the mother of Doña Inés had sent an army from the Callejón de Huaylas to defend Lima and the Spaniards against the Cuzqueños.

Thus, in each of the major battles of the conquest, indigenous armies were to be found (supporting the Spaniards) on both sides, ensuring that in the end the Westerners triumphed.

So the Incas were not dealing just with a superior military technology, but above all with a political ability to break up an old empire which had a multi-ethnic composition, unable to resist the pressure (of invasion) and which fragmented before the clash of civilizations.

4.52 Guillermo Cock. This is the first time that archaeologists have identified, positively, indigenous Peruvians who died during this conflict. We have found skulls with a holr / perforation which could only have been a bullet hole. . . . . we have identified fragments of iron . . .

5.56 Narrator. Luego, Manco Inca se refugió en la fortaleza templo de Ollantaitambo; el inca estaba iniciando su largo exilio interior, que culminó en las montañas de Vilcabamba. Allí, los últimos incas iban a durar cuarenta años de vana y heroica resistencia. // Then, Manco Inca fled to the fortress-temple of Ollantaytambo; the Inca was beginning his long internal exile, culminating in the mountains of Vilcabamba. There, the last Inca went to spend the last forty years of a futile and heroic resistance.

See also

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsYUqkXcWZ0 History's Turning Point: The Conquest of the Incas.

Francisco Pizarro and his brothers the illusion of power in sixteenth-century Peru by Rafael Varón Gabai.Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, ©1997. Based on author's doctoral dissertation, work reconstructs and analyzes the making of the financial empire of the conquerer of Peru and his brothers. Painstaking study examines and elucidates multiple aspects of both the economic and sociopolitical history of the Perus and Spain in the 16th century"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

Annexe: English version - integral text

By 1536, Manco Inca had realized that Spanish dominion meant subjection to a new power that extended beyond the Andean world. That year saw a major revolt by the Incas and the call to all the Andean people to rebel against the invading Europeans. Using a ruse, Manco left Cuzco and joined his people in Yucay where he called them to arms.

Overall resistance began. Manco divided his forces into three armies. The first was sent against the Huancas, to punish them for their support of the Spanish and to announce that the Inca would no longer accept collaborateurs (colaboracionismo). The second was directed at Lima and had as its war-cry "Barbarians, back into the sea!” (a la mar barbudos!). Its aim was to throw the Spaniards out of the Andean world and force them to return whence (from where) they came. Manco’s third army was ordered to retake Cuzco and annihilate the Spaniards who had desecrated their capital.

The siege of Cuzco lasted almost throughout that year, but on reaching the farming season, Manco had to give leave to his troops because his was a peasant army that numbered thousands when they had slack time, but which had few (full-time) professional soldiers. The Spaniards had resisted – supported by the Cañaris - and their moment of greatest danger was when Manco burned Cuzco, and they had taken refuge in the church of el Triunfo. (But . . . in the farming season) When they saw that the noose had loosened, they mounted an expedition which left Cuzco to the south and turned north into the hills to fall on the temple-fortress of Saqsawaman, where Manco’s professional warriors were concentrated. The battle was ferocious and one of the Pizarros, Juan, died but the Spaniards were victorious. The legendry (mythical) Cahuide – one of the great leaders of the revolt - resisted to the end.

At the same time, an Inca army laid siege to Lima. On the road they received the support of the local curacas of the Lima valley. There is evidence that the Latis supported the Inca. They had their centre in modern Ate. To avoid the Spanish horse, they tried to take Lima by river (from the river side), as the stones hampered the movement of horses. The army of the Inca resistance was commanded by the Cuzco General Quiso Yupanqui, who died fighting when the Spaniards received reinforcements from the Huaylas.

Francisco Pizarro had asked for help to relatives of his wife and mother of Doña Inés, had sent an army from the Callejon de Huaylas, to defend Lima Cuzco against Hispanics. Thus, in each of the major battles of the conquest of indigenous armies are on both sides, ensuring that the end is the triumph of the west. It is not only a superior military technology, but of a political ability to break an old rule of multi-ethnic composition, which could not resist the pressure and fragmented before the clash of civilizations. Then, Manco Inca fled to the fortress temple Ollantaitambo, the Inca was beginning its long internal exile, culminating in the mountains of Vilcabamba. There, the last Inca iban last forty years of futile and heroic resistance.