My Travels In Peru

The Fall of Imperial Cusco

The fall of the Inca Empire is a story of tragic proportions. I could have easily entitled this chapter Atahualpa's Tragedy because he lost his life and empire through his own carelessness and hubris. He took risks when prudence was advisable. He gambled and lost everything. Was it a character flaw or destiny? Whatever the answer, he was history's most tragic character, yet very few people know that he even existed. His story is just waiting to be told.

Just before the arrival of the Spaniards in Peru, Emperor Atahualpa receives news that all his adversaries have been pacified and he is now in complete control of the empire. The last seven years had plunged the empire in civil war with brother against brother. He is jubilant at the news. He summons his chroniclers and scribes (quipucamayocs) to record the immortal news and launches into his triumphal speech to the assembled army and courtesans.

"My beloved subjects, in less than one century we have built a vast empire." There is a great roar of cheering and euphoria. When it subsides he continues, "Our race is the most advanced in the world. We have built big palaces and shrines, which people will marvel at for centuries to come because they have been built to last forever. Our people are the best educated and trained in the world and everyone enjoys a good standard of living. We have eradicated poverty and established good governance in the Tahuantinsuyo (the Quechua word for empire). In the next century we will spread our dominion to the ends of the earth!" There is another great outburst of applause. He then tells his people to enjoy the feast that was prepared for them. It would be his, and the empire's, last moment of glory.

To me, this is the biggest mystery of Peru. How did less than two hundred conquistadors wrest such a big empire from Atahualpa? Much has been written on this subject, but the mystery remains. How could it happen? A small number of Spaniards fought against an empire of about 25 million people and won (population estimates range from 20 to 50 million). To be sure, they had much more advanced weaponry, but that alone doesn't explain it. 

The Russian conquest of Afghanistan failed despite a large military force and superior weaponry. The same was true of the Americans in Vietnam. Both the Russians and the Americans had technology on their side, just as the Spaniards in Peru, but the Spaniards succeeded while the other two didn't. Technology was a big factor, but it wasn't the only one. The conquest of the Incan Empire was a fight between David and Goliath from start to finish. The Spaniards had one thing that neither the Americans nor the Russians had, in their respective wars. It was the same thing that the Romans had when they conquered England.

By all historical accounts, the Spaniards arrived in Peru at the most propitious time for the success of their mission: they where in the right place, at the right time. If they had arrived ten years earlier or later they would have met a different fate. They were probably the luckiest invaders in the world. They arrived in the midst of a civil war, which started after the death of Emperor Huayna Capac, in 1525. 

The emperor's death led two of his sons to fight over the vast empire, sending it into convulsions. The long civil war shook people's confidence, and loyalties shifted from one side to the other. More than anything else, though, the civil war opened old wounds. The people that were once independent of Incan rule began to dream of a return to those days, and some saw the Spaniards not as a threat, but as an opportunity to regain their independence. Everybody underestimated the Spaniards, and nobody believed that they had come to conquer and rule. They chose to believe that, once the foreigners had their fill of gold and silver, they would return to their country, and the locals would return to autonomous rule. It was wishful thinking.

The Spaniards, for their part, quickly understood the political situation and exploited it to the fullest, making promises that they never intended to keep. While they started with a couple hundred well-armed soldiers, after Atahualpa was captured and killed, their ranks swelled with disenchanted and disloyal Incan subjects, including his dead brother's family and supporters. In addition to increasing their fighting force, their new allies were a valuable source of military intelligence.

Pizarro was cruel, cunning, and conniving. He had fought under Cortez in Mexico and had learned how to win empires with treachery in the new world: he had learned from a master. However, luck was with him the entire time.

His first lucky break was the death of Emperor Huayna Capac before he set foot in Peru. Historians agree that if the great Capac had been alive during the conquest, the Inca dynasty might still be ruling the Tahuantinsuyo. As luck would have it, Huayna Capac contracted a disease during one of his campaigns in southern Colombia, and subsequently died from it in Quito Ecuador, as did 200,000 of his soldiers, including his son and heir to the throne. The disease was smallpox. But where did it come from? How did smallpox get to South America?

The first European contact with South America occurred in 1498, with the arrival of Columbus' third expedition, which landed in Venezuela, just to the east of Colombia. The next recorded contact was in 1522, when Pascual de Andagoya, who, in 1519, had founded Panama City, left to explore the west coast of Colombia. His ships sailed up the San Juan River and met fierce resistance from the natives. After much fighting, he went back to Panama City in defeat. 

Pizarro acquired Andagoya's ships and sailed out, in 1524, but his expedition didn't go well either. Once again, the Spaniards were defeated by the natives and made a retreat. So, the Spaniards were not invincible. In any case, the contact they made with the Colombians, in 1522 and 1524, resulted in the spread of smallpox in South America, and changing the course of history. 

However, the spread of smallpox was not limited to these encounters. Trade routes existed between Central and South America; so, once the Spaniards arrived in the Caribbean, the disease travelled through commercial contacts. It took time to spread, but it left a trail of death everywhere it reached. Some indigenous populations were decimated even before they had direct contact with the conquistadors. This was the case for Huayna Capac and his army.

Luck was again with the Spaniards when they arrived on the coast of Ecuador by boat. Not only was the empire in upheaval because of the civil war was tearing it apart, but also because their arrival seemed to fulfill a prophecy. People believed in the myth that once everything had been created, the God Viracocha disappeared in the direction of the setting sun (the ocean) and would return in time of need. If there was a time that the people of Peru needed their god's help, it was certainly then. 

Therefore, when the Spaniards arrived by boat from the sea, the believers of the myth took them not as an invading force, but as their saviours, sent to them by their god. Not everyone was a firm believer, of course, particularly the Inca elite, but sufficient numbers were. At worst, the myth allowed the Spaniards to move freely without threats or impediments; and at best, it aided them with information and warriors to fight the Incan armies.

Was Pizarro's conquest of a huge empire all about good luck and serendipity, or was it a cleverly laid-out plan from start to finish?