This Month in Latin American History

Tupac Amaru I September 24, 1572 Execution of Tupac Amaru I, Last Inca Emperor While the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire began in 1532 with the capture and eventual execution of the Sapa Inca (“Unique Emperor”) Atahualpa, the empire itself endured for decades. Recognizing that the vast territory controlled by the Inca would be easier to rule through the existing royal family, the leader of the Spanish forces, Francisco Pizarro, named a young prince, Manco, as the new Sapa Inca. Manco, however, quickly grew to resent Spanish dominance, and led his people into open warfare against the conquistadores and their Native allies. However, by 1539 Manco and his supporters were forced to retreat to the remote city of Vilcabamba, and for over thirty years Manco and his successors maintained an uneasy peace with the nascent colonial power. While no longer a serious threat to the Spanish, the existence of Vilcabamba as an independent entity was always a concern to colonial officials, and by the 1570s they were prepared to deal take action. In 1571, a new Sapa Inca, Tupac Amaru, assumed the throne, taking on a more adversarial stance towards the Spanish, and following the death of a Spanish envoy, Viceroy Francisco Toledo authorized a full-scale military campaign. Vilcabamba itself fell in June of 1572, but Tupac Amaru was able to evade capture for months. While his death formally ended the history of the Inca empire, its influence remained- just over two centuries following his death, a descendant of Tupac Amaru, Josè Gabriel Condorcanqui, took the name Tupac Amaru II, leading the largest uprising against colonial authority in the western hemisphere prior to the wars of Independence. Want to know more? Take Latin American History! Contact Prof. Greg Hammond at [email protected]