648. The Fall of the Incas: Battle for the Sacred City (Part 5)
This episode covers Manco's failed rebellion against Spanish rule in Peru from 1535-1537, culminating in a massive siege of Cusco where 100,000 Incas nearly defeated a handful of Spanish conquistadors before ultimately retreating to establish an exile kingdom in Vilcabamba.
Summary
The episode begins with Manco, the Inca puppet emperor installed by Pizarro, growing increasingly resentful of Spanish rule by 1535. Three years into the conquest, Spanish behavior had deteriorated significantly - they were looting temples, abusing women, and distributing Inca lands as encomiendas to new arrivals. The situation worsened when Pizarro's brothers Juan and Gonzalo began systematically humiliating Manco, including kidnapping and raping his sisters. When the high priest Vilac Umu returned from Almagro's disastrous Chile expedition with reports of Spanish atrocities, Manco decided to launch a rebellion. After escaping Cusco under the pretense of retrieving gold, Manco assembled approximately 100,000 warriors and launched a coordinated assault on the capital in May 1536. The Incas used heated slingshot stones wrapped in cotton to set fire to the city's thatched roofs and managed to drive the Spanish back to the central square. However, the Spanish managed to retake the crucial fortress of Sacsayhuamán after fierce fighting that cost Juan Pizarro his life. The siege continued for months but gradually lost momentum as peasant farmers returned to their fields. Meanwhile, Almagro returned from Chile and attempted to broker peace with Manco while simultaneously challenging the Pizarros for control of Cusco. When Manco tested Almagro's loyalty by asking him to execute Spanish prisoners, Almagro refused, confirming Manco's suspicions about Spanish solidarity. After a bizarre torture involving guava fruit and forced shaving of a Spanish messenger, Manco realized his position was hopeless and withdrew to the jungle fortress of Vilcabamba, establishing an Inca state in exile that would persist for decades.
Key Insights
- Manco argued that Spanish rule had become unbearably oppressive, with conquistadors treating Incas like dogs, plundering temples, and taking women as concubines while showing insatiable greed for gold and silver
- The Spanish population in Peru numbered only about 2,000 people maximum in an empire of 12 million, making them seem like elite mercenaries rather than a permanent occupying force
- Juan and Gonzalo Pizarro systematically humiliated Manco by kidnapping his sisters and forcing them into sexual relationships, despite needing Inca cooperation to maintain their rule
- Spanish chroniclers themselves criticized the Pizarro brothers' treatment of the Incas, with many believing they had brought the rebellion on themselves through their cruelty
- Manco's rebellion demonstrated the Incas' organizational genius one final time, as they successfully mobilized 100,000 people and armed them for coordinated assault
- The Incas developed new military tactics including heated slingshot stones wrapped in cotton to set fire to Spanish buildings, showing tactical adaptation
- Spanish technological advantages in steel weapons and armor proved decisive in hand-to-hand combat, even when vastly outnumbered
- The siege revealed deep divisions within Inca society, as several of Manco's own brothers sided with the Spanish during the conflict
- Spanish reinforcements continued arriving from other colonies and Spain itself, bringing new military technology like arquebuses and crossbows
- Almagro's expedition to Chile was characterized by extreme brutality, including forcing natives to march in chains and leaving corpses attached to chain gangs
- Manco's test of Almagro's loyalty by demanding execution of Spanish prisoners revealed that Spanish solidarity ultimately trumped any potential alliance with indigenous forces
- The establishment of the exile kingdom at Vilcabamba represented a strategic retreat that allowed Inca resistance to continue for decades in the jungle highlands
Topics
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