Túpac Amaru I

For other uses, see Túpac Amaru.

Túpac Amaru
Inca of Vilcabamba
Reign	1570 – 1572
Predecessor	Titu Cusi Yupanqui
Successor	Last Inca of Vilcabamba (Túpac Amaru II, Inca appointed by the council of Amautas and Mamacunas)
Born	c. 1545
Died	September 24, 1572 (aged 27) Cusco, Viceroyalty of Peru, Spanish Empire
House	Hanan Qusqu
Father	Manco Inca

Túpac Amaru (Cusco, 1545 – ibidem, September 24, 1572), also known as Felipe Túpac Amaru, was the fourth and last Inca of Vilcabamba.

The son of Manco Inca, he was made a priest and guardian of his father's body. In Quechua, tupaq amaru means 'shining serpent'.

Accession to the throne

Túpac Amaru became Inca of Vilcabamba after the death of his half-brother, the Uari Inca Titu Cusi Yupanqui, in 1570.

The Incas believed that Titu Cusi had been forced to admit missionary priests into Vilcabamba and that these had poisoned him. The Spaniards, who had not yet been informed of the death of the previous Uari Inca, routinely sent two ambassadors to continue the ongoing negotiations. The last of them was the conquistador Atilano de Anaya who, after crossing the Chuquisaca bridge, was captured and executed together with his escort by the Inca general Curi Paucar. When this news was confirmed by the priest of Amaybamba, the new Viceroy of Peru, Francisco Álvarez de Toledo, decided to subdue the kingdom of Vilcabamba by force, invoking the justification that the Incas had broken "the inviolable law of all the nations of the world: respect for ambassadors."

The final war against Spain

Viceroy Toledo entrusted command of the military expedition to the encomendero and alderman Martín Hurtado de Arbieto; Juan Álvarez Maldonado was appointed maestre de campo; and Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa royal standard-bearer and secretary. Hurtado's powerful troops consisted of several pieces of artillery, 250 Spanish soldiers and 2,500 allied natives, among whom were 1,000 Cañaris, mortal enemies of the panaca of the rebel Incas.

For the defense of Vilcabamba, the Inca Túpac Amaru had approximately 2,000 soldiers, of whom 600 or 700 were Anti warriors (called chunchos by the Incas of Cusco), of whom the late Titu Cusi used to tell the Spanish emissaries, whether feignedly or truly, that they still practiced cannibalism. Among his generals were Hualpa Yupanqui, Parinango, Curi Paucar and Coya Topa.

To attack the Inca stronghold, Hurtado de Arbieto divided his army into two groups: the first, under his direct command, would attack through Chuquichaca, while the second column, commanded by Arias de Sotelo, would do so through Curahuasi. A great number of skirmishes were fought, but the only major battle of the campaign took place at Choquelluca, on the banks of the Vilcabamba River. The Incas attacked first with great spirit despite being only lightly armed, but the Spaniards and their indigenous allies managed to withstand them; according to Martín García Óñez de Loyola, at one critical moment the Spaniards were on the verge of being overrun by the Inca warriors, but these suddenly abandoned the fight after their generals Maras Inga and Parinango were shot with arquebuses and killed. A climax of the fighting was reached with the personal, bare-handed fight between the Inca captain Huallpa and the Spaniard García de Loyola. When the Spanish commander found himself in a desperate situation, having received several direct blows and being at risk of being thrown down the ravine, one of his loyal men treacherously shot the Inca in the back, killing him and provoking a climate of indignation that rekindled the fighting. The Spanish chroniclers narrated it thus:

The fighting was waged with great stubbornness on both sides, and Martín García de Loyola found himself in most evident danger of death, because while he was fighting an enemy Indian came out, of such great build and strength of body that he seemed half a giant, and he seized him over the shoulders so that he could not stir; but he was succored by a friendly Indian of ours, named Currillo, who arrived with a falchion and struck him a slash at the feet that brought him down, and following with another across the shoulders he laid him open in such a way that he fell there dead; and thus, by means of this Indian, Captain Martín García de Loyola was saved from death, and certainly the courage and swiftness with which Currillo took the life of the half-giant with two slashes, and saved his captain, was a feat worthy of being set down in history.

— Chronicle of Martín de Murúa

After this battle the Spaniards captured the city and palace of Vitcos. As the expedition approached the citadel of Tumichaca, they were received by its commander Puma Inga, who surrendered his forces and stated that the death of the Spanish commissioner Anaya had been the responsibility of Curi Paucar and other captains who were rebelling against their Incas, who desired peace. On June 23 the last center of Inca resistance fell to the Spanish artillery: the fort of Huayna Pucará, which the natives had recently built and which was defended by 500 chuncho archers. The remnants of the Inca army, now in retreat, chose to abandon Vilcabamba, their last city, and head into the jungle to regroup.

On June 24 the Spaniards took possession of the city, with Sarmiento carrying out the appropriate solemnities; after raising the royal standard in the town square he proclaimed:

"I, Captain Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, general standard-bearer of this camp, by order of the illustrious lord Martín Hurtado de Arbieto, its general, take possession of this town of Vilcabamba and its districts, provinces and jurisdictions."

Immediately afterward he waved the standard three times and said in a loud voice:

"Vilcabamba, for Don Philip, King of Castile and León."

He planted the standard in the ground and fired the prescribed salutes.

Accompanied by his followers, Túpac Amaru had left the previous day heading west, into the forests of the lowlands. The group, which included his generals and the members of his family, had split into small parties in an attempt to evade pursuit.

Groups of Spanish soldiers and their Indian auxiliaries were sent to hunt them down, becoming entangled in bloody skirmishes with the Inca's escort. One captured the wife and son of Wayna Cusi. The second returned. The third also returned; it did so with two brothers of Túpac Amaru, other relatives and his generals. The Uari Inca and his commander remained at large.

Capture of Túpac Amaru

File:Tupac-amaru-I-01.svg

Capture of Túpac Amaru in 1572. Illustration by Felipe Guamán Poma.

Next, a group of forty personally chosen soldiers set out in pursuit of the Inca. They followed the Masahuay River for 170 miles, where they found an Inca storehouse with quantities of gold and Inca tableware. The Spaniards captured a group of chunchos and forced them to tell them about the Inca movements, and whether they had seen the Uari Inca. These reported that he had gone downriver by boat, so the Spaniards built 20 rafts and continued the pursuit.

Downriver they discovered that Túpac Amaru had escaped overland. They continued with the help of the Aparis, who told them which route the Incas had followed and reported that Túpac was being slowed down because his wife was about to give birth. After a march of 50 miles they saw a campfire at around nine at night. They found the Uari Inca Túpac Amaru and his wife warming each other. They assured them that no harm would come to them and secured their surrender. Túpac Amaru was taken prisoner.

The captives were brought back to the ruins of Urcos and, from there, arrived in Cusco through the arch of Carmenca on November 30. The victors also brought the mummified remains of Manco Cápac and Titu Cusi Yupanqui, and a gold statue of Punchao, the most precious relic of the Inca lineage, which contained the mortal remains of the hearts of the deceased Incas. These sacred objects were later destroyed.

Túpac Amaru was taken by his captor, García de Loyola, before Viceroy Francisco de Toledo, who ordered him confined in the fortress of Sacsayhuamán under the wardenship of his uncle, Luis de Toledo. Guamán Poma relates that it weighed heavily on Toledo's mind that, when he had sent for him, Amaru answered him.

The Spaniards made several attempts to convert Túpac Amaru to Christianity, but it is believed that these efforts were rejected by a very strong man who was convinced of his faith. The five captured Inca generals received a summary trial in which nothing was said in their defense and they were sentenced to hanging, although several could not be executed because the plague – the so-called chapetonada – struck everyone in prison, leaving them unable to walk; they had to be carried out of the cell dying and wrapped in blankets, three dying on the way and only two, Cusi Paúcar and Ayarca, reaching the scaffold.

The trial of the Uari Inca began a couple of days later. Túpac Amaru was convicted of the murder of the priests in Urcos, of which he was probably innocent. He was sentenced to decapitation. Numerous clergymen, convinced of Túpac Amaru's innocence, begged the Viceroy on their knees that the Inca leader be sent to Spain to be tried instead of being executed.

Execution

Drawing by Guamán Poma de Ayala depicting the execution of Túpac Amaru I.

An eyewitness of the day of the execution, September 24, 1572, remembered him mounted on a mule with his hands tied behind his back and a rope around his neck. Other witnesses said that there were great crowds of people and that the Uari Inca left Sacsayhuamán surrounded by some 500 Cañaris, enemies of the Incas, armed with lances, and the procession went down into the city. In front of the cathedral, in the main square of Cusco, a scaffold had been erected. More than 300,000 people were present in the two squares, the streets, windows and rooftops.

Túpac Amaru climbed the scaffold accompanied by the Bishop of Cusco. As he did so, the sources say that

a multitude of Indians [sic], who completely filled the square, saw the lamentable spectacle that their lord and Inca was going to die, they deafened the heavens, making them reverberate with their weeping and lamentations

— (Murúa, 271)

Garcilaso relates that the Inca raised his right arm with his hand open and put it to his ear, and from there lowered it little by little until placing it on his right thigh. Whereupon those present ceased their cries and clamor, remaining in such silence that "it seemed there was not a living soul in that whole city."

As related by Baltasar de Ocampo and Fray Gabriel de Oviedo, prior of the Dominicans in Cusco, both eyewitnesses, the Inca raised his hand to silence the crowds, and his last words were:

Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta ('Illustrious Pachacamac, bear witness how my enemies shed my blood')

— Túpac Amaru

The Spaniards, and the Viceroy among them, who were watching the carrying out of the sentence from a window, were greatly astonished at this scene. Noting with dread the obedience the natives had toward their prince, the Viceroy sent his servant, Juan de Soto, who rode out on horseback with a stick in his hand to clear a way to the scaffold, saying there that they should proceed to execute the Inca. The executioner, who was a Cañari, readied the falchion, and Túpac Amaru laid his head on the block "with Andean stoicism." At the moment of the execution all the bells of Cusco began to toll, including those of the Cathedral.

The head was left nailed on a pike, but the body was taken to the house of Doña María Cusi Huarcay, aunt of the beheaded monarch, and was buried the following day in the main chapel of the cathedral, attended by the Spanish residents who did not believe they would compromise themselves before the Viceroy by doing so, and by all of the indigenous Nobles, descendants of the Incas.

Viceroy Toledo informed King Philip II of the execution of Túpac Amaru in a letter dated September 24, 1572, stating to him

what Your Majesty commands concerning the Inca has been done

Some historians state that when Viceroy Toledo left his post to return to Spain, he was received by King Philip II with the following words

You may go to your home, for I sent you to serve kings, not to kill them

alluding to the execution of Túpac Amaru.

Descendants

About forty years after the conquest of the Inca Empire had begun with the execution of Atahualpa, it concluded with the execution of his nephew.

In order to prevent the resurgence of the empire and erase all trace of its descent, the source of future royal generations was promptly expelled by the Viceroy. Several dozen people, including Túpac Amaru's three-year-old son, were banished to what are today Mexico, Chile, Panama and other distant places. However, some were eventually allowed to return to their places of origin.

Two centuries later, in 1780, his great-great-grandson, José Gabriel Condorcanqui (Túpac Amaru II), would assume the title of Inca and lead an indigenous uprising that would begin the process of emancipation against the Spanish presence in America.

See also

• Túpac Amaru II
• Incas of Vilcabamba
• Inca Empire
• Inkarri
• Colonial history of Cusco
• Titu Cusi Yupanqui

Bibliography

• Cobo, Bernabé: Historia del Nuevo Mundo, BK 12.
• Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas de ultramar (25 vols.). Madrid: Ángel de Altolaguirre y Duvale, Adolfo Bonilla y San Martín, 1885–1932, vol. 15. Cited in Hemming.
• Bauer, Brian; Halac-Higashimori, Madeleine (2013). Baltasar de Ocampo Conejeros y la Provincia de Vilcabamba (in español). Cusco: Ceques Editores. ISBN 9786124645013.
• De Ocampa [sic], Baltasar (1907): Descripción de la Provincia de Sant Francisco de la Vitoria de Vilcapampa (1610). Trans. C. R. Markham, The Hakluyt Society, Second Series, vol. 22, 1907. Cited in Hemming.
• García de Castro, Lope, Despatch, Lima, Mar. 6, 1565, Gobernantes del Perú, cartas y papeles, Siglo xvi, Documentos del Archivo de Indias, Colección de Publicaciones Históricas de la Biblioteca del Congreso Argentino, ed. Roberto Levillier, 14 vols., Madrid, 1921–1926. Cited in Hemming.
• Guillen Guillen, Edmundo: La guerra de reconquista inka, histórica épica de como los incas lucharon en defensa de la soberanía del Perú o Tawantinsuyu entre 1536 y 1572. Lima (Peru), first edition.
• Hemming, John (1970): The conquest of the incas. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1970.
• Markham, Sir Clements (1912): The incas of Peru. London: John Murray, second edition, 1912.
• Metraux, Alfred: The history of the incas. Translated from French by George Ordish. New York: Pantheon Books, 1969.
• Mura, Martín de (1962): Historia general del Perú, origen y descendencia de los incas (1590-1611), two volumes. Madrid: Manuel Ballesteros Gaibrois, 1964. Cited in Hemming.
• De Salazar, Antonio Bautista: Relación sobre el periodo del gobierno de los Virreyes Don Francisco de Toledo y Don García Hurtado de Mendoza (1596), Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y colonización de las posesiones españolas en América y Oceanía sacadas en su mayor parte de Real Archivo de Indias, 42 vols., Madrid, 1864–84. Cited in Hemming.
• Sender, Ramón J.: Túpac Amaru
• Titu Cusi Yupanqui, Inca Diego del Castro, Relación de la conquista del Perú y hechos del Inca Manco II; Colección de libros y documentos referentes a la historia del Perú. Carlos A. Romero and Horacio H. Urteaga (eds.), two series, 22 vols. Lima: Hemming, 1916–1935.
• Valladolid: Colección de documentos para la historia de la formación social de Hispano-América [1549]. Richard Konetzke (ed.), Madrid: In Hemming, 1953. 4 vols.
• Vargas Ugarte, Rubén: Historia del Perú, Virreinato (1551-1600). Lima, 1949, p. 258.

External links

• James Q. Jacobs: Túpac Amaru, The Life, Times, and Execution of the Last Inca (in English).