Tupac Amaru (Thupaq Amaru in modern Quechua), was the last indigenous leader of the Inca people in Peru. The son of Manco Inca Yupanqui (also known as Manco Capac II), he was made a priest and the guardian of his father's body.

Accession

After his half brother, the Sapa Inca (Titu Cusi), died in 1571, Tupac Amaru assumed the imperial title. It was believed by the Inca people that the Spanish priests, whom his half-brother had been forced to admit into Vilcabamba, had poisoned him. They were captured and executed and the borders with Spanish occupied Peru were closed. At this time the Spanish were still unaware of the death of the previous Sapa Inca and had routinely sent two ambassadors to continue the ongoing negotiations. They were both killed on the border by an Inca captain.

Using the justification that the Incas had "broken the inviolate law observed by all nations of the world regarding ambassadors" the new Viceroy, Francisco de Toledo, Count of Oropesa, decided to attack and conquer Vilcabamba. He declared war on April 14, 1572. Within two weeks a small party of Spanish soldiers had captured a key bridge on the border and from here Toledo assembled his army.

Final war with Spain

On June 1, the first engagement of the war commenced in the Vilcabamba valley. The Inca people attacked first with much spirit despite being only lightly armed. Again and again, they attempted to lift the siege held by the Spanish and their native allies but each time they were forced to retreat. On June 23 the fort of Huayna Pucara surrendered to Spanish artillery fire. The Inca army now in retreat opted to abandon their last city and head for the jungle to regroup. On June 24 the Spanish entered Vilcabamba to find it deserted and the Sapa Inca gone. The city had been entirely destroyed, and the Inca Empire, or what was left of it, officially ceased to exist.

Tupac Amaru had left the previous day with a party of about 100 and headed west into the lowland forests. The group, which included his generals and family members, had then split up into smaller parties in an attempt to avoid capture.

Three groups of Spanish soldiers pursued them. One group captured Tuti Cusi's son and wife. A second returned with military prisoners along with gold, silver and other precious jewels. The third group returned with Tupac Amaru's two brothers, other relatives and several of his generals. The Sapa Inca and his commander remained at large.

Flight from Vilcabamba

Following this, a group of forty hand-picked soldiers set out to pursue them. They followed the Masahuay river for 170 miles, where they found an Inca warehouse with quantities of gold and the Inca's tableware. The Spanish captured a group of Chunco Indians and compelled them to tell them what they had seen, and if they had seen the Sapa Inca. They reported that he had gone down river, by boat, to a place called Momori. The Spaniards then constructed five rafts and pursued them.

At Momori, they discovered that Tupac Amaru had escaped by land. They followed with the help of the Mamari Indians, who advised which path the Inca had followed and reported that Tupac was slowed by his wife, who was about to give birth. After a fifty mile march, they saw a campfire around nine o'clock at night. They found the Sapa Inca Tupac Amaru and his wife warming themselves. They assured them that no harm would come to them and secured their surrender. Tupac Amaru was arrested.

The captives were brought back to the ruins of Vilcabamba and together they were all marched into Cuzco on September 21. The victors also brought the mummified remains of Manco Capac and Titu Cusi and a gold statue of Punchao, a representation of the Incan lineage containing the mortal remains of the hearts of the deceased Incas. These sacred items were then destroyed.

Execution

Attempts were made to convert Tupac Amaru to Christianity, but it is believed these attempts were rejected by a man who was by now quite prepared to accept his fate. The five captured Inca generals received a summary trial at which nothing was said in their defense. They were sentenced to hang. Several who had already died of the severe torture they received, were also nonetheless hanged.

The trial of the Sapa Inca himself began a couple of days later. Tupac Amaru was convicted of the murder of the priests in Vilcabamba, of which he was probably innocent. Tupac Amaru was sentenced to be beheaded. It was reported in various sources that numerous Catholic clerics, convinced of Tupac Amaru's innocence, pleaded to no avail, on their knees, that the Inca be sent to Spain for a trial instead of being executed.

The claim has been made that the unjust execution of the Tupac Amaru in 1571 for rebellion is the one great stain on the record of Viceroy Toledo. Other claims have been made to the contrary — that Tupac Amaru was indeed in rebellion, that Francisco de Toledo had tried peaceful means to settle differences, that three of his ambassadors to the Inca were murdered, and that Tupac Amaru subsequently raised an army to resist the colonial army. In this view, there was nothing arbitrary or unjust about the execution of the Inca leader. King of Spain Philip II, however, disapproved of the execution.

An eyewitness report from the day recalls him riding a mule with hands tied behind his back and a rope around his neck. Other witnesses reported there were great crowds and the Sapa Inca was surrounded by hundreds of guards with lances. In front of the main cathedral in the central square of Cuzco a black-draped scaffold had been erected. Reportedly 10,000 to 15,000 witnesses were present.

Tupac Amaru mounted the scaffold accompanied by the Bishop of Cuzco. As he did, it was reported by the same witnesses that a "multitude of Indians, who completely filled the square, saw that lamentable spectacle [and knew] that their lord and Inca was to die, they deafened the skies, making them reverberate with their cries and wailing." (Murua 271)

As reported by Baltasar de Ocampa and Friar Gabriel de Oviedo, Prior of the Dominicans at Cuzco, both eyewitnesses, the Sapa Inca raised his hand to silence the crowds, and his last words were;

"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."

"Mother Earth, witness how my enemies shed my blood."

Epilogue

In Cuzco in 1589, Don Mancio Serra de Leguisamo —the last survivor of the original conquerors of Peru—wrote in the preamble of his will, the following, in parts:

We found these kingdoms in such good order, and the said Incas governed them in such wise [manner] that throughout them there was not a thief, nor a vicious man, nor an adulteress, nor was a bad woman admitted among them, nor were there immoral people. The men had honest and useful occupations. The lands, forests, mines, pastures, houses and all kinds of products were regulated and distributed in such sort that each one knew his property without any other person seizing it or occupying it, nor were there law suits respecting it… the motive which obliges me to make this statement is the discharge of my conscience, as I find myself guilty. For we have destroyed by our evil example, the people who had such a government as was enjoyed by these natives. They were so free from the committal of crimes or excesses, as well men as women, that the Indian who had 100,000 pesos worth of gold or silver in his house, left it open merely placing a small stick against the door, as a sign that its master was out. With that, according to their custom, no one could enter or take anything that was there. When they saw that we put locks and keys on our doors, they supposed that it was from fear of them, that they might not kill us, but not because they believed that anyone would steal the property of another. So that when they found that we had thieves among us, and men who sought to make their daughters commit sin, they despised us."''Markham 300

Descendants

Nearly forty years after the conquest of Peru began with the execution of Atahualpa, the conquest ended with the execution of his nephew. A roundup of royal descendants was soon initiated by the Spanish Viceroy. Several dozen, including Tupac Amaru's three-year-old son, were banished to Mexico, Chile, Panama and elsewhere. Some of them were allowed to return home and Tupac Amaru's great-grandson, Tupac Amaru II, was to lead an indigenous uprising in 1780 against continued Spanish presence in Peru.

References

Bibliography

James Q. Jacobs, Tupac Amaru, The Life, Times, and Execution of the Last Inca
Cobo, Bernabe, Historia del Nuevo Mundo, bk 12.
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Garcia de Castro, Lope, Despatch, Lima, 6 March 1565, Gobernantes del Peru, cartas y papeles, Siglo XVI, Documentos del Archivo de Indias, Colecion de Publicaciones Historicas de la Biblioteca del Congreso Argentino, ed. Roberto Levillier, 14 vols., Madrid, 1921–6. In Hemming.
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Mura, Martin de, Historia General del Peru, Origen y descendencia de los Incas (1590–1611), ed. Manuel Ballesteros-Gaibrois, 2 vols., Madrid, 1962, 1964. In Hemming.
Ocampa, Baltasar de, Descripcion de la Provincia de Sant Francisco de la Victoria de Vilcabampa (1610). Trans, C. R. Markham, The Hakluyt Society, Second Series, vol. 22, 1907. In Hemming.
Salazar, Antonio Bautista de, Relacion sobre el periodo del gobierno de los Virreyes Don Francisco de Toledo y Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza (1596), Colecion de documentos ineditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y colonization de las posesiones espanolas en America y Oceania sacadas en su mayor parte de Real Archivo de Indias, 42 vols., Madrid, 1864–84. In Hemming.
Titu Cusi Yupanqui, Inca Diego del Castro, Relacion de la conquista del Peru y hechos del Inca Manco II; Instrucion el muy Ille. Senor Ldo. Lope Garcia de Castro, Gobernador que fue destos rreynos del Piru (1570), Colecion de libros y documentos referentes a la historia del Peru, ed. Carlos A. Romero and Horacio H. Urteaga, two series, 22 vols., Lima, 1916–35. In Hemming.
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Vargas Ugarte, Ruben, Historia del Peru, Virreinato (1551–1600), Lima, 1949, p. 258.
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Tupac Amaru