¿Conquest or Invasion?

In the school we were taught that Spanish conquered Peru thus the Inca Empire,
but have you ever thought that the word conquered might not be appropriated
for that episode in our history which brought millions of deaths and lasted half a
century.

¿To conquer or to invade? At first look those words might seem similar but in our I
history, these verbs were key words to determinate the conquest process. N
Spanish did not take control of our lands and people by using soldiers, in other T
words: Spanish didn’t conquer us. They made foreign tribes to fight against us. R
Spanish invaded us; they killed millions in less than a decade. This heinous O
process is called the conquest but indeed it should be called the invasion. D
U
The reality is weight different for Spanish whom were the conquerors and for us C
whom were the invaded. Spanish did not conquer Peru for two reasons: First, T
they couldn’t have defeated Atahualpa’s army with just only 169 soldiers nor I
conquered a huge empire. Second, after the invasion, they couldn’t have O
changed believes and traditions of the natives. N

To understand this bloody episode, we’re going to get into the history of Peru to
find the reality, the truth; those which in the school they never taught you.

1522, one year after the conquest of Mexico, Francisco Pizarro was chosen mayor
of Panamá. 1523, Pizarro have collected enough power and money to start with
their expedition trips. He made an alliance with Diego de Almagro and Hernando
de Luque; nowadays we know that there was a fourth member, Espinoza, who
funded Pizarro’s expeditions. The four agreed to divide the wealth that was taken
in the conquest of “Birú” – then this word would become “Peru”.

1527, Pizarro had arrived in Tumbes and saw the city of Chan Chan, he sent
Pedro de Candia to have an audience with Huayna Capac in Quito. History tells us
that they communicated with mimics; Candia told Huayna Capac that he ate
gold. The Inca gave him gold dust and let him go. Candia took a chasqui with
him to Spain to introduce him to the king, then this chasqui would learn Spanish
and would help as a translator in the conquest process, well-know as Felipillo.

Pizarro went back to Spain. Therefore the king Charles I was in Germany, the B
queen Elizabeth of Portugal signed the Toledo’s Capitulation allowing Pizarro O
conquer Peru. We have to emphasize that Pizarro wanted the permission for D
Almagro and him but the India Council didn’t want to give such permission Y
because they foretold greed will end with the death of one.

When Pizarro came back to Ecuador, he was noticed that Huayna Capac and the
heir to the throne, Ninan Cuyochic, had died (according to historians they had
died of smallpox, the epidemic brought by the Spanish) and a civil war had been
unleashed.

When Huayna Capac died, the mother of Huascar, the coya (means empress)
went to Cusco and made his son be proclaimed sovereign Inca. Huascar started
his government with radical measures, he commanded to cut down on panacas’
power because their power had overblown and a huge amount of lands were
being privatized by the aristocracy. Some of them claimed Atahualpa to start a
revolution. Atahualpa was son of Huayna Capac; he was in the court of Quito.
Atahualpa was defeated during a battle and was imprisoned by the canaries, an
ethnic group of the highland of Ecuador. Atahualpa did escape, according to the
legend: he turned himself into a snake to pass through the bars of the cell. With
this act, he claimed himself as a god. Finally, Atahualpa defeated Huascar and
took him to jell.

1532, Atahualpa while in Cajamarca was notified of the arrival of bearded men.
He decided to stop his triumphal march to Cusco and receive the foreign that had
intrigued his father. In other scenario; the capital of Incas, Cusco, was captured
by general Quisquis, whom was loyal to Atahualpa and had unleashed severe
repression against the aristocracy loyal to the defeated Inca. On the other hand
in Jauja, at the middle of the empire, was other army loyal to Atahualpa under
the general Calcuchimac.

Pizarro arrived again in Tumbes. There, they killed loads of natives and found out
that the land was devastated. They keep tripping to the south, to Piura when he
established the first Spanish settlement in the northern Peru, calling it San
Miguel de Santarará (August 15th, 1532). While through Sechura desert, an
emissary of the Inca disguised as common Indian named Apo, joined them. Apo
researched in the Spanish campsite, he was found in situ by Hernando Pizarro
whom kicked him, making Apu fell down and his turban which hidden his gold
earrings, blew away. They recognized him as an orejon, whom was a member of
the Inca’s aristocracy, when Apu stood up, the other natives kneeled down.
Spanish realized he was the Inca’s emissary and treated him in a careful way.
They gave him a wine glass from Venice and two silk shirts from India for the
Inca.
B
Apu took them to the Inca, and then he returned when the Spanish were in O
Lambayeque. This time he came as an ambassador of Atahualpa, was carried on D
a litter. He gave the Spanish a model of the Inca’s fortress and three skinned Y
ducks. Pizarro was shocked, he realized that Atahualpa completely trusted in his
own strength and was threatening to skin them. Apu also invited Pizarro to have
an audience with the sovereign.

Before that, Apu had met with Atahualpa and they made a plan up which
consisted in appropriate of the horses because their animals weren’t able to be
ridden or be made to till. All the agriculture and the transportation were on foot.
Camelids were fine but horses were better. Apu told Atahualpa that dogs were
dangerous because they could eat meat; despite horses were herbivorous.
Spanish weren’t gods because they had got sick, they had died. Why the barber?
Because he had magic powers; as Apu, he had the power of rejuvenation.

Atahualpa’s plan consisted in bringing Spanish to Cajamarca; to kill everyone

except the blacksmith, the barber, and the tamer of horses. Nevertheless Pizarro
had a plan thanks to almost forty years of experience, since Christopher
Columbus discovered America in 1492. The plan was to capture the sovereign,
Atahualpa, and execute him, with its execution destroy the native’s identity.

At Cajamarca, Atahualpa entered with thousands: dancers, musicians, acrobats,

singers; Atahualpa was carried on a litter too. Suddenly the friar Vicente de
Valverde appeared with Filipillo. Atahualpa gave him a kero with chicha de jora to
toast. Valverde threw the kero away becauses he thought it was poison.
Atahualpa took this as a severe offense but he settled down. Valverde started
reading paragraphs of the bible and Atahualpa did anger more. The Inca asked to
Valverde “where do those words come from?” Valverde answered “from the
bible”. Atahualpa looked at the bible and then threw it away because he didn’t
understand what it means.

Valverde encouraged Gonzalo de Soto to give the signal which started the killing.
Everyone died except the Inca who was taken prisoner.

We all know Atahualpa offered to Spanish to give him gold and silver. We know B
that the Spanish scammed Atahualpa and did not release him. They execute him O
in the garrote after he converts to Catholicism. D
Y
After Atahualpa’s death, as promised Pizarro took care of Atahualpa’s daughter.
He designed Manco Inca as the new sovereign. Then since Manco Inca until
Tupac Amaru, they all would reveal against Spanish, we know them as the Incas
of Vilcabamba.

As a consequence, on January 18 th, 1535, Lima, the city of the kings, was
founded and with its foundation the establishment of the Spanish power was
settled up.

We all know how the story continues: Almagro revealed against Pizarro, C
Hernando Pizarro executed Almagro in the Mayor Square in Cusco on July 8 th O
1538. Almagro el Mozo killed Francisco Pizarro on June 26 th, 1541. Then the N
peacekeeper Pedro de la Gasca and later the viceroy Francisco Toledo would kill C
the last Incas of Vilcabamba in 1572 with the execution of Tupac Amaru. Due this L
fact, the Inca empire lost a sovereign to lead the revolution against Spanish. U
S
From twelve millions of the Inca’s Empire population estimated, in 1572 after I
forty years of civil war and revolutions the natives were just eight hundred O
thousand people. For this reason I am completely sure that Spanish wouldn’t N
have been able to conquer the Inca Empire by just using an army. That’s why
they used against us all the tribes the Incas conquered; with this the Spanish
could easily “conquer” the empire. The question still remains Did Spanish really
conquer Peru or did they invade and depredate everything? After giving the
entire scenario and the facts, the answer is up to you.
 Summary
Spanish couldn’t have conquered the Inca Empire for these reasons:

1. Their army was composed by 169 soldiers, on the other hand Atahualpa’s army was
compounded by 800 000.
2. They had to kill all the sovereigns: Atahualpa (1533) Manco Inca (1545) Yupanqui
Sayri Tupac Inca (1558) Titu Cusi Yupanqui (1570) Túpac Amaru I (1572).
3. They killed almost all the population of the Inca Empire.
4. If the sovereign Huayna Capac hadn’t died of smallpox, he probably would’ve send
and army to destroy the Spanish when they first arrived to Ecuador.
5. If there hadn’t been a Civil War between Huascar and Atahualpa, Spanish would
have lost immediately.
6. If Spanish hadn’t taken control of Cuzco and hadn’t settled cities as San Miguel de
Tangarará, Jauja and Lima, they couldn’t have taken control of all the Inca Empire.
7. The verb invade fixes better to the barbarism and holocaust caused by the Spanish
in the Tawantinsuyo.

Team members:

 Bryan Alexander Astorga Guerrero

 Katherine Paola Ladero Ortega
 Kanie Gianella Ruiz Gutierrez