The Last Days of the Incas details the story of the rise of the Incan empire to Francisco Pizzaro’s aftermath of a bloody civil war, and the recent discovery of the lost guerrilla capital of the Incas, Vilcabamba, by three American explorers.
In 1532, the fifty-four-year-old Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro led a force of 167 men, including his four brothers, to the shores of Peru. Unbeknownst to the Spaniards, the Inca rulers of Peru had just fought a bloody civil war in which emperor Atahualpa had defeated his brother Huascar. Pizarro and his men soon clashed with Atahualpa and a huge force of Inca warriors at the Battle of Cajamarca. Despite being outnumbered by more than two hundred to one, the Spaniards prevailed—due largely to their horses, their steel armor and swords, and their tactic of surprise. They captured and imprisoned Atahualpa. Although the Inca emperor paid an enormous ransom
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The leader, Pachacuti, had conquered much of the modern day Southern Peru. And Cuzco was rebuilt as a major city and capital of the empire.
As the years went by, the empire began to grow larger. And from 1438 to 1533, the Incas used a variety of methods, from conquest to peaceful assimilation, to incorporate a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean mountain ranges. By the time Huayna Capac, Pachacuti’s grandson was at the end of the rule, the Inca empire stretched into modern day Peru and Bolivia, most of Ecuador, a large portion of Chile, and extended into Argentina and Colombia. However, many changes we’re about to begin on the Incan culture.
Two Invasions
The first invasion came from Central America and worked down to South America. This silent and malicious murderer decimated the native population. The smallpox virus, coming from the Europeans as they conquered Central America, made its way into Cusco. And its grip soon tightened around the life of the emperor, Huayna