Cuzco 1536-37: Battle for the Heart of the Inca Empire by Si Sheppard & Giuseppe Rava

Author:Si Sheppard & Giuseppe Rava
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2021-08-04T00:00:00+00:00

This combined force encountered the army of Rumiñawi in the high-altitude Battle of Teocajas at the beginning of May. It was a hard-fought affray, with four Spaniards and as many horses killed. After outflanking the Incas’ position, Benalcázar lost another five Spaniards in fighting outside Riobamba, and his continued advance was bitterly contested, with more pitched battles at the crossing of the Ambato River, at Latacunga, and at Pancallo. Benalcázar finally fought his way into Quito on about June 22, only to find that Rumiñawi had ordered it be put to the torch after dispersing the city’s trove of treasure for safekeeping, and then pulled back into the mountains. He launched a night attack on the Spaniards garrisoned in the burned-out shell of Quito that led to a desperate struggle for the city, but the tide turned with the dawn.

Benalcázar’s search for the treasure was cut short by the arrival of Almagro. In the event, Pizarro’s surrogates found negotiating with Alvarado easier than they had anticipated. Blundering through the swamps and jungles of the interior, he had led his men on a nightmarish march across the Andes that left countless frozen corpses of men and beasts scattered across the mountains. He was only too eager to conclude a deal on August 26 whereby, in exchange for 100,000 pesos, he would return to Guatemala after handing over his fleet of 12 ships and allowing any of his men who so desired to enlist with Almagro.

These reinforcements came at an opportune moment, for as Almagro began his return south he was almost immediately confronted by the Inca army commanded by Quizquiz, who had been retreating gradually northward since abandoning the siege of Jauja. Quizquiz had the better of their first encounter, where Almagro lost three horses killed and 20 wounded in a frontal assault on a prepared Inca position, and 14 Spaniards were surprised and subsequently beheaded by an Inca flanking force. However, Inca morale was shattered when the army, having advanced to Quito, found it occupied by Benalcázar’s garrison. After two years on campaign, from Quito to Cuzco and back again, the levies now yearned only to return to their homes and farms. When his officers prevailed on him to come to terms with the Spaniards, Quizquiz refused; they then turned on him, one impaling him with a spear, the others then rushing forward to finish him off with their clubs and battleaxes. Benalcázar then pursued Rumiñawi to his fortified position near Píllaro. A long, hard struggle ensued, but the Incas finally broke. Rumiñawi was run to ground, captured, and dragged back to Quito for execution. Thus ended the last resistance to the Spanish conquest, and the last of the loyalists to Atahualpa. Had Quizquiz and Rumiñawi been able to concentrate their forces, and had Alvarado elected to assert his claim to Quito by challenging Almagro to resolve their differences on the battlefield, thereby shattering the always precarious façade of Spanish unity, it might have ended differently.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.