

THE REVENGE OF THE INCA After Atahualpas's death, the Spaniards named his successor, Manco Inca, also son of Huayna Capac. The war between his two half-brothers, Huascar and Atahualpa, for the succession of the power, placed him as an enemy of Atahualpa, this was the reason why he came to Francisco Pizarro, and immediately the spanish conqueror proclaimed him Inca and Lord of the Four Suyos Empire ("Tawantinsuyo", in quechua language). Manco was convinced that the Spaniards were Gods and the avengers of his favorite brother Huascar, died by Atahualpas's hands. He was then 15 years old.In due time Manco Inca disabused of the Spaniards, they were not gods, he realized they were just men with great merits and also unforgivable defects. One of them was their gold ambition. To obtain the precious metal, they extorted the Indians. Even he was also extorted continuously. The day Manco was no more generous; he was locked and chained, treated like a prisoner. With the excuse of a gold statue, Manco asked for permission to go to Lares to bring it. Hernando Pizarro, brother of the conqueror Francisco Pizarro which was in Lima founding the capital city in a place at border of the sea to facilitate the shipments of gold to Spain, accepted and Manco was released. It was the only way Manco had to escape. Once free, the war was declared, beginning an army resistance that lasted seven lustrums. The morning of May 3rd 1536 the Cusco city dawned fenced by thousand of Inca's warriors. The Spaniards, who were no more than 200, were desperate. The situation for them turned worst when Manco flooded the city surroundings to neutralize the horses. The war began, and even though the natives were much more than the Europeans, their horses were force, velocity and damage. But, "when the Indians attacked, their voices, shouts, and the sounds of the instruments they used in battle, make the earth shake". Though the fight turned hard, some hope spread over the Spaniards mainly with the help of some allied Indians. But the scenery turned worst, they had a lot of hurt people, everyone was exhausted and weak, they only had the Main Square, everything else was under Manco Inca and his army control. When the starvation spread over the Christians and their horses, Hernando Pizarro decided to go over the Sacsayhuaman fortress that will be the only way of saving the lives of all his army and the only way to keep defending the city. The fortress was taken on May 16th 1536, the success of the military operation was because the wood ladders the spanish used to take the Moorish fortifications. Meanwhile in Lima, the City of the Kings, was fenced by Titu Yupanqui and his troops. The native squads fought by turns, everybody had swear to beat or to die, and during each attack they shouted "to the sea bearded, to the sea bearded". THE END OF THE REBELLION A few weeks after the Titu Yupanqui fenced, the reinforcements appear in Lima. Francisco Pizarro then felt more strong and thinking about his brothers send an expedition to Cusco. In this city the attacks keep constantly. Hernando Pizarro cannot capture Manco Inca. He commanding his troops were the master of the situation. Although he had two inconveniences: not all his warriors were absolutely loyal, because some of them preferred their regional independence, and the second one was the supplies, because for the war cause the land was not sowed, and the storages were not full. Even though, the resistance of the loyal warriors kept because they learned how to deal with the horses. The balance for the Spaniards was negative, they had 200 heads off and 150 horses hide. At some point, found out neither the Indians had rations to eat. Manco Inca had to think over, and the war got easy, but it was not end definitely. The Inca's army was used to interchange war time with farming time, but the Spaniards did not understand this, and they wanted to fight all the time. This was the reason why everything was mess up, and people haven't anything to eat. Manco decided to release his warriors to save them of an hungry die. With so much pain, he saw them go back to their hometowns. They get into their towns with the weapons in their hands, raggeds, fainted, and asking for "sara, sara", which means "corn, corn". The main idea of Manco was to retire for a while, and wait for food to maintain the troops because the fields were abandoned, but he will wait for a better moment. But the spaniards took care this never happen again. Retired in Vilcabamba, Manco was murdered by some Spaniards to whom he gave shelter from their people. He was killed on 1544. With Manco Inca Yupanqui started the exile govern of the Incas, these were his three sons: Sairi Túpac, Titu Cusi Yupanqui y Túpac Amaru. |