The Incas: Military History and Notable Events

1529 - 1532 - Inca Civil War (All Facts)

• War in which Atahualpa and his forces defeated his brother Huascar and his forces, and thus Atahualpa succeeded his brother on the Incan throne

• War which made Atahualpa overconfident with success and underestimated Francisco Pizzaro’s strength against him in the subsequent Spanish Conquest of the namesake empire

1532 - 1572 - Conquest of the Inca Empire (All Facts)

• Campaign of military conquest to conquer the lands that became (Spanish) Peru led by Francisco Pizzaro

• Pizzaro’s campaigning over thousands of miles with a small force with no supply lines against apparently overwhelming odds was clearly paying dividends as the remnants of Atahualpa’s army limped away from its own tribal territory ahead of the Spanish invaders

• Campaign in which Francisco Pizzaro

  • entered Cusco

• Campaign in which Spanish forces eventually captured Tupac Amaru, the last Incan ruler, and their central city of Vilcabamba

1532 - Battle of Cajamarca (All Facts)

• Battle in which Francisco Pizzaro and his Spanish forces defeated Atahualpa and his Incan forces

• Battle in which Pizzaro used surprise brilliantly, occupying peacefully some long, low buildings round three sides of a square in the upland valley of the namesake town

• Battle in which Pizzaro invited Atahualpa to meet him

  • When Atahualpa came, Pizzaro handed him a Christian prayer book, which he threw down

  • Pizzaro then sprang his ambush of two hidden cannons, which blasted point blank range into the packed Incan ranks while panic did the rest

• Battle in which Pizzaro led a squad which snatched Atahualpa from his litter while Pizzaro’s soldiers butchered the survivors

• Battle in which, in just two hours, 7K native Incans died and their leader held captive

1542 - Battle of Chupas (All Facts)

• Battle in which Cristobal Vaca de Castro and his forces defeated Diego de Almagro II and his forces during the Spanish Conquest of the Incan Empire