Inca Civilization
In-depth guide

Civil War and the Inca Succession

The civil war of the Inca succession is the dynastic conflict that broke out after the death of the eleventh Sapa Inca, Huayna Capac, in or around 1527, and that engulfed the empire of Tawantinsuyu for roughly five years before the Spanish arrival in 1532. The two principal claimants to the throne were Huáscar, the senior son who remained in Cusco, and Atahualpa, the favored son who had grown up with his father in the northern frontier. The war was fought across the entire length of the empire, from the northern highlands of present-day Ecuador to the central Andean basin around Cusco, and it ended with the capture and execution of Huáscar at Andamarca in 1532 and the accession of Atahualpa as the twelfth Sapa Inca. The campaigns are described in detail in the article on the war between Huáscar and Atahualpa, the dynastic question is examined in the article on Ninan Cuyochi and the succession crisis, and the political, demographic, and military consequences are analyzed in why the Inca civil war weakened the empire before the Spanish arrival.

The civil war is one of the most consequential events in the history of the Americas. The war fatally weakened the empire on the eve of European contact, and the political chaos that it produced allowed the small Spanish force under Francisco Pizarro to seize the Sapa Inca Atahualpa at the Battle of Cajamarca on 16 November 1532, only months after Atahualpa’s victory over Huáscar. The full consequences of the war are described in the account of the empire at its height, the account of the rise of the Inca Empire, and the broader history of the Inca civilization. The post-conquest aftermath of the war — the long resistance at Vilcabamba — is treated in the article on the last Incas after the conquest.

The Death of Huayna Capac and the Question of Ninan Cuyochi

Huayna Capac died, probably in 1527, in the northern frontier region of the empire, in circumstances that are reported inconsistently by the different surviving sources. The most detailed account, recorded by the chronicler Miguel Cabello de Balboa in his Miscelánea Antártica (1586), places the emperor’s death at the city of Quito, then the principal settlement of the northern Inca province of the same name. According to Cabello, the emperor succumbed to an epidemic disease that had been raging through the northern provinces for some years. Other chroniclers, including Garcilaso de la Vega and Pedro Cieza de León, place the death in 1525 or 1527 and identify the disease as smallpox, the first epidemic of European disease in the central Andes, introduced by travelers who had been in contact with the Spanish settlements of the Caribbean coast. The article on disease and demography examines the evidence for the timing and impact of the epidemic.

The death of Huayna Capac created an immediate succession crisis. The traditional Inca system of royal succession did not operate on a strict principle of primogeniture, and the late emperor is reported to have had many children by many wives, including the coya (principal wife) Mama Runtu and a number of secondary wives. The first-born son of the coya was Ninan Cuyochi, who appears to have been designated as heir. According to a widely reported tradition, Ninan Cuyochi himself died of the same epidemic as his father — possibly in the same week — and his body was returned to Cusco for royal burial. The article on Ninan Cuyochi and the Inca succession crisis examines the evidence for the existence and death of this elder brother in detail. If Ninan Cuyochi did die at this time, the succession passed to the next legitimate claimant, his half-brother Huáscar (also called Inti Cusi Huallpa), the son of Huayna Capac and another wife.

The succession was further complicated by the position of Atahualpa, another son of Huayna Capac by a secondary wife, who had grown up in the north and was reportedly Huayna Capac’s favorite. The two brothers represented not only different dynastic claims but also different regional power bases. Huáscar, who had been raised in Cusco, was supported by the older highland aristocracy and the great royal panacas of the imperial capital. Atahualpa, raised in the north and given military command by his father, was supported by a younger generation of Inca officers who had spent their careers on the northern frontier. The political geography of the conflict is treated in the article on the war between Huáscar and Atahualpa.

Huáscar and Atahualpa

Huáscar, sometimes called Inti Cusi Huallpa by his full royal name, is reported to have been crowned as the twelfth Sapa Inca at Cusco shortly after the death of Ninan Cuyochi. The political program of his reign appears to have been conservative: he sought to reassert the authority of the central Cusco aristocracy and to bring the northern power base built up by his father back under direct control. Almost immediately after his accession, Huáscar demanded that Atahualpa return to Cusco, surrender his northern command, and submit to the authority of the court. The diplomatic exchanges between the two brothers, preserved in the chronicles in the form of stylized speeches, reveal the political tensions of the moment: Huáscar emphasized his legitimacy as the son of the coya and the duly crowned emperor, while Atahualpa emphasized the affection of the late emperor and the loyalty of the northern armies.

Atahualpa (sometimes called Atahuallpa in older sources) was by this time an experienced military commander in his late twenties or early thirties. He had grown up at the court of his father in the north, had been given command of the armies of Quito and the northern provinces, and had married Cura Ocllo, a princess of the Cusco royal family, in a marriage that was designed to bind the northern power base to the dynasty. When Huáscar’s demands reached him in the north, Atahualpa reportedly prepared for war. The article on the war between Huáscar and Atahualpa describes the principal engagements and the political strategies of both sides.

The conflict was not simply a personal dispute between two brothers. It was, in many respects, a clash between two versions of the Inca state: a conservative centralist Cusco, and a newer militarized northern establishment. The Cusco side drew on the older highland aristocracy, the great temples, and the Qhapaq Ñan; the northern side drew on the armies of the recent conquests, the great royal estates of Machu Picchu and Ollantaytambo, and the wealth of the northern provinces. The social background of the conflict is set out in the article on Inca social hierarchy.

The Course of the War

The civil war is conventionally divided into two principal phases. The first phase, dated to 1529–1531, was marked by indecisive campaigning along the central Andean highlands. Atahualpa, operating from his base in the north, moved south in several columns, capturing towns, garrisons, and royal estates. The Cusco side, commanded by Atoc and other generals, attempted to stop the advance in a series of battles at Ambato, Tomebamba, and the central highland basin. The first significant Cusco victory is generally identified with engagements in the northern highlands, around the Battle of Chimborazo, in which Atahualpa’s northern commanders were checked but his principal generals, Quisquis and Calcuchimac, escaped to continue the war.

The second phase, dated to 1531–1532, was marked by Atahualpa’s decisive counter-offensive. Returning from the north with a strengthened army, he defeated the Cusco forces in a series of engagements along the central highland corridor, captured the sacred city of Tomebamba (in present-day Ecuador), sacked it, and reportedly massacred much of the local Inca population. He then advanced on Cusco, defeating a Cusco army at the Battle of Quipaipán near the southern end of the central highlands, capturing Huáscar himself, and imprisoning him in the town of Andamarca. According to the chronicles, Huáscar was executed at Andamarca in early 1532, allegedly by being forced to drink molten gold. The article on the war between Huáscar and Atahualpa treats these campaigns in greater detail.

The war was extraordinarily destructive. The chronicles report the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians, the burning of cities and Sun temples, and the disruption of the imperial road and storage systems. The article on why the civil war weakened the empire before the Spanish arrival examines the demographic, political, and military consequences. The principal demographic consequence was a further reduction of the population by a combination of war casualties and a possible recurrence of epidemic disease, on top of the losses already caused by the epidemic that had killed Huayna Capac. The political consequence was the destruction of the legitimacy of the Sapa Inca in the eyes of many of his subjects, and the military consequence was the exhaustion of the standing armies that might otherwise have been available to repel the Spanish.

Consequences and the Weakening of the Empire

The civil war is the immediate political context of the Spanish conquest. When Francisco Pizarro and his small band of followers entered the highlands in 1532, the empire was, in effect, divided: Atahualpa held the northern provinces with the loyalty of the victorious northern armies, while the central and southern provinces were still traumatized by the campaigns of the previous two years. The Spanish exploited the situation with extraordinary effectiveness, capturing Atahualpa at the Battle of Cajamarca and then using the divisions among the Inca nobility to install a succession of puppet emperors before marching on Cusco.

The consequences of the civil war for the long-term history of the Andes were also profound. The destruction of the Inca nobility and the breakdown of the imperial administrative system made it possible for the Spanish to take over the empire’s institutions — roads, storehouses, and the mit’a labor system — and to use them as the basis of colonial rule. The article on why the civil war weakened the empire before the Spanish arrival treats this set of consequences in detail.

The civil war also produced a diaspora of Inca nobles and former officials, many of whom would later join the resistance of the Neo-Inca State at Vilcabamba. The brothers of Atahualpa and Huáscar, including the prince Manco Inca who would later rebel against the Spanish, were the principal political actors of the immediate post-conquest period, and their actions cannot be understood without reference to the war. The full story of the post-conquest resistance, including the execution of the last Sapa Inca Túpac Amaru I in 1572, is told in the account of the last Incas.