Túpac Amaru I and the last stand at Vilcabamba
Túpac Amaru I (c. 1545–1572) was the last independent Sapa Inca of the Neo-Inca State of Vilcabamba and the last ruler to bear the Inca title in a continuous line from the pre-conquest dynasty. He inherited the Vilcabamba state in 1571 after the death of his uncle Titu Cusi, and he ruled for less than a year before he was captured by a Spanish expedition in 1572. He was tried, beheaded in the great plaza of Cusco on 24 September 1572, and his body was displayed on a pike in the same plaza for several days. His execution ended the institutional continuity of the Inca state, although the panacas and other Inca descent groups continued to exist, and the name of Túpac Amaru would be taken up by later indigenous leaders, most famously Túpac Amaru II in the great Andean rebellion of 1780–1781.
The principal sources for the reign of Túpac Amaru I are the chronicles of Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, Miguel Cabello de Balboa, and the testimony of the Spanish officer Martín García de Loyola, who led the expedition that captured him. The article on Vilcabamba resistance and the last Incas provides a broader account of the post-conquest resistance, and the article on Manco Inca and the Neo-Inca State describes the foundation of the rump state by Túpac Amaru’s great-grandfather.
The Inheritance of the Vilcabamba State
Túpac Amaru I was a grandson of the founder of the Neo-Inca State, Manco Inca, and the son of one of the intervening rulers. He inherited the state in 1571 from his uncle Titu Cusi, who had died in that year, almost certainly of smallpox. Titu Cusi had been the most aggressive of the post-conquest Vilcabamba rulers, and during his reign the Neo-Inca State had been the focus of a continuing low-intensity war with the Spanish. The Spanish had responded with repeated expeditions into the cloud forest, and the Vilcabamba state was under severe pressure when Túpac Amaru took the throne.
Túpac Amaru’s accession was contested. The chronicler Miguel Cabello de Balboa records that there was a faction in the Neo-Inca court that favored negotiation with the Spanish and a faction that favored continued resistance. Túpac Amaru, who was very young and who had not been involved in the earlier diplomacy, came down on the side of resistance and refused to negotiate. He also rejected a Spanish proposal to abandon the Vilcabamba state in exchange for a large encomienda grant and a marriage alliance with a Spanish noble family. The decision to continue the fight was in part a matter of principle — the legitimacy of the Inca line was at stake — and in part a calculation that the cloud forest fortress was still defensible.
The Spanish Campaign of 1572
The Spanish, under the new Viceroy Francisco de Toledo (1569–1581), had been planning the conquest of Vilcabamba since the early 1570s. Toledo was determined to end the long-standing embarrassment of an independent Inca state within the colonial realm, and he organized a major expedition in 1572 to capture the Vilcabamba capital. The expedition was led by Martín García de Loyola, a young Spanish officer who was a relative of the founder of the Jesuit order, Ignatius of Loyola, and who later married Túpac Amaru’s niece Beatriz Clara Coya.
The Spanish assembled a large force of Spanish soldiers and indigenous auxiliaries drawn from communities throughout the Andes. The chronicles record that the expedition involved several thousand men, including Spanish cavalry, Spanish and indigenous infantry, and a large train of indigenous porters and auxiliaries. The expedition moved into the cloud forest in 1572, building roads and bridges as it advanced, and it succeeded in penetrating the dense jungle defenses that had protected the Neo-Inca State for nearly four decades. The Spanish were aided by local informants, including some members of the Inca panacas who had abandoned Vilcabamba in earlier years, and by the capture of Túpac Amaru’s own wife during a sortie.
The Neo-Inca State was unable to resist the Spanish campaign. The chroniclers record that Túpac Amaru’s forces were defeated in a series of engagements in the cloud forest, and that the Spanish occupied the city of Vilcabamba after a brief siege. Túpac Amaru himself was captured while attempting to flee, possibly through the treachery of some of his own followers. The date of the capture is generally given as late June 1572.
The Execution at Cusco
Túpac Amaru I was taken to Cusco and put on trial before a Spanish court. The trial was conducted under the authority of Viceroy Toledo and was attended by a large crowd of Spanish officials and indigenous nobles. The charges against Túpac Amaru included the murder of Spanish soldiers, the rebellion of the Neo-Inca State, and the practice of Inca religion. Túpac Amaru defended himself with dignity, according to the chroniclers, and he is said to have addressed the court in a long speech asserting the legitimacy of the Inca line and the injustice of the Spanish conquest. The defense was unsuccessful.
Túpac Amaru was sentenced to death and was beheaded in the Plaza de Armas of Cusco on 24 September 1572. The chroniclers record that the execution was attended by a large crowd of indigenous and Spanish onlookers, and that many in the crowd wept openly. The body was displayed on a pike in the plaza for several days, and the head was sent to the Spanish settlement of Lima as evidence that the Inca line had been ended. The execution of Túpac Amaru I was one of the most dramatic public events of the early colonial period in the Andes, and it was widely reported in the Spanish chronicles of the late sixteenth century.
The End of Independent Inca Rule
The execution of Túpac Amaru I marked the end of the independent Inca state, but it did not mark the end of the Inca line. The surviving members of the royal panacas continued to exist as legally recognized noble lineages in the colonial system, and the encomienda grants and other properties of the Vilcabamba state were distributed among Spanish officials and indigenous allies. The principal panaca of the imperial line, the descendants of Huayna Capac, were given recognition as “Incas of the blood royal” and were incorporated into the colonial nobility of Peru.
The memory of the Vilcabamba resistance was preserved in the Andean oral tradition and in the Spanish chronicles, and it became a powerful symbol of indigenous sovereignty. The figure of Túpac Amaru I was venerated as a martyr, and his name was taken up by later indigenous leaders who claimed to be restoring the Inca order. The most famous of these was José Gabriel Condorcanqui, who assumed the name Túpac Amaru II during the great Andean rebellion of 1780–1781, the largest indigenous uprising in the history of the colonial Americas.
The Archaeological Discovery of Vilcabamba
The site of Vilcabamba was lost to history for nearly four centuries. The Spanish destroyed the city in 1572 and the location was gradually forgotten. In the early twentieth century, several candidates for the lost city were proposed. The most convincing identification was made in 1964 by the American explorer Vincent Lee, whose expedition to Espíritu Pampa deep in the cloud forest matched the chroniclers’ descriptions of the late Inca capital. Further work at the site in the 1960s, including the surveys of the American explorer Gene Savoy, strengthened the case. The site contains the remains of the Inca administrative center, including the palace of Túpac Amaru, a temple of the Sun, and a network of terraces and fortifications. The site is now a Peruvian national cultural patrimony, and it is a focus of continuing archaeological research.