The Trial and Execution of Atahualpa, 1533

The trial and execution of the Sapa Inca Atahualpa took place at Cajamarca in the northern Peruvian highlands on 26 July 1533, almost exactly eight months after his capture at the Battle of Cajamarca on 16 November 1532. Atahualpa was tried by a Spanish military court on charges that included polygamy, the murder of his brother Huáscar, the worship of false gods, and the practice of incest. He was found guilty, sentenced to death, and, after having been baptized into the Christian faith, was strangled rather than burned, on the grounds that baptized persons could not be burned. The execution was a political act as much as a judicial one, and it removed the last remaining political authority in the northern Inca Empire. It was followed by the Spanish advance on Cusco and the conquest of the Inca capital in November 1533.

Background of the trial

The captivity at Cajamarca

Atahualpa had been held prisoner at Cajamarca since his capture in November 1532. The ransom of his person had been gathered from the temples and royal storehouses of the northern Inca state, and the total had reached about 6.1 tonnes of gold and 12.4 tonnes of silver, in the most reliable modern estimate. The ransom had been delivered, melted down, and divided among the Spanish, with the royal fifth going to the Spanish crown. The agreement had been that Atahualpa would be released once the ransom had been delivered, and the Inca, who had been baptized into the Christian faith shortly before the trial, had expected to be released.

The Spanish, however, were not prepared to release Atahualpa. The ransom had been delivered, but the political situation in the highlands was unstable, and the Spanish feared that Atahualpa, if released, would organize a general rebellion against them. The Spanish were also concerned about the size of the Inca army that remained encamped on the plain outside Cajamarca, and they feared that the army would attack them if the Sapa Inca were released. In the spring of 1533, the Spanish began to look for a pretext to put Atahualpa on trial, and the charges that were eventually brought against him were, in large part, fabricated.

The political context

The political context of the trial was the rivalry between the two Spanish factions that had emerged in the years since the conquest. Francisco Pizarro, the governor of Peru, was the leader of the faction that had been responsible for the capture of Atahualpa and the gathering of the ransom. His partner Diego de Almagro, who had been the leader of the expedition to Chile, was preparing to return to Peru and to claim his share of the spoils. The Pizarro faction was anxious to consolidate its hold on the northern Inca state before Almagro’s return, and the trial and execution of Atahualpa was, in part, a means of removing a potential rallying point for indigenous resistance and a potential source of legitimacy for the Spanish occupation.

The trial was also, in part, a response to the religious expectations of the Spanish crown. The Spanish crown, in the person of Charles V, had authorized the conquest of Peru on the grounds that the Spanish would convert the indigenous peoples to Christianity. The conversion of Atahualpa would have been a major step in the realization of this goal, but the Spanish were also aware that a Christianized Atahualpa, if released, would be a more effective ruler than a non-Christian one. The baptism of Atahualpa, which was performed on the eve of the trial, was therefore a double-edged act: it converted the Inca to Christianity, but it also made it possible to execute him by strangulation rather than burning.

The charges and the trial

The charges

The charges against Atahualpa were drawn up by a commission of Spanish jurists, headed by the captain Juan de Herrada. The charges included polygamy, the murder of his brother Huáscar, the worship of false gods, and the practice of incest. The first three charges were based, at least in part, on real Inca practices: the Sapa Inca did practice polygamy, the Sapa Inca did order the death of Huáscar (although the order was given in the context of the civil war of succession between Huáscar and Atahualpa), and the Inca did practice a religion that the Spanish considered pagan. The fourth charge, incest, was almost certainly fabricated. The Spanish accounts allege that Atahualpa had sexual relations with his sister, and the charge is mentioned in the trial record, but no credible evidence for it has ever been produced, and most historians consider it to be a pretext.

The charge of fratricide — the murder of Huáscar — was the most serious of the charges against Atahualpa. The Spanish accounts report that Atahualpa had ordered the death of Huáscar because he feared that the Spanish would restore Huáscar to the throne in his place. The order was carried out in 1533, while Atahualpa was still a prisoner of the Spanish, and the death of Huáscar removed the last legitimate male heir of the senior Cusco line. The Spanish used the charge of fratricide to justify the execution of Atahualpa, and the charge has been the subject of historical controversy ever since.

The procedure of the trial

The trial was conducted by a Spanish military court, in Spanish, with the interpreter Felipillo, who had very imperfect Quechua, providing a barely adequate translation. Atahualpa was not represented by counsel, and the proceedings were conducted in a single day, on 26 July 1533. The Spanish accounts, which include the eyewitness Relación of Francisco de Xerez, report that Atahualpa defended himself with dignity and with intelligence, denying the charge of incest and arguing that the murder of Huáscar had been an act of war, not a crime. The Spanish, however, were not prepared to accept his defense, and he was found guilty on all charges.

The trial is significant for the light it throws on the Spanish conception of justice in the conquest. The Spanish, who had come to the Andes with a developed legal tradition, applied the forms of Spanish law to the trial of an indigenous ruler, but the substance of the trial was political rather than legal. The Spanish were not interested in the truth of the charges; they were interested in removing Atahualpa from the political scene. The trial is also significant for the role of the interpreter Felipillo, who had been taken on board one of Pizarro’s ships and who had a very imperfect knowledge of Quechua. The interpreter’s incompetence was a serious obstacle to Atahualpa’s defense, and it is likely that the trial would have had a different outcome if a competent interpreter had been available.

The execution

The baptism and the commutation of the sentence

The execution of Atahualpa took place at Cajamarca on 26 July 1533, in the main square of the town. At the last moment, after he had accepted baptism into the Christian faith, the sentence was commuted from burning to strangulation, on the grounds that baptized persons could not be burned. The baptism was performed by the Spanish chaplain, Father Vicente de Valverde, who had been the principal religious authority in Cajamarca since the arrival of the Spanish. The baptism was a public act, and the Spanish accounts report that Atahualpa accepted it willingly, on the grounds that the Christian God was the god of the Spanish and that he wished to enter the Christian heaven.

The commutation of the sentence from burning to strangulation was, in part, a humanitarian gesture. The Spanish accounts, which were written by Spanish chroniclers and reflect Spanish values, present the commutation as an act of mercy. The indigenous accounts, recorded by the chroniclers Titu Cusi Yupanqui and Miguel Cabello Balboa, present the commutation as a stratagem: the Spanish wished to avoid the public spectacle of a burning, which would have been seen as a sign of Spanish cruelty, and they wished to be able to claim that they had given the Inca a Christian burial. The truth is uncertain, but the commutation is significant because it indicates that the Spanish were aware of the political implications of the execution and that they were trying to manage them.

The death and burial of Atahualpa

Atahualpa was strangled in the public square of Cajamarca, in the presence of a large crowd of Spanish soldiers and indigenous people. The Spanish accounts report that the Inca met his death with composure, and that he was given a Christian burial in the small church at Cajamarca. The body was later removed, possibly by the Spanish, possibly by the Inca, and the location of the burial is not known. The Spanish accounts report that a stone cross was erected over the grave, and that the church was later rebuilt on the site of the original burial.

The execution of Atahualpa was a political act as much as a judicial one. The Sapa Inca had been the ruler of the northern Inca state, and his death left the state without a legitimate ruler. The Spanish were now free to install a puppet ruler — Manco Inca Yupanqui, a younger son of Huayna Capac — and to advance on Cusco without fear of an indigenous counter-attack. The execution also had religious significance: the baptism of Atahualpa, on the eve of his execution, was a powerful symbol of the Spanish claim to bring Christianity to the Andes, and it enabled the Spanish to present the conquest as a religious as well as a political undertaking.

Aftermath

The advance on Cusco

The execution of Atahualpa was followed by the Spanish advance on Cusco, the Inca capital. Pizarro left a small garrison at Cajamarca and marched south with the main body of his force, including the Spanish infantry and cavalry and a large number of indigenous auxiliaries. The march from Cajamarca to Cusco, along the spine of the Andes, took several months and was marked by a series of engagements against Inca forces loyal to the now-dead Atahualpa. The most important of these was the battle on the plain of Quipaipán, near the city of Vilcashuamán, in which the Spanish defeated a large Inca army under the general Quisquis. The conquest of Cusco was completed on 15 November 1533, almost exactly a year after the Battle of Cajamarca.

The memory of the execution

The execution of Atahualpa has been remembered in Andean tradition as one of the most traumatic events of the conquest. The indigenous chroniclers, especially Titu Cusi Yupanqui, present the execution as a betrayal of the agreement of ransom and as a sign of the bad faith of the Spanish. The Spanish chroniclers, especially Francisco de Xerez and Pedro Sancho, present the execution as a just punishment for the crimes of which the Inca had been convicted. The post-independence states of Peru and Ecuador have at different times presented Atahualpa as a national hero, and the memory of his execution continues to be a potent symbol in the political and cultural life of the modern Andean countries.

The execution of Atahualpa also marked the end of the northern Inca state. The southern Inca state, under the puppet Manco Inca and his successors, survived in the Neo-Inca State at Vilcabamba until 1572, but the execution of Atahualpa in 1533 marked the effective end of the independent political life of the Inca. The history of the Inca civilization after 1533 is, in effect, the history of a defeated people, and the execution of Atahualpa is the symbolic date of that defeat.