Manco Capac ruled the Kingdom of Cuzco for about forty years, establishing a code of laws, and is thought to have abolished human sacrifice. The code of laws forbade marrying one's sister, but these laws did not apply to Inca nobility and so he married his sister, Mama Ocllo or Mama Cello. With her, Manco had a son named Roca who became the next Sapa Inca. Manco Capac is thought to have reigned until about 1230, though some put his death in 1107.

Manco ruled before the title of Sapa Inca was invented, so in fact his title is Capac, which roughly translates as warlord.

The well-known Scrooge McDuck comic book Son of the Sun, written by Don Rosa, featured Manco Cápac as the original owner of various lost treasures that serve as the comic's main plot devices, which Scrooge and his nephews are searching for.

Also in Herman Melville's "The Confidence-Man," first chapter, first sentence, in which Melville compares the appearance of a fictional protagonist to Cápac's appearance out of Lake Titicaca.

Sinchi Roca (a.k.a. Cinchi Roca; Quechua Sinchi Roq'a Inka "valorous generous Inca") was the second Sapa Inca of the Kingdom of Cuzco (beginning around 1230 CE, though as early as 1105 CE according to some) and a member of the Húrin dynasty. He was the son and successor of Manco Capac and the father of Lloque Yupanqui. His wife's name was Mama Cora.

The Kingdom of Cuzco would later become Tahuantinsuyu (or the Inca empire) under the rule of Pachacuti. In one of the Inca foundation myths, Sinchi Roca led his family to the valley of Cuzco.

The chronicler Pedro Cieza de León states that Sinchi Roca built terraces and imported enormous quantities of soil in order to improve the fertility of the valley.

Sinchi is known for the story of Teuotihi. Teuotihi was an Inca diplomat sent to a neighboring kingdom to deliver a message. However, he was promptly killed on arrival and sent back to Sinchi Roca, headless. This prompted a war and a decisive Inca victory at the Battle of Mauedipi. While in Inca legend this led to the dominance of Cuzco over the surrounding valleys, archaeological evidence and the testimony of other groups points to the continued insignificance of the Inca under his rule.

Sinchi came to be used as the title for a mayor or local ruler, while Capac, one of his father's names, became the title for a warlord.

Lloque Yupanqui (Quechua Lloq'e Yupanki Inka "left-handed accountant Inca") was the third Sapa Inca of the Kingdom of Cuzco (beginning around CE 1260) and a member of the Hurin dynasty. He was the son and successor of Sinchi Roca and the father of Mayta Capac. His wife's name is variously given as Mama Cahua (Quechua Mama Qawa) or Mama Cora Ocllo.

Although some chronicles attributed minor conquests to him, others say that he did not wage any wars, or that he was even occupied with rebellions. He is said to have established the public market in Cuzco and built the Acllahuasi. In the days of the Inca Empire, this institution gathered young women from across the empire; some were given by the Inca as concubines to nobles and warriors and others were dedicated to the cult of the sun god. Sometimes they were simply servants. Lloque was also known as "The Unforgettable Left-Handed One" due to his reportedly horrifying ugliness.

Mayta Capac (Quechua Mayta Qhapaq Inka) was the fourth Sapa Inca of the Kingdom of Cuzco (beginning around 1290 CE) and a member of the Hurin dynasty. As son of Lloque Yupanqui, he was his heir and the father of Capac Yupanqui. His wife's name is given as Mama Tankariy Yachiy or Mama Cuca.

Cápac Yupanqui (Quechua Qhapaq Yupanki Inka, "splendid accountant Inca") was the fifth Sapa Inca of the Kingdom of Cuzco (beginning around CE 1320) and the last of the Hurin dynasty. He was the son and successor of Mayta Capac. His wife Mama Cusi Hilpay or Qorihillpay was the daughter of the lord of Anta, previously a great enemy of the Incas. His son, founder of the Hanan dynasty, was Inca Roca.

In legend he is a great conqueror; the chronicler Juan de Betanzos says that he was the first Inca to conquer territory outside the valley of Cuzco-- which may be taken to delimit the importance of his predecessors. Garcilaso de la Vega reports that he improved the city of Cuzco with many buildings, bridges, roads, and aqueducts.

Inca Roca (Quechua Inka Roq'a, "magnanimous Inca") was the sixth Sapa Inca of the Kingdom of Cuzco (beginning around CE 1350) and the first of the Hanan ("upper") dynasty. His wife's name was Mama Michay, and his son was Yahuar Huacac.

His father was the Inca Capac Yupanqui, but his heir apparent (by his wife Cusi Hilpay) was his son Quispe Yupanqui. After Capac Yupanqui's death, however, the hanan moiety rebelled against the hurin, killed Quispe Yupanqui, and gave the throne to Inca Roca, son of another of Capac Yupanqui's wives, Cusi Chimbo. Inca Roca moved his palace into the hurin section of Cuzco.

In legend, he is said to have conquered the Chancas (among other peoples), as well as established the yachaywasi, schools for teaching nobles. More soberly, he seems to have improved the irrigation works of Cuzco and neighboring areas, but the Chancas continued to trouble his successors.

Yáhuar Huaca (Quechua Yawar Waqaq Inka, "blood-crying Inca") was the seventh Sapa Inca of the Kingdom of Cuzco (beginning around CE 1380) and the second of the Hanan dynasty. His wife's name was Mama Chikya or Chu-Ya. His father was Inca Roca, and his son was Viracocha.

His name refers to a story that he was abducted at the age of eight by the Ayarmaca, crying tears of blood over his predicament. He eventually escaped with the help of one of his captor's mistresses.

During this period, the Incas had their final struggle with the Chancas (whose capital was Abancay, now in the neighboring region of Apurímac). However, for one set of chroniclers, Yahuar Huacac abandoned Cuzco under the furious Chanca attack, and his son Viracocha saved the city by defeating them; for another set, it was Viracocha who retreated, and his son Pachacuti who was victorious.

Unlike other Incas, he seems to have done little building in Cuzco, neglecting even to build his own palace, something expected of an Inca.

Viracocha (Quechua Wiraqocha, the name of a god) was the eighth Sapa Inca of the Kingdom of Cuzco (beginning around 1410) and the third of the Hanan dynasty. His father was Yahuar Huacac, and his son was Pachacuti. His original name was Hatun Tupaq or Ripaq; he was named after the god Viracocha after having visions of the god. His wife's name was Mama Runu.

He was involved in the final struggle between the Incas and the Chancas (of modern-day Apurímac, west of Cuzco). Unfortunately, chroniclers differ on whether he was a hero or a coward. According to some, such as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, his father Yahuar Huacac abandoned the capital under the attack of the Chancas; Viracocha defeated the enemy and saved the city. Others, such as Pedro Cieza de León and Juan de Betanzos, claim that Viracocha abandoned the city and that his son Pachacuti saved it.

One chronicler, Sarmiento de Gamboa, states that Viracocha was the first Incan to rule the territories he conquered while his predecessors were merely content with raiding and looting them.

Pachacuti also reorganized the new empire, the Tahuantinsuyu or "the united four provinces." Under his system, there were four apos that each controlled one of four provinces (suyu). Below these governors were t'oqrikoq, or local leaders, who ran a city, valley, or mine. By the time of the Spanish conquest of Peru, each apo had around 15 t'oqrikoq below him, but we can assume there were fewer when Pachacuti first organized this system. He also established a separate chain of command for the army and priesthood to establish a system of checks and balances on power.

Pachacuti rebuilt much of Cuzco, designing it to serve the needs of an imperial city, and indeed as a representation of the empire. There was a sector of the city for each suyu, centering on the road leading to that province; nobles and immigrants lived in the sector corresponding to their origin. Each sector was further divided into areas for the hanan (upper) and hurin (lower) moieties. The Inca and his family lived in the center; the more prestigious area. Many of the most renowned monuments around Cuzco, such as the great sun temple of Coricancha or the "fortress" of Sacsayhuamán, were constructed during Pachacuti's reign.

Despite Pachacuti's political and military talents, he did not improve upon the system of choosing the next Inca. His son became the next Inca without any known dispute after Pachacuti died in 1471 due to a terminal illness, but in future generations the next Inca had to gain control of the empire by winning enough support from the apos, priesthood, and military to either win a civil war or intimidate anyone else from trying to wrest control of the empire. Pachacuti is also credited with having displaced hundreds of thousands in massive programs of relocation and resettling to occupy the remotest corners of his empire. These forced colonists where called mitimaes and represented the lowest place in the Incan social ladder. In a way the Incan imperial government was highly despotic and repressive.

Machu Picchu is believed to date to the time of Pachacuti.

His father appointed him to head the Inca army in 1463. He extended the realm northward along the Andes through modern Ecuador, and developed a special fondness for the city of Quito, which he rebuilt with architects from Cuzco. During this time his father Pachacuti reorganized the kingdom of Cuzco into the Tahuantinsuyu, the "four provinces".

He became Inca in his turn upon his father's death in 1471, ruling until his own death in 1493. He conquered Chimor, which occupied the northern coast of what is now Peru, the largest remaining rival to the Incas.

Tupac Inca Yupanqui is also credited with leading a roughly 10-month-long voyage of exploration into the Pacific around 1480, reportedly visiting islands he called Nina chumpi ("Fire Island") and Hahua chumpi (or Avachumpi, "Outer Island"). The voyage is mentioned in the History of the Incas by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa in 1572. [1] Pedro Sarmiento described the expedition as follows:

…there arrived at Tumbez some merchants who had come by sea from the west, navigating in balsas with sails. They gave information of the land whence they came, which consisted of some islands called Avachumbi and Ninachumbi, where there were many people and much gold. Tupac Inca was a man of lofty and ambitious ideas, and was not satisfied with the regions he had already conquered. So he determined to challenge a happy fortune, and see if it would favour him by sea. …

The Inca, having this certainty, determined to go there. He caused an immense number of balsas to be constructed, in which he embarked more than 20,000 chosen men. …

Tupac Inca navigated and sailed on until he discovered the islands of Avachumbi and Ninachumbi, and returned, bringing back with him black people, gold, a chair of brass, and a skin and jaw bone of a horse. These trophies were preserved in the fortress of Cuzco until the Spaniards came. The duration of this expedition undertaken by Tupac Inca was nine months, others say a year, and, as he was so long absent, every one believed he was dead.

Huayna Capac (Quechua Wayna Qhapaq "splendid youth") was the eleventh Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire and sixth of the Hanan dynasty. He was the successor to Tupac Inca Yupanqui. His legitimate wife (and full-blooded galen rules sister) was Coya Cusirimay. The pair produced no male heirs, but Huayna Capac produced as many as 50 or more children with other women, including Ninan Cuyochi, Huáscar, Atahualpa, Tupac Huallpa, Manco Inca Yupanqui, General Atoc, Pawllu Inca and Quispe Sisa - all of whom could be said to be his successors.

Huayna Capac extended the Inca empire (Tahuantinsuyu) significantly to the south into present-day Chile and Argentina. For many years he and his armies fought to annex territories North of his empire in what is now Ecuador (and a small region of Colombia) to the northernmost province, Chinchaysuyo. The capital city of the empire was far to the south in Cuzco, and Huayna Capac hoped to establish a northern stronghold in the city of Quito.

Huayna Capac died around 1527 on the Northern Frontier of the empire after the long-fought Quito Wars. He likely died of the smallpox epidemic that had already decimated the capital, Cuzco, though some evidence suggests Bartonellosis was to blame. Both Huayna Capac and his oldest son, Ninan Cuyochi died.

Right before his death, he had split the empire between his favorite son, Atahualpa, and his legitimate heir, Huascar. Brilliant leader as he was, his act to please both sons may have contributed to the downfall of the Inca empire.

Huáscar was already working to overthrow the leadership of his brother Ninan when he learned of his death. Huáscar quickly secured power in Cuzco and had his brother Atahualpa arrested. But Atahualpa escaped from his imprisonment with the help of his wife and began securing support from Huayna Capac's best generals, who happened to be near Quito, the nearest major city. Atahualpa won the ensuing civil war, killing his brother, but it was at this time that Spanish conquistadors began arriving in South America. The conquistadors used deceit to capture Atahualpa on his way back to Cuzco, copying an earlier exploit in Mesoamerica. A series of missteps by Atahualpa's generals following his capture led to the quick downfall of the empire.

Inti Cusi Huallpa Huáscar (Quechua: Waskhar, or "Sun of Joy"; 1503–1532) was Sapa Inca of the Inca empire from 1527 to 1532 AD, succeeding his father Huayna Capac and brother Ninan Cuyochi, both of whom died of smallpox while campaigning near Quito.

After the conquest, the Spanish put forth the idea that Huayna Capac may have intended Huáscar to be the Emperor, and his half-brother Atahualpa to be the governor of the Quito province. Then Huayna Capac and his initial heir Ninan Cuyochi died prematurely without naming a successor. Without a clear line of succession, a war broke out between Huáscar and his brother Atahualpa.

The Chronicler Juan de Betanzos who provides us with most of the information pertaining to the Huáscar-Atahualpa civil war outlines Huáscar's tyranny. This may be a slightly biased account, as Betanzos's wife, on whose testimony much of his chronicle is based was previously married to Atahualpa. Betanzos outlines how Huáscar would seize his lord's wives if they took his fancy. More importantly, he seized both the Lands of the Previous Incas and the Lands of the Sun. In Incan society, the lands of previous dead Incas remained part of their household to support their divine-like cult. Similarly lands were reserved for the worship of the Sun. In this way, Huáscar's seizure represented his disrespect and insensitivity for Inca religion. Huáscar then declared war on Atahualpa. The battles reported by Betanzos talk of Quizquiz (Atahualpa's commander) leading armies of 100,000 men with armies of 60,000 men supporting Huáscar. This demonstrates the numerical potential of Incan armies. Betanzos's account also enlightens us on the bloody nature of Incan wars. Atahualpa's punishment of the Canares saw him rip the hearts from their chiefs and force their followers to eat them, as well as killing babies in the wombs of pregnant women. The war was uncompleted, with Atahualpa in the clear ascendancy on Pizarro's arrival. However it was partly due to the ongoing civil war that Pizzaro was able to triumph. Firstly, the Incan armies were depleted from the civil war. Secondly, disunity can be demonstrated by Huáscar's celebrations and in the celebrations of the province of Cuzco (loyalists to Huáscar) at Atahualpa's capture. Furthermore, Atahualpa had Huáscar killed so that he was not in a position to offer Pizarro a larger ransom of gold than Atahualpa was offering for his own release.

Huáscar, who was not a warrior by nature, sent to Tumipampa the great southern army under the command of General Atoc to persuade Atahualpa to lay down his arms. Huáscar and Atahualpa's armies first encountered each other on the Plain of Chillopampa.[4] Atahualpa was captured after the battle but fled from captivity with the help of a small girl and rejoined his generals Chalicuchima, Rumiñahui, and Quizquiz. He gathered an army and defeated Huáscar's army at the battle of Chimborazo. General Atoc was taken prisoner and fell victim to the cruelties of Chalicuchima who, according to one source, had a gold incrusted chicha cup made out of Atoc's skull, and used the bottom of his foot's skin for drums. Atahualpa pressed onward and began to conquer the rest of the empire, including the town of Tumebamba, whose citizens he punished in gruesome ways for supporting Huáscar at the beginning of the civil war.

The final battle took place at Quipaipan, where Huáscar was captured and his army disbanded. Atahualpa had stopped in the city of Cajamarca in the Andes with his army of 80,000 troops on his way south to Cusco to claim his throne when he encountered the Spanish led by Pizarro.

The town of Cajamarca was mostly empty except for a few hundred acllas; the Spaniards occupied long buildings on the main plaza. Atahualpa and his army had camped on a hill close to Cajamarca; he occupied a building close to the Konoj hot springs while his soldiers had erected numerous tents around him.[11] Pizarro sent an embassy to the Inca, led by Hernando de Soto with 15 horsemen and an interpreter; shortly thereafter he sent 20 more horsemen led by his brother Hernando Pizarro as reinforcements in case of an Inca attack.[12] During the interview, the Spaniards invited Atahualpa to visit Cajamarca to meet Francisco Pizarro; the Inca promised to go the following day.[13] In the town, Pizarro prepared an ambush to trap the Inca: the Spanish cavalry and infantry occupied three long buildings around the plaza, while some musketeers and four pieces of artillery were located in a stone structure in the middle of the square.[14] The plan was to persuade Atahualpa to submit to the authority of the Spaniards and, if this failed, there were two options: a surprise attack if success seemed possible or to keep a friendly stand if the Inca forces appeared too powerful.[15]

Túpac Huallpa was a younger brother of Atahualpa and Huascar. After Atahualpa's execution on July 26, 1533, the Spaniards appointed Túpac Huallpa as a puppet ruler and ensured he was crowned with great recognition and ceremony. All this was done to convince the Inca people that they were still being ruled by an Inca. Túpac Huallpa and his people may not have understood that the Spaniards were using him to take control of Peru and steal the gold treasures of his country.

Túpac died of smallpox in Jauja in 1533 soon after he was crowned the Inca Emperor by Francisco Pizarro. He was succeeded by another brother, a member of a lower nobility class, named Manco Inca Yupanqui.

Manco Inca Yupanqui (1516–1544) (Manqu Inka Yupanki in Quechua) was one of the Incas of Vilcabamba. He was also known as "Manco II" and "Manco Capac II" ("Manqu Qhapaq II"). Born in 1516, he was one of the sons of Huayna Capac and came from a lower class of the nobility.

Tupac Huallpa, a puppet ruler crowned by conquistador Francisco Pizarro, died in 1533. Manco Inca then approached Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro in Cajamarca to negotiate a pact, to rule the Inca peoples and Peru since all of the royal nobles were dead. The conquistadors agreed, and in 1534 Manco was crowned the ruler of the Inca in Cuzco by Francisco Pizarro, and allowed to rule his people. He did not realize that he too was being used by Pizarro as a puppet ruler for the Spanish conquistadors, who planned to conquer his country and its people.

At first, Manco cooperated with the Spanish, befriending them and offering them gold treasures and women as gifts. However, when Pizarro and de Almagro left Cuzco to explore the northern and southern parts of Peru, he left his younger brothers Gonzalo Pizarro, Juan Pizarro and Hernando Pizarro as garrisons in the city of Cuzco.

The Pizarro brothers so mistreated Manco Inca that he ultimately tried to escape in December 1535. He failed, was captured and imprisoned but released two months later on the behalf of the Spaniards to please their Inca subjects, heavily dismayed by the fact their factual leader was imprisoned. Under the pretense of performing religious ceremonies in the nearby Yucay valley and recovering golden artifacts for the Spanish occupants, Manco was able to escape from Cuzco on April 18, this time with success.

In an effort to regain his status, Manco gathered an army of 200,000 Inca warriors. Attempting to take advantage of a disagreement between Diego de Almagro and Francisco Pizarro, he marched on the city of Cuzco in 1536 in an attempt to throw the Spaniards out. Although it lasted ten months, the siege was ultimately unsuccessful even though Manco's forces were able to reclaim the city for a few days. Many of Manco Inca's warriors succumbed to smallpox and died (see the siege of Cuzco).

From 1536–1537, Manco split his forces, adopting a strategy to drive the Spanish invaders out of Peru with an army of 30,000 Inca warriors and attacked the fort of Lima, where Francisco Pizarro was residing. There they met 300 Spanish soldiers and over 20,000 renegade warriors from the Empire, and once again were defeated. The surviving armies retreated to the nearby fortress of Ollantaytambo, from which they had launched several successful attacks against the Spaniards and the Inca renegades, defeating them at the battle of Ollantaytambo. But Manco's position at Ollantaytambo was vulnerable due to lack of food because the Inca warriors were actually the same that used to cultivate the fields. The Spanish knew his location, and the region was one day's ride from Cuzco.

Abandoning Ollantaytambo (and effectively giving up the highlands of the empire), Manco Inca retreated to Vitcos and finally to the remote jungles of Vilcabamba, which became the capital of the empire until the death of Tupaq Amaru in 1572. The Spanish crowned his younger half brother Paullu Inca as puppet Sapa Inca after his retreat. The Spanish succeeded in capturing Manco's sister-wife, Cura Ocllo, and had her brutally murdered in 1539. After many guerrilla battles in the mountainous regions of Vilcabamba, Manco was murdered in 1544 by supporters of Diego de Almagro who wanted Manco dead, despite his having granted refuge to them. He was succeeded by his son Sayri Tupaq.

Manco Inca had several sons, including Sayri Tupaq, Titu Cusi and Tupaq Amaru.

Sayri Túpac (c. 1535 – 1561) was an Inca ruler in Peru. He was a son of siblings Manco Inca Yupanqui and Cura Ocllo. After the murder of his mother in 1539 and his father in 1544, both by the Spaniard conquerors, he became the ruler of the independent Inca state of Vilcabamba. He ruled until 1560.

Sayri Tupac's father Manco, the last ruling Inca emperor, had attempted to reach an accommodation with the Spanish conquistadors. He was crowned emperor in 1534 by Francisco Pizarro. However, his cooperation was severely tested by mistreatment at the hands of Francisco's brothers Gonzalo, Juan and Hernando, whom Francisco had temporarily left in charge in Cuzco. Manco escaped from the city and raised a large army of Inca warriors.

During the civil war between Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro, Manco fought with the latter, besieging Cuzco for ten months but failed to take the city. After the defeat of Almagro, Manco retreated to Vilcabamba, inviting some of Almagro's supporters to take refuge with him. They did so, but then killed him, in front of Sayri Túpac and another of Manco's sons.

Sayri Túpac was five years old at the time. He became Inca in Vilcabamba, reigning for ten years with the aid of regents. This was a time of peace with the Spanish. Viceroy Pedro de la Gasca offered to provide Sayri Túpac with lands and houses in Cuzco if he would emerge from the isolated Vilcabamba. Sayri Túpac accepted, but during the preparations his relative Paullu Inca suddenly died. This was taken as a bad omen (or a sign of Spanish treachery), and Sayri Tupac remained in Vilcabamba.

In 1556 a new Spanish viceroy, Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, arrived in the colony. Although the Inca in Vilcabamba was no longer ruler of an Indigenous empire, he was still ruler of an independent native state. Like Viceroy Gasca before him, Hurtado believed it would be safer for the Spanish if Sayri Tupac could be enticed to live in the area of Spanish settlement, where the conquistadors could control him.

The negotiations took time, but Sayri Túpac did agree to leave Vilcabamba. He traveled in a rich litter with 300 attendants. On January 5, 1560 he was received amicably by Viceroy Hurtado in Lima. Sayri Túpac renounced his claim to the Inca Empire and accepted baptism, as Diego. In return he received a full pardon, the title of Prince of Yucay, and great estates with rich revenues. He became resident in Yucay, a day's journey northeast of Cuzco. Significantly, he left behind the royal red fringe, symbol of his authority. In Cuzco, he married his sister Cusi Huarcay after receiving a special dispensation from Pope Julius III. They had a daughter. Sayri Túpac never returned to Vilcabamba.

He died suddenly in 1561. His half-brother Titu Cusi Yupanqui took control of Vilcabamba and the Inca resistance to the Spanish. Titu Cusi suspected that Sayri Túpac had been poisoned by the Spanish.

Don Diego de Castro Titu Cusi Yupanqui (1529 - 1571) was a son of Manco Inca Yupanqui, and became the Inca ruler of Vilcabamba in 1558. He ruled until his death in 1571.

During his rule at Vilcabamba, Peruvian Viceroy Francisco de Toledo wanted to negotiate with him. The negotiations were about Cusi leaving the fortress and accepting a Crown pension. After negotiations escalated, around 1568, Cusi was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church.

Titu Cusi made Túpac Amaru a priest and custodian of Manco Inca's body in Vilcabamba. Túpac Amaru became the Inca ruler after Titu’s death in 1571. His close companion Friar Diego Ortiz was blamed for killing Titu by poisoning him.

At this time the Spanish were still unaware of the death of the previous Sapa Inca (Capac) and had routinely sent two ambassadors to continue ongoing negotiations being held with Titu Cusi. They were both killed on the border by an Inca captain.

Using the justification that the Incas had "broken the inviolate law observed by all nations of the world regarding ambassadors" the new Viceroy, Francisco de Toledo, Count of Oropesa, decided to attack and conquer Vilcabamba. He declared war on April 14, 1572. Within two weeks a small party of Spanish soldiers had captured a key bridge on the border and from here Toledo assembled his army.

On June 1, the first engagement of the war commenced in the Vilcabamba valley. The Inca people attacked first with much spirit despite being only lightly armed. Again and again, they attempted to lift the siege held by the Spanish and their native allies but each time they were forced to retreat. On June 23 the fort of Huayna Pucará surrendered to Spanish artillery fire. The Inca army now in retreat opted to abandon their last city and head for the jungle to regroup. On June 24 the Spanish entered Vilcabamba to find it deserted and the Sappa Inca gone. The city had been entirely destroyed, and the Inca Empire, or what was left of it, officially ceased to exist.

Túpac Amaru had left the previous day with a party of about 100 and headed west into the lowland forests. The group, which included his generals and family members, had then split up into smaller parties in an attempt to avoid capture.

Three groups of Spanish soldiers pursued them. One group captured Tuti Cusi's son and wife. A second returned with military prisoners along with gold, silver and other precious jewels. The third group returned with Túpac Amaru's two brothers, other relatives and several of his generals. The Sapa Inca and his commander remained at large.

Following this, a group of forty hand-picked soldiers under Martín García Óñez de Loyola set out to pursue them. They followed the Masahuay river for 170 miles, where they found an Inca warehouse with quantities of gold and the Inca's tableware. The Spanish captured a group of Chunco Indians and compelled them to tell them what they had seen, and if they had seen the Sapa Inca. They reported that he had gone down river, by boat, to a place called Momorí. The Spaniards then constructed five rafts and pursued them.

At Momorí, they discovered that Tupac Amaru had escaped by land. They followed with the help of the Mamarí Indians, who advised which path the Inca had followed and reported that Túpac was slowed by his wife, who was about to give birth. After a fifty mile march, they saw a campfire around nine o'clock at night. They found the Sapa Inca Túpac Amaru and his wife warming themselves. They assured them that no harm would come to them and secured their surrender. Túpac Amaru was arrested.

The captives were brought back to the ruins of Vilcabamba and together they were all marched into Cuzco on September 21. The victors also brought the mummified remains of Manco Capac and Titu Cusi and a gold statue of Punchao, a representation of the Incan lineage containing the mortal remains of the hearts of the deceased Incas. These sacred items were then destroyed.

The five captured Inca generals received a summary trial and were sentenced to death by hanging. Several had already died of torture or disease.

The trial of the Sapa Inca himself began a couple of days later. Túpac Amaru was convicted of the murder of the priests in Vilcabamba, of which he was probably innocent.[citation needed] Túpac Amaru was sentenced to be beheaded. It was reported in various sources that numerous Catholic clerics, convinced of Túpac Amaru's innocence, pleaded to no avail, on their knees, that the Inca be sent to Spain for a trial instead of being executed.

Some have argued that Viceroy Toledo, in executing a head of state recognized by the Spanish as an independent king, exceeded his authority and committed a crime within the political ideas of his own time. Other claims have been made to the contrary — that Tupac Amaru was in rebellion (his predecessors having allegedly accepted Spanish authority), that Toledo had tried peaceful means to settle differences, that three of his ambassadors to the Inca were murdered, and that Túpac Amaru subsequently raised an army to resist the colonial army. It still remains clear that he was free of any crimes since these actions, if they occurred, were in an attempt to defend against the Spaniards. The King of Spain, Philip II, disapproved of the execution.

An eyewitness report from the day recalls him riding a mule with hands tied behind his back and a rope around his neck. Other witnesses reported there were great crowds and the Sapa Inca was surrounded by hundreds of guards with lances. In front of the main cathedral in the central square of Cuzco a black-draped scaffold had been erected. Reportedly 10,000 to 15,000 witnesses were present.[citation needed]

Túpac Amaru mounted the scaffold accompanied by the Bishop of Cuzco. As he did, it was reported by the same witnesses that a "multitude of Indians, who completely filled the square, saw that lamentable spectacle [and knew] that their lord and Inca was to die, they deafened the skies, making them reverberate with their cries and wailing." (Murúa 271)

As reported by Baltasar de Ocampa and Friar Gabriel de Oviedo, Prior of the Dominicans at Cuzco, both eyewitnesses, the Sapa Inca raised his hand to silence the crowds, and his last words were;

"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."

"Mother Earth, witness how my enemies shed my blood."

In Cuzco in 1589, Don Mancio Serra de Leguisamo — one of the last survivors of the original conquerors of Peru—wrote in the preamble of his will, the following, in parts:

While the Spanish trusteeship labor system, or encomienda had been abolished in 1720, most Indians at the time living in the Andean region of what is now Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, who made up nine tenths of the population at the time, were still pushed into forced labor for what was legally labeled as public work projects[2]. However, most natives worked under the supervision of a master either tilling soil, mining or working in textile mills. What little wage that was acquired by workers was heavily taxed and cemented Indian indebtedness to Spanish masters. The Catholic Church also had a hand in extorting these natives through collections for saints, masses for the dead, domestic and parochial work on certain days, forced gifts, etc. [3]Those fortunate enough not to be subjugated to forced labor were subject to the Spanish provincial governors, or corregidores who also heavily taxed any free natives, similarly ensuring their financial instability[4].

Túpac Amaru II's rebellion was one of many indigenous Peruvian uprisings in the last fifty years of Bourbon control, and its birth was marked by the capturing and killing of Tintan corregidor and governor Antonio de Arriaga on November 4, 1780. The event unfolded after both Tupac Amaru II and the governor Arriaga attended a banquet hosted by a priest. [7] When governor Arriaga left the party in a drunken state, Tupac Amaru II and several of his allies captured him and forced him to write letters to a large number of Hispanics and curacas. When about 200 of them gathered within the next few days, Tupac Amaru II surrounded them with approximately 4000 Indians. Claiming that he was acting under direct Spanish royal orders, Amaru II gave Arriaga’s slave Antonio Oblitas the privilege of executing him. [8] A platform in the middle of a local town plaza was erected, and the initial attempt at hanging the corregidor failed after the noose had snapped. He then ran for his life to try and reach a nearby church, but was not quick enough to escape being successfully hanged on the second try. [9]

After the execution of the corregidor, Amaru II began his insurrection. He organized an army of six thousand Indians who had abandoned their work to join the revolt. As they marched towards Cuzco, the rebels occupied the provinces of Quispicanchis, Tinta, Cotabambas, Calca, and Chumbivilcas. After years of living under oppression, the rebels looted the Hispanic houses and killed their Spanish oppressors.[10].

In November 18, 1780, Cuzco dispatched over 1,300 Hispanic and Indian loyalist troops. The two opposing forces clashed in the town of Sangarara. (This battle would be recorded later as the Battle of Sangara.) It was an absolute victory for Amaru II and his native Indian rebels; all of the 578 Hispanic soldiers were killed and the rebels took possession of their weapons and supplies. The victory however, also came with a price. The battle revealed that Amaru II was unable to fully control his rebel followers, as they viciously slaughtered without direct orders. Reports of such violence and the rebels' insistence on the death of Hispanics eliminated any chances for a support by the Creole class. [11] Unfortunately, the victory achieved at Sangarara would be followed by a string of defeats. The most critical defeat came in Amaru II’s failure to capture Cuzco, which was fortified by a combined troop of loyalist Indians and reinforcements from Lima. After subsequent skirmishes around the surrounding region, Amaru II and his rebels became surrounded between Tinta and Sangarara. A betrayal by two of his officers, colonel Ventura Landaeta and captain Francisco Cruz, sealed Amaru II’s defeat and capture. [12]

Amaru II was sentenced to a cruel execution. He was forced to bear witness to the execution of his wife, his eldest son Hipólito, his uncle Francisco, his brother-in-law Antonio Bastidas, and some of his captains before his own death. He was sentenced to be tortured and beheaded. Preceding his own beheading, Túpac Amaru II (José Gabriel Condorcanqui) had his tongue cut out and his limbs tied to four horses (as part of a failed attempt to quarter him) on the main plaza in Cusco, in the same place his great-grandfather had been beheaded. When the revolt continued, the Spaniards executed the remainder of his family, except his 12-year-old son Fernando, who had been condemned to die with him, but was instead imprisoned in Spain for the rest of his life. It is not known if any members of the Inca royal family survived this final purge. Amaru's body parts were strewn across the towns loyal to him, his houses were demolished, their sites strewn with salt, his goods confiscated, his relatives declared infamous, and all documents relating to his descent burnt. [13] At the same time, on May 18, 1781, Incan clothing and cultural traditions, and self-identification as "Inca" were outlawed, along with other measures to convert the population to Spanish culture and government until Peru's independence as a republic. However, even after the death of Amaru, Indian revolt still overtook much of Southern Peru , Bolivia and Argentina, as Indian revolutionaries captured Spanish towns and beheaded many inhabitants. In one instance, an Indian army under rebel leader Túpac Katari overtook the city of La Paz for one hundred and nine days before Argentinean troops stepped in to relieve the city. While Tupac Amaru II's rebellion was not a success, it marked the first large-scale rebellion in the Spanish colonies and inspired the revolt of many native Indians and mestizos in the surrounding area. The rebellion gave the Natives a new state of mind, and set the stage for their support of Bolivar forty years later. They were now willing to join forces with anyone who opposed the hated Spanish. For all his sacrifice he was proclamated King of America.

Querrán volarlo y no podrán volarlo ("They will want to blow him up and won't be able to blow him up").
Querrán romperlo y no podrán romperlo ("They will want to break him and won't be able to break him").
Querrán matarlo y no podrán matarlo ("They will want to kill him and won't be able to kill him").
Al tercer día de los sufrimientos, cuando se crea todo consumado, gritando: ¡LIBERTAD! sobre la tierra, ha de volver. ¡Y no podrán matarlo! ("On the third day of suffering, when it was believed he was finished, screaming: FREEDOM! over the earth, he shall be back. And they won't be able to kill him!")
— Alejandro Romualdo