Description
Book SynopsisA highly illustrated and detailed study of one of the most important campaigns in the colonization of the Americas, the Spanish conquest of the vast Inca Empire.
On November 16, 1532, the Inca emperor Atahualpa was the most powerful man in South America, having emerged victorious from a three-year civil war. Now his authority was absolute over millions of subjects living the length of an empire that stretched 2,500 miles from the towering mountains of the Andes, to the verdant rainforest of the Amazon, to the arid plains of the Pacific Coast. However, a group of strangers, comprising just 169 men and 69 horses led by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, soon entered his empire from the north. Despite having 80,000 men at his disposal, Atahualpa was seized and imprisoned. Pizarro burned with the same ruthless ambition as his cousin, Hernán Cortés, who had taken Tenochtitlan, and understood that by seizing the autocrat at the top of the social structure, the state
Table of Contents
ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN - Arrival of the conquistadors - The capture of Atahualpa - Advance on Cuzco CHRONOLOGY OPPOSING COMMANDERS - Conquistador - Inca OPPOSING FORCES AND PLANS - Inca - Conquistador THE SIEGE OF CUZCO, 1536–37 - The end of the rebel Inca generals - Conquistador divisions and Manco’s uprising - The siege begins - The Inca assault, May 6, 1536 - The battle for Sacsayhuamán - Conquistador relief efforts - Quizo targets Lima - Ollantaytambo - Breaking the siege of Cuzco AFTERMATH BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX
