| Battle of Vilcaconga | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Spanish conquest of Peru | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Spanish Empire Native allies | Inca Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Francisco Pizarro Hernando de Soto Diego de Almagro | Quizquiz | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 300 Spaniards Possibly native auxiliaries | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 5 | ~800 | ||||||
The Battle of Vilcaconga took place during the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire from November 8–9, 1533. The Spanish won a convincing victory, suffering minimal casualties.
The Spanish emerged as victors in the Battle of Cajamarca in November 1532. Some 180 Spaniards under Francisco Pizarro were in control of major parts of the vast Inca Empire and held its emperor, Atahualpa, hostage. After recovering a vast ransom for his release, the Spanish had the Sapa Inca executed on July 26. Pizarro and his army crossed the mountains and rejoined Diego de Almagro, who was commanding some 100 Spaniards. The Incas still controlled large territory including their capital Cuzco, and commanders who had been ordered to stand down by a captive Atahualpa now moved south toward the Spanish, able to rally tens of thousands of soldiers. The Spanish, for their part, sought to conquer Cuzco and add it to their territory.
The Inca general Quizquiz commanded the mountain pass at Vilcaconga fortified where the Spaniards would have to pass, including digging spike pits to slow Spanish horses. The Incas planned well and used every advantage they could muster, fighting on about as favorable terms as possible, using the terrain, the element of surprise, and the exhaustion of the Spanish advance force. The Incas attacked a Spanish advance group of forty horsemen led by Hernando de Soto late in the day on November 8. The soldiers would have been tired from a full day of marching, and the Incas were able to attack from multiple sides, with the cover of nightfall, and from charging down a slope. Several Spaniards were killed, and the rest was in deadly peril. Nevertheless, de Soto's forces fought their way to the top of the slope and held out for the rest of the troops the next day. Another forty horsemen led by Almagro arrived on November 9. This combined force, though still numerically outnumbered, managed to rout Quizquiz's forces and press further towards Cuzco. [1]
Vilcaconga ensured that the Spanish would not be stopped on their way to the Incan capital, Cuzco. It was captured in the Battle of Cuzco and Pizarro entered the city in triumph on November 15, 1533.
Despite the lopsided casualty numbers, wherein the Spanish only lost 5 soldiers and 2 horses, the Incas performed well in the battle, and showed more success than other battles which were pure one-sided routs. Records seem to indicate that the Incas at least came close to breaking the line thanks to the advantages they gained for themselves. Working against them was the excellent armor the Spanish wore, which shrugged off attacks such as sling bullets or darts at range, and honed and drilled Spanish pike tactics that made getting in close to deliver a damaging blow difficult. [1]
Pedro Cieza de León wrote a detailed journal of the battle which later historians have used as a major primary source for the historiography of the battle.
Diego de Almagro, also known as El Adelantado and El Viejo, was a Spanish conquistador known for his exploits in western South America. He participated with Francisco Pizarro in the Spanish conquest of Peru. While subduing the Inca Empire he laid the foundation for Quito and Trujillo as Spanish cities in present-day Ecuador and Peru respectively. From Peru, Almagro led the first Spanish military expedition to central Chile. Back in Peru, a longstanding conflict with Pizarro over the control of the former Inca capital of Cuzco erupted into a civil war between the two bands of conquistadores. In the battle of Las Salinas in 1538, Almagro was defeated by the Pizarro brothers and months later he was executed.
Francisco Pizarro, Marquess of the Atabillos was a Spanish conquistador, best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
Huáscar Inca also Guazcar was Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire from 1527 to 1532. He succeeded his father, Huayna Capac and his brother Ninan Cuyochi, both of whom died of smallpox while campaigning near Quito.
Atahualpa, also Atawallpa (Quechua), Atabalica, Atahuallpa, Atabalipa, was the last effective Incan emperor before his capture and execution during the Spanish conquest.
Gonzalo Pizarro y Alonso was a Spanish conquistador. He was the younger paternal half brother of Francisco Pizarro, who led the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. Pizarro was the illegitimate son of Gonzalo Pizarro y Rodríguez de Aguilar (1446–1522), who, as an infantry colonel, served under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba during the Italian Wars. He was also the younger paternal half brother of Hernándo Pizarro y de Vargas and the older paternal full brother of Juan Pizarro y Alonso.
The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, also known as the Conquest of Peru, was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. After years of preliminary exploration and military skirmishes, 168 Spanish soldiers under conquistador Francisco Pizarro, along with his brothers in arms and their indigenous allies, captured the Sapa Inca Atahualpa in the 1532 Battle of Cajamarca. It was the first step in a long campaign that took decades of fighting but ended in Spanish victory in 1572 and colonization of the region as the Viceroyalty of Peru. The conquest of the Inca Empire, led to spin-off campaigns into present-day Chile and Colombia, as well as expeditions to the Amazon Basin and surrounding rainforest.
Manco Inca Yupanqui was the founder and monarch of the independent Neo-Inca State in Vilcabamba, although he was originally a puppet Inca Emperor installed by the Spaniards. He was also known as "Manco II" and "Manco Cápac II". He was one of the sons of Huayna Capac and a younger brother of Huascar.
The Ransom Room is a small building located in Cajamarca, Peru. It is considered to be the place where the Inca Empire came to an end with the capture and eventual execution of the Inca Emperor Atahualpa.
The Battle of Cajamarca also spelled Cajamalca was the ambush and seizure of the Inca ruler Atahualpa by a small Spanish force led by Francisco Pizarro, on November 16, 1532. The Spanish killed thousands of Atahualpa's counselors, commanders, and unarmed attendants in the great plaza of Cajamarca, and caused his armed host outside the town to flee. The capture of Atahualpa marked the opening stage of the conquest of the pre-Columbian civilization of Peru.
Quizquiz or Quisquis was, along with Chalcuchimac and Rumiñawi, one of Atahualpa's leading generals. In April 1532, along with his companions, Quizquiz led the armies of Atahualpa to victory in the battles of Mullihambato, Chimborazo and Quipaipan, where he, along with Chalkuchimac defeated and captured Huáscar and promptly killed his family, seizing capital Cuzco. Quizquiz later commanded Atahualpa's troops in the battles of Vilcaconga, Cuzco and Maraycalla (1534), ultimately being bested by the Spanish forces in both accounts.
The Battle of Cusco was fought in November 1533 between the forces of Spanish Conquistadors and of the Incas.
The Incas were most notable for establishing the Inca Empire which was centered in modern-day South America in Peru and Chile. It was about 2,500 miles from the northern to southern tip. The Inca Empire lasted from 1438 to 1533. It was the largest Empire in America throughout the Pre-Columbian era. At the peak of the Inca Empire, it was the largest nation in the world and to this day is the largest native state in the western hemisphere. The Inca civilization was located from north to south of the western hemisphere of South America. The Inca state was known as the Kingdom of Cuzco before 1438. Over the course of the Inca Empire, the Inca used conquest and peaceful assimilation to incorporate the territory of modern-day Peru, followed by a large portion of western South America, into their empire, centered on the Andean mountain range. However, shortly after the Inca Civil War, the last Sapa Inca (emperor) of the Inca Empire was captured and killed on the orders of the conquistador Francisco Pizarro, marking the beginning of Spanish rule. The remnants of the empire retreated to the remote jungles of Vilcabamba and established the small Neo-Inca State, which was conquered by the Spanish in 1572.
Diego de Almagro II, called El Mozo, was the son of Spanish conquistador Diego de Almagro and Ana Martínez, a native Panamanian Indian woman.
The 10 month siege of Cusco by the Inca army under the command of Sapa Inca Manco Inca Yupanqui started on 6 May 1536 and ended in March 1537. The city was held by a garrison of Spanish conquistadors and Indian auxiliaries led by Hernando Pizarro. The Incas hoped to restore their empire (1438–1533) with this action, but it was ultimately unsuccessful.
Chalcuchima was, along with Quizquiz and Rumiñawi one of the leading Inca generals of the north and a supporter of Atahualpa, for whom he had won five battles against the Spaniards.
The Inca Civil War, also known as the Inca Dynastic War, the Inca War of Succession, or, sometimes, the War of the Two Brothers, was fought between half-brothers Huáscar and Atahualpa, sons of Huayna Capac, over succession to the throne of the Inca Empire. The war followed Huayna Capac's death.
The Battle of Ollantaytambo took place in January 1537, between the forces of Inca emperor Manco Inca and a Spanish expedition led by Hernando Pizarro during the Spanish conquest of Peru. A former ally of the Spaniards, Manco Inca rebelled in May 1536, and besieged a Spanish garrison in the city of Cusco. To end the stand-off, the besieged mounted a raid against the emperor's headquarters in the town of Ollantaytambo. The expedition, commanded by Hernando Pizarro, included 100 Spaniards and some 30,000 Indian auxiliaries against an Inca army more than 30,000 strong.
The Neo-Inca State, also known as the Neo-Inca state of Vilcabamba, was the Inca state established in 1537 at Vilcabamba by Manco Inca Yupanqui. It is considered a rump state of the Inca Empire (1438–1533), which collapsed after the Spanish conquest in the mid-1530s. The Neo-Inca State lasted until 1572, when the last Inca stronghold was conquered, and the last ruler, Túpac Amaru, was captured and executed, thus ending the political authority of the Inca state.
Cuxirimay Ocllo, also known as Doña Angelina Yupanqui, was a princess and consort of the Inca Empire by marriage to her cousin, the Sapa Inca Atahualpa.