Túpac Amaru I — The Last Sapa Inca, Executed 1572

Túpac Amaru I (c. 1545–1572) was the last Sapa Inca of the Neo-Inca State at Vilcabamba and the last ruler to claim the title of Inca king. He succeeded to the throne in 1571, after the death of his older brother Titu Cusi, and he ruled the Neo-Inca State for less than a year before he was captured by the Spanish in the campaign of 1572. He was brought to Cusco in chains, was tried by a Spanish military court on charges of rebellion and murder, was found guilty, and was beheaded in the main square of Cusco on 24 September 1572. The execution of Túpac Amaru I marked the end of the independent political life of the Inca, and it brought the Vilcabamba resistance to a definitive close. The death of the last Sapa Inca is one of the most significant events in the history of the Andes, and it has been remembered in the Andean tradition as a moment of profound loss.

Background and accession

The succession of 1571

Túpac Amaru I was a younger son of Manco Inca Yupanqui and a younger brother of Sayri Túpac and Titu Cusi. He was born in about 1545, and he was raised in the Neo-Inca State at Vilcabamba after the death of his father in 1544. The succession of Túpac Amaru to the throne of the Neo-Inca State in 1571 was the result of a brief succession dispute following the death of his older brother Titu Cusi, who died in 1571 in circumstances that are unclear. The Spanish accounts suggest that Titu Cusi was assassinated by members of his own court, while the indigenous accounts suggest that he was killed by the Spanish. The truth is uncertain, but the death of Titu Cusi left the succession in dispute, and Túpac Amaru was eventually recognized as the new Sapa Inca.

Túpac Amaru was about twenty-five years old at the time of his accession, and he lacked the political experience of his older brothers. The Neo-Inca State, which had been weakened by the departure of Sayri Túpac in 1557 and by the failure of Titu Cusi’s negotiations with the Spanish, was a small and vulnerable polity, and the new Sapa Inca faced a difficult situation. The Spanish, in the meantime, had been reinforced by the appointment of a new viceroy, Francisco de Toledo, who was determined to put an end to the Neo-Inca State once and for all. The accession of Túpac Amaru, in effect, coincided with a change in the policy of the Spanish crown, and the new Sapa Inca was unable to prevent the Spanish campaign that would end the Neo-Inca State.

The Neo-Inca State in 1571

The Neo-Inca State in 1571 was a small polity, perhaps 30,000 to 40,000 people, in a remote and difficult country. The state was organized on the Inca model, with a Sapa Inca, a council of Inca nobles, and a system of labor extraction based on the mit’a. The state maintained many of the institutions of the pre-conquest order, including the cult of the Inti — the sun — and the mummification of the royal dead. The state launched raids into the highland provinces, and the Spanish were unable to suppress it. The state was, in effect, a continuation of the Inca state in exile, and it served as a focus for indigenous resistance to the Spanish.

The Neo-Inca State was, however, weakened by internal divisions and by the failure of the previous rulers’ negotiations with the Spanish. Sayri Túpac had abandoned the state in 1557, and Titu Cusi had rejected the agreement of his brother and had resumed the war against the Spanish. The Spanish had been reinforced by the appointment of the Viceroy Francisco de Toledo, and the Spanish were now determined to put an end to the Neo-Inca State. The Spanish had also been reinforced by the demographic collapse of the Andean population, which had reduced the indigenous population of the central Andes to a small fraction of its pre-conquest size, and which had also reduced the population of the Neo-Inca State. The state, in effect, was a small and vulnerable polity, and the accession of Túpac Amaru marked the beginning of the end.

The Vilcabamba campaign of 1572

The Spanish preparations

The Spanish campaign against the Neo-Inca State was organized by the Viceroy Francisco de Toledo, who had been appointed in 1569 and who had been instructed by the Spanish crown to put an end to the Neo-Inca State once and for all. The viceroy assembled a force of about 250 Spanish soldiers, including infantry, cavalry, and arquebusiers, and a large number of indigenous auxiliaries, drawn from the Cañari, the Chachapoya, and other groups that had been incorporated into the colonial regime. The viceroy placed the force under the command of Martín García de Loyola, a young Spanish captain who had been the lover of Beatriz Coya, the widow of Sayri Túpac, and who was a member of a powerful Spanish family.

The Spanish campaign set out from Cusco in April 1572, and from there advanced into the Vilcabamba region. The Spanish took the highland route along the Urubamba valley, and from there entered the cloud forest and the steep mountain terrain that surrounded Vilcabamba. The Spanish were supported by a number of indigenous allies, including the Chachapoya, who had been incorporated into the Neo-Inca State only recently and who were willing to support the Spanish against the Inca. The Spanish campaign was well organized and well supplied, and it was able to take advantage of the divisions within the Neo-Inca State to capture the Inca court.

The capture of the Inca

The Spanish campaign took several months, and the Spanish were forced to fight several engagements against the Inca forces. The Spanish accounts report that the Inca forces, although they were outnumbered, were able to mount a vigorous resistance, and that the Spanish suffered several reverses. The decisive engagement was fought in late June 1572, near the town of Vilcabamba, when the Spanish forces, supported by the Chachapoya and other indigenous allies, attacked the Inca capital. The Inca forces were defeated, and the Inca court was captured. Túpac Amaru, who had been betrayed by some of his own retainers, was taken prisoner and was brought to Cusco in chains.

The capture of Túpac Amaru was a major event in the history of the Andes. The Sapa Inca, who had been the ruler of the Neo-Inca State and the symbolic head of the Inca royal line, was now in the hands of the Spanish, and the Neo-Inca State was at an end. The capture was, in effect, the end of the independent political life of the Inca, and it marked the beginning of a new phase in the history of the Andes. The Spanish were now the unchallenged rulers of the central Andes, and the indigenous population was forced to accept the colonial regime.

The trial and execution

The trial at Cusco

The trial of Túpac Amaru took place in Cusco in September 1572. The Inca was charged with rebellion, with the murder of Spanish and indigenous allies, and with the practice of polygamy. The trial was conducted by a Spanish military court, in Spanish, with an interpreter who had an imperfect knowledge of Quechua. Túpac Amaru was not represented by counsel, and the proceedings were conducted in a single day. The Spanish accounts report that the Inca defended himself with dignity and with intelligence, denying the charges against him and arguing that he had been the legitimate ruler of the Inca state. 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 Túpac Amaru from the political scene. The trial is also significant for the way in which it illustrates the way in which the Spanish used the legal system to legitimize the conquest and the colonial regime.

The execution

The execution of Túpac Amaru took place in the main square of Cusco on 24 September 1572. The Spanish accounts report that a large crowd gathered to witness the execution, and that the Inca was dressed in the royal robes of the Sapa Inca. The execution was performed by a Spanish executioner, and the Inca was beheaded with a single blow. The head of the Inca was displayed on a pike at the entrance to the city, and the body was buried in a small church in Cusco. The execution was a public event, and it was designed to send a clear message to the indigenous population: the Spanish were the unchallenged rulers of the Andes, and any further resistance would be met with the full force of the colonial regime.

The execution of Túpac Amaru I was, in effect, the end of the Inca royal line as a political force in the Andes. The descendants of the Inca royal family continued to live in the Cusco region, and they retained a symbolic importance that the Spanish were unable to suppress, but the execution of the last Sapa Inca marked the end of the independent political life of the Inca. The execution is one of the most significant events in the history of the Andes, and it has been remembered in the Andean tradition as a moment of profound loss. The descendants of Túpac Amaru, in particular, have been prominent in the political life of the Andes, and the most famous of them, Túpac Amaru II, led a major rebellion against the Spanish in 1780–1781.

The legacy of the execution

The end of the independent Inca state

The execution of Túpac Amaru I marked the end of the independent political life of the Inca. The Neo-Inca State at Vilcabamba, which had been the focus of indigenous resistance to the Spanish for more than thirty years, was now at an end, and the indigenous population was forced to accept the colonial regime. The Spanish, in the meantime, were able to consolidate their control over the central Andes, and the colonial economy, based on the silver mines of Potosí and the colonial mita, was able to expand without the threat of indigenous resistance.

The end of the independent Inca state, however, did not mark the end of indigenous resistance to the Spanish. The indigenous population continued to resist the colonial regime through a variety of means, including the preservation of the Inca religion and the mummification of the royal dead, the Inca language of Quechua, and the Inca road system. The most significant indigenous resistance, however, came in 1780–1781, when Túpac Amaru II, a descendant of the Inca royal family, led a major rebellion against the Spanish. The rebellion was suppressed, but it marked the beginning of a new phase in the history of indigenous resistance, and it has been claimed as a national event by the modern Peruvian state.

The memory of Túpac Amaru I

The memory of Túpac Amaru I has been a central theme in the political and cultural life of the Andes since his execution. The Spanish chroniclers, especially Pedro Cieza de León and Bernabé Cobo, presented the execution as a just punishment for the crimes of which the Inca had been convicted. The indigenous chroniclers, especially Titu Cusi Yupanqui and Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, presented the execution as an act of Spanish cruelty and as a sign of the bad faith of the colonial regime. The post-independence states of Peru and Bolivia have at different times presented Túpac Amaru I 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 Túpac Amaru I is also significant for the way in which it illustrates the limits of Spanish military power in the Andes. The Spanish, who had conquered the central Andes in the 1530s, were unable to conquer the Neo-Inca State for more than thirty years, and they were forced to use a combination of military force, diplomacy, and bribery to settle the conflict. The persistence of the Neo-Inca State was, in effect, a sign of the limits of Spanish military power, and the execution of the last Sapa Inca marked the end of a long period of indigenous resistance to the Spanish. The memory of the execution continues to be a powerful symbol in the Andean world, and it is one of the defining events of the history of the Inca civilization.