Inca apocalypse : the Spanish conquest and the transformation of the Andean world

A major new history of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, set in a larger global context than previous accounts Previous accounts of the fall of the Inca empire have played up the importance of the events of one violent day in November 1532 at the highland Andean town of Cajamarca. To some, the "Cajamarca miracle"-in which Francisco Pizarro and a small contingent of Spaniards captured an Inca who led an army numbering in the tens of thousands-demonstrated the intervention of divine providence. To others, the outcome was simply the result of European technological and immunological superiority. Inca Apocalypse develops a new perspective on the Spanish invasion and transformation of the Inca realm. Alan Covey's sweeping narrative traces the origins of the Inca and Spanish empires, identifying how Andean and Iberian beliefs about the world's end shaped the collision of the two civilizations. Rather than a decisive victory on the field at Cajamarca, the Spanish conquest was an uncertain, disruptive process that reshaped the worldviews of those on each side of the conflict.. The survivors built colonial Peru, a new society that never forgot the Inca imperial legacy or the enduring supernatural power of the Andean landscape. Covey retells a familiar story of conquest at a larger historical and geographical scale than ever before. This rich new history, based on the latest archaeological and historical evidence, illuminates mysteries that still surround the last days of the largest empire in the pre-Columbian Americas. Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Orthographic Note 12 Maps 14 Timelines 18 Introduction Revelations of the Spanish Conquest 22 Lost Legends and Modern Myths 23 Inca Revelations 28 Discovering Pizarro 31 Machu Picchu and the Mysterious Inca 36 Anthropological Incas 38 Pizarro’s Second Coming 40 The Modern Myth of Cajamarca 42 Miraculous Cajamarca 46 The Inca Apocalypse 48 1 Assembling Inca History 53 Ancestral Origins 57 Andean Creation 62 Fabricated Legends 64 The Archaeological Evidence 66 Cuzco’s Archaeological Past 71 Channels of Imperial History 72 Universal Aspirations 77 Centering Cuzco 79 Palace Intrigues 81 Unfulfilled Unity 82 Universal Cycles 85 Prophetic Histories 90 2 The Invention of Catholic Spain 92 The Iberian Apostle 93 Imagined Reconquest 96 The Way of Santiago 101 Apocalyptic Visions 107 The Romance of Reconquest 109 Christian Expansion 112 Factions and Effigies 115 A Printed Past 118 Conquering the Future 124 The Sephardic Apocalypse 126 An Apocalyptic New World 129 3 Royal Progress 130 Sovereignty Proclaimed 131 Sovereignty Questioned 135 Uncivilized Frontiers 139 Female Power 144 The Coya Raises an Inca 148 Cuzco in the Heart of Darkness 152 Civil War 161 4 Building a Catholic Empire 173 The Medieval Conquest Model 174 A Spanish Pope Divides the Globe 178 Jubilee for a New Era 181 Catastrophic Colonies in the Indies 183 Colonists and Conquistadores 186 Plus Ultra 192 Luther’s Antichrist 195 Chasing the Legend of Peru 198 5 Two Roads to Cajamarca 212 Broken Promises 213 Tawantinsuyu Unbound 215 Darkness in Cuzco 219 Advent of the Viracochas 222 Betrayal in Tumbez 226 Atahuallpa’s Descent 232 Strange Tidings 235 Pizarro Ascending 237 Confrontation in Cajamarca 243 6 Beyond Cajamarca 254 A Lord’s Ransom 258 Building New Alliances 261 Making Incas 272 Two New Cuzcos 284 The Destruction of Quito 288 A Fragile Beginning 293 News of the Miracle of Cajamarca 294 7 Sovereign Failures and New Miracles 298 Familiar Rivalries 300 Resolving Almagro’s Claims 306 The Inca Reconquest 311 The Miracle of Cuzco 313 Manco’s Retreat 318 Division 321 Royal Judgment 330 8 Royal Conquests in the Poor Soldier’s Paradise 344 Rewarding Christian Incas 345 New Laws 351 A Poor Soldier’s Paradise 369 The End and Beginning of Inca History 373 The Final Conquest of Peru 377 9 Conquering Andean Hearts and Minds 384 The Triumph of Crusader Christianity 385 Religious Alliances 388 New Converts and Wayward Souls 394 Diabolical Imitations 399 Christian Incas 403 Reforming Peru 407 Intensification 412 Return of the Huacas 418 Conspiracies 427 God’s Poor Soldiers 429 10 The Spanish Pachacuti 432 Imposing Catholic Rule in Peru 435 Sovereign Approach 437 Corporate Histories 449 The Passion of the Last Inca 454 Relics for Solomon’s Temple 469 11 Overturning Andean Landscapes 472 Race-Making and Mine Labor 475 Commensal Invaders 480 Lands without Measure 483 Reducing Unruly Landscapes 488 Transforming the Mines 497 Santiago among the Savages 499 Sovereign Titles 503 Downward Spirals 507 Claiming Inca Lands 508 12 Transcendent Inca 512 The Literary Inca 513 Cuzco at the Turn of the New Century 515 Jesuit Alliances 519 The Last Coya 522 Peruvian Saints and Inca Heretics 527 1650 533 Postscript The Unconquered Inca 537 Glossary 542 References 546 Index 574 A major new history of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, set in a larger global context than previous accountsPrevious accounts of the fall of the Inca empire have played up the importance of the events of one violent day in November 1532 at the highland Andean town of Cajamarca. To some, the "Cajamarca miracle"-in which Francisco Pizarro and a small contingent of Spaniards captured an Inca who led an army numbering in the tens of thousands-demonstrated the intervention of divine providence. To others, the outcome was simply the result of European technological and immunological superiority.Inca Apocalypse develops a new perspective on the Spanish invasion and transformation of the Inca realm. Alan Covey's sweeping narrative traces the origins of the Inca and Spanish empires, identifying how Andean and Iberian beliefs about the world's end shaped the collision of the two civilizations. Rather than a decisive victory on the field at Cajamarca, the Spanish conquest was an uncertain, disruptive process that reshaped the worldviews of those on each side of the conflict.. The survivors built colonial Peru, a new society that never forgot the Inca imperial legacy or the enduring supernatural power of the Andean landscape.Covey retells a familiar story of conquest at a larger historical and geographical scale than ever before. This rich new history, based on the latest archaeological and historical evidence, illuminates mysteries that still surround the last days of the largest empire in the pre-Columbian Americas. Inca Apocalypse develops a new perspective on the European invasions of the Inca realm, and the way that the Spanish transformation of the Andes relates to broader changes occurring in the transition from medieval to early modern Europe. The book is structured to foreground some of the parallels in the imperial origins of the Incas and Spain, as well as some of the global processes affecting both societies during the first century of their interaction. The Spanish conquest of the Inca empire was more than a decisive victory at Cajamarca in 1532-it was an uneven process that failed to bring to pass the millenarian vision that set it in motion, yet it succeeded profoundly in some respects. The Incas and their Andean subjects were not passive victims of colonization, and indigenous complicity and resistance actively shaped Spanish colonial rule. As it describes the transformation of the Inca world, Inca Apocalypse attempts to build a more global context than previous accounts of the Spanish Conquest, and it seeks not to lose sight of the parallel changes occurring in Europe as Spain pursued state projects that complemented the colonial endeavors in the Americas. New archaeological and archival research makes it possible to frame a familiar story from a larger historical and geographical scale than has typically been considered. The new text will have solid scholarly foundations but a narrative intended to be accessible to non-academic readers. "This book describes a period of several decades during the sixteenth century when conquistadores, Catholic friars, and imperial officials attempted to conquer the Inca Empire and impose Spanish colonial rule. When Francisco Pizarro captured the Inca warlord Atahuallpa at Cajamarca in 1532, European Catholics and Andean peoples interpreted the event using long-held beliefs about how their worlds would end, and what the next era might look like. The Inca world did not end at Cajamarca, despite some popular misunderstandings of the Spanish conquest of Peru. In the years that followed, some Inca lords resisted Spanish rule, but many Andean nobles converted to Christianity and renegotiated their sovereign claims into privileges as Spanish subjects. Catholic empire took a lifetime to establish in the Inca world, and it required the repeated conquest of rebellious conquistadores, the reorganization of native populations, and the economic overhaul of diverse Andean landscapes. These disruptive processes of modern world-building carried forward old ideas about sovereignty, social change, and human progress. Although they are overshadowed by the Western philosophies and technologies that drive our world today, those apocalyptic relics remain with us to the present." -- Oxford Scholarship Online "This book describes a period of several decades during the sixteenth century, when conquistadores, Catholic friars, and imperial officials attempted to conquer the Inca Empire and impose Spanish colonial rule. When Francisco Pizarro captured the Inca warlord Atahuallpa at Cajamarca in 1532, European Catholics and Andean peoples interpreted the event using long-held beliefs about how their worlds would end, and what the next era might look like. The Inca world did not end at Cajamarca, despite some popular misunderstandings of the Spanish conquest of Peru. In the years that followed, some Inca lords resisted Spanish rule, but many Andean nobles converted to Christianity and renegotiated their sovereign claims into privileges as Spanish subjects. Catholic empire took a lifetime to establish in the Inca world, and it required the repeated conquest of rebellious conquistadores, the reorganization of native populations, and the economic overhaul of diverse Andean landscapes. These disruptive processes of modern world-building carried forward old ideas about sovereignty, social change, and human progress. Although overshadowed by the Western philosophies and technologies that drive our world today, those apocalyptic relics remain with us to the present"-- Provided by publisher This text describes a period of several decades during the sixteenth century when conquistadores, Catholic friars, and imperial officials attempted to conquer the Inca Empire and impose Spanish colonial rule