Historical sources on the Spanish conquest of the Inca

Extract A

"The most brilliant passages in the history of Spanish adventure in the New World are undoubtedly afforded by the conquests of Mexico and Peru, — the two states which combined with the largest extent of empire a refined social polity, and considerable progress in the arts of civilization." 

Extract B

"The empire of Peru, at the period of the Spanish invasion, stretched along the Pacific from about the second degree north to the thirty-seventh degree of south latitude; a line, also, which describes the western boundaries of the modern republics of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chili. Its breadth cannot so easily be determined; for, though bounded everywhere by the great ocean on the west, towards the east it spread out, in many parts, considerably beyond the mountains, to the confines of barbarous states, whose exact position is undetermined, or whose names are effaced from the map of history. It is certain, however, that its breadth was altogether disproportioned to its length." 

Extract C

"The topographical aspect of the country is very remarkable. A strip of land, rarely exceeding twenty leagues [about 100 kilometres] in width, runs along the coast, and is hemmed in through its whole extent by a colossal range of mountains, which, advancing from the Straits of Magellan, reaches its highest elevation — indeed, the highest on the American continent — about the seventeenth degree south, and, after crossing the line, gradually subsides into hills of inconsiderable magnitude, as it enters the isthmus of Panama. This is the famous Cordillera of the Andes, or 'copper mountains,' as termed by the natives, though they might with more reason have been called 'mountains of gold.'" 

Extract D

"The source of this civilization is traced to the valley of Cuzco, the central region of Peru, as its name implies." 

Extract E

"We may reasonably conclude that there existed in the country a race advanced in civilization before the time of the Incas; and, in conformity with nearly every tradition, we may derive this race from the neighborhood of Lake Titicaca; a conclusion strongly confirmed by the imposing architectural remains which still endure, after the lapse of so many years, on its borders. Who this race were, and whence they came, may afford a tempting theme for inquiry to the speculative antiquarian. But it is a land of darkness that lies far beyond the domain of history." 

Extract F

"His son, Huayna Capac, possessed of [great] military talent fully equal to his father's, marched along the Cordillera towards the north, and, pushing his conquests across the equator, added the powerful kingdom of Quito to the empire of Peru. [Huayna Capac died around 1527. He left the empire divided between his two sons: Huascar, who ruled from the capital Cuzco in the south, and Atahuallpa, who held the northern kingdom of Quito. The brothers soon came to war with each other. By the time Francisco Pizarro's Spanish forces arrived in 1532, Atahuallpa's army had defeated Huascar near Cuzco, leaving the empire weakened and divided.]" 

Extract G

"It was late in the afternoon of the fifteenth of November, 1532, when the Conquerors entered the city of Caxamalca [Cajamarca, in northern Peru]. The weather, which had been fair during the day, now threatened a storm, and some rain mingled with hail — for it was unusually cold — began to fall. Pizarro, however, was so anxious to ascertain the dispositions of the Inca, that he determined to send an embassy, at once, to his quarters." 

Extract H

"Observing that Atahuallpa looked with some interest on the fiery steed that stood before him, champing the bit and pawing the ground with the natural impatience of a war-horse, the Spaniard gave him the rein, and, striking his iron heel into his side, dashed furiously over the plain; then, wheeling him round and round, displayed all the beautiful movements of his charger, and his own excellent horsemanship. Suddenly checking him in full career, he brought the animal almost on his haunches, so near the person of the Inca, that some of the foam that flecked his horse's sides was thrown on the royal garments. But Atahuallpa maintained the same marble composure as before, though several of his soldiers, whom De Soto passed in the course, were so much disconcerted by it, that they drew back in manifest terror." 

Extract I

"It was not long before Atahuallpa discovered, amidst all the show of religious zeal in his Conquerors, a lurking appetite more potent in most of their bosoms than either religion or [a desire for power]. This was the love of gold. He determined to avail himself of it to procure his own freedom. The Inca [Atahuallpa] was lodged in one of the halls opening on the great square of Caxamalca [Cajamarca]. He now [offered] to fill the room — which was about seventeen feet wide and twenty-two feet long — with gold as high as he could reach, if the Spanish leader would but restore him his liberty. Pizarro consented to the arrangement, and the terms of the [agreement] were duly recorded by the notary." 

Contextual information:

William H. Prescott (1796-1859) was an American historian who published his History of the Conquest of Peru in 1847. He drew on royal records and eyewitness letters held in the archives of the Royal Academy of History in Madrid. His account covers the Inca Empire's geography, the civil war between Huascar and Atahuallpa, Francisco Pizarro's campaign into Peru, the capture of the Inca ruler at Cajamarca in November 1532, and the seizure of the capital Cuzco. 

Bibliographical reference:

Adapted from Prescott, W. H. (1847). History of the conquest of Peru: With a preliminary view of the civilisation of the Incas (Preface, pp. 1, 3, 7, 8, 40; Vol. II, pp. 89, 99, 130-131). Harper & Brothers. 

Copyright: Public domain. 

Extract A

"Suddenly I found myself confronted with the walls of ruined houses built of the finest quality of Inca stone work. It was hard to see them for they were partly covered with trees and moss, the growth of centuries, but in the dense shadow, hiding in bamboo thickets and tangled vines, appeared here and there walls of white granite [building blocks] carefully cut and exquisitely fitted together." 

Extract B

"To my astonishment I saw that this wall and its adjoining semicircular temple over the cave were as fine as the finest stonework in the far-famed Temple of the Sun in Cuzco [the most famous Inca temple in the empire's capital]. This [stonework] was in the most inaccessible corner of the most inaccessible section of the central Andes. No part of the highlands of Peru is better defended by natural bulwarks — a stupendous canyon whose rock is granite, and whose precipitous [near-vertical] sides are frequently 1,000 to 2,000 feet [300 to 600 metres] sheer." 

Contextual information:

Hiram Bingham (1875-1956) was an American explorer and professor of Latin American history at Yale University. He led the Yale Peruvian Expedition of 1911, during which he documented the ruins at Machu Picchu, a site locals already knew of but which was largely unknown to the outside world. His account in Inca Land was published in 1922 and is a key record of his first encounter with the ruins. 

Bibliographical reference:

Adapted from Bingham, H. (1922). Inca land: Explorations in the highlands of Peru (pp. 314-315). Houghton Mifflin. 

Copyright: Public domain.