15:32 francisco pizarro is shocked by
what he sees on his first expedition
four years ago he had landed in this
very city
it's where he learned about the
so-called Inca Empire he'd come to
conquer then there had been a thousand
stone buildings large seagoing rafts in
the harbor with great white sails crowds
had come out to greet them to offer
gifts and touch the strange white and
black skin of the foreigners now it was
a ruin
most of the populace it seemed had fled
he directs his translator a native man
he'd kidnapped during the last
expedition to ask one question what
happened here the answer plague death
and civil war it came from the North
everyone was sure of it
it turned people's skins black and made
blood flow from their nose and mouths
and it was almost always fatal today we
assume this disease was hemorrhagic
smallpox or measles likely swept down
from Mexico where Cortez's men had
brought it to the Aztec empire but the
inhabitants of the Inca Empire had no
name for the illness that ravaged them
there's no way to solidly estimate the
impact of this plague upon the Inca
population but in some areas the
population may have dropped 90% and no
one was spared no one when the sickness
reached the Empire Emperor who Anacapa
was up north in Quito the place he'd
fashioned into the second city of his
empire and where he marshaled his forces
to crush rebels in what is now Ecuador
in Colombia he was no fool he isolated
himself but the strange marks found him
anyway within days he was dying and
fearing that the emperor was about to
make his transition into the spirit
world
the royal court asked him to name a
successor he did the son he named though
was already dead a victim of the same
illness which had swept through the
royal court though the Spanish did not
know it they didn't understand disease
transmission well enough to use it
intentionally
they had effectively decapitated the
Inca political leadership before
Pizarro's men had even arrived with both
the Sapa Inca and his heir apparent dead
the rest of the Empire was left to
decide
who would rule back in Cuzco the nobles
appointed one of the Emperor's sons who
Oscar as the new ruler which may not
have been the best choice as who Oscar
was a drunken party boy who had the
habit of stealing other nobles wives and
then executing them if they objected he
also made moves to seize lands and
estates held by his mummified
predecessors and their families or maybe
not because the accounts that claim that
come from a Spanish chronicler who got
the story from his Inca wife a woman who
was previously married to who Oscar's
half-brother and rival for the throne a
man named atahuallpa though atahuallpa
and Hass car were both sons of the
Emperor
they had different mothers with who
Oscars mother being Inka and Ali wampas
mother coming from a non inca northern
royal line temperamentally they couldn't
have been more different while who Oscar
grew up steeped in the court life of
Cusco atahuallpa had travelled and
fought with his father in the Incas
northern campaigns who Oscar had the
loyalty of the cusco elite and
atahuallpa had the hearts of the
battle-hardened army so when the nobles
of cusco declared Huascar to be the Sapa
Inca and atahuallpa to be the governor
of Quito it was pretty clear what was
about to happen civil war
now a little civil war was to be honest
not really a big deal practically
expected with no concept of
primogeniture it was normal for the
Incas to fight a few battles to figure
out who would succeed indeed if a
claimant had the guile military skill
and fortitude to defeat his rivals
wouldn't that actually prove he was the
best man for the job and it was clear
that atahuallpa wanted the royal Tassel
therefore when atahuallpa sent a
delegation to present huis car with
coronation gifts the emperor refused the
gifts killed the ambassadors and sent
the military captains back dressed in
women's clothing a declaration of civil
war it was not the greatest idea though
after all
Otto oppa was up in Quito where their
father had been fighting with all of his
battle-hardened troops and his best
generals who were all loyal to
atahuallpa who was also part northern
and had major support but atahuallpa was
also far north and already fighting
against rebellions that predated the
civil war not to mention now these new
provincial rebellions Metz
ported hoasca and who Aska had his own
assets namely the Royal tassel the
capital and the larger army he marched
north in some accounts even capturing at
ho alpha food and supposedly proceeded
to escape after a woman smuggled him in
a jail break kit during a drunken
victory party but here's what's not in
doubt this war was vicious and costly it
ripped the Empire apart and in concert
with the ongoing smallpox pandemic may
have dropped populations in some regions
by 95% the Empire already under strain
during Hawaii NACA pox reign teetered on
the brink of collapse the turning point
came when the two armies met in central
Ecuador hooah scars force was much
larger led by a veteran general known as
the Fox but it was also made up of
militia conscripts unused to war we're
at a well-posed force on the other hand
was a battle-hardened army made up from
the best troops in the empire men
drafted from warrior societies who the
Inca from birth prepared for war
experienced slingers from the Andes hard
Ecuadorian infantryman and archers from
the Amazon who dipped their arrows in
serpent venom and frog toxins the battle
did not last long for if history teaches
us one thing it's the age-old adage
don't bring conscripts to a hardened
veteran fight seriously that's all over
historical text you can look that up
when it was all over though atahuallpa
had the Foxes skull made into a gold
extented drinking cup he'd killed the
capture general by filling him with
arrows and darts an omen for what was to
come at first
Otto walpa tried to lure soldiers away
from Haase cars for treating army with
offers of clemency
however when those offers to defect went
unanswered
he turned to another tactic terror when
he captured the enemy he had them
slaughtered and their bodies desecrated
settling in the northern city of
cajamarca he sent his army ahead with
orders to take cusco and it did not take
long at halal bus bloody tactics had
destroyed the enemy morale and hoasca
had lost his nerve even when Hawass cars
army occupied forts where they had an
advantage of terrain and defensive
barriers they often failed to hold
so when atahuallpa army reached cusco
huis car evacuated rather than fight
soon he was a captive and his legacy
destroyed and would we say destroyed we
mean destroyed uh one of a two alphas
generals entered Huskers family compound
where his wives and children lived and
spared no one regardless of age or
gender then they rounded up the
historians who kept the records of wasps
cars rain those who knew what each not
represented on the khipu that kept royal
history and they killed them afterward
they burned the khipu even though the
people trained to interpret them were
dead and then they destroyed the mummies
of his most powerful ancestors all of
this in front of the deposed Emperor's
own eyes his victory complete
ahoo walpa prepared to march south and
enter cusco there were things to attend
to not the least of them weeks of
victory feasts to celebrate his
coronation but there was another matter
that kept him a force was marshalling
behind him heading south toward
cajamarca they were not allies of his
half-brother that was certain reports
from survivors said these strangers had
pale skin and wore clothing made of
metal they wrote enormous beasts larger
than Lamas and evil long fanged
creatures trotted at their heels and
they used bizarre weapons that made a
noise like thunder and expelled smoke
most importantly though reports said
that they killed as they marched
everywhere they went they killed without
reason captured anyone they could and
questioned them under torture they
wanted to know the way to the Emperor
and his gold such impertinence
atahuallpa thought such belligerence
from a force of only a hundred and
sixty-eight men they were of course
conquistadors his arrows third
expedition and though they carried
documents from the Spanish crown making
it their duty to claim Peru for Spain
and Christianized the population they
were actually here for the money this
venture was an entrepreneurial one and
each man on it was a shareholder if he
enlisted with infantry weapons he gained
a small slice of whatever treasure they
captured but if the men who'd brought
horses plate armor and contributed ships
and provisions men like their leader
Pizarro
and one of his captives Hernando DeSoto
they could get very rich indeed but
Pizarro was already
very rich indeed in fact he was a
veteran of several conquistador raids
but he was also aging and wanted to make
his mark on the world the same way
Cortez had done when he overthrew the
Aztec empire
he carried documents in his pocket that
once the Incas were overthrown would
make him the Spanish governor of Peru so
he was surprised when a group of Incan
ambassador's met them on the road
bearing gifts it seemed they would be
received the Sapa Inca his translator
said wanted to meet them
Bizzaro didn't realize that the gifts
were a threat the Incas usual modus
operandi of displaying their generosity
that if spurned would lead to
annihilation each item carefully
selected to send a message so Pizarro
and his men walked deeper into Alta
wampas territory drawn into a position
where the ink and army of 40,000 could
envelop their little party bizarro and
atahuallpa were about to come
face-to-face in a meeting that would
shatter an empire not to mention cost
both men their lives
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special thanks to educational to your
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