The last days of the Incas / Kim MacQuarrie.
2008
F3442 .M33 2008 (Mapit)
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Details
Title
The last days of the Incas / Kim MacQuarrie.
Author
MacQuarrie, Kim.
Edition
1st Simon & Schuster trade pbk ed.
ISBN
9780743260503 (pbk.)
0743260503 (pbk.)
0743260503 (pbk.)
Imprint
New York : Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2008.
Language
English
Description
xv, 522 p., [8] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
Call Number
F3442 .M33 2008
Dewey Decimal Classification
985.02
Summary
In 1532, the fifty-four year old Spanish conquistador, Francisco Pizarro, led a force of 167 men, including his four brothers, to the shores of Peru. Unbeknownst to the Spaniards, the Inca rulers of Peru had just fought a bloody civil war in which the emperor Atahualpa had defeated his brother Huascar. Pizarro and his men soon clashed with Atahualpa and a huge force of Inca warriors at the Battle of Cajamarca. Despite being out-numbered by more than two hundred to one, the Spaniards prevailed due largely to their horses, their steel armor and swords, and their tactic of surprise. They captured and imprisoned Atahualpa. Although the Inca emperor paid an enormous ransom in gold, the Spaniards executed him anyway. The following year, the Spaniards seized the Inca capital of Cuzco, completing their conquest of the largest native empire the New World has ever known. Peru was now a Spanish colony, and the conquistadors were wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. But the Incas did not submit willingly. A young Inca emperor, the brother of Atahualpa, soon led a massive rebellion against the Spaniards, inflicting heavy casualties and nearly wiping out the conquerors. Eventually, however, Pizarro and his men forced the emperor to abandon the Andes and flee to the Amazon. There, he established a hidden capital, called Vilcabamba. Although the Incas fought a deadly, thirty-six year long guerrilla war, the Spanish ultimately captured the last Inca emperor and vanquished the native resistance. The author lived in Peru for five years and became fascinated by the Incas and the history of the Spanish conquest. Drawing on both native and Spanish chronicles, he vividly describes the dramatic story of the conquest, with all its savagery and suspense. He also relates the story of the modern search for Vilcabamba, of how Machu Picchu was discovered, and of how a trio of colorful American explorers only recently discovered the lost Inca capital of Vilcabamba, hidden for centuries in the Amazon. This authoritative, exciting history is among the most powerful and important accounts of the culture of the South American Indians and the Spanish Conquest.
Note
Originally published: Simon & Schuster, 2007.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 491-495) and index.
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Table of Contents
The discovery
A few hundred well-armed entrepreneurs
Supernova of the Andes
When empires collide
A roomful of gold
Requiem for a king
The puppet king
Prelude to a rebellion
The great rebellion
Death in the Andes
The return of the one-eyed conqueror
In the realm of the Antis
Vilcabamba : guerrilla capital of the world
The last of the Pizarros
The Incas' last stand
The search for the "lost city" of the Incas
Vilcabamba rediscovered
Epilogue : Machu Picchu, Vilcabamba, and the search for the lost cities of the Andes.
A few hundred well-armed entrepreneurs
Supernova of the Andes
When empires collide
A roomful of gold
Requiem for a king
The puppet king
Prelude to a rebellion
The great rebellion
Death in the Andes
The return of the one-eyed conqueror
In the realm of the Antis
Vilcabamba : guerrilla capital of the world
The last of the Pizarros
The Incas' last stand
The search for the "lost city" of the Incas
Vilcabamba rediscovered
Epilogue : Machu Picchu, Vilcabamba, and the search for the lost cities of the Andes.