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The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. After years of preliminary exploration and military skirmishes, 168 Spanish soldiers under Francisco Pizarro and their native allies captured the Sapa Inca Atahualpa in the 1532 Battle of Cajamarca. It was the first step in a long campaign that took decades of fighting but ended in Spanish victory in 1572 and colonization of the region as the Viceroyalty of Peru. The conquest of the Inca Empire led to spin-off campaigns into present-day Chile and Colombia, as well as expeditions towards the Amazon Basin. When the Spanish arrived at the borders of the Inca Empire in 1528, it spanned a considerable distance. Extending southward from the Ancs Maya, which is now known as the Patía River, in southern Colombia to the Maule River in Chile, and eastward from the Pacific Ocean to the edge of the Amazonian jungles, the empire covered some of the most mountainous terrain on earth. In less than a century, the Inca had expanded their empire from about in 1448, to in 1528, just before the arrival of the Spaniards. This vast area of land varied greatly in cultures and in climate. Because of the diverse cultures and geography, the Inca allowed many areas of the empire under control of local leaders, who were watched and monitored by Inca officials. However, under the administrative mechanisms established by the Inca, all parts of the empire answered to, and were ultimately under the direct control of, the Emperor.〔Covey (2000).〕 Scholars estimate that the population of the Inca Empire numbered more than 16,000,000.〔Means (1932).〕 Some scholars, such as Jared Diamond, believe that while the Spanish conquest was undoubtedly the proximate cause of the collapse of the Inca Empire, it may very well have been past its peak and already in the process of decline. In 1528, Emperor Huayna Capac ruled the Inca Empire. He could trace his lineage back to a "stranger king" named Manco Cápac, the mythical founder of the Inca clan,〔 who according to tradition emerged from a cave in a region called Pacariqtambo. Huayna Capac was the son of the previous ruler, Túpac Inca, and the grandson of Pachacuti, the Emperor who had begun the dramatic expansion by conquest of the Inca Empire from its base in the area around Cuzco. On his accession to the throne, Huayna Capac had continued the policy of expansion by conquest, taking Inca armies north into what is today Ecuador.〔Prescott, W.H., 2011, ''The History of the Conquest of Peru,'' Digireads.com Publishing, ISBN 9781420941142〕 While he had to put down a number of rebellions during his reign, by the time of his death, his legitimacy was as unquestioned as was the primacy of Inca power. Expansion had resulted in its own problems, however. Many parts of the empire maintained distinctive cultures and these were at best restive participants in the imperial project. The large extent of the empire, the extremely difficult terrain of much of it, and the fact that all communication and travel had to take place on foot or by boat, seems to have caused increasing difficulty in the Incas' effective administration of the empire. Huayna Capac relied on his sons to support his reign. While he had many legitimate and illegitimate children (legitimate meaning born of his sister-wife, under the Inca system), two sons are historically important. Prince Túpac Cusi Hualpa, also known as Huáscar, was the son of Coya Mama Rahua Occllo of the royal line. The second was Atahualpa, an illegitimate son who was likely born of a daughter of the last independent King of Quitu, one of the states conquered by Huayna Capac during the expansion of the Inca Empire.〔 These two sons would play pivotal roles in the final years of the Inca Empire. The Spanish conquistador Pizarro and his men were greatly aided in their enterprise by invading when the Inca Empire was in the midst of a war of succession between the princes Huáscar and Atahualpa.〔Prescott, W.H., 2011, ''The History of the Conquest of Peru,'' Digireads.com Publishing, ISBN 9781420941142〕 Atahualpa seems to have spent more time with Huayna Capac during the years when he was in the north with the army conquering Ecuador. Atahualpa was thus closer to, and had better relations with the army and its leading generals. When both Huayna Capac and his eldest son and designated heir, Ninan Cuyochic, died suddenly in 1528 from what was probably smallpox, a disease introduced by the Spaniards into the Americas as they conquered Mexico, the question of who would succeed as emperor was thrown open. Huayna had died before he could nominate the new heir. At the time of Huayna Capac's death, Huáscar was in the capital Cuzco, while Atahualpa was in Quitu with the main body of the Inca army. Huáscar had himself proclaimed Sapa Inca (i.e. "Only Emperor") in Cuzco, but the army declared its loyalty to Atahualpa. The resulting dispute led to the Inca Civil War.〔 == Chronology of events through the last years of the Inca Empire == * 1526–1529 – Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro make first contact with Inca Empire at Tumbes, the northernmost Inca stronghold along the coast * c. 1528 – The Inca emperor Huayna Capac dies from European introduced smallpox. Death sets off a civil war between his sons: Atahualpa and Huáscar * 1528–1529 – Pizarro returns to Spain where he is granted by the Queen of Spain the license to conquer Peru * 1531–1532 – Pizarro's third voyage to Peru, Atahualpa captured by Spaniards * 1533 – Atahualpa is executed; Almagro arrives; Pizarro captures Cuzco and installs seventeen-year-old Manco Inca as new Inca emperor * 1535 – Pizarro founded the city of Lima; Almagro leaves for Chile * 1536 – Gonzalo Pizarro steals Manco Inca's wife, Cura Olcollo. Manco rebels and surrounds Cuzco. Juan Pizarro is killed, and Inca general Quizo Yupanqui attacks Lima * 1537 – Almagro seizes Cuzco from Hernando and Gonzalo Pizarro. Rodrigo Orgóñez sacks Vitcos and captures Manco Inca's son, Titu Cusi. Manco escapes and flees to Vilcabamba, which became the capital of the Neo-Inca State * 1538 – Hernando Pizarro executes Diego de Almagro * 1539 – Gonzalo Pizarro invades and sacks Vilcabamba; Manco Inca escapes but Francisco Pizarro executes Manco's wife, Cura Olcollo * 1541 – Francisco Pizarro is murdered by Diego de Almagro II and other supporters of Almagro * 1544 – Manco Inca is murdered by supporters of Diego de Almagro. The Inca do not stop their revolt. * 1572 – Viceroy of Peru, Francisco Toledo, declares war on the Neo-Inca State; Vilcabamba is sacked and Túpac Amaru, the last Inca emperor, is captured and executed in Cuzco. The Inca capital of Vilcabamba is abandoned; the Spaniards remove inhabitants and relocate them to the newly established Christian town of San Francisco de la Victoria de Vilcabamba.〔MacQuarrie (2007).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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