Inca Civil War (c. 1529-1532): Atahualpa against Huáscar

The Inca Civil War, sometimes called the War of the Two Brothers, was a struggle for the throne of the Inca Empire fought between Huáscar and his half-brother Atahualpa from around 1529 to 1532. It began after the emperor Huayna Capac died suddenly, and it ended with Atahualpa’s victory only months before Francisco Pizarro’s small Spanish force reached him. The war left the largest state in the pre-Columbian Americas divided and exhausted at the worst possible moment.

Background: an empire without a fixed succession

By the 1520s the Inca Empire, called Tawantinsuyu (“the four parts together”) by its people, stretched about 4,000 km along the Andes, from southern Colombia to central Chile. Much of it had been won in only three generations, by Pachacuti, Topa Inca Yupanqui and Huayna Capac. Estimates of its population range widely, commonly from about 6 to 14 million people.

Huayna Capac spent much of his reign in the far north, fighting in what is now Ecuador. He built up Tumebamba (modern Cuenca) and Quito as northern bases, and the veteran army there became loyal to him personally rather than to the court in Cusco.

The Inca had no strict rule of eldest-son succession. A new ruler was ideally chosen from among the sons of the emperor’s principal wife, but in practice a candidate needed the backing of the royal lineages (panacas), the priesthood and the army. Disputed successions had happened before.

The death of Huayna Capac

Huayna Capac died in or near Quito, probably around 1527-1528, although dates from 1524 to 1528 appear in the sources. Spanish chroniclers describe an epidemic that killed him and many others; many historians identify it as smallpox, which had arrived in the Americas with Europeans and spread ahead of them, though this is not certain.

His chosen heir, Ninan Cuyochi, is reported to have died in the same epidemic. Huáscar, a son by a high-ranking wife, was in Cusco and was accepted there as Sapa Inca (supreme ruler). Atahualpa, another son, had been with his father in the north and enjoyed the support of the northern army and its generals.

Course of the war

For a short time the two brothers ruled in an uneasy balance, Huáscar in Cusco and Atahualpa in Quito. Relations broke down as Huáscar demanded submission and Atahualpa refused to come to Cusco. Open war began around 1529, although some historians date it later.

The first fighting centred on the Cañari region around Tumebamba, whose people sided with Huáscar. Chroniclers report that Atahualpa was once captured there and escaped, a story that may be legend. His forces then defeated Huáscar’s general Atoc, and Atahualpa took harsh revenge on the Cañari.

Atahualpa’s experienced northern generals, chiefly Quizquiz, Chalcuchímac and Rumiñahui, then marched south through the highlands. They won a series of battles as Huáscar’s armies, often hastily raised, fell back towards the capital. Atahualpa himself stayed in the north and later moved to Cajamarca, while his generals carried the war towards Cusco.

The decisive battle came in 1532 near the Apurímac River west of Cusco, often called the Battle of Quipaipán. Huáscar’s army was routed, and Huáscar himself was captured.

Reprisals in Cusco

After the victory, Quizquiz and Chalcuchímac occupied Cusco. Spanish and indigenous sources describe brutal reprisals against Huáscar’s family, wives, children and supporters, and against the lineage of Topa Inca Yupanqui, whose royal mummy was reportedly destroyed. The numbers killed are unknown, and some accounts may be exaggerated by writers hostile to Atahualpa, but the purge was clearly severe.

These killings deepened the hatred between the two factions. Many of Huáscar’s supporters, especially in Cusco and among peoples who had been treated harshly by Atahualpa’s armies, would later see the Spaniards as useful allies.

Sources and bias

Almost everything known about the war comes from accounts written after the Spanish conquest. Spanish chroniclers such as Pedro de Cieza de León, Juan de Betanzos and later Garcilaso de la Vega gathered testimony from Andean informants, but those informants belonged to one side or the other. Betanzos was married to a woman of Atahualpa’s family, while Garcilaso, whose mother came from the Cusco nobility, portrayed Atahualpa as a usurper.

As a result, key questions remain open: whether Huayna Capac named an heir at all, whether Atahualpa was truly illegitimate, and how many people died in the fighting and purges. Historians treat the dates of the war as approximate, which is why it is often given as “c. 1529-1532”.

Some Spanish writers also presented the war as a struggle between a rightful king and a rebel, which helped justify their own seizure of power. Modern scholars tend to see it instead as a contest between rival royal lineages and regional power bases, the old elite of Cusco against the army and administrators of the north.

How the war was fought

Inca warfare relied on large armies of men drafted through the labour-service system, supplied from state storehouses along the road network. Soldiers fought with slings, maces with stone or bronze heads, spears and clubs, and wore quilted cotton armour. Campaigns were usually fought in the dry season, since many soldiers were farmers needed for planting and harvest.

The civil war used these same resources against the empire itself. Storehouses were emptied, roads and bridges damaged, and whole regions punished for backing the wrong side. This damage to the empire’s infrastructure was still visible when the Spanish marched along the same roads.

Key people

• Huáscar (died 1533): Sapa Inca in Cusco, supported by many of the old royal lineages of the capital.
• Atahualpa (c. 1502-1533): based in the north, backed by the veteran army; victorious in 1532 but captured by the Spanish the same year.
• Huayna Capac (died c. 1527-1528): their father, whose sudden death opened the succession crisis.
• Quizquiz and Chalcuchímac: Atahualpa’s leading generals, who won the war in the south.
• Rumiñahui: a general who held the north for Atahualpa and later resisted the Spanish around Quito.

Consequences: the arrival of Pizarro

Francisco Pizarro landed on the Peruvian coast in 1532 with fewer than 200 men, just as the civil war was ending. Atahualpa, resting at Cajamarca with a large army after his victory, agreed to meet the strangers. On 16 November 1532 the Spanish ambushed his escort and took him prisoner at the Battle of Cajamarca.

From captivity, Atahualpa ordered Huáscar’s death, apparently fearing that the Spanish would use his brother against him. Huáscar was killed in 1533, reportedly drowned at Andamarca. Atahualpa himself was executed by the Spanish in July 1533.

Historians generally agree that the civil war greatly helped the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. The leadership was divided, armies had been bled by years of fighting, and rival factions were willing to cooperate with the newcomers. Disease, which had probably caused the crisis in the first place, continued to weaken the population.

Timeline

• c. 1527-1528: Huayna Capac dies near Quito during an epidemic; his heir Ninan Cuyochi also dies.
• c. 1527-1528: Huáscar is accepted as Sapa Inca in Cusco; Atahualpa remains in the north.
• c. 1529: Open war breaks out between the brothers, beginning around Tumebamba.
• c. 1530-1531: Atahualpa’s generals defeat Huáscar’s armies and advance south.
• 1532: Huáscar’s army is defeated near the Apurímac River and Huáscar is captured.
• 1532, 16 November: Atahualpa is captured by Francisco Pizarro at Cajamarca.
• 1533: Huáscar is killed on Atahualpa’s orders.
• 1533, 26 July: Atahualpa is executed by the Spanish at Cajamarca.

Why it matters

The Inca Civil War is a key reason a few hundred Spaniards could topple an empire of millions. It shows how a succession crisis, worsened by a new disease, turned a powerful state against itself. Without it, the history of Spanish South America would almost certainly have unfolded differently.