Siege of Cusco (1536-1537): Manco Inca's Great Rebellion

The Siege of Cusco was the great Inca uprising of 1536-1537 in which Manco Inca’s army surrounded the Spanish garrison in Cusco, the former Inca capital, for about ten months. It began in early May 1536 and included the burning of much of the city and a fierce battle for the fortress of Sacsayhuamán. The Spaniards held out, and Manco withdrew to found an independent Inca state at Vilcabamba.

Background: a puppet emperor rebels

After the capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca and the Spanish entry into Cusco in November 1533, Francisco Pizarro installed Manco Inca, a young son of Huayna Capac, as a figurehead ruler. Manco at first cooperated with the Spanish, as part of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.

His position soon became intolerable. Francisco’s younger brothers Juan and Gonzalo Pizarro, left in charge in Cusco, demanded ever more gold, imprisoned Manco and treated him with open contempt; Gonzalo is reported to have seized Manco’s wife. Manco made a failed escape attempt in late 1535 and was held in chains.

In early 1536 Hernando Pizarro returned from Spain and released him. On 18 April 1536 Manco left Cusco, promising to bring back a life-size gold statue of his father. Instead, he joined chiefs who had been gathering an army in the Yucay valley and declared war.

The siege begins

By early May 1536 a huge Andean army had gathered around Cusco. Spanish chroniclers spoke of 100,000 to 200,000 warriors, numbers modern historians treat with caution, though the force was clearly enormous. Inside the city were about 190 Spaniards, around 80 of them horsemen, led by Hernando Pizarro with his brothers Juan and Gonzalo, and a number of indigenous allies, including Cañari and Chachapoya warriors.

On or about 6 May 1536 the besiegers attacked. Using slings, they hurled red-hot stones wrapped in burning cotton onto the thatched roofs, and much of the city went up in flames. The Spaniards sheltered in two buildings on the main square, including the Suntur Huasi, a building that later became the site of a church. Inca forces held barricades in the narrow streets, making cavalry charges difficult.

According to Spanish accounts, the defenders believed they were about to die. They later claimed the Suntur Huasi survived the flames through miraculous help from the Virgin Mary and Saint James, a story that became an important legend in colonial Cusco. A more practical explanation is that the building’s thatch was protected or not reached, and that the defenders and their indigenous allies worked hard to put out fires.

The battle for Sacsayhuamán

Above the city stood Sacsayhuamán, a vast complex of zigzag stone walls and towers that the Inca now used as their main base. From there they could rain missiles on the Spanish below. Hernando Pizarro decided it had to be taken.

In May 1536 a force of horsemen led by Juan Pizarro broke out of the city and attacked the fortress from the rear. In fighting at the walls Juan, who had left off his helmet because of a jaw wound, was struck on the head by a stone. He died some days later.

After several days of fierce combat the Spanish and their allies took the fortress. Chroniclers tell of an Inca noble commander who fought on at the last tower and then threw himself from it rather than surrender; Peruvian tradition gives him the name Cahuide. Hundreds of defenders are said to have died in the final assault. The capture of Sacsayhuamán relieved the immediate pressure on Cusco.

The battle showed both the strengths and weaknesses of each side. The Inca had huge numbers, skilled slingers and a superb defensive position, but their weapons could not easily pierce Spanish armour. The Spanish had horses and steel, but on the steep slopes and stone walls of Sacsayhuamán these mattered less, and the fortress was taken only with the help of thousands of indigenous allies and ladders built for the assault.

Ollantaytambo and the siege of Lima

The siege continued for months, with sorties, raids for food and attacks by both sides. Manco moved his headquarters to the fortified town of Ollantaytambo in the Urubamba valley. Early in 1537 Hernando Pizarro led an attack on it, but the Inca defended the terraces fiercely and flooded the plain below by diverting river channels, forcing the Spanish to retreat.

The Inca had also adapted their tactics. They dug pits and laid obstacles against horses, rolled boulders down on columns in narrow valleys and even began to use captured Spanish weapons, horses and armour. Spanish chroniclers reported with alarm that some Inca warriors rode captured horses.

Manco’s rebellion also struck the coast. Several Spanish relief columns sent inland from Lima were destroyed in mountain ambushes in 1536. In August 1536 an Inca army under the general Quizo Yupanqui attacked Lima itself, but on open ground Spanish cavalry had the advantage. Quizo was killed and the attack collapsed.

The end of the siege

Several factors wore the rebellion down. Most of Manco’s soldiers were farmers who had to return home to plant crops, so the army shrank at key moments. The Spanish received help from indigenous allies, including some members of the Inca nobility who opposed Manco. And in early 1537 Diego de Almagro returned from his failed expedition to Chile with a substantial army.

By around March 1537 the siege had effectively ended. Almagro, who claimed that Cusco fell within his own grant from the Crown, seized the city on 18 April 1537 and imprisoned Hernando and Gonzalo Pizarro. His captain Rodrigo Orgóñez pursued Manco and sacked his base at Vitcos in July 1537, but Manco escaped deeper into the forested mountains.

Consequences

Manco Inca established an independent state in Vilcabamba, a remote region north-west of Cusco. From there he and his successors raided Spanish routes and kept Inca rule alive for 35 more years, until the fall of Vilcabamba in 1572.

The siege also broke the uneasy unity of the conquerors. Almagro’s seizure of Cusco led to open war between his supporters and the Pizarros, ending with Almagro’s defeat at Las Salinas in April 1538 and his execution. The city of Cusco itself was badly damaged, and the Spanish rebuilt much of it on Inca foundations.

For Andean communities the rebellion was costly. Fields went unplanted, storehouses were emptied and Spanish reprisals fell on villages that had supported Manco. Yet the siege also became a symbol of resistance, and Manco Inca is remembered in Peru as the ruler who refused to remain a puppet.

Timeline

• 1533, November: Manco Inca is installed as ruler under Spanish control.
• 1535, late: Manco’s first escape attempt fails.
• 1536, 18 April: Manco leaves Cusco and raises his army.
• 1536, c. 6 May: The main assault begins and much of Cusco burns.
• 1536, May: Juan Pizarro is fatally wounded; Sacsayhuamán is taken.
• 1536, August: Quizo Yupanqui’s attack on Lima fails.
• 1537, early: Hernando Pizarro’s attack on Ollantaytambo is repulsed.
• 1537, 18 April: Diego de Almagro seizes Cusco.
• 1537, July: Orgóñez sacks Vitcos; Manco retreats to Vilcabamba.

Why it matters

The Siege of Cusco was the greatest Inca attempt to reverse the conquest, and it came close to destroying the Spanish in the Andes. Its failure showed the limits of a farmer army against a fortified garrison with horses and indigenous allies. It also gave birth to the Vilcabamba state, the last independent Inca kingdom.