The Inka Empire and Its Collapse

At the time of the Spanish invasion, the Inka ruled a centralized but unwieldy empire; their hold was especially tenuous on the southern Araucanian (Mapuche) frontier, just as it would be for the Spaniards in just a few years. Though Inka political achievements were impressive, their realm having stretched into present-day Colombia in the north, they were relative latecomers in the pre-Columbian Andes, only consolidating their power around A.D. 1438. Building on earlier Andean advances in mathematics, astronomy, and other sciences, they were a literate and administratively sophisticated society, but their hierarchical organization, like that of the modern Soviet Union, was ultimately unsustainable.

Toward the end of the 15th century, just prior to the Spanish invasion of the New World, the Inka empire was no monolith, but rather a diverse realm with a mosaic of peoples who resisted domination, especially on its most remote frontiers. Because of internal divisions after the premature deaths of the Inka ruler Huayna Capac and his immediate heir, there developed a struggle between potential successors Atahualpa and Huáscar. That the Inka state was a house divided against itself helps explain why a relatively small contingent of Spanish invaders could overcome vastly superior numbers, but it’s only part of the story.

© Wayne Bernhardson from Moon Argentina, 3rd edition