# The Conquest of the Incas  ## Metadata - Author: [[John Hemming]] - Full Title: The Conquest of the Incas - Category: #books ## Highlights - The paradox in his character was that he now embarked on years of obsessed and exhausting exploration down the west coast of South America. As a middle-aged man, Pizarro should have retired to a life of well-earned ease. Instead, he spent all his wealth and suffered terrible privation in seven years of gruelling expeditions. He had no luxurious tastes and, as a quiet bachelor, no need of a greater fortune. We can only conclude that he was driven forward by an impulse for glory. ([Location 161](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00B3IKAQM&location=161)) - Tags: [[aqua]] - Pizarro had been fortunate that his visit coincided with the return of Cortés, who charmed the courtiers and their ladies with lavish presents of Mexican treasure, and was rewarded with a marquisate and other honours. Cortés encouraged Pizarro and possibly lent him money – they may have been distant cousins. ([Location 181](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00B3IKAQM&location=181)) - Tags: [[aqua]] - The Incas were mountain people, with lungs and spleens enlarged by evolution, and different blood-cell composition, all of which adapted them to living at high altitude. Although they had conquered the many civilisations of the hot coastal valleys, the true Inca empire lay along the ranges of the Andes and it was here that any conqueror must confront them. With striking good fortune, Pizarro’s Spaniards entered Peru precisely at a moment of great passion in a war of dynastic succession. ([Location 210](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00B3IKAQM&location=210)) - Tags: [[aqua]] - His army and court were struck by a violent epidemic that killed Huayna-Capac in a delirious fever, at some time between 1525 and 1527. The disease may have been malaria, but it could have been smallpox. The Spaniards brought smallpox with them from Europe and it spread fiercely around the Caribbean among peoples who had no immunity. It could easily have swept from tribe to tribe across Colombia and struck the Inca armies long before the Spaniards themselves sailed down the coast. The epidemic ‘consumed the greater part’ of the Inca court including Huayna-Capac’s probable heir, Ninan Cuyuchi. ‘Countless thousands of common people also died.’* ([Location 221](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00B3IKAQM&location=221)) - Tags: [[aqua]] - The most likely successor was the Inca’s son Huascar, and he succeeded as ruler of the capital city Cuzco. Another son, Atahualpa, was left in charge of the imperial army at Quito. ([Location 226](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00B3IKAQM&location=226)) - Tags: [[aqua]] - Pizarro started his march down the Peruvian coast just as this fierce civil war was ending. His men saw ample evidence of the recent fighting. Tumbez was in ruins. ([Location 245](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00B3IKAQM&location=245)) - Tags: [[aqua]] - When Pizarro learned about the civil war he immediately grasped how useful it could be for him. Cortés had brilliantly manipulated rival factions during the conquest of Mexico twelve years before. Pizarro hoped to do likewise. ([Location 249](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00B3IKAQM&location=249)) - Tags: [[aqua]] - Reports reached Atahualpa as soon as the Spaniards landed on the mainland, and he was told that they were pillaging the countryside and abusing the natives. But Atahualpa was too engrossed in the civil war to be particularly concerned with the movements of the 150 strangers. He was fully occupied in leading his army, arranging the occupation of the newly won empire, planning his own journey to Cuzco, and awaiting reports from his commanders to the south. ([Location 252](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00B3IKAQM&location=252)) - Tags: [[aqua]] - Atahualpa had decided to allow the strangers to penetrate the mountains, and his warriors did nothing to impede their advance. The Inca’s council discussed the Spaniards at length. Some members wanted to attack the invaders at once. But others argued that it was ‘folly to be concerned over 170 men,’ and advised that they should be seized on arrival at Cajamarca. ([Location 273](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00B3IKAQM&location=273)) - Tags: [[aqua]] - ‘The Indians’ camp looked like a very beautiful city. . . . So many tents were visible that we were truly filled with great apprehension. We never thought that Indians could maintain such a proud estate nor have so many tents in such good order. Nothing like this had been seen in the Indies up to then. It filled all us Spaniards with fear and confusion. But it was not appropriate to show any fear, far less to turn back. For had they sensed any weakness in us, the very Indians we were bringing with us would have killed us. So, with a show of good spirits, and after having thoroughly observed the town and tents, we descended into the valley and entered the town of Cajamarca.’ ([Location 288](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00B3IKAQM&location=288)) - Tags: [[aqua]] - There was the spirit of a gold rush about this expedition, fortified by some of the conviction of a crusade. ([Location 381](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00B3IKAQM&location=381)) - Tags: [[aqua]] - All that they could decide during that anxious night was to employ the various tactics and advantages that had proved successful in the Caribbean. They could use surprise, attacking first without provocation, and take advantage of the novelty of their appearance and fighting methods. Their weapons—horses, steel swords and armour—were far superior to anything they had encountered so far in the Indies, although they were not so sure about the Incas. They had in mind the tactic that had succeeded so well in the conquest of Mexico: the kidnapping of the head of state. They could also try to make capital of the internal dissensions within the Inca empire—Hernando Pizarro had already offered the services of Spaniards to help Atahualpa in his inter-tribal fighting. Possibly their greatest advantage lay in the self-assurance of belonging to a more advanced civilisation and the knowledge that their purpose was conquest: to the Indians, they were still an unknown quantity of uncertain origin and unsure intentions. ([Location 382](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00B3IKAQM&location=382)) - Tags: [[aqua]]