648. The Fall of the Incas: Battle for the Sacred City (Part 5)

0:00The Incas My ancestors ruled from Chile to Quito, treating their vassals as their own children. They did not steal and killed only when it served justice. They kept order and reason in the provinces. But now the bearded ones have entered our land. They preach one thing and do another. They have no fear of God and no shame. They treat us like dogs. Their greed is such that there is no temple they have not plundered. In fact, if all the snow turned to gold and silver it would not satisfy them. They keep our sisters as their concubines behaving like animals. They want to divide up all the provinces, giving one to each so that they can loot them. Their goal is to see our so downtrodden, so enslaved, that we will be fit only to find

1:05them precious metals and to give them our women. Which spaniard have we injured? That they should make such cruel war on us with these horses and weapons of iron. I believe it would not be just or honorable for us to consent to this. So let us strive with all our might to kill these cruel enemies or die in the attempt. So that was Manco, emperor of the Incas, addressing a secret gathering of his kinsmen and supporters in Cusco in the autumn of 1535, offering a perspective there on Spanish rule that you have to say, I mean, it's not unjustified, but have slightly whitewashing the amyability of the Incon regime, but, you know, needs must. And we are three years now into the conquest of the Incas. And now, Dom, that you have written, the story is approaching its thrilling climax. I mean, it's probably not that thrilling for the Incas, is it? No, it's not that thrilling.

2:06Big spoiler alert. A lot of people are going to die in the next two episodes. I mean, that's the nature of history, but they die in exciting ways in these episodes. So that makes it particularly thrilling. Along with some beard shaving and guava fruit throwing, which is an unexpected angle. Yes, definitely look forward to the throwing of guava fruit. And also, if you're a fan of grotting, this is not quite at the low pay day gear a level of grotting, but it's up there. And Dominic, fair to say that guava fruit chucking actually isn't going to be the worst of it. So, you know, if you like torture, listen on. If you don't, or you've got children with you, just perhaps, you know, rein it in a bit. So let's set the scene. Francisco Pizarro and his fellow conquistadors had sailed down the Pacific coast from Panama. They'd marched inland, they'd captured and killed the Emperor at a well per. They'd pocketed the biggest ransom in history. Last week, we heard how they marched on the capital Cusco. They installed a puppet emperor in this chap manco, then very young.

3:07And they crushed opposition in the northern part of the empire in what's now Ecuador. But in today's episode, they will be facing their biggest challenge yet. So an uprising led by Manco, and a street by street, styling grad style battle for control of the capital, Cusco. So it's a very dramatic story. And let's start with the man who you've ventriloquized, so admirably Tom, Manco. A noble man. I feel I conveyed the nobility. You totally did. You totally did. I think the Spanish themselves, the Spanish chroniclers and memoirists who wrote about Manco in the middle of the 16th century absolutely saw him as a noble character, even as a heroic character, actually. A worthy adversary. A worthy adversary. So we know very little about him before Pizarro met him outside Cusco and basically adopted him as his puppet. So he was a brother of Huascar, the defeated claimant in the Inca Civil War. He's been on the run from Atahualpa's men. He's probably in his late teens when he meets Pizarro.

4:07When they arrived in Cusco in November 1533, he was greeted as a liberator, he was clearly popular with the crowds, there's no hint of a rising against him or resentment. And actually at first all went very well. Six months later, June 1534, Pizarro's Secretary Pedro Sancho wrote that his coronation has proved highly successful, all the chiefs come to serve him and pay homage to the emperor, which he means charged the fifth of Spain because of him. And actually the Spanish send several reports that summer to Spain saying, we're very pleased with him he's doing very well, all is good. However, Manco obviously is facing some pretty formidable challenges. So as we've said so many times, the fact that there has been a civil war has left the Inca Empire to wait in soyo in ruins. There are parts of the Empire where local ethnic groups have tried to throw off Inca rule. I mean that's contradicting the whole, we treated them like children. Exactly because the Inca's as we've described in our very first episode are pretty terrifying

5:11overlords. I mean they will destroy your village and move you, you know hundreds of miles across the Empire and force you to speak Ketua, their language, you know if they want to. So local kind of warlords have taken control in some areas, people have thrown off the Inca sun cult and gone back to their old gods and things. And as John Heming in his brilliant book about the conquest of Peru says, Manco had to try to restore the sort of cult of the Inca to take over control of the administration, to assert his primacy as supreme ruler. He had to revive the prestige of Cusco, he had to revive the prestige of the official religion, all of this kind of thing. Now the Spanish up to a point are useful allies in this, he presumably sees them as so many people doing these sort of stories as merely a new factor in the existing kind of political landscape of Peru and one that he can harness and use.

6:11So Dominic at this point, Manco assumes that everything can carry on pretty much as it always has done. He doesn't think that the Spanish essentially have changed everything. No, because we're talking about very small numbers of people. I mean, at the end of this decade, the Spanish did a census of their own population in Newcastle as they called it and we were talking about 4,000 people. So at this stage, we're probably talking about half that, something like that. I mean, a tiny number, right, in the empire of 12 million people, 2,000 maximum, probably hundreds of this stage. So why would he think differently? These are elite mercenaries to whom he owes his throne, but they're not going to be a factor forever. And there's probably not that many more of them, and of course in this, he is completely nicely wrong. Anyway, at first the signs are all good. He builds himself in your palace in Cusco. And interestingly, quite a difference, I think, with Mexico. The Spanish don't seem terribly keen on pushing the programme of Christianisation.

7:15So, you know, Manco is completely free to continue with the religious rituals that enshrine his primacy as the Sapper Inca. There's a lovely description by a young priest called Cristobalda Molina of a plowing festival in April 1535. It's one of the best descriptions we have actually of an Inca religious festival. They bring all the effigies out from the temples at daybreak. The lords of Cusco wore rich silver cloaks and tunics with shining circuits of fine gold on their heads. They formed up in a procession and waited in deep silence for the sun to rise. And as the sun began to rise, they began to chant and splendid harmony. And as it continued to rise, they chanted higher. And all day, they chant, Manco is kind of leading them. And then, we're told as the sun began to sink, the Indians showed great sadness at its departure and allowed their voices to die away. And as it completely disappears, they made this act of reverence, worshipping it in the deepest humility. And then they all went back to their homes and the effigies and relics were returned to their shrines and temples.

8:16So if you're part of that ceremony, which clearly Cristobalda Molina, you know, the way he rides about it, it's respectful, isn't it? Yeah, it's respectful and he finds it clearly quite moving. Does the solution of harmony and unity, that it world is back on its axis, that everything has been restored after the chaos of the Civil War? But there are three fracture lines that are widening all the time. So the first is between the Spanish and the Incas. The second is among the Incas themselves and the third is among the Spaniards themselves. And that's arguably the most dangerous of the three. So if we start with the Spanish and the Incas, when we ended last time, we were talking about how the Spanish were starting to behave very badly. They're starting to loot gold and silver, they're treating the priests with contempt. And you know, a really big thing, Pizarro is starting to distribute his states, landed as states to his fellow conquistadors. These are the Encomiendas that become such a feature of kind of the settler colonial world of Spanish Peru.

9:18And he's got a big problem, hasn't he, that as more and more people come, so from Spain, so they want Encomiendas as well. And that is an increasing source of pressure on his ability to maintain peace with the Incas. Dead right. It's not just they want Encomiendas, it's that they arrive and they think they're going to get loads of gold and they arrive and there's no gold because it's been given out. And so they say, well, if I can't have any gold, you better give me some land and somebody to work on the land. And so Pizarro is basically giving away more and more and ignoring requests from the court in Spain, from royal officials, please stop distributing land that you don't own. And his other ways is to send them off into the jungle or into kind of remote deserts to go looking for lost cities with gold. A big feature. A big feature that will carry on. So you start to get reports that from local towns and villages that people no longer see the Spanish as the liberators who've entered the chaos of the Civil War, they see them as occupiers in their own right. And as so often with occupations, military occupations, a really key fault line is how the

10:21occupiers treat the local women. So as in Mexico, we had Pedro Alvarado on the show last week, didn't we, in order to associate with the rest of his history? And you mentioned that he had got this wife, I think she was called Donna Luisa, wasn't she? Yep. In Mexico, who is buried with him in the cathedral in Guatemala. And he became the governor of Guatemala. This is a very standard thing, not becoming the governor, but for the Spanish to take local wives, as they call them, actually kind of mistresses or concumines. So at a well, but had already given Pizarro a half-sister of his, called Kispe Kusi, who was 18 years old. The Spanish called her Inyes, Pizarro nicknamed her Pizpita, which is a water thrush from his native extramedura, it's a sweet name. And he actually treated her pretty well. He called his wife, she would dine with him in his captains. She had two children by him. Eventually, he got bored of her and he married her off to another conquistador, called Francisco de Ampuerro, and actually their descendants, the Ampuerro, ended up being one of Peru's

11:24most powerful political families. Because in income society, women do play kind of a key role as power brokers, as people who influence the policy of their husbands and their families. And you know, with Alvarado or with Pizarro or whoever, there is a sense that when the marriage works, it's to the benefit of both sides. And throughout this story, I mean, we'll see, there are income women or indeed women from other peoples who stick by the Spaniards. So that is true, but I don't think we should downgrade the elements of coercion that is often there. Of course not. You know, as we will see, there is incredible violence as well. But for the Spaniards, it is an option that many of these women are very shrewd political players. Yes, that's absolutely fair. But to give you another example, Diego de Amagro, who is Pizarro's business partner, is very disputatious and resentful business partner, Amagro married another daughter of Huena Capac.

12:24So the old Emperor. So this is Manko's sister, Marca Chimbo. She's very rich. She's clearly very impressive. She's one of these people you're talking about, Tom. The Spanish sources say she would have inherited the Inca Empire if she had been a man. But Almagro treats her very badly. She was repeatedly dishonored, for she was very pretty and of a gentle nature, and she caught the pox. So I mean, who knows what's going on there, but there's nothing good, I would say. The rank and file two insist on taking local women as mistresses. Now some sources say this was consensual. An Indian woman who proved most attractive to the Spaniards prided herself on the fact. But at the same time, at a different source, no woman who was good looking was safe. It was a miracle if she escaped the Spaniards. And you can see how both those things could possibly be true at once. The Spaniards might seem prestigious and high status, and so people might be attracted by them, but at the same time, the Spanish are behaving increasingly badly. Well, also, I mean, you hope that if you can find one who will protect you, a Spaniard,

13:24then you need that. Well, you do need protection because the Spanish, I mean, to give an example of the coerce element, they supposedly had a test, and this is from a Spanish source, I think. They have a test to see if a girl is old enough for them to sleep with her. They would hit her unexpectedly from behind with a rolled cape. If she remained upright, she was considered sufficiently old. So this is obviously a problem for Manco. Manco is regarded as the Spaniards' man, as they're puppet to some extent. He entered the city with Pizarro's troops. He stood there nodding and smiling when Pizarro read out the requirement. So some of the Incarolees start by the early 1535 to say, you know, is he the right man? Is he standing up to these people or is he just there at all? What makes this so dangerous is that the Spaniards themselves have started to fall out with each other. So all through this series, the feud between Pizarro and Al Magro, the two business partners, has been getting worse and worse. Remember that Pizarro went to Spain? He came back with a great title for himself and basically nothing for Al Magro.

14:28Then Al Magro turned up late, as agreed, and Pizarro wouldn't give him a share of the ransom, or is it a fair share of the ransom. In 1535, Pizarro has moved to the coast to found the city of Lima. Basically, he wants a base near the coast and he's got this new city. And he says to Al Magro, you can be the Lieutenant Governor of Cusco. But Al Magro's men, who are mostly newcomers, start feuding with the old guard, who have been there for a year and a half now, and these are led by Pizarro's younger brothers, Juan and Gonzalo. It's got a very long story short, but they start brawling in the central square. The Al Magristas, as they're called, Al Magro's faction, and Juan and Gonzalo's faction. And there's all sorts of going on, kind of royal officials have to separate them, and basically Manco has to choose. Is he going to go with Juan and Gonzalo, or is he going to go with Al Magro? Now you might expect that because he owes his throne to the Pizarro brothers, he will pick the Pizarros. But no.

15:29Unfortunately, Juan and Gonzalo, who I described in the first episode as variously, affable, noble, magnanimous, virtuous, how's that working out? They've let the Pizarro family, the town of Trujillo, the province of extramedura and Spain down very badly. They've really behaved poorly. Because basically, with their older brother, Francisco, away on the coast, they've cast off all restraints, and they're disgracing themselves. They both want local women. Juan kidnaps Manco's younger sister, who's called Inquil Coyer. Even though, when I quote, she was very young and an unmarried maiden. He kept her locked in his house where he made her sleep with him. But Gonzalo is just as bad. He sets his sights on her older sister, Curra Oculo, who is already Manco's wife. So she's Manco's wife and his sister. This is very tolemic behaviour, but this is standard for thinkers. The high priest, who was also Manco's brother, said her half-brother as well, tried to

16:35stop him and said, you know, you shouldn't be trying to sleep with this woman. And Gonzalo said to him, don't you know what sort of men we spaniards are by the king's life? If you don't shut up, I'll slit you open and cut you into little pieces. So what is going on here? It seems really odd that these men would deliberately humiliate an insult. The man who is so important to their maintenance of ruling Cusco and the Empire more generally. See, I don't think it is that odd. I think it's human nature. They see him as their puppet, their bullies. They have a little bit of contempt for him. They have weapons and he doesn't really. He's dependent on them. They don't speak his language. They look down on him in his customs and over time. I think these guys who remember, they're not educated men, they're tough hard men from basically the Wild West. But they know the stakes. I mean, they're not naive. They understand that they need to maintain, you know, a degree of income support for their very precarious regime in Cusco.

17:36It just seems very odd. And it may, I mean, maybe you're right that it is a deliberate attempt to humiliate Manko. Well, we'll see them. They really do humiliate him later on, don't they? Or is it the fact that they are princesses, the key thing that if they can marry the princess, then perhaps they can, you know, hopes of founding a royal dynasty, it does seem unwise, I guess. It is unwise. They're unwise people. They will behave in the next two episodes. All of these people will behave incredibly unwisely. I mean, you can't deny that because I know you've read the notes. They will behave really, really mad, recklessly, poorly, hot-headedly. But I still think they're not fools. It seems peculiar. There's a sense of something not quite being explained here. I don't think that it can just be a matter of, oh, that I fancy them. Because they both fancy princesses. Yeah. Who are the sisters of the Inca? And you feel that that can't be coincidence? Hmm. I don't know about that. I think all of the Spanish go for high-born women generally. Yeah, but these are the highest born, aren't they? They are, but that's not necessarily different from how the Spanish behaved in Mexico.

18:40It's a bit like Clare Patrick are only sleeping with very powerful men. Maybe. I mean, anyway, Manco actually offers Gonzalo money to get back to the story. Manco offers Gonzalo loads of silver. And Gonzalo said to him, all the silver is fine, but it's the woman I really want. And Manco did a mad thing where he got her sister's companion, her friend, he forced her to dress up as his sister to try and fool Gonzalo. Gonzalo was not fooled. And eventually he got his hands on Kura Oklo, who actually worse is going to happen to her in the next episode I'm afraid. So Manco is very bitter about all this, and he decides to side with El Magro in the feuding. And this then creates yet another split, because some of Manco's relatives say, well, that's mad you should be siding with the Pizarro's. So the factualism now sort of seeps like a poison into Manco's court. One evening, Manco becomes absolutely terrified that these other Incas are going to murder him. And he ends up fleeing to El Magro's house and fighting under his bed, which seems a weird thing to do.

19:41And while he's doing that, loads of other Spaniards find out, and they rush to Manco's house and start looting it. So when he comes back the next day, he says, can I have my stuff back? And they say, no, you know, you went and hit under the bed. We've got your stuff. You snooze, you lose. Basically. Anyway, this is all obviously very chaotic and very bad for the Spanish regime. So Francisco Pizarro rushes back from Lehman to try and sort this out. And he says, okay, I'm going to try and sort this out. And what I'm going to do is El Magro, I think you should go to Chile. And basically, this is just clearly going to be another empire there or Richlands or something. Go down there. I will give you funding, actually. You know, you're my business partner. I'll put more money into your enterprise. You can go off to Chile and carve out your own empire there, which will end up being called New Toledo. Do you think he knows that there's nothing there? I mean, he's been down in Lima. No, I don't because it's a long old way. They don't really know what's there, I think. And actually, El Magro ends up marching past the great mine at Potosi, which becomes the most lucrative mine in the world and doesn't realize it's there.

20:43So there was money there if he had found it, but it didn't. But he's going to end up marching across the driest desert in the world, isn't he? Yes, exactly. Kind of think Pizarro has some sense of the geography. Maybe. So anyway, El Magro sets off for Chile. He's got 600 Spaniards. And actually, Manco gives him an army of 12,000 men. Commanded by the high priest, Vilac Umu and Manco's brother, Paolo. So off they go to the south, and it's a complete and utter nightmare. They haven't totally unprepared for climbing up onto the high and deen plateau, the Alte Plano, which is basically Bolivia and Northern Chile. They run out of water. They absolutely disgrace themselves this expedition. There's a priest called Cristobalda Molina, who is with them. And he said, any natives who would not accompany the Spaniards voluntarily were taken along bound in ropes and chains. The Spaniards imprison them in very rough prisons every night and led them by day heavily loaded and dying of hungus. They've got these huge chain gangs. When somebody dies in the chain gang, which they do all the time

21:44because they're exhausted, they're hungry, thirsty, whatever, the Spaniards are just very horrible. They cut the heads off these people who have dared, but they leave the bodies still attached to the chain. So as you're trudging along, you're having to kind of drag this corpse. Drag this corpse, which could be in front of you behind you in the chain. Both, I mean, it's pretty horrible. They get to Southern Bolivian, at this point, the high priest, Vilac Umu, who's gone with them, deserves. And he goes back to Cusco, he rushes back to Cusco. He gets to Cusco and he meets up with Manco and he says, these people are absolute scum. They're behaving terribly badly. You know, we can't live like this. We cannot spend our entire lives in misery and subjection, let us die for our liberty and for the wives and children whom they continually take from us and abuse. I will say one thing about all these tremendous quotations. Some of these are by people who I think had had classical educations. So if it strikes you as the Incas are speaking very much like people spoke in our Carthage series,

22:45this is probably the explanation. Anyway, Manco summons this great meeting, November 1535. And actually, you know, that speech that you began with, Tom, is very, very, you know, Carthaginian resistance or something, isn't it? However, it was reported to us by a chronicler called Theatr de León and he said he had an eyewitness account from a servant called Alimache. Oh, well then. So it must be true. And he had a recording device. Exactly. It's basically a transcript. Manco said, you know, I've sent for you, my kinsmen, to tell you what I think about these foreigners before it's too late, before more foreigners join them. They're waking up to that then. They are. They're more foreigners coming because that's what Francisco Pizarro is doing on the coast at Lima. He's basically preparing a base for people to arrive as they sail down the Pacific. Samantha runs through the bullet points that you did at the beginning of the episode. Spaniards lust for gold, treatments of women, poor behavior. And then the stirring final line was strive with all our might to kill them

23:47or we will die in the attempt. And I suppose what you would say if you were being hostile to Manco is, if only he'd realized this a year earlier, he could have teamed up with Atoel Pizarro generals. So he could have had Rumi Nyawi with his drum, his human drum on his side. But Alass he tried to use the Spaniards against them. And so he's going to be doing this on his own. So that night, after this meeting, Manco and his entourage slip out of Cusco under cover of darkness to launch the resistance. But they are betrayed because one of their servants was a spy for the Pizarro brothers. As soon as Manco has gone, this servant rushes off to Juan and Gonzalo Pizarro and he says, yeah, Manco is a manco's gone. So they ride off in pursuit and they find on the road south of Cusco loads of Incas. And they say, were you with Manco? Where did Manco go? And they what the Incas don't answer. So they seized one of them and according to the Spanish chronicles,

24:49tortured him astutely until he gave a great shout, say the Incas was not going that way. How do you torture someone astutely? Well, Tom, I mean, if you know, you know. You know. Yeah. So they've tortured him astutely with this rope and the guy finally shouts out, he's not going that way. Well, actually, Manco has gone that way. They find him hiding in some reeds at the end of the valley. Now they drag Manco back. Remember, Manco is the sapper Incas, the son of the son. And this shows the extent to which the Spanish respect has completely degenerated into total contempt. Because they drag him back, they throw him into prison with a chain round his neck and shackles on his feet and then they treat him very badly. So these are from Spanish sources, right? This is Diego Del Magro's son. They urinated and spat in his face. They struck and beat him. They called him a dog. They kept him with a chain round his neck in a public place where people passed. This is that priest, Cristobalda Molina. They stole everything he had,

25:49leaving him nothing. They kept him in prison for many days, guided day and night. They treated him very, very disgracefully, urinating on him and sleeping with his wives and he was deeply distressed. The whole urinating on him thing, I mean, that seems clearly did happen because the way they keep harping on about it. Precisely. And it's not a detail you often see in a 16th century accounts. They also do a terrible thing where they burn his eyelashes with a candle shouting at him, dog, give us gold. If not, you will be burned. So basically, they are just torturing him. I mean, they're tormenting and torturing him astutely. The word obviously spreads because there are now uprisings across the countryside. There were reports coming in that when Spaniards go out to their estates to collect their tribute, the locals are rising up and attacking them about 30 Spaniards in total are killed. Gonzalo and Juan Pizarro ride out to the city to exact really horrendous reprisals. There's lots of burning people alive. There's lots of cutting people's arms and legs off all of this kind of thing.

26:50And then in January 1536, there's a little bit of a change because their older brother, Hernando, returns from Spain. Now you may remember that Pizarro had sent Hernando to Spain to take the gold to the court to show Charles V, and Hernando had done this and it was very successful and it had been very good for the Pizarro faction. Hernando has now returned. He had previously, if you remember, been quite pally without a walper. And he does seem to have been a little bit more sympathetic to the locals than his borrishly-behaved brothers. So he arrives in Cusco and he says, what's all this? We need to change the record a bit. So he goes to Simanko, who's recently been released. He treats him a great courtesy. He says, I've been speaking to Charles V, Charles V really respects you. Things have got a little bit out of hand and I'm sorry about that. We can start again. Unfortunately, if you have any self-respect as a person, I feel like if you've been urinated on,

27:50if somebody has slept with your wives, there's no coming back from that really, is there? You can't start again. You can't let, you know, let bygones be bygones. So Manko in the early months of 36 starts plotting with his brother, the high priest, V like Umu. And they make their plans by the end of the rainy season, which is late March. The word has gone out. We'll make weapons in secret, get people to stop our food and supplies and then in April, they send messages out across the empire with their lovely knotted strings, the kibus. They say, this is on, we're gonna do this. We can have a massive uprising. The muster point will be a place called Lara's in the Yukai Valley with the Sacred Valley, 15 miles north of Kusko. And the question is, how is Manko? Remember when you tried to get out the city last time, there was action with the use of ropes. Yeah. How is it gonna go out this time? He has a very clever wease. He uses the Spanish greed against them. He goes to Enando and he says, my brother, the high priest, V like Umu

28:51and I would like to go to a religious festival in the Sacred Valley. And actually, if you let us go, they've got a giant golden statue of my father, Huena Kappak. And I'd love you to have it. And Enando says, oh, well, in that case, why haven't you left already? My goodness, of course you can go. So on the Wednesday before Easter, after mass, Manko and V like Umu go out the city. Now, on the way, they meet another conquistador, he's very suspicious. Where are you going off to? And Manko says, oh, well, we've got some hidden gold in those hills, and we're gonna go and get it. Oh, well, when? Good luck. So they get to Lares and all the big inked chiefs are there. And there are loads more of these rousing speeches. They all swear an oath. We'll drive the Spaniards out of our country or die in the attempt. And actually, Manko is delighted to discover that his local sort of chiefs and commanders and bigwigs have done him a great job. They have gathered about 100,000 people.

29:54And they have somehow armed them and fed them. These people have come from the land to the peasants and farmers and stuff, but they've been giving clubs and whatnot and slings, right? Slings, exactly. And they are outside the capital. And as John Heming says in his brilliant book, this is the last great tribute to the Inca's genius for organization. It was a very top-down, very collectivist kind of empire. And this is their last great effort at mobilizing the people. So by Easter Saturday, they are moving onto the slopes around Cusco. These giant, giant numbers of people. And the Spaniards look out. One of them says there were so many troops they covered all the fields. By day, they look like a black carpet covering everything for half a league around the city. And by night, there were so many campfires that the land, like a clear sky filled with stars. On Easter Saturday, Enanda gets word. He can't believe this. You know, what idiots his brothers were to let him down and provoke this uprising. And he calls the Spaniards of Cusco to a meeting

30:57and he says, well, we're just going to have to resist. You know, we're not going to give into this. But there's only about 200 Spaniards, maximum in the city. And they've got 500 native auxiliaries. So these are ethnic groups who don't like the Incas. They're Canyardi and the Chacha Poia. But they're against maybe 100,000 people. I mean, these are not good odds. And then though orders, he says, well, the Incas are always frightened of our cavalry or send out our horses. But for the first time, the Incas are there in such numbers that the horses can't maneuver in the crush. So they basically push back into the city and the Incas advance and advance and advance till they're camped right outside the walls. And then we're told, they taunted the Spaniards and I quote, raising their bare legs at them to show how much they despised them. So what's going on there? Well, if you've ever met a Peruvian and he's bare at his legs at you, you know. Oh, that's what they were doing. Yeah, exactly. You can't pretend that's never happened to you.

31:57And so a dawn on the 6th of May, Manco orders the assault. And it is a tremendous scene, very Hollywood. The sun rises. And as it does so, the Incas charge down the hillsides. They smash through the Spanish defences. They fight their way into the narrow alleys that lead into the city. They break through the Spanish barricades and palisades. They drive back the garrison and they fight their way into the central square. And all the time, the Incas have this new weapon, a secret weapon. They'd always, you mentioned their slings. They'd always relied very heavily on the slingshots. But now they've been heating the stones and their campfires. They've been wrapping them in cotton wool. And then they send them flying onto the fat roofs of Cusco. And a Spanish chronicle says, there was a strong wind that day. And as the roofs at the houses were fatched, it seemed at one moment as if the city were one great sheet of flame. So these huge black clouds of smoke start rising above the city. The Spanish and total chaos, they can't breathe the smoke.

32:58They can't hear their men's orders because of the din from the attackers, the roar of the fires. And they're being driven further and further and further back. And as Manco's son Tito Kuzi wrote, they feared that these would be the last moments of their lives. They could see no hope of relief and they did not know what to do. My goodness. So is this the end of Spanish rule in Peru? Is this the restoration of the Incan Empire? Only one way to find out. And that is to join us again after a break. This episode is brought to you by Vanguard. Now Dominic History is full of examples of people who have promised the world and then got very badly let down. Can you think of a particular example? I can't, I can think of a couple of examples, Tom. So we've just been recording a series about the fall of the Incas and Francisco Pizarro, who was the Spanish conquistar or in charge. First of all, he betrayed his business partner, Diego de Magro. And then, Shia,

33:58and then, shockingly, he betrayed the Inca Emperor Atahualpa. Would Dominic go ask you a question? Had Atahualpa been in the hands of Vanguard? Do you think that Vanguard would have let him down? No, the thing about Vanguard, Vanguard was founded on one core principle and that principle is putting investors first. Tom, for more than 50 years, Vanguard have been delivering on that promise for millions of clients worldwide. And you know what's brilliant? You too can open an Issa or a self-invested personal pension and you can choose investments yourself or you can let Vanguard choose and manage them for you. So search Vanguard investor to find out more when investing your capital is at risk and tax rules apply. So good, so good, so good. New markdowns up to 70% off are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. And that means so many new reasons to rack because I always find something amazing. Just so many good brands. Because there's always something new. Join the Nordy Club to unlock exclusive discounts,

35:00shop new arrivals first and more. Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack. Hello everyone and welcome back to the rest of this history. It is May 1536 and the troops of Manco, the Incan Emperor, have launched their assault on Cusco where a very small number of Spaniards, fewer than 200 are trapped. The city is burning. Dominic, is this the end for Anando Pizarro and his men? Well, it's definitely the end for a particular version of Cusco. So Cusco, a beautiful city, but now as John Heming says, stripped for Atta Ralpa's ransom, ransacked by Spanish looters and it's now being burned by its own people. And the Spanish have been pushed right back into the central square. They, as you say, they are trapped

36:00and this really is their darkest hour. One side of the square though is not burning because it's relatively open. There aren't many buildings there. So this is their kind of escape from the smoke and the flames. And they take refuge in two great buildings at the eastern end of the square. Amazingly, the Incas don't manage, these are two buildings that the Incas don't manage to set fire to. Now later on, some Spanish writers said this was because of divine intervention. It's the Virgin, the Virgin Mary in a blue cloak intervened to put out the fires. She had a load of white blankets. So she appeared through this white blanket saved the flames and this saved the Spaniards. I'm sorry to say, I don't want to disappoint our Catholic listeners, but I believe this is a later invention at least a hundred years later. Didn't Mancoving Cassand say that the Spaniards had placed African slaves on the roofs with buckets of water? Yeah, so that's perfectly plausible. It's slightly less dramatic, but probably, as you say, more plausible.

37:01It's a good point that you make there because actually throughout this story there are almost certainly some African slaves on hand. We know that the Spanish had started to import people, they're coming down from Central America. And you don't really get many glimpses of them in the sources, but I think you have to imagine that they're always there. So there's luck, there's brutal hand-to-hand fighting and basically by nightfall, the pattern is set. The Spaniards are hemmed into the small corner of Cusco city center. The Incas are encamped around them. It feels very like the siege of Tenochtitland for people who remember our series about the fall of the Aztecs. And for the next six days or so, the Spanish fight, days as one right to put a strenuous toil and danger, slowly sort of pushing out from their little redout. There are Incas still who are siding with them, aren't they? Even in Cusco. So it's not like they are completely isolated. No. There is an element of an Incas civil war going on at the same time. They're timbiliers. Again, very hard to glimpse in the sources, but we're told that, for example,

38:03some of Manco's own brothers side with the Spaniards. So throughout this whole story, I mean, you're dead right to point this out. Throughout this whole story, it's not a simple matter of Spaniards versus Incas. It is Spaniards and Incas and other indigenous peoples fighting Incas and other indigenous groups. It's just a massive punch-up. Basically, yes. Everyone's fighting each other. They are all fighting each other. Some of the Spaniards say to Anando, you know, the odds are massively against us. We should break out of the city and make for the coast. Anando has the excellent line. He says, no, we should fight back. Better to die fighting than to perish here, like hogs. Like hogs. Yeah, I think I feel like it's an American translator, isn't it? So Anando says, listen, we're kind of sitting ducks here because the Incas have taken up a position in the citadel of Saxi Hoaman, which is on this kind of rock spur that overlooks the city center, right?

39:05And this fortress, this citadel, had been built by Pachacuti, the legendary sort of great Inca Imperialist. It's a fortress. It's also a temple. It's a huge storehouse. It's this key strategic location. And Spanish accounts of the citadel of Saxi Hoaman said that it had massive stone walls. It had these huge towers. It had a labyrinth of tunnels. The Spanish writer Garthelazo de la Vega said, it's one of the wonders of the world. There was nothing in like it in Spain and Europe. It was so vast that devil himself must have helped to build it as it was built by force labor. And Anando says, right, we have to capture this back. They can rain down missiles on us from this citadel. So the plan is that his brother Juan will lead the attack with 50 horsemen. They'll burst through the enemy lines. They'll charge up the hill and capture the citadel. It's a very kind of Helm's deep plan. And there's very Helm's deep scene to kick it all off. So a later Inca source says,

40:06the Spanish spent the whole of that night on their knees with their hands clashed in prayer. Even those on guard in the square did the same as did many Indians who were on their side. On the following morning at dawn, they emerged from the church and mounted their horses. Suddenly, they put spur to their horses and a full gallop broke through the enemy and charged up the hillside at breakneck speed. It's very exciting. Stones and missiles are kind of raining down on them, but they zigzag up the hill. They reach the terraces. They turn right at a village on the top of the hill and they finally end up in the parade ground in front of the citadel. And here, Inca's a put up barricades, but Juan Pizarro and his brother Gonzalo lead the horsemen and charge after charge. Some of the horses are wounded. Some of the Spanish are thrown from the horses, but they're managed to break through the barricades and get all the way to the fortress gate. Now, it's now late afternoon and they're knackered. The Inca's are raiding down these kind of javelins and sling stones and stuff. Juan's page boy is killed by this huge stone.

41:09Juan Pizarro himself had been hit the day before by a sling shot missile and his face was so swollen that he couldn't wear his helmet. Oh dear, unwise. But he says to the Spaniard, one more attack before nightfall. That's what it takes and they spur their horses. They race for the gates. Their missiles are raiding down again. And then a massive stone smacks into Juan Pizarro's head. Oh my God, they're like an egg. A boiled egg being smashed. Exactly. He totters, he falls off his horse. It's clearly hideously wounded. The Spanish break off their charge. They rushed to his side and they carry him down the hill to Cusco. So he clings to life overnight and he dictates a will and he says, I leave all my plunder to my brother Gonzalo. He leaves some money to religious requests. He leaves some money to the poor. But now he really lets himself down. You may remember he had locked up this young girl who he was sleeping with who was a princess. And he said, I leave nothing to her.

42:10Maybe he actually said this. I mean, what a bastard to say this, he's dying. I leave nothing to her. He called her an Indian woman who has given birth to a girl who might do not recognize as my daughter. As you say, an absolute bastard to the end. Yeah, and then he died. I mean, so unnecessary. Yeah. He's a bad advert for Spain, I think. So the next day, Juan's devastated brother, Gonzalo, leads another assault. Great drama. Everyone was shouting and they were all entangled together fighting for the hilltop. It looked as though the whole world was up there grappling in close combat. And as night's falling, a Nando joins the assault. He's spent the day making scaling ladders. Again, the kind of technology that the Incas don't really have, but the Spanish, of course, are used to from their fighting in the old world. And under this hail of stones, they Spanish start to scale the outer walls. Again, it is very Helm's deep. And then there's this ferocious hand-to-hand fighting as they drive the Incas back to the inner Citadel.

43:13The fighting goes on for the next two days. The commander of the Citadel was man called Titu Kuzi Gualpa. And he had sworn to fight to the death. He's hit twice by Spanish arrows, but it doesn't deter him. He strides around. We're told like a lion from side to side of the tower. He repulsed any Spaniards who tried to mount with scaling ladders. He killed any Indians who tried to surrender. He smashed their heads with the backlacks he was carrying and hurled them from the top of the tower. So basically, like one of Stalin's commissars or something, the Second World War. Basically, if you filter it, it'll smash you over there by the next. I was thinking more like Gimli. Gimli doesn't hit people on the head from his own side, though, and throw them off the tower. Anyway, Gimli doesn't do this. The Spanish start to throw in their own native auxiliaries. This goes back to your point, Tom, about them having native support. Some of them are led by Manco's own brothers, which seems mad. And at last, this guy Titu Kuzi Gualpa realizes that the fortress is lost. He throws his weapons down onto the Spanish

44:15and then we're told, I mean, a strange choice actually to last moments, he grabbed handfuls of earth, stuffed them into his mouth and scoured his face in anguish. Then he covered his head with his cloak and he leaped to his death from the top of the fortress in fulfillment of his pledge to the Inca. So the fortress is lost. Anando's men rampaged through. They round up 1,500 people and they put them all to the sword. So now we're at the end of May and the siege has been going what for a month or two. And there's a definite sense that the initial momentum has been lost. We're told that with the fall of the citadel, Inca Moral begins to ebb. Manco says to his generals, you've let me down. You know, there were so many of you and so few of them and yet again, they have eluded your grasp. There are a couple of reasons I think why this is. John Heming says, the Spanish always have this technological advantage. The only real department in which the Inca's have parities, he puts it, is in projectiles.

45:17But projectiles didn't usually kill an arm and spaniard. And this is a kind of hand-to-hand, bloody fight to the death. And if you've got a steel sword, that can make all the difference. And the other thing is what the point you made, the native allies. They're always there. We barely glimpse them in the Spanish sources, but they're always there between the lines almost. Or zillaries, servants, armed troops, all of this. But also people of high birth as well, out there are kind of noblemen who come over. Oh yeah, Manco's brothers. In part, I assume, because Manco is destroying their city. I mean, the use of burning slingshot is annihilating a place that is their own. And perhaps they think the Spaniards are the best hope to save it. If you decide the Spaniards are going to win and can't be beaten, then a lot of people will say, well, it's literally pointless to fight on against them. The best thing for our people is to come to an accommodation. You know, save lives, save the city, save our civilization.

46:19But this is not the end. The siege drags on for another three months. And it is incredibly fierce. So I'll just give one quote from a Spanish writer Alonso in a recap of the Guzmán. I can bear witness that this was the most dreadful and cruel war in the world. Between Christians and Moors, so he's talking about the fighting in Spain in the 1490s against the Muslims in the South of Spain. Between Christians and Moors, there is some fellow feeling. And it is in the interest of both sides to spare those they take alive because of their ransoms. But in this Indian war, there is no such feeling. They give each other the cruelest deaths imaginable. So a sense of it being an existential struggle. We know not governed by the rules that govern fighting in Europe or the Mediterranean, but something unbelievably savage in which kind of all restraints are off. And week by week, faced with this, Manco's army is losing momentum. Most of the Manco's men are not professional soldiers. They're peasants, they're farmers.

47:20They've taken their families with them. And by August or so, they're drifting away to go back to their fields. And it's about this point that you get some dramatic news from the coast. So remember that on the coast at this new city of Lima, Francisco Pizarra has been there all the time. Here's sent out a series of relief columns to try and save his brothers. But these had been annihilated as they tried to go over the Andes by one of Manco's best commanders, a guy called Quiso Yapanque, who had basically hidden waiting for them in gorges and ravines, then hurled down rocks and boulders at them. Really simple, but it worked beautifully. Yeah, so they finally rumbled how to destroy Spanish expeditions. Exactly. Basically, three of these columns were annihilated. 200 horsemen are killed and their severed heads are sent as gifts to Manco. Do they capture the horses? They don't capture them and ride them, I don't think. I think they kill some of them and the rest of the horses just run away, I think, escape. So Pizarro back in Lima, it's in a bit of a panic now.

48:22He hasn't got any news from Cusco. He doesn't know what's happened to his brothers. He's sending out desperate letters all across the empire, including actually to Pedro de Alvarado. The Inca has the city of Cusco besieged and for five months, I've heard nothing. The country is ravaged and the native chiefs have won many victories against us. It causes me such great sorrow that it's consuming my entire life. But there is someone who answers this appeal, isn't there? Who is again, a kind of interesting illustration of the relationships that can develop between Spaniards and native women. Because this is this woman, Conto Hacho, who had been the queen of a native people taken by Huana Capac and she is Pizarro's mother-in-law and she's one of history's great mother-in-laws and she raises an army of her countrymen, a march to Lima to help him. So it can work for both sides. It can, interestingly, actually. I mean, although he gets some support, he gets some support from Panama.

49:22He gets some native allies, as you rightly say. But actually across the Spanish empire, the general senses of the Pizarros have brought this on themselves. The governors have exploited the Inca. Fernando Pizarro caused this rebellion for it is said that he tortured the local chief for his gold and silver. So even at this point, people are saying the Pizarros are kind of bad men. They've treated Manco and Co very roughly. I mean, they're not wrong, are they? Exactly, they're not wrong. I mean, the idea that the Spanish, the black legend, which is the Spanish are all uniquely cruel and corrupt, is just not true. Even from this stage, lots of Spaniards are saying the Pizarros are terrible people. And, you know, I've actually feel sorry for the Inca's. Anyway, things are gonna get really tricky for Pizarro now. Because this guy, Kizoo Yapanque, whose crush is relief columns with boulders, he now descends from the Andes onto the coastal plain and he starts marching on Lima. And in Lima, people become absolutely terrified. Because very soon, Lima is virtually surrounded with Inca troops on the hillsides, just as in Cusco. And for five days, they're waiting.

50:24And then on the sixth day comes the decisive moment. This guy, Kizoo, addresses his men, he says, you know, classic kind of Inca rhetoric. This is the moment to capture the city or to perish in the attempt. I intend to enter the town today and kill all the Spaniards. And any who accompany me, miss go on the understanding that if I die, all will die. So the Inca's advance, people said it was an amazing scene. They had these sort of, it's very kingdom of heaven. They've got these kind of banners, kind of waving in the sunshine and amazing scene. Thousands of Inca's against just two squadrons of Spanish cavalry. Kizoo is leading them with a spear on foot. But then as John Heming says, for all its splendor and reckless bravery, this attack was to prove as futile as that of the French at Agingor, the British at Balaclava, or the Confederates at Gettysburg. Because basically, Kizoo leads his men and they're on foot. And as soon as they were in range, the Spanish charge, they rush out on their horses.

51:25And it's flat ground. Basically, they route Kizoo and his men instantly. And in the first attack, they kill him and they kill 40 of his kind of commanders and chiefs. And Kizoo had said, if I die, all will die. Actually, that's not true. Everybody else just runs away. He's dead, Lima is saved. And now the Spanish convince you're out of Lever and vent their fury with some truly hideous reprisals. So one of Pizarra's soldiers writes to a friend of his in Seville. We captured a live 100 natives and killed 30. We cut the arms of some of the prisoners and the noses from others and the breasts from the women. Then we sent them back to the enemy to show them that they too would submit to the knife. Oh, dear. Yeah. So it's only going to get darker, by the way, just to warn you. So Pizarra doesn't know what's been happening to his brothers in Cusco. What's been going on there in the meantime? The answer is that they've stabilized the situation. They're still encircled,

52:26but they're facing fewer attacks from Manko's men. So much so they've been able to slacken their own guard duty and get some sleep, which is a nice change for them after months of heavy fighting. They occasionally launch raids out to the city, they capture prisoners, they bring them back in, they cut off their hands, then they let them go again, as they're going to warn into the others. Yeah, of course they do. They launch raids to get food. So they capture a supply column, one of Manko's supply column, there's broad loads of llamas. So they're dining on roasted llama. And by the end of 1536, the whole thing has become a stalemate. The Spaniards can't get out. The Incas can't get in, but on balance, this is probably good for the Spaniards, because all the time, more ships are coming down the Pacific coast, bringing reinforcements from other Spanish colonies, even from Spain, where the caught are sent 50 are cabousias, so gunmen, and 50 crossbowmen. So they're bringing more new technology, and they're coming all the time, just as they had in Mexico.

53:27So the weeks continue, the siege goes on. And then in April 1537, comes the real game-changing moment. Remember that all this time, Pizarro's business partner Diego de El Magro has been often chilly, disgracing himself with his chain gangs. He is now coming home. He's very dejected. They've found no gold and silver. They're very miserable. They've basically killed loads of people, but that hasn't made them happy. I mean, madly, they marched right past the gigantic silver mine at Potosi, which at its height, I'll talk about this a little bit, maybe in the next episode, produced 80% of the world's silver. One of the the Cerro Rico, the hill of gold, the hill of silver. They didn't even realize it was there. Anyway, they crossed the Atacama desert, as you said. Was that the world's highest desert? No, it's the driest desert. Dryest desert. There are places there where there's been no precipitation for centuries.

54:27Yeah. They very Alexander the Great, isn't it? Well, we'll probably just cross that before. What's the worst that could happen? They crossed this desert. Amazing, they don't all die. And they discover that they hit El Magro here as well as massive war was broken out. And Manco is besieging the city of Cusco. And now El Magro thinks, well, this is a brilliant opportunity for me. Because basically, if I can get Manco on side, if I can end the war, save Newcastle, Charles V will see me as the hero. You know, the Pizarra is a rubbish. He'll see me as the hero of the hour. So he sends Manco this absolutely gutting letter, my well-beloved son and brother. I'm so sorry for the abuse the Christians have done to your person, the robbery of your property and house and the seizure of your beloved wives. I'm on my way to help you. I won't do anything without your approval. I will never refuse you. The friendship I've always felt for you. So in April 1537, El Magro's army arrives around Cusco. You now have, I mean, this is so Georgia,

55:29our Martin, isn't it? You now have three forces in the standoff. And then the Pizarro in the city and two different armies outside the city, that are Manco and that are El Magro. What's really unclear is how this constellation of forces will play out. So Manco surely knows now that with two Spanish armies, he's not going to drive them all out of Peru. He can't beat two of them. He also knows that Pizarro's will not forgive him for this war. And Nando in the city, he would love to, the siege to end. On the other hand, he hates El Magro and he's got no intention of giving him Cusco. So who do you think he hates more? Manco or El Magro? Oh, El Magro. I would have thought so. Spanish hate each other far more than they hate the Incas. Yeah, because there's no sense. I mean, Manco's, you know, he's the opposition. He's doing what he should be doing. Because that would be a punchy reversal, wouldn't it? If they didn't suddenly to team up with Manco and wipe out El Magro. That would be the real. See, that's the real what-if of history. If Enando Pizarro had teamed up with Manco at that point, he'd attack El Magro.

56:30Well, actually El Magro moves first. And then we promise Guava Frutaction and that's coming. El Magro moves first. He sends this messenger called Ruby Diaz. You'll realize in a second why I've never gone to the bother of naming the messenger. Tomanko's huge fortress at El Monte Tango. And he says, you know, Manco, you're my great friend. If you stand down your forces, I'll make sure the king gives you a royal pardon. It'll all be forgiven. And I'll make sure the Pizarro is punished. And Manco's really tempted by this. But then another messenger arrives from Enando Pizarro. You're Manco's been fighting all this time. And Enando says to Manco, you're mad if you trust El Magro. He's an absolute snake and a liar. And anyway, he's basically my brother's Francisco's subordinate. He can't deliver on any of his promises. Don't listen to him, he's a liar, all of this. So Manco now, he's got these two messages and he can't decide which one to go for. And he decides he will test Diego Del Magro. He's captured four of Enando's scouts. And Manco says, well, if you are really on my side,

57:30prove your good faith by executing these four Spanish scouts. And this is a real dilemma for El Magro. If El Magro executed these four Spanish scouts, his own countrymen. I mean, the king of Spain would be furious. You see, I think in that situation Pizarro would execute them. And making excuse. But El Magro is a bit naive, isn't he? These people have been defending Cusco. He can't do it, he can't do it, he doesn't do it. And where Manco hears that he hasn't done it, he says, gosh, Enando Pizarro is right. El Magro will never deliver, he is a snake. These Spaniards and the final analysis will always stick together. So Manco turns on El Magro. He orders an attack on his army, which is fought off. But then this is the exciting fruit action. Yeah, because what happens to Rui Diaz? So Rui Diaz is strict naked. He's the messenger. He brought a message saying, I'd like to be your friend. And this is his reward. A mad passage, actually. So Rui Diaz is strict naked. And then, I quote, they anointed him with their mixtures.

58:33I mean, who knows what those mixtures are? And we're amused to see his contorted features. I mean, nothing, nothing good in those mixtures. Ever didn't know. I couldn't spot what to ask him. They made him drink a great quantity of cheecher. That's their kind of beer. And tying him to a post, they use their slings to fire Guava. I mean, it's the darkest moment in the entire history of the Spanish conquest. That's about to say, by the standards of the tortures in this series, this is quite... You've got a really lightly... You'd opt for that. Give him a choice, wouldn't you? Give him all the options. I'd go for the Guava fruit every time. But this is weird, isn't it? Because also, they make him shave his beard and cut his hair. And also, again, I wouldn't object too strongly, I think. No, no, no. I'm always me laugh most as the line. They use their slings to fire Guava fruit and distressing him greatly.

59:34And then they made him shave his beard and his hair. They wish to change him into an Indian with bare limbs. I mean, yeah, mad torture. So what's going on there? I don't know, I'm not an Inca. I can't put it to the reception. There are some points where you just have to throw up your hands and admit the imponderable later of history. Your powers of imagination let you down. I think Rudy, as I totally agree with you, I think he's got of unbelievably lightly. He's had a shave. I mean, people pay for that. He'd pay to go into a sort of posh barber and him to give you a shave. Not a fire fruit, I think. I guess the Guava fruit, perhaps, has moistened his skin ready for the shave. You could imagine that being quite fashionable, hipsters. Yeah, hipsters, right? Pelt a hipster with Guava fruit and then give him a shave. People would pay very good money for this kind of, this sort of treatment. Anyway, so where are we with Manko? I feel like Manko's options now are very narrow. He can't capture Cusco. I mean, he couldn't capture it before.

1:00:34He can't capture it now. And I think the Guava fruit debark has torpedoed any possibility. That's a deal breaker with El Magro. So he decides his only options to withdraw to safety and to buy his time and to hope that maybe the Spaniards turn on each other, which, of course, he knows them by now. Every chance that happening. So basically, he's going to go back to his old life as an outlaw. And so a few days later, he withdraws from his great fortress at Alante Tango. He's going to abandon the Andean Highlands in Spanish. He's going to head deeper into the Sacred Valley. So that's basically in the shadow of Machu Picchu. He's going to go across the mountains and deep into the jungle. And he addresses his supporters. He said, well, people from the jungle have been asking me to visit them for years anyway. So this is the perfect opportunity. I should give them this satisfaction for a few days, he says. And then they're a whole load of prayers. They're by the high priest. They pack up all their idols and their kind of relics.

1:01:36And they know, you know, gristically, they're probably never coming back. So Manco vanishes and will come back to him. And on the 18th of April, Al Magro rides into Cusco with drums and pipes. Not as a liberator, though. He rides in as a conqueror. He burns the houses of the Pizarro brothers. He takes Enando and Gonzalo Pizarro prisoner. And he locks them up in the city towers. And then when Francisco Pizarro finally does send a relief column, Al Magro rides out to confront them and he persuades them to change sides. So now, the balance of power really has shifted. Francisco Pizarro is still on the coast at Lima. But Al Magro is ruling unchallenged in Cusco. And he now promotes his own Inca puppet. So this is a guy who's been with him on the expedition to Chile, who is Manco's slightly younger half-brother who's called Paolo. We don't know much about Paolo, although he'll be coming back in the next episode.

1:02:37Paolo is clearly an opportunist. He's much more drawn to collaboration than Manco. He'd much rather collaborate with the Spanish than basically join his half-brother as an outlaw. Paolo gets his supporters to help Al Magro. And so in July 1537, a few months later, Al Magro organizes another grand coronation ceremony in the square in Cusco. He strips Manco of his title as Sapa Inca. I mean, Al Magro has no authority to do that and there's no precedent for it, really, in Inca history. But he basically says, Manco's run away. He's forfeited as title. It's like James II in 1688. And the red ceremonial kind of string fringe with its tassel is given to Paolo who is now supposedly the emperor. But Manco, of course, has not vanished. Manco has crossed the mountains. He's come down into the jungle into a place called Vilca Bamba and here at a town called Vitcos, he's established his new headquarters

1:03:39just out of reach of the Spanish. So this is rainforest territory, very wet, reed in mist and kind of mystery. And here, Manco is going to establish an Inca state in exile. And so, all is set now for the end game. You have Francisco Pizarro in Lima on the coast. You have Al Magro, his old business partner, turned hated rival in the Highlands in Cusco and you have Manco in his jungle there at Vilca Bamba. There's only gonna be one winner and for at least two of these men, this story will end in unspeakable bloodshed. So one of them will be the last man standing, or will they? And we'll find out which one in the final spine-tealing episode, Tom, of the four of the Inkers. And so the end approaches. And the members of the Restless History Club can of course hear that episode right away. If you're not a member of the Restless History Club

1:04:41and you want to join them, you know what you've got to do. You've got to head to therestlesshistory.com and sign up. Goodbye. Bye-bye. MUSIC To sum, he is the revolutionary hero who restored China to its rightful place on the global stage. To others, he's a brutal despot, accused of presiding over more civilian deaths than either Stalin or Hitler. Mao Zedong has one of the most recognizable faces in the world yet he started life in a muddy, provincial village. A rebel son who hated his father survived a 6,000-mile walk across China and rose to become a figure of Titanic proportions. From Empire, the Gohanger World History Show, I'm Anita Arnen. And I'm William Durimple. In this six-part series, we're joined by world-renowned expert Rana Mitter to explore the life of the father of communist China,

1:05:41Mao Zedong. We'll track his rise from a bookstore owner to a guerrilla commander and we'll witness his ruthless elimination to secure total power. And we'll descend into the dark experiment of the cultural revolution. A time when ancient temples were burned, children delights their parents and a nation worshipped a mango as a sacred relic. Subscribe to Empire wherever you get your podcasts to listen now.