May 6, 1536: Incas besiege their conquered capital

Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of the Inca empire, had a penchant for gold – and his lust caused him a ten-month headache. On this day in 1536, indigenous Peruvians began a siege of their capital city, Cuzco, in an attempt to retake it from the invading Spaniards.

After the conquistador made quick work of Cuzco’s defenses in 1533, he installed Manco Inca Yupanqui as the emperor.

In April 1536, after an unsuccessful escape attempt a few months earlier, Manco tricked Pizarro into letting him retrieve a purported gold statue. He returned in a few weeks with an army 200,000 strong, which his associates outside the city had been busy amassing.

The troops surrounded Cuzco for ten months, but with opposing reinforcements arriving from Chile, Manco retreated, eventually forming a new capital at Vilcabamba. There the seat of empire would remain until Manco’s son, Túpac Amaru, was killed by the Spaniards in 1572.

(The “headache” caused by the siege was quite literal for Francisco’s half-brother Gonzalo: he forgot to wear his helmet in one battle, and died two weeks after a rock struck his domepiece.)

For more, check out NOVA‘s feature The Lost Inca Empire. The image is from a 1615 book by a native Peruvian.