Second battle of Cuzco

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Siege of Cuzco

Part of the Spanish conquest of Peru

Date	May 6, 1536-early March 1537
Location	Cuzco, present-day Peru
Result	Decisive Spanish victory

Belligerents

Nueva Castilla, Nueva Toledo

Inca Empire

Commanders

Francisco Pizarro
Gonzalo Pizarro
Hernando Pizarro
Juan Pizarro II †, later reinforced by
Diego Almagro

Sapa Inca Manco Inca Yupanqui

Strength

300 in Cuzco, 300 in Lima, later reinforced by some 399 Almagristas

At least
100,000 Inca warriors

Casualties and losses

Some hundred, Juan Pizarro killed

High, tens of thousands

Conquest of Peru

Punta Quemada – Puná – Cajamarca – Cuzco – Las Salinas

After the capture of Cuzco in 1533, the Spaniards set up a very harsh occupation of the Inca Empire. Almagro, reinforced from Panama, went south and conquered Chile. Eventually, the Incas wouldn't stand their defeaters. Manco Inca, the new leader, gathered 100,000 Incas and sieged Cuzco, and managed to--with a degree of success--take back various parts of the city. Yet, he failed to fully capture and hold the city. After 10 months of vicious fighting in Cuzco, with disease and low-morale somewhat playing factor, Manco Inca decided to raise the siege at Cuszo and withdraw to Vilcabamba. It is suggested by some that this action threw away his only real chance to rebuff the Spaniards from Tawantinsuyu, however, it was probably the only realistic choice he had considering the arrival of Spanish reinforcements from the Indies led by Diego de Almagro.

Manco Inca continued his "rebellion" against Pizarro very well indeed, defeating all attempts to capture him. Among these, the defense of Sacsayhuman from a Spanish cavalry charge was one of the most decisive. However, by 1539 it had become apparent that Manco could not win.

Francisco Pizarro attacked from Lima to save his brothers, who were stuck in the palace of Inti-Huasi in Qoricancha. Juan Pizarro died, hit by a rock during the vicious fighting. Almagro returned to New Castile and defeated the Incas. He seized Cuzco on the same year but was defeated in 1538 (Battle of Las Salinas) and was beheaded. His young son avenged him by assassinating Pizarro and was himself executed. As soon as Almagro's and Pizarro's personal struggle would end (With the death of their respective leaders), the future of Spanish rule was sealed in western South America until the 1800s.

Nevertheless, the threat of the Incas was not wiped out for they continued with their attacks from Vilcabamba. Years later, Tupac Amaru II would continue with the Inca struggle for independence from Spanish conquest--a struggle that the Inca descendants (very few still "pure blooded") would continue well into the times of Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin.