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During and after the conquest of Mexico, reports filtered up to the Spaniards from Central America of a land further to the south of immense riches. An expedition in 1527 reached Tumbes (in what is now NW Peru) and brought back gold, silver, and other evidence of an advanced civilization. Francisco Pizarro then obtained a capitulacion from the Crown allowing him to conquer and settle Peru independently of Pedrarias Davila, the governor of Nicaragua, under whose control explorations of southern lands fell. Pizarro's expedition included his four half-brothers and his partner, Diego de Almagro. Both Francisco Pizarro and Almagro were in their fifties at the time they set off for Peru.
The Incan Empire, meanwhile, was being torn apart by the dynastic war of succession that resulted after the death of the emperor Huayna Capac from smallpox (the European disease was ravaging the continent). Huascar and Atahuallpa, Huayna Capac's sons, were fighting over the succesion. When Pizarro arrived in 1532, Atahuallpa had emerged victorious and was making his way to Cuzco, the political, social, and spiritual center of the Inca Empire.
Pizarro and his 100+ soldiers went to the Inca city of Cajamarca and sent messengers to atahuallpa inviting him to a meeting. On the evening of Saturday Nov. 16, 1532, Atahuallpa and 6,000 of his men entered the empty city square, where he was met only by a priest a native interpreter. The priest recited the Requerimiento and handed his breviary to Atahuallpa. The Emperor examined the book and then tossed it to the ground (in some versions, Atahuallpa throws the book away because he can't make it speak, as the priest did). The priest then shouted to the spaniards, who were hiding in the empty buildings around the square, that Atahuallpa had rejected the word of God. The Spaniards attacked the unprepared Indians, massacred between 6,000-7,000 (the rest of Atahuallpa's army had remained outside the city, but the Spaniards chased after them and killed them), and captured Atahuallpa.
Despite the fact that Atahuallpa paid a large ransom of gold to the Spaniards, he was strangled. Pizarro and Almagro marched on Cuzco, conquered the remaining resistance, and looted the city.
With the conquest of Peru completed by 1535, Pizarro and Almagro began fighting with each other over Cuzco. Pizarro sent Almagro on a disastrous, two-year expedition to the south (what is now Bolivia and Chile). Meanwhile Pizarro left two of his half-brothers in charge of Cuzco, but their abuses caused the puppet emperor Manco Inca to raise a rebellion against the Spanish occupation, besieging Lima and Cuzco. Only with the return of Almagro's forces in 1537 were the rebels forced to withdraw. Almagro then arrested the younger Pizarro brothers, setting a civil war in motion. Almagro was taken prisoner by the Pizarros, "tried", and strangled--just as Atahuallpa had been. For this, Hernando Pizarro was imprisoned for 22 years when he returned to Spain in 1539. In 1541, Francisco Pizarro was hacked to death by twenty of Almagro's followers.
Civil unrest continued until royal forces subdued the country in 1548; Inca resistance continued until 1572, when the last free Inca ruler, Tupac Amaru, was executed.
El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (1539-1616) es uno de los primeros escritores mestizos del Nuevo Mundo. Su carrera literaria puede ser leida en parte como un intento de mediar entre lo indigena y lo espanol. Nacio Garcilaso de la Vega y Suarez de Figueroa, pero al trasladarse a Espana a la edad de 21 cambio su nombre al Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. Es decir, el momento cuando abandona la patria materna es el momento cuando reclama su identidad etnica y cultural. Pero a la vez, siempre es consciente de su herencia espanola tambien, como veremos.
En 1590 publico su traduccion de los Dialogos de amor, libro neoplatonico de Leon Hebreo. En 1605 publico La Florida del Inca o Historia del adelantado Hernando de Soto. Su obra culminante parecer ser Los comentarios reales, publicado en dos partes (1609 y 1617). En este libro, se destaca su intento de justificar su entrada en el campo historiografico por sus intentos de valorizar su conocimiento de y acceso a las fuentes incaicas. La manera en que habla de su proyecto de escribir la historia incaica y sus razones explicitas e implicitas de hacerlo muestran una fuerte auto-consciencia de su propio papel como historiador mestizo. Esta auto-consciencia se refleja tanto en la forma de su escritura (es decir, como construye el texto) como en su contenido (es decir, las cosas que escoge incluir bajo la rubrica de "comentarios reales").
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