How did the final collapse of the Inca Empire happen?
KM: After nearly forty years of Inca insurgency and Spanish counterinsurgency—during which the Spaniards were almost wiped out—the “conquered” Inca Empire during the years after the conquest was as deadly for the Spaniards as it presently is for U.S. troops in Falluja—the Spanish government in Peru got tired of having this lawless pocket of resistance. They decided to wipe it out. The Governor got together a large force of Spanish adventurers and land owners, put a bounty on the final Inca Emperor’s head, and they set off down the eastern side of the Andes again. They sacked the Incas’ Amazonian capital, and then a sort of special forces team of Spaniards set off after the Inca emperor, who was fleeing with his pregnant wife. Because she was pregnant, she slowed down their escape. Eventually, the Spaniards came upon the final emperor and his queen huddled around a fire in the middle of the Amazon jungle. They captured them, took them back to Cuzco, gave the emperor a “monkey trial,” an
