Huáscar

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Huáscar, the 12th Inca emperor

Huáscar Inca (Quechua: Waskar Inka, of uncertain meaning, said to be related to his birthplace Huascarpata; 1503–1532) was Sapa Inca of the Inca empire from 1527 to 1532 AD, succeeding his father Huayna Capac and brother Ninan Cuyochi, both of whom died of smallpox while campaigning near Quito.

After the conquest, the Spanish put forth the idea that Huayna Capac may have intended Huáscar to be the Emperor, and his half-brother Atahualpa to be the governor of the Quito province. Then Huayna Capac and his initial heir Ninan Cuyochi died prematurely without naming a successor. Without a clear line of succession, a war broke out between Huáscar and his brother Atahualpa.

The Chronicler Juan de Betanzos who provides us with most of the information pertaining to the Huáscar-Atahualpa civil war outlines Huáscar's tyranny. This may be a slightly biased account, as Betanzos's wife, on whose testimony much of his chronicle is based was previously married to Atahualpa. Betanzos outlines how Huáscar would seize his lord's wives if they took his fancy. More importantly, he seized both the Lands of the Previous Incas and the Lands of the Sun. In Incan society, the lands of previous dead Incas remained part of their household to support their divine-like cult. Similarly lands were reserved for the worship of the Sun. In this way, Huáscar's seizure represented his disrespect and insensitivity for Inca religion. Huáscar then declared war on Atahualpa. The battles reported by Betanzos talk of Quizquiz (Atahualpa's commander) leading armies of 100,000 men with armies of 60,000 men supporting Huáscar. This demonstrates the numerical potential of Incan armies. Betanzos's account also enlightens us on the bloody nature of Incan wars. Atahualpa's punishment of the Canares saw him rip the hearts from their chiefs and force their followers to eat them, as well as killing babies in the wombs of pregnant women. The war was uncompleted, with Atahualpa in the clear ascendancy on Pizarro's arrival. However it was partly due to the ongoing civil war that Pizarro was able to triumph. Firstly, the Incan armies were depleted from the civil war. Secondly, disunity can be demonstrated by Huáscar's celebrations and in the celebrations of the province of Cuzco (loyalists to Huáscar) at Atahualpa's capture. Furthermore, Atahualpa had Huáscar killed so that he was not in a position to offer Pizarro a larger ransom of gold than Atahualpa was offering for his own release.