The Last Days of the Incas
by Kim MacQuarrie
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Book Summary Information
Author: Kim MacQuarrieEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-05
ISBN: 0743260503
Number of pages: 522
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Book Reviews of The Last Days of the Incas
Book Review: A fast and detailed narrative, an exhilarating read till the last page.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent book. A fast and detailed narrative, an exhilarating read till the last page. I have to agree with one reviewer, I was also willing the Inca rebellion on to victory while knowing the grim fate that awaited them. The description of the battle scenes is like something out of the movie Braveheart. The Conquistadors treatment of the native people was nothing short of appalling. They desecrated their sacred relics, stole their ornate gold and silver artifacts only to melt then down into metal slabs, they claimed their land and even their women and then to top it all off killed them in the name of their Christian God.
Life was different in the fifteenth century, Pizzarro needed a mandate from the queen of Spain to conquer Peru, once secured this was a license to rob, plunder and pillage. It's strange how men seemingly without scruples wouldn't advance an inch in a foreign country thousands of miles from their homeland without the royal decree. The European invaders in my opinion were in a close second behind the Nazis as far as human brutality is concerned.
The author delivers the story with passion and zeal that leaves you hoping throughout the story that the Incas will unite under one ruler, regroup and prevail. The author does an excellent job explaining how the Incas were defeated despite their overwhelming numbers (Incas in their millions against 169 Spaniards). Mr. MacQuarrie takes the reader back to a time when peoples of the world were cut off from each other for thousands of years each developing independently of one another then suddenly thrust into battle in 1531. It would be like bringing rifles, tanks, machine guns and bombs to bear upon cavalry units. The Incas had never seen a horse let alone a man commanding such a large animal. The Spanish horses could also fight in battle by charging, biting and head butting. It's very difficult to dispatch an armored man wielding a sword on horseback with a wooden club. The Incas had no iron tools or weapons. The Incas had no armor for protection. They thought the Spaniards were gods who could unleash a terrible calamity upon them at any time. Their moral was at an all time low.
Unlike the Spanish, the Incas had no monetary system but they did pay tax to the emperor in the form of their labor, (surprisingly around 30%, about what is deducted from today's salaries) making weapons, growing food and maintaining storage facilities. The Incas were a well organized and a very sophisticated civilization but no match for superior technology and foreign diseases the Europeans brought with them.
The great thing about this book is that it's so easy to read. It's like a good work of fiction. You will learn so much from this book. The author covers many aspects of the Inca and Spanish culture and how they played out in Peru some 477 years ago.
Summary of The Last Days of the Incas
In 1532, the fifty-four-year-old Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro led a force of 167 men, including his four brothers, to the shores of Peru. Unbeknownst to the Spaniards, the Inca rulers of Peru had just fought a bloody civil war in which the emperor Atahualpa had defeated his brother Huascar. Pizarro and his men soon clashed with Atahualpa and a huge force of Inca warriors at the Battle of Cajamarca. Despite being outnumbered by more than two hundred to one, the Spaniards prevailed -- due largely to their horses, their steel armor and swords, and their tactic of surprise. They captured and imprisoned Atahualpa. Although the Inca emperor paid an enormous ransom in gold, the Spaniards executed him anyway. The following year, the Spaniards seized the Inca capital of Cuzco, completing their conquest of the largest native empire the New World has ever known. Peru was now a Spanish colony, and the conquistadors were wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.But the Incas did not submit willingly. A young Inca emperor, the brother of Atahualpa, soon led a massive rebellion against the Spaniards, inflicting heavy casualties and nearly wiping out the conquerors. Eventually, however, Pizarro and his men forced the emperor to abandon the Andes and flee to the Amazon. There, he established a hidden capital, called Vilcabamba. Although the Incas fought a deadly, thirty-six-year-long guerrilla war, the Spanish ultimately captured the last Inca emperor and vanquished the native resistance.
Kim MacQuarrie lived in Peru for five years and became fascinated by the Incas and the history of the Spanish conquest. Drawing on both native and Spanish chronicles, he vividly describes the dramatic story of the conquest, with all its savagery and suspense. MacQuarrie also relates the story of the modern search for Vilcabamba, of how Machu Picchu was discovered, and of how a trio of colorful American explorers only recently discovered the lost Inca capital of Vilcabamba, hidden for centuries in the Amazon.
This authoritative, exciting history is among the most powerful and important accounts of the culture of the South American Indians and the Spanish Conquest.
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