Spanish Conquest of the Inca Empire and Vilcabamba

Francisco Pizarro’s forces captured the Inca ruler Atahualpa at Cajamarca in 1532 and occupied Cuzco the following year, but Spanish control did not end organised Inca resistance. Rivalries among conquistadors, Indigenous allies and Inca factions produced decades of further conflict.

From 1537 a Neo-Inca state survived in the remote Vilcabamba region, maintaining an independent court until Spanish forces captured the last ruler, Túpac Amaru, in 1572. Vilcabamba’s history gives the destination in Colin Thubron’s novel To the Last City its historical weight as the final refuge of Inca resistance.