Inca Apocalypse The Spanish Conquest and the Transformation of the Andean World

A major new history of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, set in a larger global context than previous accounts

Previous accounts of the fall of the Inca empire have played up the importance of the events of one violent day in November 1532 at the highland Andean town of Cajamarca. To some, the "Cajamarca miracle"-in which Francisco Pizarro and a small contingent of Spaniards captured an Inca who led an army numbering in the tens of thousands-demonstrated the intervention of divine providence. To others, the outcome was simply the result of European technological and immunological superiority.

Inca Apocalypse develops a new perspective on the Spanish invasion and transformation of the Inca realm. Alan Covey's sweeping narrative traces the origins of the Inca and Spanish empires, identifying how Andean and Iberian beliefs about the world's end shaped the collision of the two civilizations. Rather than a decisive victory on the field at Cajamarca, the Spanish conquest was an uncertain, disruptive process that reshaped the worldviews of those on each side of the conflict.. The survivors built colonial Peru, a new society that never forgot the Inca imperial legacy or the enduring supernatural power of the Andean landscape.

Covey retells a familiar story of conquest at a larger historical and geographical scale than ever before. This rich new history, based on the latest archaeological and historical evidence, illuminates mysteries that still surround the last days of the largest empire in the pre-Columbian Americas.

R. Alan Covey is a professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin, and a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History.

Preface
Chapter 1: Assembling Inca History
Chapter 2: Making Iberian History before the Invention of Spain
Chapter 3: Royal Progress
Chapter 4: Uncertain Empires
Chapter 5: Two Roads to Cajamarca
Chapter 6: Beyond Cajamarca
Chapter 7: Sovereign Failures and New Miracles
Chapter 8: Conquering the Conquistadors and Poor Soldiers
Chapter 9. Conquering Andean Hearts and Minds
Chapter 10. Advent of the Spanish Pachacuti
Chapter 11. Overturning Andean Landscapes
Chapter 12. Transcendent Inca
References