.The Violent Disruption
Un solo corazon
Kausachunperu.com
.The Incas
The Incas
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A series o extraordinary cultures flourished in the Andean world before the coming of the Spaniards.Although much of the art and architecture of these "heathen" civilizations was destroyed by the Christian colonizers,much also remains.
To the Spaniards who discovered the Inca Empire in 1532,it was a source of gold and of souls to be saved.
Once they had conquered the Incas,looted the gold,and converted the Indians to Christianity,the native population became a source of cheap labor in mines,fields and textile mills. It is only in the last century,with the rise of a new consciousness of- and perhaps a new conscience about- the American past, that the sciences of ethnohistory and archaeology have turned to the serios study of the ancient people of Peru.
In the northern Peruvian town of Cajamarca on August 29, 1533, the "black legend" of Spain won a firm place in the history of iniquity.A group of hardheaded Spanish ruffians--one historian called them " the scum of Spanish chivalry "---listened while their fanatical spiritual adviser, Fray Vicent de Valverde, prayed for the soul of an Indian.
The Indian, Atahuallpa, was the ruler of a vast realm to which the Spaniards proposed to bring Christianity and lightenment. He had invited the Spaniarsds to occupy Cajamarca. He had tried to satisfy their lust for gold and silver. In return he was accused, judged and convicted on charges that were as cloudy as the background of his accusers. He was sentenced to death by burning.
Through the intercession of Fray Vicente, who later was to be elevated to the bishopric of Cuzco, Atahuallpa was given the option of being executed by garroting instead of burning if he accepted the Christian religion. Atahuallpa agreed to become a Christian because according to his own religion anyone destroyed by earthly fire could not in the afterlife be accepted by his father,the sun. He was accordingly baptized and given the name " Juan ".
Then a Spanish soldier slipped a noose around his neck, place a stick in the noose and twisted it until the stoic Indian fell dead.
Atahuallpa's Indian followers intoned a lament " Chaupi punchapi tutayaca " (Night has fallen at noon). It was at once an elegy for their ruler,a requiem for the well-ordered Inca Empire,and a prologue to one of the bitterest and bloodiest eras in the annals of conquest and exploration. Within 15 years the principal Spanish leaders in the the conquest of Peru would be dead, victims of rivalry, greed and civil wars.
The lucky ones would die on battlefields,fighting their fellow Spaniards more often than Indians. The others would be assassinated,drawn and quartered, or beheaded,their heads stuck on pike-staffs and exhibited in the principal plazas of the area the Spaniards called New Castile. Most of them would have found the wealth they so desperately sought--and lost it.
That these fortune seekers and empire builders were indifferent to human life---the lives of the Indians or even those of their fellow Spaniards---was not particularly remarkable in the age of conquest. Nevertheless,some of the conquistadors themselves felt shame and repugnance, and the Spanish Crown tried at varios times to curb the rapacity of the overseas adventurers, as did the Church. Many of the priest who came out to the New World with the expeditionary forces became noted as both teachers and defenders of the Indians, but theirs efforts in behalf of the natives stirred furious resentment among the conquistadors. Most of them felt that since priests invariably accompanied them and give them spiritual comfort during their campaigns against the Indians, they therefore had religious sanction for any extremes to which they might go in subduing the heathen and in the course of it enriching themselves with plunder.
Almost all of....
To the Spaniards who discovered the Inca Empire in 1532,it was a source of gold and of souls to be saved.
Once they had conquered the Incas,looted the gold,and converted the Indians to Christianity,the native population became a source of cheap labor in mines,fields and textile mills. It is only in the last century,with the rise of a new consciousness of- and perhaps a new conscience about- the American past, that the sciences of ethnohistory and archaeology have turned to the serios study of the ancient people of Peru.
In the northern Peruvian town of Cajamarca on August 29, 1533, the "black legend" of Spain won a firm place in the history of iniquity.A group of hardheaded Spanish ruffians--one historian called them " the scum of Spanish chivalry "---listened while their fanatical spiritual adviser, Fray Vicent de Valverde, prayed for the soul of an Indian.
The Indian, Atahuallpa, was the ruler of a vast realm to which the Spaniards proposed to bring Christianity and lightenment. He had invited the Spaniarsds to occupy Cajamarca. He had tried to satisfy their lust for gold and silver. In return he was accused, judged and convicted on charges that were as cloudy as the background of his accusers. He was sentenced to death by burning.
Through the intercession of Fray Vicente, who later was to be elevated to the bishopric of Cuzco, Atahuallpa was given the option of being executed by garroting instead of burning if he accepted the Christian religion. Atahuallpa agreed to become a Christian because according to his own religion anyone destroyed by earthly fire could not in the afterlife be accepted by his father,the sun. He was accordingly baptized and given the name " Juan ".
Then a Spanish soldier slipped a noose around his neck, place a stick in the noose and twisted it until the stoic Indian fell dead.
Atahuallpa's Indian followers intoned a lament " Chaupi punchapi tutayaca " (Night has fallen at noon). It was at once an elegy for their ruler,a requiem for the well-ordered Inca Empire,and a prologue to one of the bitterest and bloodiest eras in the annals of conquest and exploration. Within 15 years the principal Spanish leaders in the the conquest of Peru would be dead, victims of rivalry, greed and civil wars.
The lucky ones would die on battlefields,fighting their fellow Spaniards more often than Indians. The others would be assassinated,drawn and quartered, or beheaded,their heads stuck on pike-staffs and exhibited in the principal plazas of the area the Spaniards called New Castile. Most of them would have found the wealth they so desperately sought--and lost it.
That these fortune seekers and empire builders were indifferent to human life---the lives of the Indians or even those of their fellow Spaniards---was not particularly remarkable in the age of conquest. Nevertheless,some of the conquistadors themselves felt shame and repugnance, and the Spanish Crown tried at varios times to curb the rapacity of the overseas adventurers, as did the Church. Many of the priest who came out to the New World with the expeditionary forces became noted as both teachers and defenders of the Indians, but theirs efforts in behalf of the natives stirred furious resentment among the conquistadors. Most of them felt that since priests invariably accompanied them and give them spiritual comfort during their campaigns against the Indians, they therefore had religious sanction for any extremes to which they might go in subduing the heathen and in the course of it enriching themselves with plunder.
Almost all of....
Se que nuestro gran Dios el sol ,hizo el cielo,las tierras y a cada criatura que la habita ; envio a su hijo Manco Capac para educar a los hombres que vivian en total confusion y a su hija Mama Ocllo, para juntos encontrar el centro del universo.