Huayna Capac

{{Short description|Eleventh Sapa Inca}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Infobox royalty | name = Huayna Capac | image = File:Hp inka11.jpg | image_size = 220 | caption = Huayna Capac drawn by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala. The title, in Poma de Ayala's original spelling, reads: {{lang|es|El onzeno inga Guaina Capac}}, "The eleventh Inca, Huayna Capac". | succession = Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire | reign = 1493 – 1527 | predecessor = Topa Inca Yupanqui | successor = Huáscar Ninan Cuyochi (titular) | native_lang1 = Inca | native_lang1_name1 = Runa Simi, Qhapaq Simi | birth_date = before 1487 | death_date = 1527 | death_place = Tumipampa, Inca Empire | queen = Kuya Kusi Rimay, Kuya Rawa Ukllu | issue = Ninan Cuyochi, Huáscar, Atahualpa, Túpac Huallpa, Manco Inca Yupanqui, Atoc, Paullu Inca, Quispe Sisa, Coya Asarpay, Konono, and others | royal house = Tumipampa Ayllu | dynasty = Hanan Qusqu | father = Túpac Inca Yupanqui | mother = Kuya Mama Ukllu }}

'''Huayna Capac''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|w|aɪ|n|ə|_|ˈ|k|æ|p|æ|k}} {{respell|WY|nə|_|KAP|ak}}; {{Langx|quz|Wayna Qhapaq}} {{IPA|quz|ˈwajna ˈqʰapaχ|}} {{endash}} {{Lit|the young generous one}}; {{IPA|es|ˈwajna ˈkapak|lang}}; before 1493{{spnd}}1527) was the eleventh Sapa Inca of Tawantinsuyu, the Inca Empire. He was the son of and successor to Túpac Inca Yupanqui,<ref name="Gamboa">{{Cite book |last=Sarmiento de Gamboa |first=Pedro |author-link=Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa |translator-last=Markham |translator-first=Clements |translator-link=Clements Markham |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/20218/pg20218-images.html |title=History of the Incas |publisher=Project Gutenberg |date=1572 |access-date=7 March 2024 |archive-date=7 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240307230153/https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/20218/pg20218-images.html |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|108}} the sixth Sapa Inca of the Hanan dynasty, and eleventh of the Inca civilization. He was born in Tumipampa<ref>{{cite web |url=https://thebiography.us/en/huayna-capac |title=Biography of Huayna Capac o Huaina Capac - Emperador inca |website=thebiography.us |access-date=29 March 2019 |archive-date=7 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207032929/https://thebiography.us/en/huayna-capac |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://mayaincaaztec.com/huaynacapac.html |title=Huayna Capac |website=mayaincaaztec.com |access-date=29 March 2019 |archive-date=30 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190830062627/http://mayaincaaztec.com/huaynacapac.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> and tutored to become Sapa Inca from a young age.

Tawantinsuyu reached its greatest extent under Huayna Capac, as he expanded the empire's borders south along the Chilean coast, and north through what is now Ecuador and southern Colombia. According to the priest Juan de Velasco he absorbed the Quito Confederation into his empire by marrying Queen Paccha Duchicela, halting a long protracted war.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=de Velasco |first=Juan |title=Historia del Reino de Quito en la América Meridional}}</ref> Huayna Capac founded the city Atuntaqui and developed the city Cochabamba as an agriculture and administrative center. The Sapa Inca greatly expanded the Inca road system and had many qullqa (storehouses) built.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sarmiento de Gamboa |first=Pedro |title=Historia de los Incas}}</ref>

Huayna Capac died in 1527, possibly from a European disease introduced to the Americas by the Spaniards. The death of him and his eldest son Ninan Cuyochi sparked the Inca Civil War, in which his sons Huáscar and Atahualpa fought over succession as the next Sapa Inca. Tawantinsuyu fell to Spanish conquests shortly after Atahualpa's victory.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Rostworowski |first=María |title=History of the Inca Realm |publisher=Cambridge University Press |translator-last=Iceland |translator-first=Harry B.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=de Betanzos |first=Juan |title=Suma y narración de los Incas}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=de León |first=Cieza |title=El Señorio de los Incas}}</ref>

== Names == Huayna Capac's original name was '''Tito Cusi Huallpa''' (Hispanicized spelling) '''T'itu Kuši Wallpa''' (reconstructed Classical Quechua) before ascending to Sapa Inca.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=D'Altroy |first=Terence N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gzkeAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 |title=The Incas |date=27 May 2014 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=9781444331158 |page=6 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="sarmiento">{{cite book |last=Sarmiento de Gamboa |first=Pedro |title=The History of the Incas |date=2007 |orig-date=Originally published in Spanish in 1572 |editor1-last=Bauer |editor1-first=Brian S. |editor2-last=Smith |editor2-first=Vania |location=Austin |publisher=University of Texas Press |pages=171, 173}}</ref> Huayna Capac has many alternative transliterations, among the most popular ⟨Huaina Capac⟩, ⟨Guaina Capac⟩, ⟨Wayna Qhapaq⟩, and many others. The name comes from Quechua {{lang|qu|wayna}} "young" and {{lang|qu|qhapaq}} "mighty, powerful", thusly "the young mighty one", and not the other way around *"the mighty young one".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cerrón-Palomino |first=Rodolfo |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.18800/9789972428562 |title=Voces del Ande - ensayos sobre onomástica andina |date=2008 |publisher=Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú |isbn=978-9972-42-856-2 |location=Lima |pages=322–323 |language=es |trans-title=Words of the Andes - essays on Andean onomastics}}</ref>

Subjects commonly approached Sapa Incas adding epithets and titles when addressing them, such as '''Wayna Qhapaq Inka Sapʼalla Tukuy Llaqta Uya''' "unique sovereign Huayna Capac, listener to all peoples".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xgoogjV9ANgC&pg=PA41 |title=Conocimiento indígena y globalización |date=2005 |publisher=Editorial Abya Yala |isbn=9789978223864 |page=41 |language=es}}</ref>

== Background and family == {{Hatnote|Names are in Quechua, the spelling of which has not been completely standardized. This article may use a mix of historical Spanish spellings and those established by Rodolfo Cerrón Palomino in 1994}}

The exact place and date of Huayna Capac's birth are unknown. Though he was raised in Cuzco, he may have been born in 1468 in Tumebamba (modern Cuenca) and have spent part of his childhood there.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rostworowski |first=Maria |author-link1=María Rostworowski |title=Enciclopedia Temática del Perú |volume=1 |page=67 |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Cabello Valboa |first=Miguel |title=Miscelánea Antártica |date=1945 |pages=142–143, 146 |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui |first=Juan |title=Relación de las antigüedades deste Reyno del Pirú |editor1-last=Jiménez de la Espada |editor1-first=Marcos |editor1-link=Marcos Jiménez de la Espada |date=1879 |orig-date=c. 1620 |pages=249, 255 |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Cobo |first=Bernabé |author-link=Bernabé Cobo |title=Historia del Nuevo Mundo |date=1964 |orig-date=1890 |volume=2 |page=90 |language=es}}</ref> He was the son of Túpac Inca Yupanqui (ruled 1471–1493) who had extended Inca rule north into present-day Ecuador, a process continued by Huayna Capac.<ref name=niles/>{{rp|253}}<ref name="sarmiento"/>

Huayna Capac's first wife was his full sister, the Quya or Queen Consort<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g6hsAAAAMAAJ |title=Race, ethnicity, and the struggle for indigenous self-representation - de-indianization in Cuzco, Peru, 1919–1992 |last=Cadena |first=María Soledad De la |date=1996 |publisher=University of Wisconsin–Madison |page=292 |language=en |quote=The sacred animals, royal servants, the Virgins of the Sun, the priests, the high dignitaries of the Court, the Koya (Queen) and the Inca paraded through the scene, these last occupying their respective seats of honor.}}</ref> Coya Cusirimay.<ref name="niles"/>{{rp|109}} The couple produced no male heirs, but Huayna Capac sired more than 50 legitimate sons, and about 200 illegitimate children<ref name="niles">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=983nX2KmkFUC |title=The Shape of Inca History - Narrative and Architecture in an Andean Empire |last=Niles |first=Susan A. |date=1999 |publisher=University of Iowa Press |isbn=9781587292941 |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|113}} with other women. Huayna Capac took another sister, Araua Ocllo, as his royal wife. They had a son they named Thupaq Kusi Wallpa,<ref name=":0" /> later known as Huáscar.

Other sons included Ninan Cuyuchi (the Crown Prince), Atahualpa, Túpac Huallpa, Manco Inca, Paullu Inca, Atoc, Konono, Wanka Auqui, Kizu Yupanqui, Tito Atauchi, Waman Wallpa, Kusi Wallpa, Tilka Yupanqu.<ref name="niles"/>{{rp|109–112}} Some of them later held the title of Sapa Inca, although some later Sapa Inca were installed by the Spaniards.

Among the daughters of Huayna Capac there were Coya Asarpay (the First Princess of the Empire), Quispe Sisa, Cura Ocllo, Marca Chimbo, Pachacuti Yamqui, Miro, Cusi Huarcay, Francisca Coya<ref>{{cite web |last1=Costales |first1=Piedad Peñaherrera de |last2=Costales Samaniego |first2=Alfredo |last3=Jurado Noboa |first3=Fernando |url=http://biblioteca.culturaypatrimonio.gob.ec/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=114417 |title=Los señores naturales de la tierra - Las Coyas y Pallas del Tahuantinsuyo |website=biblioteca.culturaypatrimonio.gob.ec |language=Spanish |date=1982}}</ref><ref>{{Cite report |url=https://www.academia.edu/10355786 |url-access=registration |title=Descendientes del Emperador Inca Pachacútec |first=Juan G. |last=Zapata-Jaramillo |website=academia.edu |archive-date=15 August 2022 |access-date=25 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815113147/https://www.academia.edu/10355786 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and others.<ref name="niles"/>{{rp|112}}<ref name="Gamboa" />{{rp|112,118}}

In addition to Kusi Rimay and Rawa Uqllu, Huayna Capac had more than 50 wives including Usika, Lari, Anawarqi, Kuntarwachu and Añas Qulqi.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Ellefsen |first=Bernardo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qo9uAAAAMAAJ |title=Matrimonio y sexo en el incario |date=1 January 1989 |publisher=Editorial Los Amigos del Libro |isbn=9788483701560 |page=143 |language=es |quote=Dos casos notables se refieren a las concubinas de Wayna Kapak - Kontarwacho y Añas Kolke, ambas de la etnia huaylla.}}</ref>:143<ref name="niles"/>{{rp|109–112}}

As a "boy chief" or "boy sovereign", Huayna Capac had a tutor, Wallpaya,<ref name=":0" />:218 a nephew of Túpac Inca Yupanqui. This tutor's plot to assume the Incaship was discovered by his uncle, the Governor Waman Achachi, who had Wallpaya killed.<ref name="Gamboa" />{{rp|109}}

In the south, Huayna Capac continued the expansion of Tawantinsuyu into what is now Chile and Argentina and tried to annex territories towards the north in what is now Ecuador and southern Colombia.

According to the Ecuadorian priest Juan de Velasco Huayna Capac absorbed the kingdom of Quito into the Inca Empire. He supposedly married Paccha Duchicela, the queen of Quito.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" />

Huayna Capac became fond of Ecuador and spent most of his time there, founding cities like Atuntaqui. Huayna Capac rebuilt Quito to make it the "second capital" of the empire, besides Cusco.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Huayna Capac |publisher=Real Academia de la Historia |encyclopedia=Diccionario biográfico español |last=González Ochoa |first=José María |date=2018 |url=https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/94965/huayna-capac |language=es}}</ref>

As Sapa Inca, he built astronomical observatories in Ecuador such as Ingapirca. Huayna Capac hoped to establish a northern stronghold in the city of Tumebamba, inhabited by the Cañari people. In the Sacred Valley, the sparse remains of one of Huayna Capac's estates and his country palace called Kispiwanka<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Saintenoy |first=Thibault |title=Choqek'iraw et la vallée de l'Apurimac - paysages et sociétés préhispaniques tardives |url=https://www.academia.edu/27190289 |publisher=Université Paris 1 |type=PhD thesis |language=en}}</ref> can still be found in the present-day town of Urubamba, Peru.

In what is now Bolivia, Huayna Capac was responsible for developing Cochabamba as an important agriculture and administrative center, with more than two thousand silos (qullqas) for corn storage built in the area.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} Further north in Ecuador, Huayna Capac's forces attempted to expand into the lowlands of the Amazon basin, reaching the Chinchipe River, but they were pushed back by the Shuar.<ref name="Salazar1977">{{cite book |author=Ernesto Salazar |title=An Indian federation in lowland Ecuador |url=http://www.iwgia.org/iwgia_files_publications_files/0106_28Ecuador.pdf |access-date=16 February 2013 |date=1977 |publisher=International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs |page=13}}</ref>

Huayna Capac acquired a special fondness for the central Peruvian Andes and its local highlights; he is recorded as having spent time relaxing in the Chinchaycocha lake on the Bombon plateau. Many Inca rafts were brought to the lake directly from Ecuador for his amusement.<ref>{{Cite book |title=El Perú - Historia de la geografía del Perú, Libro Primero, Tomo II |last=Raimondi |first=Antonio |publisher=Imprenta del Estado |location=Lima |date=1876 |language=es}}</ref> On its way to Cusco, after Huayna Capac's death in Quito, the procession carrying his body stopped in the vicinity of Shawsha, a city in the central Peruvian Andes, acknowledging the fondness that he had felt for the region, and because the local inhabitants had been some of the most loyal to its causes.

Tawantinsuyu, or the Inca Empire, reached the height of its size and power under his rule, stretching over much of what is now Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, and southwestern Colombia. It included varying terrain from high frozen Andes to the densest swamps. His subjects spanned more than two hundred distinct ethnic groups, each with their own customs and languages. The empire spanned {{convert|3500|km|mi}} north to south, comprising the desert coast of Pacific Ocean on the west, the high Andes in the southeast and the forests of the Amazon Basin on the east.<ref name=maya>[http://www.mahafatna.com/php/2009/11/maya-aztecs-inca-inuit-before-columbus/ "Maya, Aztecs, Inca, Inuit - before Columbus"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110320072655/http://www.mahafatna.com/php/2009/11/maya-aztecs-inca-inuit-before-columbus/ |date=20 March 2011}} ''Worldwide Story for Civilization'', (retrieved 3 July 2011)</ref> A dedicated ruler, Huayna Capac did much to improve the lives of his people. In addition to building temples and other works, Huayna Capac greatly expanded the road network.<ref name="Prescott">Prescott, W.H., 2011, The History of the Conquest of Peru, Digireads.com Publishing, {{ISBN|9781420941142}}</ref>{{rp|144}} He had qollqa built along it for food so that aid could be quickly rushed to any who were in danger of starvation.

Huayna Capac knew of the Spanish arrival off the coast of his empire<ref name=Gamboa/>{{rp|131}} as early as 1515.

== Death and legacy == [[File:Huayna Cápac en el Monumento a Olmedo.JPG|thumb|right|Statue of Huayna Capac in Guayaquil]]

Huayna Capac died in 1527.<ref name="Inca">de la Vega, G.; "El Inca", 2006, Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Company, {{ISBN|9780872208438}}</ref>{{rp|82–83, 85}} When Huayna Capac returned to Quito he had already contracted a fever while campaigning in present-day Colombia (though some historians dispute this),<ref name=mccaa>{{cite web |title=Why Blame Smallpox? The Death of the Inca Huayna Capac and the Demographic Destruction of Tawantinsuyu (Ancient Peru) |last1=McCaa |first1=Robert |last2=Nimlos |first2=Aleta |last3=Hampe Martinez |first3=Teodoro |date=6 March 2011 |url=http://users.pop.umn.edu/~rmccaa/aha2004/why_blame_smallpox.pdf}}</ref> which might've resulted from the introduction of European disease like measles or smallpox.<ref name="Gamboa"/>{{rp|117}}<ref name="Leon">Leon, P.; 1998, The Discovery and Conquest of Peru, Chronicles of the New World Encounter, edited and translated by Cook and Cook, Durham, Duke University Press, {{ISBN|9780822321460}}</ref>{{rp|115}} The Spaniards had carried a wide variety of deadly diseases to North, Central and South America; and the Indigenous peoples had no acquired immunity against them. Millions of Central- and South Americans died in such epidemics and possibly including Huayna's brother, Auqui Tupac Inca, and Huayna's would-be successor and eldest son, Ninan Cuyochi.<ref name="Prescott" />{{rp|146}} The claim that smallpox caused Huayna's death has been disputed by other historians, with the earliest accounts of Huayna Capac being vague or not agreeing on what illness he had and none of the descriptions of his mummy describing pockmarks that is associated with getting smallpox.<ref>{{Cite web |title="Why Blame Smallpox? The Death of the Inca Huayna Capac and the Demographic Destruction of Ancient Peru (Tawantinsuyu)" |url=https://users.pop.umn.edu/~rmccaa/aha2004/whypox.htm}}</ref>

According to some sources, his sons Atahualpa and Huáscar were granted two separate realms of Tawantinsuyu: to his favorite Atahualpa the northern portion centered on Quito; and Huáscar the southern portion centered on Cusco.<ref name="Prescott" />{{rp|146}} According to other sources, Atuahualpa was acting as provincial governor on behalf of his brother. The two sons reigned peacefully for four to five years before Huáscar (or possibly Atahualpa) decided to grab power.<ref name="Inca" />{{rp|89}}

Huáscar quickly secured power in Cusco and had his brother arrested. However, Atahualpa escaped from his imprisonment with the help of his wife. Atahualpa began securing support from Huayna Capac's best generals, Chalcuchíma and Quizquiz, who happened to be near Quito, the nearest major city. Atahualpa rebelled against his brother and won the ensuing civil war, imprisoning Huáscar at the end of the war.<ref name="Inca"/>{{rp|89–94}} Huayna Capac's city of Tumebamba was destroyed during the war. The Spanish Francisco Pizarro and his men ascended into the Andes just as Atahualpa was returning to Cusco after the successful conclusion of his northern campaigns. After launching a surprise attack in Cajamarca and massacring upward of 6,000 Inca soldiers, Pizarro took Atahualpa prisoner. Pizarro's ransom of Atahualpa and his subsequent execution marked the immediate turning point of the Spanish conquest of Tawantinsuyu.

== Lost mummy == {{Main|Religion in the Inca Empire#Mummification}}

All the Inca emperors had their bodies mummified after death. Huayna Capac's mummy was housed in his palace in Cusco and was seen by the Spanish conquistadors. Later, it was taken from Cusco to his royal estate of Kispiwanka where it was hidden from the Spanish by Huayna Capac's relatives and servants. At some point it was taken back to Cusco, where it was discovered in 1559 by the Spanish. Along with mummies of 10 other Inca emperors and their wives, the mummy was taken to Lima where it was displayed in the San Andrés Hospital. The mummies deteriorated in the damp climate of Lima and eventually they were either buried or destroyed by the Spanish.<ref name="mccaa"/><ref name="pringle">{{cite web |last=Pringle |first=Harriet |title=Inca Empire |website=ngm.nationalgeographic.com |publisher=National Geographic |url=http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/04/inca-empire/pringle-text/2 |url-status=dead |date=April 2011 |archive-date=20 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110320093857/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/04/inca-empire/pringle-text/2}}</ref>

An attempt to find the mummies of the Inca emperors beneath the San Andrés Hospital in 2001 was unsuccessful. The archaeologists found a crypt, but it was empty. The mummies may have been removed when the building was repaired after an earthquake.<ref name="pringle"/>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== Further reading == {{Commons category|Huayna Capac}} {{Library resources box|by=no|onlinebooks=yes|viaf=76233267}}

* Sarmiento de Gamboa, Pedro; [https://books.google.com/books?id=T0q_A1BaSVsC&dq=huayna%20capac&pg=PA151 ''The History of the Incas''], Austin, University of Texas Press, 2007, originally published in Spanish in 1572 {{ISBN|978-0-292-71485-4}} * Helen Pugh, ''Intrepid Dudettes of the Inca Empire'', 2020, {{ISBN|9781005592318}}

{{s-start}} {{s-reg}} {{succession box | before = Topa Inca Yupanqui | title = Sapa Inca | years = 1493 – 1527 | after = Huáscar }} {{s-end}} {{Sapa Incas}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huayna Capac}} Category:15th-century births Category:1527 deaths Category:15th-century Sapa Incas Category:16th-century Sapa Incas Category:Inca emperors Category:People from Azuay Province Category:Deaths from smallpox