(All dates of pre-Conquest events in the Inca Empire are estimates and are often disputed among scholars.)
c. 1438. Pachacuti defeats the Chanca when they attack Cuzco. He becomes Sapa Inca (Emperor) as a result.
c. 1438–71. Reign of Pachacuti (then abdicates in favour of his son, Topa Inca). During his long period as Sapa Inca, he expands the Inca domains down the Vilcanota/Urubamba river, past Ollantaytambo and into the Vilcabamba.
c. 1450s. Inca conquest of Tiahuanaco area.
c. 1460s. Inca victory over the Chimú in northern Peru.
c. 1471–93. Reign of Topa Inca. Both while serving under Pachacuti and during his own reign, he expands the Empire northward, conquering Chachapoyas and moving into modern-day Ecuador. He also advances south along the Chilean coast.
1492. Columbus lands in America.
c. 1493–1527. Reign of Huayna Capac.
c. 1490s. Huayna Capac campaigns in Chachapoyas.
1508. Probable first publication date of Amadis de Gaul.
c. 1516. Huayna Capac campaigns in the Ecuador area.
1526. Preliminary expedition by Francisco Pizarro makes ‘first contact’ with Inca civilisation when they encounter an ocean-going boat on the northernmost fringes of the Inca Empire.
c. 1527. Huayna Capac’s sudden death in the middle of what was probably a smallpox epidemic precipitates a civil war between his sons Huascar, the legitimate claimant in Cuzco, and Atahualpa, the illegitimate pretender based in Quito. After a savage struggle which decimates an Empire already weakened by disease, Atahualpa wins.
1529. Francisco Pizarro is given royal blessing in Spain to attempt the conquest of Peru. While at court, Pizarro meets Cortés, the conqueror of Mexico. He recruits a band of conquistadors from his homeland around Extremadura and sails south from Panama at the very end of 1530. The expedition is led by Pizarro and his partner, Diego de Almagro, with Pizarro’s three brothers as important members of the 180-strong party. They have 37 horses.
1532. The conquistadors’ journey inland from Tumbes marks the start of the actual Conquest. In November they capture Atahualpa at Cajamarca. Francisco’s cousin Pedro Pizarro is his page and leaves a detailed account of the early campaign.
1533. Atahualpa is executed. The Spanish take Cuzco. Manca Inca is installed as a ‘puppet Inca’.
1534. Hernando Pizarro docks in Seville with treasure from Peru. Pedro de Cieza de León sees it as an impressionable 17-year-old and soon sails for the New World himself.
1536. Manco rebels against the Spanish and takes Sacsahuaman. Juan Pizarro is killed. Manco is narrowly prevented from regaining Cuzco and retreats to Ollantaytambo.
1537. Manco is chased into the Vilcabamba by the Spanish, but is able to escape.
1539. Gonzalo Pizarro leads a second punitive expedition against Manco in the Vilcabamba and pursues him down into the jungle. Manco again just manages to escape capture, and is reported to shout defiance at his persecutors as he is borne off into the jungle by his allies in the Amazon.
1540. Gonzalo Pizarro’s Amazon expedition sets off from Quito. While Pizarro himself returns, his lieutenant, Francisco de Orellana, continues downriver and emerges on the Atlantic coast two years later.
1541. Francisco Pizarro is murdered by a civil war faction.
1544. Manco Inca, having given refuge to Pizarro’s assassins, is himself murdered by them at Vitcos, in the heart of the Vilcabamba. His son Titu Cusi narrowly escapes. Another son, Sayri Tupac, becomes the Sapa Inca and builds up the Vilcabamba as a miniature Inca state.
1547. Gonzalo Pizarro’s rebellion is defeated outside Cuzco by forces of the Spanish crown and he is beheaded. Pedro de Cieza de León is part of the Spanish Royal Army which defeats him and he continues on from Cuzco to Lake Titicaca, describing all that is left of the Inca Empire.
1553. Cieza de León publishes his First Chronicle in Seville, but is prevented from publishing more due to political problems with the Inquisition. He dies shortly afterwards.
1557. After consulting oracles, Sayri Tupac leaves the Vilcabamba for a ‘retirement’ under Spanish control at Yucay near Cuzco. He dies shortly afterwards, in 1560, possibly poisoned.
1557–71. Titu Cusi rules Vilcabamba as the Sapa Inca. In 1570 he dictates his own account of the events of the years during and after the Conquest.
1569. Viceroy Toledo arrives in Peru. In 1572 he sends an expedition against Tupac Amaru, another son of Manco’s, who has succeeded Titu Cusi. Toledo’s expedition chases Tupac Amaru down to Old Vilcabamba and captures him in the jungle beyond.
1572. Tupac Amaru is executed in the main square of Cuzco.