10.3 - Spanish Speaking South America

Spanish SpeakingSpanish SpeakingSouth AmericaSouth America

• We’re going to look at this part of South America first and then we’ll look at Brazil next (they speak Portuguese there, not Spanish).

The Incas

• The Incan civilization was located in modern-day Peru.

• They lasted from about 1200 to 1550.

• It was a fairly powerful civilization (for the time and area, anyway) that dominated the area.

• Among the more interesting points about the Incas:

• They spoke Quechua. This came to be the standard language of the area and there are still around 12 million people who still speak some version of it.

• Their record-keeping method was called quipu.

• This was a system of knotted strings.

• It may resemble an old mop, but it practically amounted to a system writing. The sort of knots used and their placement determined what they said.

• They had an alcoholic beverage called chicha that was made by fermenting maize (corn) that was essentially corn beer.

• We already looked at Machu Picchu.

• Cute little guinea pigs are indigenous (native) to this area and they were domesticated and bred by the Incas.

• Errr… here’s the thing, though.

• They ate them.

• Guinea pig is actually still a staple food of the Peruvian people and they eat around 65 million of them each year.

• Apparently, they taste like rabbit and are delicious.

• They’re actually a good food source since they’re high in protein, low in fat and cholesterol, require less food than livestock, take up a lot space than livestock, reproduce quickly, and can be raised in urban environments.

• It was and is so important to Peru that paintings of the Last Supper show them eating guinea pig.

Spanish Conquest

• The Incas are eventually conquered by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1532, not long after Cortez took out the Aztecs.

• The main “battle” was the Battle of Cajamarca.

• The Incan emperor was simply known as The Inca. He had absolute power and was considered divine.

• The emperor at the time was Atahualpa. By the time Pizarro came along, he had just won a civil war against his brother Huascar who was now imprisoned.

• Nearly 100,000 people died in this civil war and when he won, Atahualpa exercised terrible retribution on the opposition.

Atahualpa

• Atahualpa had agreed to meet with Pizarro at Cajamarca.

• This was in the interior and he had an overwhelming force. He had little to fear from Pizarro whom he figured couldn’t get out of the country anyway.

• In an encounter with Hernan de Soto, de Soto does some equestrian tricks, including running straight at Atahualpa and stopping just inches from him. Others were scared, but Atahualpa didn’t even blink. He was tough.

• At Cajamarca, Atahualpa had an army of 80,000. The Spaniards had an army of 168.

• Most of the 80,000 stayed encamped outside the city. Atahualpa entered with only 4,000 of his entourage who were unarmed as a show of good faith.

• Pizarro, though, had stationed his men, cavalry and 3 small cannons around the plaza.

• After some talking, the Spaniards attacked, slaughtered all 4,000 Incas and took Atahualpa hostage.

• Only 2 Spaniards were injured and they were accidents.

• Incan authority was highly centralized and they were nearly paralyzed without Atahualpa.

• Atahualpa agrees to buy his freedom by filling a room once with gold and twice with silver. He does, but he’s not released. The Spaniards eventually execute him.

• The Spaniards continue conquering the Incan empire. It takes nearly 40 years to completely stamp out resistance.