Huascar
Huáscar was the Inca ruler defeated by his own brother months before the Spanish arrived. Born around 1503, he was a son of the emperor Huayna Capac by a principal wife, which gave him the stronger claim by Inca custom, and he was in Cuzco, the capital, when his father died around 1527. Huayna Capac and his designated heir had both died suddenly of an epidemic — almost certainly smallpox, which had crossed the continent ahead of the Europeans who carried it. Huáscar was recognised at Cuzco by the priesthood and the nobility. His half-brother Atahualpa held Quito in the north with the veteran army that had campaigned with their father, and refused to submit. The civil war lasted about five years and was fought with great destruction across the length of the empire. Huáscar had the prestige of the capital and the legitimacy; Atahualpa had the generals, Quisquis and Chalcuchima, and the professional troops. Huáscar's own conduct lost him support. He is reported to have threatened the panaqas, the corporations that held the estates and mummies of previous rulers, which alienated the Cuzco aristocracy whose interest lay in preserving them. He was defeated and captured near Cuzco in 1532, weeks before Pizarro landed. Atahualpa, himself a prisoner at Cajamarca, ordered his execution — reportedly on learning that the Spanish were interested in Huáscar's claim and might restore him. The war is the reason 168 Spaniards could take an empire of perhaps ten million: it had just destroyed its own army, killed its own leadership, and lost a large part of its population to disease.
- Lived: 1503 CE – 1532 CE
- Nationality: Incan
- Roles: ruler
