Atawallpa ( ), also Atahualpa or Ataw Wallpa (Classical Quechua: Ataw Wallpa, pronounced [ˈataw ˈwaʎpa]) (c. 1502 – 29 August 1533), whose regnal name was Caccha Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui Inca (from the caccha idol and to honour the emperor Pachacuti), was the last effective Inca emperor, reigning from April 1532 until his capture and execution in July of the following year, as part of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
Atawallpa was the son of the emperor Huayna Cápac, who died around 1525 along with his successor, Ninan Cuyochi, in a smallpox epidemic. Atawallpa initially accepted his half-brother Huáscar as the new emperor, who in turn appointed him as governor of Quito in the north of the empire. The uneasy peace between them deteriorated over the next few years. Atawallpa sought to create an independent state in Quito. From 1529 to 1532, they contested the succession in the Inca Civil War. Huáscar managed to take Atawallpa prisoner. Atawallpa escaped and rallied his forces, winning several battles against Huáscar's forces before capturing Huáscar.
Around the same time as Atawallpa's victory, a group of Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco Pizarro, arrived in the region. In November 1532, they captured Atawallpa during an ambush at Cajamarca. In captivity, Atawallpa gave a ransom in exchange for a promise of release and arranged for the execution of Huáscar. After receiving the ransom, the Spanish accused Atawallpa of treason, conspiracy against the Spanish Crown, and the murder of Huáscar. They put him on trial and sentenced him to death by burning at the stake. However, after his baptism in July 1533, he was garroted instead.
A line of successors continued to claim the title of emperor, either as Spanish vassals or as rebel leaders, but none were able to hold comparable power.
Although this monarch's name is written with some major discrepancies in early sources, most spellings seem to reflect /ataw waʎpa/ (which in contemporary orthography would be written ⟨Ataw Wallpa⟩). As such, ⟨Atabalipa⟩, ⟨Tavalipa⟩ and others are spellings that represent the first impressionistic orthographies of his name.
Since the earliest Quechua dictionaries, atawallpa and wallpa were offered as the Quechua word for "chicken". For centuries several historians believed that this Sapa Inca's name came from the bird name. Some even translated the name as "happy rooster" or "bird of fortune". Considering such species was new in the Andes, contemporary scholars believe the etymological direction was the inverse: the bird species may have been named after the monarch, as already said by Blas Valera in the 16th century.
It has been proposed that this person name may have been a compound of two Puquina roots, ata-w "appointed, chosen" and wallpa "diligent or courageous". However, this analysis is not consensual.
There are uncertainties about Atawallpa's date and place of birth. He was likely born around the turn of the 16th century, c. 1502. There is disagreement on his place of birth. Below are the versions of some chroniclers and historians:
The chronicler and soldier Pedro Cieza de León, from his investigations among the members of the Inca nobility of Cusco, affirmed that Atawallpa had been born in Cusco and that his mother was Tuto Palla or Túpac Palla (Quechua names), an "India Quilaco" or "native of Quilaco". This demonym could allude to an ethnic group from the province of Quito and would imply that she was a second-class wife belonging to the regional elite. Cieza de León denied that Atawallpa was born in Quito or Caranqui and that his mother was the lady of Quito, as some at the time claimed, since Quito was a province of Tahuantinsuyo when Atawallpa was born. Therefore their kings and lords were the Incas.
According to Juan de Betanzos, Atawallpa was born in Cusco and his mother was a ñusta (Inca princess) from Cusco of the lineage of Inca Yupanqui (Pachacuti).
In the 18th century the priest Juan de Velasco, using as a source a work by Marcos de Niza, whose existence has not been confirmed, compiled information about the Kingdom of Quito (whose existence has not been confirmed either). According to de Velasco, the Kingdom of Quito was made up of the Shyris or Scyris ethnic group and disappeared when it was conquered by the Incas. This work includes a list of the kings of Quito, the last of whom, Cacha Duchicela, would have been the Kuraka (Inca cacique) defeated and killed by the Inca Huayna Cápac. Paccha, the daughter of Cacha Duchicela, would have married Huayna Cápac, and from that union Atawallpa would have been born as a legitimate son. Several historians, such as the Peruvian Raúl Porras Barrenechea and the Ecuadorian Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño, have rejected this version for lack of historical and archaeological foundation.
Most Peruvian historians maintain that, according to the most reliable chronicles (Cieza, Sarmiento and Betanzos, who took their reports firsthand), Atawallpa was born in Cusco and his mother was a princess of Inca lineage. These historians consider that Huáscar's side invented the version of Atawallpa's Quito origin to show him to the Spanish as a usurper and bastard. They also believe that many chroniclers interpreted the division of the empire between the two sons of Huayna Cápac (Huáscar, the eldest son and legitimate heir; and Atawallpa, the bastard and usurper) according to their European or Western conception of political mores. According to Rostworowski this is wrong because the right to the Inca throne did not depend exclusively on primogeniture or paternal line (because the son of the Inca's sister could also be heir) but also practical considerations such as the ability to command.
Ecuadorian historians have conflicting opinions:
According to Hugo Burgos Guevara, the fact that Topa Yupanqui was born in Vilcashuamán and his son Huayna Capac in Tomebamba seems to indicate that Atawallpa was born in Quito as part of an expansionist policy of the empire and as a way to reinforce a political-religious conquest.
Other Ecuadorian historians, such as Enrique Ayala Mora, consider it more likely that Atawallpa was born in Caranqui, in the current province of Imbabura, in the Ibarra canton (Ecuador). They base this idea on the chronicles of Fernando de Montesinos and Pedro Cieza de León (although the latter mentions said version to refute it, in favor of the one from Cusco).
Tamara Estupiñan Viteri, a historian who has published numerous works regarding Atawallpa and his close circle at that time, maintains that he was born in Cusco.
Atawallpa spent his childhood with his father in Cusco. At the beginning of his adolescence, he went through the Warachikuy, a rite of passage that marked the passage to adulthood.
When Atawallpa was thirteen years old, there was a rebellion in the north of the empire by two peoples from that region, the Caranquis and the Cayambis. Together with his father and his brother, Ninan Cuyuchi marched at the head of the Inca army towards the northern provinces (Quito region). Four governors remained in Cusco, including Huáscar. Atawallpa stayed in Quito with his father for more than ten years, helping him put down rebellions and conquer new lands. For this he had the support of skilled Inca generals, such as Chalcuchímac and Quizquiz. During this period he learned government tasks and gained prestige for the courage he displayed in war actions.