Inca resistance · 1536-1572

Manco Inca and the free state of Vilcabamba

The conquest of Peru did not end in 1533. Manco Inca rose against the Spaniards, besieged Cusco and won a battle at Ollantaytambo, then ruled a free Inca state in the forests of Vilcabamba. Students follow 36 years of Inca resistance.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, AD 1536 to AD 1560
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

The conquest of Peru did not end in 1533. Manco Inca rose against the Spaniards, besieged Cusco and won a battle at Ollantaytambo, then ruled a free Inca state in the forests of Vilcabamba. Students follow 36 years of Inca resistance.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe Manco Inca's rebellion of 1536 and the siege of Cusco.
  • Locate Ollantaytambo and Vilcabamba and explain why the Inca chose them.
  • Explain how the free Inca state ended in 1572 and how it is remembered.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1536

The rebellion

Open the map in 1536 over Cusco and the Sacred Valley. In May 1536 Manco Inca's armies surrounded the Spaniards in Cusco for about ten months. What advantages did the Inca have here?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1537

A flooded battlefield

Zoom in on Ollantaytambo, north-west of Cusco. In 1537 Manco's forces flooded the plain below the fortress and drove back a Spanish attack. How can a landscape become a weapon?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1560

The free state

Follow the Urubamba River north-west, past Machu Picchu, into the forested mountains of Vilcabamba. The map still draws one Inca block, but only here did the Inca keep their own state until 1572. Why were these forests hard for Spanish armies?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Manco Inca was first a puppet ruler for the Spaniards. What made him rebel in 1536?
  2. The siege of Cusco lasted about ten months but failed. Why is it so hard to take back a city?
  3. In Vilcabamba the Inca kept their rituals, courts and armies. Why does it matter that an Inca state survived?
  4. Titu Cusi, Manco's son, dictated his own account of the conquest in 1570. Why would he want his version written down?
  5. In 1572 the last Inca ruler, Túpac Amaru, was captured and executed in Cusco. Why did Spain want to end Vilcabamba completely?
4

Game round

9 min

Play Rule History as Moctezuma II and compare his choices with Manco Inca's. Moctezuma cooperated with the Spaniards in his own capital; Manco first cooperated, then rebelled and withdrew to the mountains. Discuss: which strategy gave Indigenous rulers more freedom, and for how long?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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