Cusco Yesterday

By John Howison

Cusco yesterday stretches back as many as 3000 years and many consider it to be the longest continually settled city in the Americas.

It is best known for its Inca and colonial histories; however, those two epochs represent only about a third of Cusco's settled history. Cusco as the political and cultural center as it is currently known began with the Inca and continued during the colonial period.

Cusco was originally settled in the Marcavalle in what is the eastern part of the current city in approximately 1000 B.C. There were various settlements that followed, including the Wari invasion at around 750 A.D., which preceded the construction of the buildings which today are called Pikallaqta.

The Inca Civilization began around 1200 A.D. and with it came the development of Cusco as a major center serving relatively large populations. The large expansion phase began around 1400 A.D. The Incas laid out the city in the shape of a Puma, their sacred animal. However, the large expansion was short-lived as the Spanish arrived in the next century, in the year 1533.

The Spanish arrived in Cusco on November 15th, 1533. Thus began the violent and ruthless attempts to conquer the city. In 1536 the Incas began rebelling against the Spanish trying to regain control of the city. The war lasted 36 years, and finally ended with the definitive act of the head of Tupaq Amaru, the Inca dynasty's last emperor, being loped off in Cusco's Main Square.

Cusco experienced a large earthquake in 1650, after which nearly every colonial building needed to be rebuilt (further emphasizing the quality of the Inca architecture which remains standing today). A valiant attempt at emancipation was attempted in 1780 by José Gabriel Thupa Amaro Inga. However, he was betrayed by his followers and his whole family were executed in Cusco's Main Square. Independence was finally achieved in 1821, following the long, bloody process that served as the template for Latin America.