Túpac Yupanqui

Tupaq (or Thupa ) Yupanki

Túpac (Inca) Yupanqui , in Peruvian spelling Tupaq Yupanki or Tupaq Inka Yupanki (also: Thupa Yupanki , Túpac Yupanqui or Topa Inca Yupanqui ; * in Cuzco ; † 1493 in Chinchero ), was an Inca ruler during the heyday of the Inca Empire Conquest of South America by the Spaniards and ruled from 1471 to 1493.

background

Under the rule of his father Pachacútec Yupanqui , he was an exceptional warlord and was therefore called Apukispay , leader of the Imperial forces. After the empire had been decisively expanded and consolidated through his military campaigns, his father died, who had reached an old age and Túpac Yupanqui took over the rule of the empire in 1471 as the 10th Inca. Under his leadership, the Inca empire achieved its greatest expansion. He was able to incorporate the area between Kitu ( Quito ) in present-day Ecuador and Santiago in present-day Chile into the empire by means of conquests . Among other things, he conquered the kingdom of Gran Chimú , a highly developed state on the north coast of today's Peru . In addition, he defeated the Kañari in present-day Ecuador in bloody battles near the town of Guapondelig around 1480 . The maximum extent of the empire included an area of ​​about 985,000 km². Túpac Yupanqui was married to his sister Mama Ocllo with whom he had several sons.

High dignitaries of the inferior tribes were appointed to Cuzco during his reign and entrusted with important administrative functions. This clever move not only ensured inner peace, but also allowed artists, thinkers and scientists to settle.

Túpac Yupanqui was murdered by Chuqui Ocllo, one of his wives. He was followed by his son Huayna Cápac (1493–1527) as the 11th Sapa Inca to the throne. Túpac Yupanqui left his son a well-organized empire and a powerful army of 300,000 men.

Expedition to Polynesia

According to a report by the Spanish chronicler Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa , the Incas are said to have reached islands of Polynesia with a fleet of balsa rafts during his reign. Túpac Yupanqui had all seafarers, especially those from distant countries, brought to him. Among them was a man who told him that he had come from a country across the sea and that there were many islands on the way there. The Inca ordered numerous rafts to be built.

In 1947, the researcher Thor Heyerdahl succeeded with the Kon-Tiki in recreating this voyage and thus proving that the Pacific can also be crossed with simple rafts. However, there is no evidence of contacts between Polynesia and pre-Columbian America; genetic and linguistic analyzes only show influences from Asia. The use of the South American sweet potato in Polynesia cannot be taken as evidence either, since it was proven that the sweet potato was native to islands of Polynesia even before human settlement.

Trivia

A representation of Túpac Yupanqui reaching for the sun was chosen as the figurehead of the sailing training ship Unión (2016) of the Peruvian Navy.

literature

• José Antonio del Busto Duthurburu: Túpac Yupanqui. (= Colección Forjadores del Perú. Volume 11.) Editorial Busto, Peru 1996, ISBN 84-8389-611-7 .
• José Antonio del Busto Duthurburu: Los hijos del sol.Tupac Yupanqui, descubridor de Oceanía. El Comercio, Lima 2011, ISBN 978-6-123-06035-0 .

Web links

• Tupac Inca Yupanqui on historiacultural.com (Spanish)
• Viaje de Tupac Inca Yupanqui a la Polinesia on historiacultural.com (Spanish)
• Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa: History of the Incas. on galapagos.to (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hanns J. Prem : History of ancient America. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-486-53021-6 , pp. 73/74. ( online )
2. ↑ Verena Leusch: How the sweet potato came to Polynesia. Spectrum, April 12, 2018, accessed September 16, 2018 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Pachacútec Yupanqui Pachakutiq Yupanki	Inca Cuzco 1471 - 1493	Huayna Cápac Wayna Qhapaq