Original subtitles

Narrator: The mighty inca empire.

The first superpower Of the americas

Ruled from a golden capital, Cusco.

No one in the new world Could equal them

In terms of sheer size And influence.

Narrator: 500 years ago, This vast empire

Fell to handful of Spanish mercenaries.

How did fewer than 200 soldiers,

Take on a population Of millions and win?

Now new investigations Inside cusco,

Reveal the truth about How the incas

Built their astonishing empire.

Cusco was The jewel in the crown.

It was probably The most magnificent city

Of south america, at that time.

Narrator: How did this civilization

Rise to such dizzying heights,

Only to disappear off The face of the earth?

Narrator: To solve these mysteries

We will blow apart cusco

The incas' control center.

Rediscovering its Golden sanctuaries

And diving into Its darkest corners,

Will reveal how this Incredible empire rose

And came crashing down.

--captions by vitac-- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

Narrator: During the 15th century

The incas constructed One of the greatest

And most powerful Empires in the americas.

A land of deserts, mountains,

And extraordinary buildings.

But 500 years ago, this mighty Peruvian civilization

Completely disappeared

After it was destroyed by fewer Than 200 european invaders.

Well, it was just a boatload Of desperate spanish soldiers

Who took on The whole inca empire.

Narrator: the fall of the incas, Mystifies historians.

How did their empire Crumble so easily?

The answers could Lie here in cusco

The incas' capital.

♪♪

Blowing away the modern city,

Leaves a maze of stone blocks,

The core of an inca metropolis.

The relic of a complex Network of ancient streets.

500 years ago, cusco was One of the biggest cities

In south america, with tens Of thousands of inhabitants.

This was once the control center Of the entire inca empire.

Cusco was so wealthy,

Its temple was covered in gold.

Why wasn't this city strong Enough to withstand the spanish?

What caused this Mighty empire to fall?

Archeologists like Sabine hyland,

Think the answer could lie

In the very fabric Of inca society.

Surprisingly, There were few actual incas.

A tribe of 40,000, Controlled an empire

Of more than 10 million.

Their subjects were from Other ethnic groups,

Allies, or conquered peoples.

Ruling over them, Was just one man.

♪♪

He was so sacred, That normal people

Couldn't even look At him directly.

Narrator: this one tribe, Built a vast empire

In less than a century.

So who were the incas, And how did they do it?

A clue hides inside An old spanish monastery.

Stripping away its walls,

Reveals cusco's Sacred temple of the sun

Made from perfectly Carved blocks of ashlar.

♪♪

The position of its chambers

Marked the summer And winter solstices.

Inside the hall of the sun Itself, sat royal mummies,

Inca rulers perfectly preserved,

Starting with their Very early kings.

The bodies were wrapped In the finest fabrics

And given gifts of Wine, silver, and gold.

How did this dynasty become The all-powerful rulers

Of a vast empire?

♪♪

Archaeologist Roxana gómez torres

Suspects mummies, just like These, may provide the answer.

She investigates A burial ground

300 miles from cusco, Called bellavista.

It belonged to a tribe called, The ishma.

New discoveries here,

Are transforming Our view of the incas

And how they conquered Their enemies.

Roxana and her team Are unearthing mummies

Almost exactly like The ones in the inca capital.

[ speaking spanish ]

Narrator: roxana brings these Fragile objects

To the laboratory for analysis.

This one is almost Six feet in length

Preserved in Near-perfect condition.

Its huge size suggests That it contains

The body of A well-respected person.

Narrator: The mummy appears to be that

Of an ishma noble, but it's Covered from head to toe

In high quality Inca design fabrics.

Narrator: The mummy also has a false head

To give it a more human shape.

It's a feature found On high-class mummies.

This ishma aristocrat Has been buried

Almost exactly like an inca.

Why?

X-rays reveal further Signs of inca influence.

Copper implements.

Narrator: Domestic items, from tweezers

To metal hairpins,

And the thorns of Colorful seashells,

Were the kind of valuable Items that would normally

Only be buried with Important people.

Roxana thinks this Local chief was given

These burial goods by The incas themselves.

Narrator: These gifts reveal that

This important person Was an inca ally.

By showering him with Precious objects,

The incas were able To buy his loyalty.

Roxana believes that This might explain

How the incas rose to power.

Narrator: Alliances allowed the incas

To build a vast empire That stretched 2,000 miles

Across south america, Ruled from the city of cusco.

Narrator: But not everyone wanted to join

The most exclusive vip club In south america.

Those who resisted, were Crushed with brutal force.

The incas were fierce warriors.

Thanks to their allied troops, They were able to field

Vast armies, reportedly up to A quarter of a million strong.

♪♪

The incas intimidated Their enemy

With a terrifying show of force,

As they expanded their empire.

[ indistinct voices ]

Narrator: Before a battle, the inca king

Would offer their opponents A chance to surrender,

As long as they agreed To pay a regular tribute.

If they refused, inca soldiers Armed with stone missiles

Would unleash a carefully-timed Barrage of deadly rocks.

Lacking such coordination,

Their enemies were Left vulnerable.

Then, inca shock troops Armed with maces and clubs

Were sent in to finish off The enemy in close combat.

♪♪

The incas seemed unstoppable.

♪♪

Bribery and brutality Won them a vast empire.

♪♪

But how could so few incas,

Keep control of so many people?

And what happened when inca Armies came face-to-face

With european weaponry For the very first time?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: 500 years ago,

The mighty inca Empire collapsed.

Destroyed by a small Band of spanish invaders.

The fall of the incas,

At the height Of their expansion

Seems incredible.

Did the methods They use to build-up

And control their empire, Pave the way for their defeat?

They had to figure out ways

To show their superiority, Because they couldn't

Dominate just by Sheer numbers alone.

Narrator: how did 40,000 incas

Reign over an empire Of 10 million?

Cusco's extraordinary Engineering hides a clue.

♪♪

The incas were masters Of construction.

Hidden inside cusco, lie The remains of a spectacular

Residential complex, The cusicancha.

Spacious buildings formed Large square enclosures

Called "Canchas," Around an open courtyard.

♪♪

This same design was Replicated across the city.

Each "Cancha" was Connected by roads

And shared water channels Provided drainage

Just like in a modern city.

Why was epic Engineering like this

So important to the incas?

Did it help them Hold on to power?

♪♪

The incas exported Their building-style

Wherever they went.

Even in remote sights, like The world famous machu picchu.

Anthropologist sabine hyland, Thinks that the incas

Took key elements Of cusco's design

And exported them to Cities across the empire

As a stamp of their authority.

The romans did this.

A city layout is One of the best ways

To impose your will On a vast empire.

Especially if you crush The local way of doing things

And you oppose your own.

Narrator: sabine believes, That proof of this

Inca activity lies Inside the cusicancha.

Here she finds that The incas had their own

Unique architecture That reflected

Their identity and values.

This is exciting Because we see here

What we call a double jam, Which is a sign of high status.

This trapezoidal doorway Is the type of doorway

That becomes synonymous With inca architecture.

Narrator: the cusicancha's Walls are built like

All the other inca buildings,

Without mortar or cement.

Each block fits Together so precisely,

That not even a knife-blade Can be squeezed between them.

Other cultures try to Elaborate on the rock.

They make designs, they make --

They carve statues, But for the incas,

The stone itself mattered,

And so their style

Which is characteristic,

Has a purity and a simplicity,

Which is simply stunning.

Narrator: Sabine believes that the incas

Imposed these engineering Marvels on cities

Across the empire, to make It clear who was in control.

28 miles north, in a town Called ollantaytambo,

Sabine investigates one Of the first settlements

The incas conquered, Outside the cusco valley,

Under the command of King called pachacuti.

He just flattened everything

That was here and he Rebuilt ollantaytambo

In his own vision of What it should be.

And he did this 'cause He wanted to transform

The local identity,

By bringing in Inca architecture.

Narrator: Some parts are a mirror image

Of the mother city.

The incas considered themselves

A civilizing force and that They were, in fact, superior

To a lot of The other native peoples.

As they saw it, it was their Duty to spread the civilization

To all the corners of the earth.

Narrator: inca engineers Transformed ollantaytambo

Into a miniature Version of cusco.

From its temple to the sun,

To its well-engineered streets.

Even the double jam Doorways are the same.

Hyland: this was their way of Marking their territory

And showing their power.

Their buildings, Their architecture,

Is one of the ways that They show conquered people

That they, in fact, Need to be inca.

♪♪

Narrator: the incas imposed The layout of cusco

On towns and cities, Right across the empire.

♪♪

In the capital, the ruling elite Lived in the upper district

With the less important, Living lower down.

♪♪

When the incas conquered a town

They usually kept the most Prestigious sections of the city

For the highest-ranking Subjects.

Across the empire, the incas Imposed this hierarchy

To serve as a constant Reminder of who was in charge.

♪♪

In this way, the incas Forced their culture

On millions of people.

But did this lead to dangerous

Divisions that could have Weakened the empire?

Hyland: There were a lot of reasons why

Conquered people might be Very angry at the incas.

People resented paying tribute.

People resented having to Give some of their daughters

To serve as Priestesses of the sun.

People were angry About having to serve

In the inca military,

And die in inca wars.

Narrator: the incas firm rule, Bred unrest.

Did the spanish exploit This to their own advantage

When they arrived?

Could a mass grave Provide the answers?

And how did the conquistadors Capture the capital, cusco

And its mighty fortress?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: The fall of the incas,

Is one of the greatest Mysteries of all time.

In the early 16th century,

Fewer than 200 Spanish mercenaries,

Brought down This mighty civilization.

How did they pull-off A seemingly suicidal mission?

Most of the conquistadors

Came from the poorest Areas of spain,

And they were desperate To make money.

They were after gold and wealth

And they wanted to steal it.

Narrator: 500 years ago, Cusco's greatest temple

Contained unimaginable wealth.

Outside, a field of Corn made of real gold.

And life-sized golden Statues of llamas.

♪♪

Inside the sanctuary, Buildings gleamed like beacons.

Their thatched roofs, Woven with gold threads

And their walls plated With solid gold.

And within the most Sacred building,

Enough wealth to make all

The conquistadors Extremely rich.

So how did they bring down The empire, to get it?

♪♪

Many historians think, Superior european weapons

Were the key to The spaniards' success.

To investigate this theory

Archaeologist guillermo cock,

Examines these skeletons found In a mass grave.

They date, to the time of The conquest.

Many have shocking wounds.

Narrator: the conquistadors may Have been few in number

But they were Armed to the teeth.

Many of these bones,

Bare the scars of European weapons.

Narrator: The invaders carried weapons

That the incas had Never seen before.

Steel swords and guns.

[ gunshot ]

The violence continued, even When this victim had fallen.

Narrator: guillermo finds, That one skull

Has a hole just over Half an inch wide.

It's one of The earliest gunshot wounds

Ever found in the americas.

Even this bit of bone, Shot out by a bullet

Is in perfect condition, 500 years later.

The spanish didn't Just bring new weapons

To the battlefield.

[ gunshot ]

Some rode horses,

Animals which didn't Exist in south america

And were alien to the locals.

Guillermo discovers how These beasts were used

To inflict terrible Injuries among the inca.

[ horse neighs ]

Narrator: Many historians believe

That this superior Military technology

Gave the spanish their First major victory --

The capture of the inca king Himself, atahualpa.

♪♪

The leader of the conquistadors Arranged a meeting

At a town, with the inca king.

♪♪

But the great ruler found only

A spanish priest And a translator.

♪♪

The rest were hiding in ambush.

On a given signal...

[ horse neighs ]

...The spanish cavalry Charged out

And fired their guns.

[ gunshots ]

King atahualpa was Taken hostage

And his massive army fled.

The incas gave the spanish

Mountains of gold and silver To save his life.

Although the inca armies

Outnumbered The conquistadors 35 to 1,

This early spanish Victory was decisive.

But can superior weapons alone,

Account for their later Success on the battlefield?

Guillermo searches for answers In skeletons

With a different type of injury.

Narrator: This is no deathblow

Inflicted by A conquistador sword or gun.

Narrator: the only soldiers who Would have wielded

A mace like this were From south america.

It suggests that The spanish had allies.

Local people, who turned Against their inca masters.

Narrator: The spanish had stepped into

A deeply divided empire.

The conquistadors took Advantage of these tensions.

Narrator: guillermo thinks, The inca didn't suspect

That some of their subjects Would join the invaders.

Narrator: advanced technology And local allies

Gave the spanish An advantage on the battlefield.

But they remained Hugely outnumbered.

And one city was Still in their sights --

Cusco, guarded by A gigantic fortress.

How did the conquistadors Capture the incas great capital?

[ gunshot ]

♪♪

And how did they Enforce their control?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: Experts are investigating

How just a couple of Hundred spanish mercenaries

Brought down cusco And the inca empire.

The conquistadors Captured the inca king

And made allies of local tribes.

But they still had To take the incas

Legendary capital, cusco.

Many of the spanish Conquistadors

And early chroniclers, As we call them,

Who wrote down impressions Of the inca empire,

Were very, very impressed by Cusco when they first saw it.

They described it as,

"More magnificent Than anything in spain."

Narrator: The city was a conquistador's

Dream come true.

A treasure trove of gold.

So how did the spanish seize Control of this prized city?

Particularly as it was defended,

By a supposedly Super-strong fort.

♪♪

Sacsayhuaman was once A spectacular, defensive complex

Built with giant stones, Weighing up to 361 tons,

Among the biggest ever Used in the new world.

The three walls Towered 60 feet high

Stretching over 1,000 feet.

They defended a hilltop Compound of towers.

The fortress was one of The biggest single monuments

Ever constructed by the incas.

Designed to keep cusco safe.

But just how impregnable was it?

Did the spanish discover A hidden weakness?

♪♪

Historian peter frost is Investigating sacsayhuaman

To solve the mystery of how The spanish conquered it.

Peter, first scopes out The scale of the challenge

Facing the spanish When they arrived.

Was cusco's fort more daunting Than any european castle?

Compared to sacsayhuaman,

Medieval castles are Really quite small.

Sacsayhuaman in it's hay day,

Must've been extraordinary.

Narrator: the structure of The inca fortress

Was fundamentally different From european castles.

European castle walls Were made of stone blocks

Held together with mortar,

A soft filling made of Water, sand, and lime.

But sacsayhuaman's walls Were stone megaliths.

It must have been just Absolutely mind boggling.

♪♪

Narrator: Giant chunks of solid rock.

Some pieces of this Stone puzzle,

Weighed up to 361 tons.

Like in the city Of cusco itself,

The incas shaped these Stones to sit perfectly

On top of each other, With no cement at all.

♪♪

The spanish needed to Take down a stone monster.

And it wasn't just Its 60-foot high

Set of walls that baffled them,

But its strange zig-zag shape Which trapped the invaders

Between high battlements When they got close.

If you attack that wall,

You're gonna be taking Fire from that side there

And also from that side,

From your flank as well.

This is a very effective, Defensive design.

I'm pretty sure a military Architect would agree with that.

Narrator: It looked like the spanish

Didn't stand a chance.

Especially, as they were Massively outnumbered.

The spanish were surrounded By more than 200,000

Inca troops, some in The hills, some in the city,

And the top generals were Here in sacsayhuaman.

The spanish were on this Hilltop, very exposed.

A lengthy siege Was not an option

And they had no retreat, No escape.

They had to find a weak Point and attack it, quickly.

But where was The flaw in its design?

How did the spanish Take down sacsayhuaman?

♪♪

Peter thinks He's finally found the answer.

To the west of the sight, One section of the wall

Is lower than the rest.

You can see how much lower These walls are here,

Than they were further back,

Along the main Part of the walls.

These may be the height Of two men here.

Further back, They were four or more.

Narrator: peter thinks, This is where the spanish

Must have breached the fortress.

They were never any Higher than this.

We can see that they Were not cut higher up.

And so, this is The unfinished part.

And this is the weakest Point of the outer walls.

And for me, obviously, That's where the spaniards

Would have chosen to attack.

Narrator: the incas took decades

To build their monuments.

Archaeologists suspect That fort simply

Hadn't been finished, When the spanish arrived.

♪♪

As the conquistadors approached The fort's colossal walls,

The incas unleashed A barrage of stone missiles,

Forcing them to retreat.

So the spanish Changed their plan.

Under cover of darkness,

They stealthily Scaled the fort walls.

♪♪

The incas mounted a last stand,

From the great towers Within the fort.

But it was too late.

The spanish had already Breached the ramparts,

And even with their Smaller numbers,

Stormed the towers to Seize sacsayhuaman.

♪♪

The conquistadors Were triumphant.

For four decades, Die hard incas tried to resist

From the fringes Of their empire,

Till they, too, were defeated.

Their kings would Never again return

To the sacred city of cusco.

But in destroying The largest empire in the andes,

The conquerors now faced An even greater challenge --

Ruling it.

How did the spanish do it?

And what happened to The incas who remain?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: At the inca city of cusco,

The conquistadors Overcame incredible odds,

And ripped out the heart Of the inca empire.

But once in control,

The spanish ironically Found themselves

In the same position As the first incas --

Trying to control a huge empire.

The king of spain had Offered the top conquistadors

Governorship of the lands That they conquered.

What they wanted to do was Just basically get rid of

The indigenous leaders

And put themselves In their place.

♪♪

Narrator: How would a few european rulers

Stamp their way of Life on millions?

Clues can be found in The convent of santo domingo,

One of the finest buildings The spanish constructed

After taking down cusco.

♪♪

From the outside, its design Looks like any other

Christian church -- A colonial sanctuary

Built in the shape of a cross.

But for nearly 500 years,

It has hidden a secret.

The spanish built this church Over the masterful masonry

Of the incas' most Holy sanctuary.

Outside, the original retaining Wall is still visible.

So was placing christian Buildings over sacred inca sites

The way the spanish stamped Out the inca religion?

And what happened to The rest of cusco's remains?

♪♪

After taking cusco, the spanish,

Like the incas before them, Realized that

There's only so far you can Go with guns and swords.

Narrator: anthropologist Sabine hyland investigates

How the conquistadors replaced Inca culture with their own.

She thinks that The spanish dismantled cusco,

Stone by stone.

If you look closely, You can see that

These beautifully carved Inca stones are actually

From sacsayhuaman, but They've been repurposed to use

In this church, And we can tell that

Because of the spanish mortar That binds them together.

Narrator: The spanish constructed

Grandiose buildings using cement Unlike the inca.

To them, cusco was simply A convenient source of stone.

The invaders wanted to erect

Their own giant structures As quickly as possible.

It would've dealt a massive blow

At the very heart Of inca religion.

As incas themselves knew, Architecture is one

Of the most long-lasting

And powerful tools of conquest.

Narrator: the spanish took Their domination

To a whole new level.

The first wave of Conquistadors unleashed

Unimaginable levels of violence Against the native people.

I think, peru got pretty much The worst of the bunch.

The most mercenary, The most ruthless,

The least educated.

Narrator: the spanish targeted Any last traces of inca culture.

Gold statues were melted down

Into thousands of Pounds of bullion.

The royal mummies and last Remaining sacred inca objects

Were plundered or incinerated.

Hyland: there were mummies of Emperors in this room.

But the spanish Stole the mummies

Because of course the mummies Had gold and jewels in them.

Narrator: soon, virtually Nothing remained

Of what was one of The most dazzling,

Spectacular civilizations That ever lived.

The spanish conquistadors tried

To annihilate everything That the incas had created.

And they certainly Succeeded in doing so.

Narrator: inca cusco was Destroyed in stages.

♪♪

Its demolition had Begun from the moment

The spanish first Entered the capital.

The conquistadors stripped The city of its gold,

Prying it from the great Temples, and melting it down.

♪♪

The destruction continued

As the spanish Dismantled sacsayhuaman

And reused its stones to Construct their own buildings.

Then, in 1650, an earthquake Destroyed what was left

Of inca cusco, giving The spanish another chance

To mold it into a european city.

♪♪

Sabine thinks many Incas tried to resist

This new alien way of life.

Why did they fail to cling On to their ancient beliefs?

And with their Civilization overthrown,

What happened to The incas themselves?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: archeologists have Now pieced together

Some of the biggest mysteries

Of the spanish conquest of peru,

Revealing how fewer Than 200 conquistadors

Brought down an empire And made it their own.

The spanish thought That their civilization

Was better than That of the incas.

And so they wanted to impose it

Right on top of The incas' civilization.

Narrator: but there's one final Missing piece of the puzzle.

What happened to The incas themselves?

Why did they seem to disappear?

Now, a sensational Discovery high in the andes

Could reveal the answers.

In 1985, on the fringes Of the inca empire,

In the aconcagua mountains, Hikers discovered

The remains of a mummified boy.

They found him in A semi-circular stone structure,

Wrapped in inca textiles, And surrounded

By offerings to the gods.

Forensics suggests The boy was the victim

Of an inca ritual sacrifice, Taken up the mountain,

Drugged, and killed With a blow to the head.

The boy's body was So well preserved,

That over 500 years later, His dna is still intact.

♪♪

The aconcagua boy was An inca born near cusco.

Geneticist antonio salas Thinks his mummified body

Could hold the secrets of what Happened to all the incas,

After the conquest.

♪♪

Antonio tests a dna sample Taken from the boy's corpse.

Narrator: antonio's team Expects to find people

In south america Still carrying traces

Of the incas' genetic profile.

But he makes A shocking discovery.

Almost nobody at all carries it.

It's as if the incas Simply vanished.

Narrator: Antonio's investigations suggest

The spanish didn't just Take over the incas empire,

But also wiped out Thousands of inca families.

Did the invaders Commit genocide?

Narrator: but could something Else have played

An even bigger role in The decline of the incas?

When they stepped Off their boats,

The spanish brought with Them an invisible killer.

A completely new Set of diseases,

Including the lethal smallpox.

Narrator: For the indigenous people,

Disease was a time bomb.

Narrator: With no natural resistance,

European illnesses swept Through the empire's population

Like wildfire, killing millions.

War, intermarriage, And deadly germs destroyed

The last great Pre-hispanic civilization

Of the andes, the incas.

When the spanish conquer peru,

The inca empire was Completely dismembered.

Essentially what was Going on was the massive

And thorough looting operation

Which was literally obliterating

Virtually everything They'd done.

Narrator: today, The incas' huge buildings

Have nearly all vanished.

But visitors still marvel at The fragments that are left.

I think people still Feel a strong affinity

With the incas And with the andean past,

All throughout the andes.

And I think people Feel very, very proud

Of their andean heritage.

Narrator: By investigating these ruins,

Archeologists and scientists Are uncovering the mystery

Of how the incas built Their great empire.

How they used a sophisticated Combination of persuasion,

Brute force, And brilliant engineering

To hold it all together.

New discoveries reveal How their kingdom crumbled

At the hands of the spanish.

Brought down by new weapons

And allies recruited from Within the incas' own empire.

[ gunshot ]

The incas expanded really fast.

Some people think that they Actually were overextended.

We'll never really know, Of course,

Because the spanish Came and took them over.

Narrator: ultimately, The spanish mercenaries

Simply repeated what The incas had done,

Conquered, And ruthlessly imposed

A brand new empire On their ruins.

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