Chachapoya Culture - Inca Occupation and Forced Resettlement

Inca Occupation and Forced Resettlement

The conquest of the Chachapoyas by the Incas took place, according to Garcilaso, during the government of Tupac Inca Yupanqui in the second half of the 15th century. He recounts that the warlike actions began in Pias, a community on a mountain on the edge of Chachapoyas territory likely to the southwest of Gran Pajáten.

According to de la Vega, the Chachapoyas anticipated an Inca incursion and began preparations to withstand it at least two years earlier. The chronicle of Cieza also documents Chachapoya resistance. During the time of Huayna Capac's regime, the Chachapoyas rebelled:

In response, Huayna Capac, who was in the Ecuadorian cañaris land at the time, sent messengers to negotiate peace. But again, the Chachapoyas "punished the messengers (...) and threatened them with death". Huayna Capac then ordered an attack. He crossed the Marañón River over a bridge of wooden rafts that he ordered to be built probably near Balsas, next to Celendín.

From here, Inca troops proceeded to Cajamarquilla (Bolivar), with the intention of destroying "one of the principal towns" of the 'Chachapoyas. From Cajamarquilla, a delegation of women came to meet them, led by a matron who was a former concubine of Tupac Inca Yupanqui. They asked for mercy and forgiveness, which the Inca granted them. In memory of this event of a peace agreement, the place where the negotiation had taken place was declared sacred and closed so from now on "neither men nor animals, nor even birds, if it were possible, would put their feet in it."

To assure the pacification of the Chachapoyas, the Incas installed garrisons in the region. They also arranged the transfer of groups of villagers under the system of mitmac, or forced resettlement:

The Inca presence in the territory of Chachapoyas left structures at Cochabamba in the outskirts of Utcubamba in the current district of Leimebamba as well as other sites.