[1] During the Spanish conquest of Peru, Túpac Huallpa was a puppet ruler crowned by the conquistador Francisco Pizarro.

After his death, Manco Inca Yupanqui joined Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro in Cajamarca.

Manco then gathered an army of 100,000 Inca warriors and laid siege to Cusco in early 1536, taking advantage of Diego de Almagro's absence.

However, with the Spaniards' position consolidated by Almagro's reinforcements, Manco Inca decided that Ollantaytambo was too close to Cusco to be tenable so he withdrew further west.

[3] Abandoning Ollantaytambo (and effectively giving up the highlands of the empire), Manco Inca retreated to Vitcos and finally to the remote jungles of Vilcabamba.

Viceroy Pedro de la Gasca offered to provide Sayri Túpac with lands and houses in Cuzco if he would emerge from the isolated Vilcabamba.

In return he received a full pardon, the title of Prince of Yucay, and great estates with rich revenues.

In 1561, Sayri Túpac died suddenly, and his half-brother Titu Cusi Yupanqui took control of Vilcabamba and the Inca resistance to the Spanish.

After negotiations escalated, around 1568, Titi Cusi was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, as Diego de Castro.

Using the justification that the Incas had "broken the inviolate law observed by all nations of the world regarding ambassadors" the new Viceroy, Francisco de Toledo, Count of Oropesa, decided to attack and conquer Vilcabamba.

Repeatedly, the Inca attempted to lift the siege held by the Spanish and their native allies but were forced to retreat.

In marked contrast with some other Native American cultures, including the Aztec, the Incans were also eager to master weaponry which was wholly alien to them.

[7] By the later stages of the Siege of Cusco, the Spaniards were already reporting that Incan warriors were using captured firearms as well as horses with some proficiency.

On at least one occasion, a group of Incan warriors formed a tight unit in combat, based on the teachings of a captured Spaniard, and used their bows, slings, and darts in a way to achieve more rapid fire.