The Incas and Aztecs: Conquered by a mistress?

It was well known that Cortes had significant help from his mistress, Melinche. I was quite surprised however to hear that Pizarro had a similar mistress, and aliences with native city-states.
I sometimes wonder, how much responsibility for the conquest fell on such women, and why did they help the Spanish?
What is fascinating is how such native royalty first had to be baptized before they became "bona fide" mistresses.
Also, why were they never included in history until recently?
See: en.wikipedia.org...
www.absoluteastronomy.com...



[edit on 13-3-2010 by halfoldman]

reply to post by halfoldman


"On October 10, 1537 in Spain, Hernando married his niece, Francisca Pizarro Yupanqui (she was the daughter of Francisco Pizarro and his Inca mistress (lover)...Ines Yupanqui...
A mistress is a man's long-term female lover and companion who is not married to him, especially used when the man is married to another woman. The relationship generally is stable and at least semi-permanent; however, the couple does not live together openly...
(source-above site on Pizarro)

She was useful to the Spaniards and she had some self contempt and hatred to the people and her family that put her into slavery. After looking at her wiki, I saw that she warned the Spaniards many times of plans of attacks against the small army by other tribes.

reply to post by hoghead cheese

Not sure whether "Melinche" or "Donna Angelina" is referred to here.
Suffice to say that both the Aztecs and Incas were not universallly popular. Cortes was massivelly supported by Tlaxclalans and the feudal city states oppressed by the Aztecs. Legend has it that Melinche's father was killed by the Aztecs, and she came from a Mayan town that harboured a severe hatred for them. However, there is little proof for that?
What is true is that both Pizarro and Cortes had thousands of native troops, yet this is hardly mentioned.
I recently saw a History Channel documentary (the name escapes me) about the battle of Lima between the Incas and Pizarro. Excavations show that all the dead were native peoples, killed by native weapons, and only three were killed by Spanish weapons (one had his skull crushed by a horse's hoof). Nevertheless, it was largely an indigenous battle. They mentioned in the program that Pizarro's Incan mistress - Donna Angelina - organized the native reinforcements.
That casts a very different light on the conquests, because we still learnt at University that a handful of Spaniards did all this conquering. More likely it now seems like a case of divide and rule. The taking of local mistresses thus seems to have been an important political act of building alliances.
Some sites claim Angelina was a relative of Atahualpa.

But how sad, what were Mrs Cortes and Pizarro doing all alone at home? I wonder if they knew? But back then in Christian Europe what the wife thought was probably of little concern.




[edit on 13-3-2010 by halfoldman]

reply to post by halfoldman

Another disputed point seems to be how Pizarro and Cortes died. All their killing and plunder seems to have brought them little succor. I'm still a bit surprised that their wives are never mentioned. Well, knowing the shadiness of their husbands they were probably glad every time they left . Seeing that the main Spanish base was Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic today) I wonder if they stayed there.

And to think of the suffering of the Taino (Caribbean) peoples at the time. Here too there was a chieftan called "Enrique". When the Taino chief was a small child the Spaniards invited his parents and other native royalty to a meeting. When they were gathered in a meeting house the Spaniards set it on fire, and cut down anyone who attempted escape. Enrique grew up to be a slave, until he led his people into the mountains, where he fought off the Spaniards for years, until the last survivors were freed. I mean the utter contempt for native peoples was already established here.

reply to post by halfoldman

All this then also reminds me of Pocahontas - at least the version of her portrayed in the film "The New World". Here she feeds the colonists, against her father's wishes. She enabled them, to the detriment of the Wampanoag and the native peoples. I wonder how true this is?