Battle+of+Ollantay+Tambo

= Battle of Ollantaytambo  =

The battle of Ollantaytambo took place in January of 1537. Manco Inca led the battle against the Spanish. The Spanish, led by Hernando Pizarro, forces attacked on horseback. The war started off pretty even with 30,000 men on each side. Most of the Inca army confronted the Spaniards from a set of terraces overlooking a plain by the Urubamba River. Inca soldiers were not a match for the Spanish soldiers in an open area battle. Inca had his men dig pits in the open field to hinder the movement of the Spanish on horses. Several Spanish assaults against Inca failed because Inca’s men showered the troops with arrows, slingshots and boulders coming down from the terraces as well as from both flanks. Inca out smarted the Spanish by flooding the grounds, slowing the attack from the Spanish. The defenders then counterattacked; some of them used Spanish weapons captured in previous fights such as swords, bucklers, armor and even a horse, ridden by Manco Inca himself. In a severely compromised situation, Hernando Pizarro ordered a retreat. Pizarro had his soldiers go in with the cover of darkness. The Spanish force fled through the Urubamba valley with the Incas in pursuit and reached Cusco the next day Spanish leader Hernando Pizarro left the battle to return with more soldiers. Upon Pizarro’s return Inca has very smartly retreated into the jungle beyond the Sacred Valley .

By: Keaghan Otto