The Rest Is History
The Rest Is History

The Fall of the Incas: The Last Emperor (Part 6)

March 4, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

🎙️ The Voices & The Context

  • The Format: Casual, banter-filled chat between two hosts narrating a dramatic historical epic like storytellers around a campfire.
  • The Key Players: Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, popular British historians and podcasters from The Rest is History. Their witty chemistry shines—Tom probes with enthusiasm, Dominic delivers vivid details—with playful jabs and pop culture nods (e.g., Dr. Seuss, Coen Brothers).
  • The Vibe: Intense and educational with dark humor; a blood-soaked saga of betrayal and conquest, laced with ironic asides on human folly.

🗝️ Key Themes & Topics

This episode wraps the Inca conquest series, focusing on Spanish infighting, Inca resistance, and colonial fallout.

  • Topic 1: Pizarro-Almagro Vendetta Escalates. Civil war erupts as Almagro seizes Cuzco, battles Pizarro brothers at Las Salinas (1538), leading to garrottings and beheadings amid native spectators cheering mutual destruction.
  • Topic 2: Manco Inca's Jungle Holdout. Exiled Inca launches guerrilla raids; evades capture repeatedly, builds Vilcabamba as "lost city," but is betrayed and assassinated by Spanish fugitives in 1544.
  • Topic 3: Gonzalo Pizarro's Rebellion. "George Washington of Peru" revolts against Charles V's "New Laws" curbing native exploitation; kills viceroy but loses at Chachapoyas, ending Pizarro line vio

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (03:08) **Recap of "The Royal Hunt of the Sun" Play**
  • 2 (05:02) **Mid-1537 Stalemate: Manco Flees, Spanish Divided**
  • 3 (07:23) **Orgonia's Pursuit and Almagro's Recall**
  • 4 (09:01) **Almagro Marches on Coast; Failed Negotiations**
  • 5 (13:16) **Battle of Las Salinas (April 6, 1538)**
  • 6 (17:27) **Almagro's Trial and Execution (July 8, 1538)**
  • 7 (20:31) **Cusco's Destruction and Manco's Guerrilla War**

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

With the Incan emperor on the run, and the Spanish divided, what atrocities would unfold in the final phase of this brutal conquest? Who would triumph, Francisco Pizarro or his brutal former partner Diego de Almagro? And how would the once mighty Incas, finally fall…?


Join Dominic and Tom for the epic conclusion of one of the most epic stories in all of world history: a hunt for gold and glory, drenched in blood and tragedy, in which the collision of two worlds would reverberate across time.


_______

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Video Editors: Jack Meek + Harry Swan

Social Producer: Harry Balden

Producers: Tabby Syrett & Aaliyah Akude 

Executive Producer: Dom Johnson

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