Shaken faiths? How 1492 affected belief in the Americas

Article by Sam Ellis. Edited and researched by Hayley Arnold.

The knowledge that there existed another continent en route to China had a monumental impact on Europe, economically and politically. It also posed a huge challenge to Christian belief, from which stemmed European understanding of the cosmos and the structure of the globe: The bible described one landmass, populated in temperate climates, according to the narrative of Adam and Eve. The ‘discovery’ of a new land wherein Empires flourished from jungles therefore threatened Holy Scripture, the very lynchpin of the European world view. 

Historians have studied in detail how, with their faith under scrutiny, Europeans went to great lengths to assimilate the ‘New World’ into their Christian understanding, poring over the classics until they found evidence of the Americas in Plato, and the stories of Atlantis. Rather than being blank, and denying the Americas’ existence, the borders of maps had been mysteriously labelled ‘Terra Incognita’ as if the Christian world was always going to expand into the as of yet unknown. Any life already there was dismissed as the work of the devil, as opposed to being descendents of Adam and Eve. In short, strength of Christian belief was enough to withstand the potential tremors that Columbus’ landing caused. 

In contrast, historians have assumed that indigenous Americans were unable to cope with the European arrival in 1492. They supposedly received it as some kind of apocalypse: Emperors forfeited their powers, villagers queued up to denounce their faith, Cortés was a god amongst men and their worlds were reduced to rubble. 

A short investigation reveals how, contrary to age old myths, indigenous beliefs were not abandoned the day Columbus landed. Certainly the existence of Europe posed a challenge, but Empires didn’t simply crumble, and religions proved just as resilient to truth-shaking revelations as Christianity had. 

For a start, Europeans were not treated as gods, quite the opposite: the Aztecs went to great lengths to avoid such myths, dissecting horse and Conquistador as proof that they were, in fact, separate human and beast. Similarly, on a beach in Yucatan the Mayans gave the Spanish a haughty snub at their first encounter, marching past the bewildered sailors as if they weren’t there. And in Peru, as they sat around a campfire arguing, Europeans were dismissed as dirty, unruly and disorganized by onlooking Incan officials. 

Nor were they regarded as overwhelmingly superior. Take for example Pizarro’s conquest of the Incan Empire; past explanations for how this was achieved praise the leadership skills of Pizarro, and point towards some kind of naive blundering on behalf of the Incas. But this wasn’t the case: Pizarro wasn’t a man with a plan and he hadn’t even heard of the Incas. But they knew all about the Spanish, they’d had one visit them, Pedro de Candia, and ever since that encounter they’d awaited an invasion from outside their known world. 

Atahualpa, the Incan Emperor, didn’t even regard the Spanish as impressive. Why would they be? The Incan Empire was vastly successful; it had a state pension, postal service, and safeguards against harvest failure. The Inca built 14,000 miles of pavement over mountainous terrain, whereas the last paved roads in Europe were built by the Romans. Historians have pointed toward the military genius of Pizarro, but Atahualpa had an equally formidable record. 

The Incan Empire fell dramatically, a huge nation overcome by a handful of soldiers. On 16th November 1532 Pizarro kidnapped Atahualpa and massacred his entourage, he ransomed the Emperor until his lands were bankrupt, and then garrotted him in public. No one doubts that the death of an emperor shook the Incan world; it was immensely important. Moreover, before his death he had converted to Christianity, the figurehead of a way of life had denounced his cultural values.

However, just as the Christian world assimilated the Americas into their world view, the Incans were able to process these events. Their calendar was cyclical, authority being replaced in cataclysmic circumstances roughly every quarter millennium. There had been earthquakes leading up to 1532, the Indigenous word for which was Pachakuti, also meaning revolution. Events had panned out as prophesized. But this was not the end of the Inca: they would return to power. 

Moreover, instead of resignation there was a remarkable resistance. The Spanish had taken control according to the calendar, but they weren’t able to maintain this power legitimately in the eyes of the Incans, who expected their ruler to be exemplary. They fought colonial authority for decades, in mountain fortresses like Vilcabamba and Machu Picchu. The resistance still exists today: the Incan language, Quechua, has four million speakers, despite multiple attempts to suppress it. The conquest was certainly devastating, but it couldn’t destroy belief. 

We could regard the conquest of the Americas as an earthquake: Destruction radiated from its Caribbean epicentre on the 12th October 1492. The Incan Empire was hit by waves of disease and disastrous encounters, the worst in 1532. The degree to which somewhere is ‘shaken’ by the event depends on the strength of structures in place, how well it is prepared. Throughout history we see how indigenous belief structures were assumed to be weaker than Christian ones. If Christianity withstood the ‘discovery of a new world’, there is no reason to say indigenous religions couldn’t. If Europe was not in awe of America, there is no reason to say that America was in awe of Europe. 

• Atahualpa converted to Christianity before his death in order to avoid being burned which the Incans believed would prevent the soul from getting to the afterlife. The Inca believed in reincarnation but the process of getting to the afterlife was a difficult one. The spirit of the dead would follow a long dark road with the help of a black dog who could see in the dark, those who had died by burning or whose bodies were burned after death would be missing vital strength and were therefore unable to complete the journey. Incas also had to follow a moral code throughout their lives, do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy, those who did this were more likely to be successful in their journey to the afterlife. 

• The term Inka means ruler, or lord, in Quechua, and originally referred only to the ruling family of the empire. The Spanish later used their translation Inca as an ethnic term referring to all people of the empire.

• A Norse explored called Leif Ericson is widely credited as the first European to land on American soil, in the 11th century. Ericson named his discovery Vinland and it is believed that he landed in modern day Newfoundland, Canada. Leif Ericson’s settlement came almost 500 years before Columbus ‘discovered’ the Americas but did not leave the legacy that followed Columbus’. 

• The Emperor was known as the Sapa Inka (Great Inca), Inka Qhapaq (mighty Inca) or Apu (Divinity). The Sapa were believed to be descendants of the Gods and so the imperial bloodline was considered very sacred. By the end of the Empire it was common for royal siblings to marry, ensuring that only truly sacred blood ran through the Sapa’s veins. 

• The Incas would perform child sacrifices, known as capacocha during or after important events, such as the death of the Sapa Inca or during a famine.

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