Book Reviews

Sarmiento de Gamboa, Pedro (2007) The History of the Incas, Brian S. Bauer and Vania
Smith (trans. and eds.), Introduction by Brian S. Bauer and Jean-Jacques Decoster,
University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), xiv + 266 pp. $50.00 hbk, $19.95 pbk.

Military conquest proved not as decisive as were political transactions, evangelisation,

or administrative reform for the colonisation of the Andes. Decades after their arrival
in the Andes, the Spaniards had not yet been able to secure complete control over
Tawantinsuyu. Whilst representative sectors of the Inca nobility settled in the city of
Cuzco agreed to support the Spanish, successors of the late Inca rulers still offered
resistance to alien rule. Questioning within the Spanish camp over the legitimacy of
the conquest lingered. Colonial administration and evangelisation were incipient and
criticised for the shortage of personnel, abuse of power and lack of preparation. To
face these and other challenges, the Spanish Crown encouraged reform in its Andean
possessions, and entrusted viceroy Francisco de Toledo the task of investigating the
existing conditions, and designing and implementing plans for reform.
Toledo arrived in Peru in 1569. In his plan of colonial reform, ethnography,
geography and history played a significant part. A detailed knowledge of the local
population – its numbers, settlements, economic activities, resources and customs – was
crucial for assessing the amounts and kinds of tax, and for setting the basis for
an ambitious plan of resettlement of the indigenous population that would facilitate
colonial administration and Christian indoctrination. To face the questionings over the
legitimacy of Spanish rule, Toledo and other top colonial officials sponsored the view
that a reinterpretation of Inca history was necessary to portrait the Incas not as rightful
rulers, but as tyrants. Under this light, the Spanish conquistadors would appear as
saviours of the Andeans and the Spanish king as their protector and rightful sovereign.
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, author of the History of the Incas, served the Toledan
project in several respects: as cosmographer, explorer and writer. The investigation
leading to the writing of this manuscript started in Cuzco in 1571 and was completed the
following year. Besides the viceroy’s support, Sarmiento benefited from the cooperation
of knowledgeable and influential informants from the Inca nobility. The manuscript
remained unpublished until 1906. The editors suggest that Toledo’s harsh treatment of
the Incas made him loose Philip II’s favour, which explains why Sarmiento’s manuscript
was left forgotten until it resurfaced in a university library in Sweden.
The History of the Incas had ambitious goals: to provide a natural history of the
Andean region, to offer a history of the inhabitants of the land and, finally, to tell the
story of the Spaniards from their arrival in Peru until 1572. This book covers only
 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation  2009 Society for Latin American Studies
574 Bulletin of Latin American Research Vol. 28, No. 4
 Book Reviews

part of Sarmiento’s original plan. The editors have suppressed a few chapters and have
modernised the writing to make it accessible to a wide audience.
The editors explain that this history aimed to provide arguments questioning the
legitimacy of Inca rule and to counter the criticisms against Spanish rule, and would
serve as an instrument to limit the authority of local chiefs or curacas. Sarmiento’s
methods to gather the information necessary to compose his History are also discussed
in length: the most noted representatives of the twelve noble Inca families in the city of
Cuzco were summoned to provide their respective versions of Inca history and, when
the manuscript was completed in 1572, the same men were again called upon to listen to
the final version and furnish, under oath, their ‘agreement’ with what the History said.
There are a few questions to ask about the purpose of the edition and the contents of
the introduction. One of the editors, Brian Bauer, a distinguished archaeologist of the
Incas, could have perhaps highlighted the importance this work has for students and
scholars working in his field. The historical study presented in the introduction does
not add that much to what is already known about Sarmiento. I was left wondering
why the editors did not take into account the important scholarship in Spanish on the
author and his time. The illustrations found in the book are all interesting, but although
illustrations can sometimes help readers understand the written text, they can also
create confusion and misunderstandings. The editors have used photographs – some
come from archives, most are Bauer’s – and reproductions of watercolours taken from
a sixteenth-century manuscript on the history of the Incas by Martı́n de Murúa, but
no explanation is given to the readers as to what these illustrations do in this edition
of Sarmiento’s History. These last comments notwithstanding, this book should be a
welcomed addition to the growing number of primary sources on the history of the
Andean peoples now available in English.

Gabriela Ramos
University of Cambridge

 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation  2009 Society for Latin American Studies
Bulletin of Latin American Research Vol. 28, No. 4 575