Francisco Pizarro's 1533 march from Cajamarca to the Inka capital of Cusco was a pivotal event in the Spanish invasion and occupation of Peru. However, his advance would have been impossible without the knowledge, labor, and assistance of Indigenous and African people who receive little mention in historical documents.

In reconstructing the stories of these hidden actors, I wanted to know: how can we better represent not just the scope and magnitude of their contributions but also the humanity of history's forgotten figures?

For this project, I found inspiration in a graphic created by Erik Steiner in Knowles, et al. Geographies of the Holocaust (2014).

Most contemporary Spanish authors and modern histories - until the last few decades - focused on the 300-500 Spaniards that marched with Francisco Pizarro from Cajamarca to Cusco in 1533. Through visuals we can (literally) decenter the conquistadors and center other actors.

Click here to view an animated visualization of the Invisible Caravan that accompanied, assisted, and even escorted the Spanish advance. To skip the introductory material and go straight to the visualization, click here (advance through presentation by using right/down arrows on keyboard or swiping right on your phone or tablet).

Note: the full visualization does not currently work on Firefox. Please use Chrome, Safari, or Windows Explorer/Edge instead.

Images for this visualization were created by tracing figures sketched by the Indigenous Andean chronicler, Guaman Poma in the early seventeenth century.

The homelands of 19 Andean communities documented to have sent representatives to Cajamarca during the Spaniards' nine-month stay there.

Sources: A variety of Indigenous petitions, cacicazgo documents, testimonies, and a few fragmentary references in the chronicles. Many (but not all) of the Native documents have been published by Espinoza Soriano.

Thus, when the 300-500 Spaniards - with the caravan of 10,000+ - began their march to Cusco, they were entering friendly territory. Most communities in the central Andes had sided with Waskar during his war with Atawallpa and thus saw Atawallpa's forces as the unwelcome invaders rather than the foreigners.

Sources: Accounts of the Inka Civil War in chronicles by Betanzos, Cabello Balboa, Cieza de León, Murúa, and Sarmiento.

A Spanish eyewitness, Pedro Pizarro, described the scene from the perspective of the besieged. "So numerous" were the squadrons of Inka warriors, he wrote, that "by day it appeared that a black cloth covered the ground for half a league around this city." By night, the immense number of campfires in the hills surrounding Cusco illuminated the city like a "very serene sky full of stars." The shouting and general "din of voices" of Inka warriors left the conquistadors "astounded."

Other accounts suggest Inka tactics provided their advantage not just numbers. After all, the besieged Spaniards in Cusco were assisted by dozens of Black auxiliaries and thousands of Andean allies throughout.

Titu Kusi Yupanki, Manqo Inka's son, describes a carefully orchestrated attack. Inka captains posted battalions on all four sides of the city. They then began a devastating attack on the city that involved barricading the streets, flooding the fields surrounding the city, and launching flaming missiles (arrows and sling stones) onto the thatch roofs of the city's buildings. This alternative view challenges European accounts lauding their own deeds and lamenting their own pain while obscuring both the humanity and the ingenuity of Native armies, rendering them a faceless horde. It also challenges some modern military historians, who have criticized the Inkas for being slow to adopt effective anti-cavalry tactics.