PIZARRO EXECUTES LAST INCA EMPEROR:

August 29, 1533

Atahuallpa, the 13th and last emperor of the Incas, dies by strangulation at the
hands of Francisco Pizarro's Spanish conquistadors. The execution of Atahuallpa,
the last free reigning emperor, marked the end of 300 years of Inca
civilization.High in the Andes Mountains of Peru, the Inca built a dazzling
empire that governed a population of 12 million people. Although they had no
writing system, they had an elaborate government, great public works, and a
brilliant agricultural system. In the five years before the Spanish arrival, a
devastating war of succession gripped the empire. In 1532, Atahuallpa's army
defeated the forces of his half-brother Huáscar in a battle near Cuzco.
Atahuallpa was consolidating his rule when Pizarro and his 180 soldiers
appeared.Francisco Pizarro was the son of a Spanish gentleman and worked as a
swineherder in his youth. He became a soldier and in 1502 went to Hispaniola
with the new Spanish governor of the New World colony. Pizarro served under
Spanish conquistador Alonso de Ojeda during his expedition to Colombia in 1510
and was with Vasco Núñez de Balboa when he discovered the Pacific Ocean in 1513.
Hearing legends of the great wealth of an Indian civilization in South America,
Pizarro formed an alliance with fellow conquistador Diego de Almagro in 1524 and
sailed down the west coast of South America from Panama. The first expedition
only penetrated as far as present-day Ecuador, but a second reached farther, to
present-day Peru. There they heard firsthand accounts of the Inca empire and
obtained Inca artifacts. The Spanish christened the new land Peru, probably
after the Vire River.Returning to Panama, Pizarro planned an expedition of
conquest, but the Spanish governor refused to back the scheme. In 1528, Pizarro
sailed back to Spain to ask the support of Emperor Charles V. Hernán Cortés had
recently brought the emperor great wealth through his conquest of the Aztec
Empire, and Charles approved Pizarro's plan. He also promised that Pizarro, not
Almagro, would receive the majority of the expedition's profits. In 1530,
Pizarro returned to Panama.In 1531, he sailed down to Peru, landing at Tumbes.
He led his army up the Andes Mountains and on November 15, 1532, reached the
Inca town of Cajamarca, where Atahuallpa was enjoying the hot springs in
preparation for his march on Cuzco, the capital of his brother's kingdom.
Pizarro invited Atahuallpa to attend a feast in his honor, and the emperor
accepted. Having just won one of the largest battles in Inca history, and with
an army of 30,000 men at his disposal, Atahuallpa thought he had nothing to fear
from the bearded white stranger and his 180 men. Pizarro, however, planned an
ambush, setting up his artillery at the square of Cajamarca.On November 16,
Atahuallpa arrived at the meeting place with an escort of several thousand men,
all apparently unarmed. Pizarro sent out a priest to exhort the emperor to
accept the sovereignty of Christianity and Emperor Charles V., and Atahuallpa
refused, flinging a Bible handed to him to the ground in disgust. Pizarro
immediately ordered an attack. Buckling under an assault by the terrifying
Spanish artillery, guns, and cavalry (all of which were alien to the Incas),
thousands of Incas were slaughtered, and the emperor was captured.Atahuallpa
offered to fill a room with treasure as ransom for his release, and Pizarro
accepted. Eventually, some 24 tons of gold and silver were brought to the
Spanish from throughout the Inca empire. Although Atahuallpa had provided the
richest ransom in the history of the world, Pizarro treacherously put him on
trial for plotting to overthrow the Spanish, for having his half-brother Huáscar
murdered, and for several other lesser charges. A Spanish tribunal convicted
Atahuallpa and sentenced him to die. On August 29, 1533, the emperor was tied to
a stake and offered the choice of being burned alive or strangled by garrote if
he converted to Christianity. In the hope of preserving his body for
mummification, Atahuallpa chose the latter, and an iron collar was tightened
around his neck until he died.With Spanish reinforcements that had arrived at
Cajamarca earlier that year, Pizarro then marched on Cuzco, and the Inca capital
fell without a struggle in November 1533. Huáscar's brother Manco Capac was
installed as a puppet emperor, and the city of Quito was subdued. Pizarro
established himself as Spanish governor of Inca territory and offered Diego
Almagro the conquest of Chile as appeasement for claiming the riches of the Inca
civilization for himself. In 1535, Pizarro established the city of Lima on the
coast to facilitate communication with Panama. The next year, Manco Capac
escaped from Spanish supervision and led an unsuccessful uprising that was
quickly crushed. That marked the end of Inca resistance to Spanish rule.Diego
Almagro returned from Chile embittered by the poverty of that country and
demanded his share of the spoils of the former Inca empire. Civil war soon broke
out over the dispute, and Almagro seized Cuzco in 1538. Pizarro sent his half
brother, Hernando, to reclaim the city, and Almagro was defeated and put to
death. On June 26, 1541, allies of Diego el Monzo--Almagro's son--penetrated
Pizarro's palace in Lima and assassinated the conquistador while he was eating
dinner. Diego el Monzo proclaimed himself governor of Peru, but an agent of the
Spanish crown refused to recognize him, and in 1542 Diego was captured and
executed. Conflict and intrigue among the conquistadors of Peru persisted until
Spanish Viceroy Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza established order in the late 1550s.

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