Huayna Capac
Diego de Almagro
Francisco Pizarro
Francisco Pizarro and
Diego de Almagro
After an unsuccessful exploratory
expedition led by Captain Pascual de
Andagoya in 1522, Francisco Pizarro and
two partners, Diego de Almagro and the
priest Hernando de Luque, led a small
expedition south in 1524. The expedition
soon encountered hardships, famine and
battles with hostile Indians, forcing it to
return to Panama with no tangible gain.
(Burkholder & Johnson, p. 52)
Francisco Pizarro, Hernando de Luque and Diego
de Almagro sign a capitulación (contract) of
conquest in Panama on May 10, 1546.
Pizarro and his men wait on the
island of Gallo for Diego de
Almagro to return with provisions.
A second voyage was filled with both hardships and hope. Pizarro was
forced to seek shelter for seven months on the island of Gallo while
Almagro returned to Panama to obtain provisions. When the
expedition resumed, the Spaniards captured a large oceangoing raft
laden with gold and silver jewels, finely woven textiles and precious
stones. Their greed aroused by this evidence that the rumored rich
civilization existed, the adventurers pushed further south and
discovered Tumbez, a northern outpost of the Inca Empire. (Burkholder
& Johnson, p. 53)
In late December 1530, Pizarro set
sail from Panama with fewer than
two hundred men. Almagro agreed
to fallow this vanguard with
reinforcements and supplies. After
advancing slowly down the coast,
Pizarro reached Tumbez. (p. 53)
Pizarro’s force challenged
the Inca at a particularly
propitious moment.
The Road to Cajamarca
At Tumbez evidence of
destruction and depopulation
revealed that the Inca were
engaged in civil war. Joined by
a small force led by Hernando
de Soto, the expedition
proceeded about a hundred
miles to the south. There
Pizarro founded the city of San
Miguel de Piura and awarded
encomiendas to the Spaniards
he would leave behind as a
garrison to protect
communications (Burkholder &
Johnson, p. 53).
The arrival of the Inca in
Cajamarca was a spectacle.
Credit: Wamán Poma, Insititute of
Ethnology, Paris, 1936
Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca, November 16, 1532
The Inca had never seen horses
before the Spaniards came to
Tawantinsuyo.
Credit: Wamán Poma, Insititute of
Ethnology, Paris, 1936
Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca
Capture of Atahualpa in
Cajamarca.
Probably more than 1,500
Indians perished and
thousand more were
wounded. Not an single
Spaniard was killed.
Without pikes or other
means to stop the
charging horses, the Inca
foot soldiers were nearly
defenseless. (Burkholder
& Johnson, p. 55.)
Capture of Atahualpa
Credit: Wamán Poma, Insititute of
Ethnology, Paris, 1936
The room will be filled with this much gold.
Atahualpa’s Ransom Room, Cajamarca, Peru: It is the only Inca building still standing in
Cajamarca. Although called the Ransom chamber, the room is where Atahualpa was
imprisoned and not where the ransom was stored.
Inside the “Ransom House”,
Cajamarca, Peru
Conquistadors decapitate Atahualpa after strangling him, 1533.
Manco Capac
The city of Cuzco, principal city
and royal court of the twelve
Inka kings of this realm, and
bishopric of the church.
The newly reigning Manco Inka
in his ceremonial throne in
Cuzco.
Atahualpa’s General
Rumiñavi was executed
by being burned alive.
(See page 57).
Don Pedro de Alvarado
Sebastián de Benalcázar
The march to Cuzco produced the conquest’s first large-scale pitched
battles. Spanish mounted units of fewer than one hundred men
defeated the same army that had easily crushed the forces of
Huascar and taken Cuzco. In this conflict, Pizarro, like Cortés, had
the support of indigenous allies. The Cañari and other ethnic groups
that supported Huascar in the civil war seized the opportunity to take
revenge on Atahualpa’s generals. By the time Pizarro reached the
Inca capital, Atahualpa’s military leadership was demoralized.
Unable to withstand the onslaught, the remnants of the Sapa Inca’s
once proud army fled north toward Quito (Burkholder & Johnson, pp.
56-57).
Diego de Almagro departs for Chile
Diego de Almagro taking
possession of Chile
The ruler of the
Inca Empire used
the title of Sapa
(the only one) and
Apu (divinity).
The Inca Rebellion of 1536
In February 1536, Manco Inca, the last heir to
Huascar's throne, led an army estimated at 200,000
Inca warriors to the capital of Cuzco. But the
Inca failed because most supplies had been used
up in civil war. Manco Inca retreated with his army
into the Andes Mountains. There they continued to
fight the Spanish until 1572, when the Spanish
finally defeated them.
Source: www.sbceo.k12.ca.us/~vms/carlton/spanish.htm
Inca Manco failed to
dislodge the Spanish from
Cuzco.
Inca Manco’s troops failed to
dislodge the Spaniards from Peru.
The inability of a Monco’s army of
more than sixty thousand to force
fewer than two hundred Spaniards
to surrender in Cuzco
demonstrated definitively the
permanence of Pizarro’s victory.
(Burkholder & Johnson, p. 58.)
The Spaniards
Counterattack
An attack on Lima
by the Inca army
ended in the near
massacre of some
of Manco’s finest
troops by a force led
by Francisco Pizarro
himself. (Burkholder
& Johnson, p. 58.)
Vilcabamba
As Inca Manco’s main force melted away for the planting
season, the Sapa Inca lifted the siege and retreated
toward Vilcabamba where an independent Inca kingdom
was maintained until 1572. (Burkholder & Johnson, p. 58.)
CIVIL WAR IN PERU
Almagro succeeded in
arresting Francisco
Pizarro’s brothers, Gonzalo
and Hernando. Gonzalo later
escaped. Francisco
accepted Almagro’s demand
to allow him to govern
Cuzco, but after Hernando
was freed, tensions soon
rose again and the Pizarros
declared the agreement null
and void. (Burkholder &
Johnson, p. 58.)
Pizarros forces defeats the forces of Almagro on the plain of Las Salinas in
Death of Pizarro, 1541
In 1541, a group of
twenty heavily armed
supporters of the young
Diego de Almagro (the
executed Diego de
Almagro’s mestizo son)
stormed Pizarro’s palace,
assassinated him, and
then forced the terrified
city council to appoint
the young Amagro as the
new governor of Peru.
(Burkholder & Johnson,
p. 59.)
Upon hearing of the civil war, Charles I sent Cristóbal Vaca de Castro to be governor of Peru, with the
mission to end the political chaos. Reaching the colony soon after Pizarro’s assignation, Vaca de Castro
quickly organized the Pizarro loyalists and in September 1542 defeated the young Almagro’s forces.
Almagro was executed. (Burkholder & Johnson, p. 59.)
Cristóbal Vaca de Castro
THE NEW LAWS
In November 1542,
Charles I issued the
famous New Laws in
an effort to improve
conditions for the
Indians and to
prevent the
encomenderos from
becoming a true
nobility. (Burkholder
& Johnson, p. 59.)
Viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela
Gonzalo Pizarro
Pedro de la Gasca