March 11 2023, 18:18

Reading Guns, Germs, and Steel (Jared Diamond). Here are some new interesting details about Francisco Pizarro.

“…the first meeting between the Inca emperor Atahualpa and the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in the highland town of Cajamarca in Peru on November 16, 1532. Atahualpa was the absolute monarch of the largest and most developed state in the New World, while Pizarro represented (falsely, by his own account) the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Charles V (also known as King Charles I of Spain), the monarch of the most powerful state in Europe.

Pizarro, leading a motley crew of 168 Spanish soldiers, was in unfamiliar territory, not knowing the local people, without any contact with the nearest Spanish forces (1000 miles north in Panama), and far beyond the reach of timely reinforcements. Atahualpa was at the center of his own empire with millions of subjects and was immediately surrounded by his army of 80,000 soldiers, who had recently won a war against other indigenous people. Nevertheless, Pizarro captured Atahualpa within minutes of the two leaders seeing each other for the first time.

Pizarro held him captive for eight months, extracting the largest ransom in history in exchange for a promise to release him. Once the ransom—enough gold to fill a room 7 by 6 meters and more than 3 meters high—was delivered, Pizarro broke his promise and executed Atahualpa.

The capture of Atahualpa was crucial for the European conquest of the Inca empire. Although the superior weapons of the Spanish would have guaranteed their ultimate victory anyway, the capture made the conquest much quicker and infinitely easier. Atahualpa was revered by the Incas as a sun god and had absolute power over his subjects, who obeyed even those commands which he issued while in captivity. The months that passed before his death gave Pizarro time to send out reconnaissance parties to other parts of the Inca empire and to send for reinforcements from Panama. When fighting finally broke out between the Spanish and the Incas after Atahualpa’s execution, the Spanish forces were already sufficient in number and knew what to expect.”