However, Atahualpa had a keen military mind and close relations with the military generals at the time, and proved to be the deadlier force. Atahualpa initially garnered favor with northern allies and built a new capital for his forces in Quito. This civil war left the population in a precarious position by the time it ended.
Around the same time that Atahualpa seized the throne in , Pizarro returned to Peru with blessings from the Spanish crown. Because of the language barrier, the Inca rulers probably did not understand much of these demands, and the meeting quickly escalated to the Battle of Cajamarca.
This clash left thousands of native people dead. The Spanish also captured Atahualpa and kept him hostage, demanding ransoms of silver and gold. They also insisted that Atahualpa agree to be baptized. Although the Inca ruler was mostly cooperative in captivity, and was finally baptized, the Spanish killed him on August 29, , essentially ending the potential for larger Inca attacks on Spanish forces.
An engraved representation of the Battle of Cajamarca. This battle began in , leaving thousands of native people dead and ending with the capture of Atahualpa. Even though the Inca Civil War made it easier for the Spanish armies to gain control initially, many other contributing factors brought about the demise of Inca rule and the crumbling of local populations.
As scholar Jared Diamond points out, the Inca Empire was already facing threats:. The royal estate of Machu Picchu boasts arguably the finest examples of the method, the durability of which was required in such a seismically sensitive landscape. These earthquake-proof buildings were built to last.
Innovative Inca engineering was also demonstrated with the construction of a 40,km road network. Based on a north-south main road off which other roads branched, it attempted to link up this long, stretched-out empire.
Pizarro sent de Soto and around 15 horsemen to visit Atahualpa, whose camp was now comparatively nearby. His instruction was to invite the Sapa Inca to visit Pizarro down in the town. When the cautious de Soto rode into the camp, his passage was silently observed by the massed ranks of the Inca army. When he reached Atahualpa, surrounded by all his women and many chiefs, the invitation fell on deaf ears.
There was no reaction. He invited them to dismount their horses and dine with him. They declined. He offered a drink instead. They feared being poisoned, but Atahualpa imbibed too, while assuring them that he would travel to Cajamarca the following day to meet with Pizarro.
Sleep came fitfully, if at all. Everyone performed sentry rounds fully armed that night. So also did the good old Governor, who went about encouraging the men. On that day, all were knights. The nerves were understandable. This was a sticky situation. They were in the midst of a victorious army in full battle order, which Soto and Hernando Pizarro estimated at 40, effectives. One option was simply to attack the Incas from the off, to not wait for any provocation.
Another option involved kidnapping Atahualpa; imprisoning the head of state had proved an effective exercise in Mexico. The next morning, Atahualpa was in no rush to make his audience with the Spanish.
It was a comparatively short distance to the town from the plain on which he was camped, but no move was made before lunchtime. By late afternoon, with the Sun low in the sky, he was still half a mile from the square and chose to make camp instead. The Spaniards grew even more anxious. Fearing an attack under cover of darkness, Pizarro despatched a messenger to urge Atahualpa to attend, issuing a promise that no harm would come to him.
He agreed. Leaving most of his armed soldiers on the plain, Atahualpa, dressed in his finery, was carried into Cajamarca, accompanied by around 5, men, who were largely unarmed, save for small battleaxes and slings. Arriving in the square, not a Spaniard was to be seen.
The first to break cover was Friar Vincente de Valverde. 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. Atahuallpa was consolidating his rule when Pizarro and his 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 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 and was with Vasco Nunez de Balboa when he discovered the Pacific Ocean in Hearing legends of the great wealth of an Indian civilization in South America, Pizarro formed an alliance with fellow conquistador Diego de Almagro in 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 , Pizarro returned to Panama. In , he sailed down to Peru, landing at Tumbes.
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, men at his disposal, Atahuallpa thought he had nothing to fear from the bearded white stranger and his 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.
Pizarro consented, but after receiving the ransom, Pizarro brought Atahualpa up on charges of stirring up rebellion. By that time, Atahualpa had played his part in pacifying the Incans while Pizarro secured his power, and Pizarro considered him disposable.
Atahualpa was to be burned at the stake—the Spanish believed this to be a fitting death for a heathen—but at the last moment, Valverde offered the emperor clemency if he would convert.
Atahualpa submitted, only to be executed by strangulation. The day was August 29, But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! As the fighting gets closer to Phnom Penh, the United States steps up its air activities in support of the Cambodian government.
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