Pizarro Kills Inca Chief

Francisco Pizarro was a Spanish conquistador who, inspired by Cortes's success in Mexico, led an expedition to conquer the Inca empire of the Andes. He arrived as the empire was emerging from a destructive civil war between two rival brothers, Atahualpa and Huascar, for control of the throne. In 1532 Pizarro's small force ambushed and captured the victorious Atahualpa at Cajamarca.

To win his freedom, Atahualpa offered to fill a large room once with gold and twice with silver, an enormous ransom that his subjects gathered from across the empire. Despite receiving this treasure, the Spanish did not release him. In 1533 they put Atahualpa on trial and executed him, removing the empire's last unifying ruler and clearing the way for further conquest.

The death of Atahualpa shattered Inca resistance and allowed the Spanish to seize the capital at Cuzco and dominate the region. Pizarro went on to found Lima in 1535 as the center of Spanish power in South America. The conquest brought the vast silver wealth of the Andes under Spanish control, though it also unleashed disease, exploitation, and steep population decline among the Andean peoples.