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Chris has a master's degree in history and teaches at the University of Northern Colorado.
In the early 16th century, during a period called the Age of Exploration, great empires who had never met suddenly discovered each other as Europeans began travelling the world. In South America, the greatest clash was between the Spanish explorers and conquerors, called conquistadores, and the powerful Inca Empire, the largest empire in the western hemisphere. Eventually, the Spanish defeated the Inca, and the mighty empire fell.
In 1521, the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and an alliance of native Mexican armies toppled the powerful Aztec Empire and made Spain instantly rich. Inspired, other Spaniards began exploring more of Central and South America in search of other wealth. One of these men, named Francisco Pizarro, began exploring the coast of northern South America with his brothers. In 1526, they started hearing stories about a powerful, and rich, empire that ruled from the high peaks of the Andes Mountains. Pizarro went back to Spain to ask permission to conquer this empire and returned in 1532 with the blessing of the Spanish Empress.
What Pizarro did not know, as he began his conquest of South America towards modern-day Peru, was that he was not seeing the Inca Empire at its best. Smallpox, which swept down from Mexico years before, had decimated the population. Additionally, the Empire was still recovering from a civil war. When the Sapa Inca, Inca emperor, named Huayna Capac died in 1527, his sons Huáscar and Atahualpa started fighting over the throne. Atahualpa had just defeated Huáscar in 1532 when he heard news about new invaders attacking villages near the coast, the Spanish. Atahualpa hadn't even made it back to his capital city, Cusco, but was still at the site of the last battle, Cajamarca.
Atahualpa was feeling pretty victorious after defeating Huáscar, so despite that fact that the entire empire was weak from war, he sent messengers inviting Pizarro to meet him at his camp in Cajamarca, where 80,000 Inca warriors guarded the emperor. Pizarro had amassed an army of local soldiers who didn't like the Inca Empire and wanted to see Atahualpa dethroned, but he decided to accept the Inca emperor's invitation and only took a small number of his best men.
When Pizarro arrived in Cajamarca, Atahualpa welcomed him as a guest into his own tent, a Mesoamerican gesture to indicate that the emperor was strong enough not to have any reason to fear the Spanish. Per Spanish law, a conquistador had to offer a foreign emperor the chance to convert to Christianity by reciting a speech called the Requerimiento. The Requerimiento explained, in Spanish, that God had chosen the Spanish emperor to conquer the world, and that anyone who refused was a heretic and enemy of Spain.
Pizarro read the Requerimiento, but translation was very difficult and Atahualpa didn't understand. He tried to clarify, but Pizarro lost his temper and his soldiers killed Atahualpa's men inside the tent, capturing the emperor. In Inca culture, attacking someone during a diplomatic meeting was so dishonorable that it would never have been attempted, which is likely why Atahualpa allowed the Spaniards into his tent without bringing many of his own guards.
Atahualpa promised to pay the Spanish a huge ransom; enough gold to fill a room and twice that much silver. The Inca paid the ransom, but Pizarro refused to release the emperor, executing him in 1533.
Pizarro placed Atahualpa's younger brother, Túpac Huallpa in power with the understanding that Túpac would submit to the Spanish. However, he died of smallpox that same year, and another brother, Manco Inca Yupanqui was placed on the throne. He cooperated at first, but in 1536 saw an opportunity to reclaim power when one of Pizarro's men started an uprising. Manco recaptured the Inca capital of Cusco, but was soon forced back out by the Spanish. He fled to the city of Vilcabamba in the high peaks of Peru and ruled there for 36 years while fighting the Spanish for absolute control of Peru.
Finally, in 1572 the Spanish captured Vilcabamba, which was being ruled by Manco's son, the great warrior Túpac Amaru. Túpac was executed, and the Inca Empire was officially defeated.
After Cortés led the Spanish in their first military conquest of the continental Americas, Francisco Pizarro was inspired to do the same in Peru, where he invaded the powerful Inca Empire. This was the largest empire in the western hemisphere, but when Pizarro invaded, it had been seriously weakened by disease and a civil war between two brothers for the throne.
The victor of this war, Atahualpa, met with Pizarro and let the Spanish come armed into his tent. Atahualpa probably did not consider this small group any real threat. He was full of pride from a recent victory, and he may never have considered that the Spanish would attack during a diplomatic meeting.
During this meeting, Pizarro read the Requerimiento, a speech that all conquistadors had to recite, offering the emperor a chance to convert to Christianity. Pizarro then captured Atahualpa, and later executed him, essentially toppling the empire in 1532. The next emperor, Manco Capac, managed to resist the Spanish for a few more years. By 1572, the Spanish finally captured and executed the last Inca emperor, Túpac Amaru, and the Inca Empire was officially defeated.
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