Which spanish conquistador conquered the incas

He was met by Vicente de Valverde, a friar traveling with Pizarro. Atahualpa angrily refused, prompting Valverde to give the signal for Pizarro to open fire. Trapped in tight quarters, the panicking Incan soldiers made easy prey for the Spanish. Pizarro himself suffered the only Spanish injury: a cut on his hand sustained as he saved Atahualpa from death. Realizing Atahualpa was initially more valuable alive than dead, Pizarro kept the emperor in captivity while he made plans to take over his empire.

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. President John F. 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:. After a failed attempt to recapture the city from greater Spanish rule during this time, Manco retreated to Vilcabamba and built the last stronghold of the Inca. The Inca continued to revolt against totalitarian Spanish rule until the year In that year the Spanish conquered Vilcabamba and killed the last Inca emperor, Tupac Amaru, after a summary trial.

An image of the Spanish executing Tupac Amaru. The last Inca ruler, Tupac Amaru, was killed by Spanish forces in , effectively ending any potential for an Inca uprising.

The Spanish named this vast region the Viceroyalty of Peru and set up a Spanish system of rule, which effectively suppressed any type of uprising from local communities. The Spanish system destroyed many of the Inca traditions and ways of life in a matter of years.

Their finely honed agricultural system, which utilized tiered fields in the mountains, was completely disbanded. The Spanish also enforced heavy manual labor taxes, called mita, on the local populations. In general, this meant that every family had to offer up one person to work in the highly dangerous gold and silver mines. If that family member died, which was common, the family had to replace the fallen laborer.

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 immediately ordered an attack. Buckling under an assault by the terrifying Spanish artillery, guns, and cavalry all of which were alien to the Incas , thousands of Incas were slaughtered, and the emperor was captured. Atahuallpa offered to fill a room with treasure as ransom for his release, and Pizarro accepted. Eventually, some 24 tons of gold and silver were brought to the Spanish from throughout the Inca empire.

Although Atahuallpa had provided the richest ransom in the history of the world, Pizarro treacherously put him on trial for plotting to overthrow the Spanish, for having his half-brother Huascar murdered, and for several other lesser charges. A Spanish tribunal convicted Atahuallpa and sentenced him to die. On August 29, , the emperor was tied to a stake and offered the choice of being burned alive or strangled by garrote if he converted to Christianity.

In the hope of preserving his body for mummification, Atahuallpa chose the latter, and an iron collar was tightened around his neck until he died. With Spanish reinforcements that had arrived at Cajamarca earlier that year, Pizarro then marched on Cuzco, and the Inca capital fell without a struggle in November Pizarro established himself as Spanish governor of Inca territory and offered Diego Almagro the conquest of Chile as appeasement for claiming the riches of the Inca civilization for himself.

In , Pizarro established the city of Lima on the coast to facilitate communication with Panama. The next year, Manco Capac escaped from Spanish supervision and led an unsuccessful uprising that was quickly crushed. That marked the end of Inca resistance to Spanish rule. Diego Almagro returned from Chile embittered by the poverty of that country and demanded his share of the spoils of the former Inca empire. Civil war soon broke out over the dispute, and Almagro seized Cuzco in Pizarro sent his half brother, Hernando, to reclaim the city, and Almagro was defeated and put to death.

Diego el Monzo proclaimed himself governor of Peru, but an agent of the Spanish crown refused to recognize him, and in Diego was captured and executed.