Francisco
Pizarro
(1475?-1541).
The
conquest of Peru by an obscure adventurer is one of the most dramatic episodes
in the history of the New World. Until he was nearly 50 years old, Francisco
Pizarro, serving as a minor Spanish official on the Isthmus of Panama,
had nothing to show for years of toil and peril but a small holding of land.
Little more than a decade later, he had conquered the fabulously wealthy empire
of the Incas and had bestowed on Spain the richest of its American possessions.
He also founded the city of Lima, now the capital of Peru.
Pizarro was born in about 1475 in Trujillo, a small town near Cαceres, Spain. The illegitimate
son of a Spanish captain, he spent his childhood with his grandparents in one of
Spain's poorest regions. He apparently never learned to read or write.
Pizarro traveled to the Caribbean Island of
Hispaniola. He took part in an expedition to Colombia in 1510, and three years
later, he accompanied Vasco Nuρez de Balboa
in a journey that ended in the discovery of the Pacific Ocean. From 1519 to 1523
he served as mayor of the town of Panama.
In
1523, hearing of a vast and wealthy Indian empire to the south, Pizarro
enlisted the help of two friends to form an expedition to explore and conquer
the land. A soldier named Diego
de Almagro provided the equipment, and the vicar of Panama, Hernando
de Luque, furnished the funds.
A
first expedition resulted in disaster after two years of suffering and hardship.
When a second expedition in 1526 fared little better, Pizarro
sent Almagro back to Panama for reinforcements.
He and part of the group remained on an island.
Instead
of sending help, the governor of Panama sent vessels to bring back the
expedition. Pizarro refused to return. Drawing a
line on the sand, he asked all who wanted a share in his enterprise to join him.
Thirteen men crossed the line. Pizarro's friends
persuaded the governor to send one vessel. Pizarro
used it to explore the coast of Peru. He then sailed to Spain to ask authority
to conquer Peru. This was granted. He left Spain on Jan. 19, 1530, and sailed
from Panama the following year. He had three vessels, which contained fewer than
200 men and about 40 horses.
Thus,
after seven years of hardship and disappointment, the adventurers started the
conquest of Peru. Pizarro spent a year conquering
the coastal settlements. Then he marched inland to the city of Cajamarca.
There he met with emissaries of Atahuallpa, the
Inca emperor. Atahuallpa accepted an invitation
to visit the Spanish commander and arrived attended by crowds of unarmed Incas. Pizarro's
followers were armed and waiting. Atahuallpa was
to regret trusting Pizarro. When he refused to
convert to Christianity or to accept the Spanish king as his sovereign, Pizarro
and his men seized the Inca emperor, and the Spaniards slaughtered 2,000
Indians.
Atahuallpa
offered as ransom to fill with gold a room 17 by 22 feet (5 by 7 meters) to a
point as high as a man could reach and to fill it twice over with silver. Pizarro
accepted the ransom. Soon afterward, however, he had Atahuallpa
executed. Pizarro then marched to Cuzco and set
up Manco, Atahuallpa's brother, as nominal
sovereign. In 1535 he founded Ciudad de los Reyes (City of the Kings), which is
now Lima. The city was the seat of his new government. Manco
escaped and headed an unsuccessful uprising. Two or three years later Pizarro
and Almagro quarreled about the territory each
was to govern. This contest soon assumed the proportions of a civil war. Pizarro
's supporters captured and executed Almagro. The
embittered and discontented followers of Almagro
then conspired against Pizarro. They assassinated him in Lima on
June 26, 1541.