Pizarro Captures Atahualpa: The Inca Empire Falls

Francisco Pizarro and 168 Spanish soldiers ambushed Inca Emperor Atahualpa in the main square of Cajamarca, killing thousands of unarmed attendants and capturing the ruler of the largest empire in the Americas. The battle, if it can be called that, lasted less than two hours and destroyed a civilization that governed 12 million people across 4,000 kilometers of the Andes. Nothing in the history of colonialism matched the asymmetry of what happened at Cajamarca. Atahualpa had arrived with an entourage of perhaps 6,000, mostly unarmed retainers, ceremonial attendants, and nobles carried on ornate litters. He had just won a civil war against his half-brother Huascar and commanded an army of 80,000 veterans camped outside the city. The Spanish were a tiny, exhausted force that had marched into the Andes with horses, steel armor, and a handful of arquebuses. Pizarro had studied Hernan Cortes's capture of Montezuma and planned to replicate the strategy. The trap was sprung when a Spanish friar approached Atahualpa with a Bible and a demand that he accept Christianity and Spanish sovereignty. Accounts vary on what happened next, but Atahualpa reportedly threw the book to the ground. Pizarro gave the signal. Cannons fired into the packed square, cavalry charged from three directions, and the Spanish infantry waded into the panicked crowd with swords. The Inca attendants, carrying no weapons, were slaughtered. Those trying to flee crushed through a stone wall. Atahualpa's personal guards shielded him with their bodies, sacrificing themselves rather than let the emperor be harmed. Pizarro seized Atahualpa alive, recognizing his value as a hostage. The captured emperor offered to fill a room with gold and two rooms with silver in exchange for his freedom. The Spanish accepted, collected the ransom over several months, and then executed Atahualpa by garroting on July 26, 1533.