Francisco Pizarro
Spanish conquistador (c. 1478–1541) who captured the Inca Emperor Atahualpa with 168 men, extorted a room full of gold as ransom, executed him anyway, and destroyed the Inca Empire, demonstrating that audacity and smallpox could topple any civilization.
Pizarro's capture of the Inca Emperor Atahualpa at Cajamarca (1532) is one of history's most audacious acts. With 168 soldiers, deep in Inca territory surrounded by 80,000 Inca warriors, Pizarro invited Atahualpa to a 'peaceful meeting' and then attacked. Atahualpa, protected by absolute divine authority in his own civilization, could not conceive that Pizarro would attack while vastly outnumbered. Within minutes, thousands of Incas were killed; Atahualpa was captured without a Spanish fatality.
The subsequent ransom, Atahualpa offered to fill a room once with gold and twice with silver in exchange for his freedom, was collected. Then Pizarro executed him on charges of conspiracy against Spain. This violated the terms of the agreement, but Pizarro understood that Atahualpa alive would always be a focus of resistance.
The deeper mechanism of Inca collapse was structural: the Spanish arrived during a civil war between Atahualpa and his half-brother Huascar. The empire was already divided; smallpox had killed the previous emperor (Huayna Capac) and tens of thousands of Inca subjects. Pizarro was not so much conquering the Inca Empire as delivering the killing blow to one already weakened by biological catastrophe and civil war.
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Frequently asked questions
How did Pizarro defeat 80,000 Inca warriors with 168 men? ＋
By exploiting Atahualpa's assumption that Spanish would respect diplomatic norms, attacking during the supposed peace meeting (the Cajamarca ambush), using firearms and horses that the Incas had never encountered, and arriving during a devastating civil war that had already weakened the empire.
Why did Pizarro execute Atahualpa after receiving the ransom? ＋
Because keeping Atahualpa alive posed an unacceptable political risk, he remained the legitimate divine ruler of the Inca world, around whom any resistance would naturally coalesce. The ransom was accepted but the promise was broken, establishing the pattern of the conquest.