Spanish Conquistador Francisco Pizarro Summary

The Spanish conquistador, Francisco Pizarro (Pizarro) once argued, “There lies Peru with its riches; here, Panama and its poverty. Choose, each man, what best becomes a brave Castilian.” Reports of Peru 's riches and the heroic stories of other conquistador’s success against the Aztec Empire in Mexico tantalized all of Spain. This influenced Pizarro to plead with the Spanish king, Charles V, for permission to undertake an expedition to claim Peru, the home of the Inca Empire, in the name of the Spain in 1528. The Inca Empire, with its 12 million in population, was currently undergoing civil unrest. After their father’s death, two brothers, Huascar and Atahualpa, were battling for the thrown. Pizarro was intelligent and took this time to study his enemy. Immediately following the defeat of his brother Huascar, Atahualpa turned his attention to the Spaniards. By then, Pizarro had educated himself on the Inca’s war
Like Cortés’s capture of Montezuma II, Pizarro’s capture of Atahualpa increased the confusion among the Incas, and helped slow the response to the inevitable attack on the heart of the Incan Empire. The Incan Emperor assumed that he would be killed by the invaders if they did not get what they wanted. So Atahualpa immediately started to bargain for his own release (Betanzos 269-270). He had been informed that gold and silver was the primary motivation for the Spaniards in the New World, but they also wanted the true measure of wealth in their culture—land. Experts believe that the Incas and Atahualpa did not understand the concept of land ownership. In most Native American cultures, such a concept did not exist. The Inca had the belief that they belonged to the land, not that the land belonged to them. Because he believed all the Spanish wanted was gold, Atahualpa made a generous offer to Pizarro, in the hope that the Spaniards would leave (Betanzos