* Main Idea: * The riches of the Aztec Empire led other Spanish conquerors to seek out their fortunes in South America and their native people.
* In 1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa led a band of soldiers across the jungle covered mountains of present day Panama. * Native Americans said that if Balboa traveled south along the western sea, he would find a great empire filled with gold and other riches.
*Vasco Nunez de Balboa s monument in Panama City, Panama
*Balboa found the sea, known today as the Pacific Ocean, however, he never found the Golden Empire. *A jealous Spanish official in Panama falsely charged Balboa with treason, or disloyalty to the government and ordered him beheaded.
* Francisco Pizarro, who marched with Balboa, took up the search for this Golden City. * Pizarro was illiterate and could not even write his name, but he knew how to fight and organize his soldiers. (Pizarro's Statue in Trujillo, Spain)
*Like Balboa and Cortes, Pizarro came from the harsh lands of Extremadura, however, he was not of noble birth.
*At age 16 Pizarro lived with his mother and tended animals in the fields. *Pizarro s family was not wealthy and could expect little in the way of inheritance and decided to become a soldier. *It is likely that he followed in his father's footsteps to the battlefields of Italy for a time before hearing of the riches of the Americas. * He first went to the New World in 1502 as part of a colonization expedition and while helping explore Panama became a wealthy land owner.
*By the 1530 s, the Inca thought they ruled most of the world. *Two treats from the north soon proved they did not
*The Inca could do nothing to stop the southward spread of smallpox. *They also failed to scare away Pizarro, who led 160 adventurers up the mountains into the Incan homeland.
* The Inca tried to ignore him, but Pizarro would not leave. * He raided Incan storehouses, villages and even preformed extreme violent acts against the Incan people.
*The Incan Emperor, Atahualpa, thought Pizarro was absolutely crazy or a complete fool. *Atahualpa was massively confused, could this man stand up to an army of 80,000 Incan warriors.
* Atahualpa misjudged Pizarro completely. * The Spaniard had an advantage the Inca knew very little about the Europeans and their fighting styles while Pizarro knew a lot about the Incans.
* Purely based on weapons alone who do you think had the advantage???
* Pizarro had spent more than 30 years fighting Native Americans and understood their behaviors very well. * Also, his good friend Hernan Cortes gave Pizarro an inside look at the conquest of the Aztec and in late 1532, he decided on a plan so bold that even Cortes might not have risked it.
* Spanish messengers invited Atahualpa to a meeting, that would hopefully create some type of peace agreement. * Atahualpa agreed but made a fatal mistake, he left most of his huge army behind.
* Atahualpa believed that his 5,000 personal bodyguards were enough protection against the small amount of Spanish Conquistadors. * Atahualpa also decided that again based on the extremely tiny amount of soldiers the Spanish had his army did not require weapons.
* When they met, Pizarro wasted no time in asking the emperor to give up his gods. * Atahualpa laughed at this request, at which point Pizarro ordered an attack.
* Cannons roared, trumpets blared and sword swinging soldiers shrieked battle cries. * Pizarro then seized Atahualpa and dragged him off the battlefield.
* Atahualpa tried to buy his freedom offering to fill his jail cell with gold and a nearby room with silver. * Pizarro jumped at the deal.
*Atahualpa kept his part of the deal, Pizarro on the other hand did not. *He charged the emperor with many crimes: plotting a rebellion, worshiping false gods, having to many wives and much more.
* Pizarro staged a mock trial and found Atahualpa guilty of revolting against the Spanish, practicing worship of false gods, and murdering Huascar, his brother. * Atahualpa was sentenced to execution by burning, which horrified him, since the Inca believed that the soul would not be able to go on to the afterlife if the body were burned.
* Friar Vicente de Valverde, intervened, telling Atahualpa that if he agreed to convert to Catholicism, he would convince Pizarro to alter the sentence. * Atahualpa agreed to be baptized into the Catholic faith and was given the name Juan Santos Atahualpa in honor of the feast day of the beheading of St. John the Baptist, which falls on August 29.
* In accordance with his request, he was strangled with a garrote on August 29, 1533. * Following his execution, his clothes and some of his skin were burned, and his remains were given a Christian burial.
* To reward Pizarro, the Spanish King, Charles V, made him governor of Peru. * He then chose a new emperor for the Inca, however, this new emperor had to follow his every order.
*Pizarro s conquest of Peru opened most of South America to Spanish rule. *Spain controlled a vast territory of South America, covering about 375,000 square miles and about seven million inhabitants.
*Spain was literally on its way to building the worlds first global empire!