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Another Conquistador, Another Ruthless Betrayal
Pizarro and his men slaughtered thousands of natives at Cajamarca, and the survivors fled in panic. Not a single Spaniard was killed. Captured, Atahualpa sought to buy his life with an offer to fill a room 22 feet by 17 feet, up to a height of 8 feet with gold, and twice with silver. After the payments were made, Pizarro once again betrayed Atahualpa. He reneged on the deal, and put the former Inca ruler through a staged trial that convicted him of rebellion, idolatry, and the murder of his brother, Huascar.
Atahualpa was sentenced to be burned to death, but was spared that fate when he agreed to get baptized as a Catholic. He was strangled to death, instead. Betrayal paid off for Pizarro, who amassed considerable wealth and power after his treachery at Cajamarca. Some measure of karmic justice finally caught up with him in 1541. On June 26th of that year, a group of heavily armed supporters of a rival stormed Pizarro’s palace. In a violent struggle, Pizarro was stabbed in the throat. He fell to the ground, made a cross with his own blood as he gurgled cries for help from Jesus to no avail, and bled to death.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
Atkin, Nicholas – Petain (1997)
Barton, Sir Dunbar Plunkett – The Amazing Career of Bernadotte, 1763 to 1844 (1930)
Chaudhury, Sushil – The Prelude to Empire: Plassey Revolution of 1757 (2000)
Chi, Hsi-Sheng – Nationalist China at War: Military Defeats and Political Collapse, 1937-1945 (1982)
CNN – ‘Game of Thrones’ Author George R.R. Martin: Why He Wrote the Red Wedding
Dahl, Hans Frederik – Quisling: A Study in Treachery (1999)
Encyclopedia Britannica – Ephialtes, Greek Traitor
Encyclopedia Britannica – Montezuma II
Griffiths, Richard – Marshal Petain (1970)
Hayes, Paul M. – Quisling: The Career and Political Ideas of Vidkun Quisling (1971)
Hemming, John – The Conquest of the Incas (1970)
Heritage Daily – The Black Dinner: An Event that Inspired the ‘Red Wedding’ in Game of Thrones
Herodotus – The Histories, Book 7, Battle of Thermopylae
History Collection – Operation Fortitude: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Great D-Day Deception
Levy, Buddy – Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs (2008)
Lord Russell of Liverpool – Bernadotte, King of Sweden (1981)
Moorhouse, Roger – The Devil’s Alliance: Hitler’s Pact With Stalin, 1939-1941 (2014)
Napolun – Battle of Leipzig, 1813
Prescott, William H. – The History of the Conquest of Peru (1874)
Smith, Digby – 1813, Leipzig: Napoleon and the Battle of the Nations (2001)
Spear, Thomas George Percival – Master of Bengal: Clive and His India (1975)