Francisco Pizarro and Atahualpa
Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro (circa 1471 – 1541) managed to pull off a double cross against the Incan emperor Atahualpa (circa 1502 – 1533) that was even more dramatic and venal than that pulled off by Hernan Cortes against Montezuma a decade earlier. It also resulted in the destruction of a native empire, and its replacement by a vast Spanish domain.
In 1525, Atahualpa had inherited the northern half of the Incan Empire from his father, while the southern half went to his brother Huascar. Five years later, Atahualpa attacked his brother, and by 1532, had defeated Huascar and reunited the empire. His reign over the Incan Empire would prove brief, however, for Pizarro showed up soon thereafter.
Pizarro had landed in Peru in 1532, and after establishing a small colony set off to conquer with a small force of about 200 men. En route, he was met by an envoy from Atahualpa, inviting him to visit him at his camp, where he was resting with his army of about 100,000 men after his recent victory over his brother and reunification of the Incan Empire.
Pizarro set off to meet Atahualpa with 110 infantry and 67 cavalry, armed and armored with steel, plus three arquebuses and two small cannon. A meeting was arranged for November 16th, 1532, in a plaza in the town of Cajamarca, and on the night of the 15th, Pizarro outlined to his men an audacious plan to seize Atahualpa, in emulation of Cortes’ seizure of Montezuma.
On the appointed day, Atahualpa, failing to take precautions for his own security, left his army camped outside Cajamarca, and arrived at the town’s plaza on a fine litter carried by 80 high ranking courtiers, and trailed by about 5000 nobles and other courtiers, richly dressed in ceremonial garments and unarmed except for small ceremonial stone axes.
The Spaniards, concealed in buildings surrounding the plaza, with cavalry hidden in alleys leading to the open square, fell upon Atahualpa and his party at a signal from Pizarro. The result was a massacre, as the unarmored natives proved no match for the Spaniards’ steel swords, pikes, bullets, or crossbow bolts, while the Indians’ ceremonial stone axes proved useless against Spanish plate armor. Thousands of natives were killed, with the remainder fleeing in panic, while not a single Spaniard lost his life.
Captured, Atahualpa sought to buy his life by offering to fill a room measuring 22 by 17 feet, up to a height of eight feet with gold, and twice with silver. After the payments were made, Pizarro again double-crossed Atahualpa, and reneging on the deal, put him through a staged trial that convicted him of rebellion, idolatry, and murdering his brother, Huascar. Sentenced to death by burning, Atahualpa was spared that fate by agreeing to get baptized as a Catholi and was executed by strangulation instead.
Treachery paid off for Pizarro, who amassed considerable wealth and power after his double cross of Atahualpa until some measure of karmic justice 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, and in the ensuing struggle, Pizarro was stabbed in the throat. Falling to the ground, he made a cross with his own blood while gurgling cries for help from Jesus to no avail, and bled to death.