Like Hernan Cortes before him, Francisco Pizarro kneeled an empire. Alone, at the head of a handful of people, he brought down the Sun Empire, which then ruled over ten million Incas, from Colombia to present-day Chile. Historian Geneviève Pronovost explains how this conquest took place through cunning and violence.
Francisco Pizarro was born about 1475 in Trujillo, Spain, to a very poor family. Unable to read and write, he joined the army, where the only way to rise in rank was to go to the New World. In 1514, he took part in the capture of Panama City.
In 1522, Francisco Pizarro heard of a massive empire in south America, ruled by a king of divine origin, with inexhaustible gold mines. He left in 1524, thinking that this empire was easily preyed upon. “They will enter the capital after only eight years”, Geneviève Pronovost pointed out.
When the Spanish began to take an interest in South America, the Inca emperor Huayna Capac died. At his death, he divided the empire between his two sons, Atahualpa and Huascar, who hated and quarreled. Francisco Pizarro took advantage of this civil war.
At the end of his second expedition, which took place between 1526 and 1528, Francisco Pizzaro returned to Panama to finance his third expedition. The governor denied his request. Angry, Francisco Pizzaro traveled to Spain to seek permission from King Charles V. He obtained it after much hesitation from the king and he returned to Peru with his brothers, a very small army of 168 men, 37 horses and 4 cannons.
Arriving in Cajamarca on November 15, 1532, Francisco Pizzaro sent his brother to Emperor Atahualpa and convinced him to surrender with his disarmed troops. The conquistador then decided to ambush Atahualpa.
” [Les Espagnols] surprise the unarmed Incas. It would be a real massacre, a real theft too. “
The conquistadors took Atahualpa and imprisoned him in a prison. Francisco Pizzaro negotiated the emperor’s freedom in exchange for gold. He still enforced it after delivering the precious booty. On November 14, 1533, Francisco Pizzaro returned to Cusco, the capital. The Inca Empire had collapsed.
Also during this program, Geneviève Pronovost exposes the underlying assassination of Francisco Pizzaro in 1541 and explains in detail the fall of the Inca Empire.
Source: Radio-Canada
