History of the Spanish Conquest of the Inca Empire

The history of the spanish conquest of the Inca Empire begins with a state that, in 1528, stretched across about 1,800,000 km2 and was by far the largest of the four grand pre-Columbian civilizations. Its population is estimated at between 12 and 16 million, and Huayna Capac ruled it that year.

How did the Inca Empire reach its peak?

The Inca Empire expanded from about 400,000 km2 in 1448 to 1,800,000 km2 in 1528. By then, Huayna Capac and his eldest son and designated heir, Ninan Cuyochic, had died suddenly in 1528 from what was probably smallpox. That loss helped leave the empire divided between Atahualpa in the north and Huáscar in Cuzco and the large territory to the south.

Atahualpa was secure in the north after escaping prisoner, and he amassed at least 30,000 well-trained soldiers. While the empire remained enormous, its leadership was split, and that division shaped everything that followed.

Why did Cajamarca change everything?

A small Spanish force of 168 men captured Atahualpa at Cajamarca in 1532. Pizarro had obtained permission from the Spanish Monarchy to conquer Peru in 1529, and he arrived after Atahualpa and his army had camped on a hill just outside Cajamarca.

Atahualpa entered Cajamarca in a litter carried by eighty lords. He told the Spaniards, "I will be no man's tributary." The meeting turned into the Battle of Cajamarca, which left 2,000 Incas slain and only one Spanish soldier wounded.

Atahualpa then offered to fill a large room with gold and twice that amount in silver. The Spanish kept him captive anyway, and on 29 August 1533 they murdered him by garrotting him.

Who was Atahualpa in the conquest?

Atahualpa was the Inca ruler who faced the Spanish at Cajamarca and then became their captive. He had gathered a large army, controlled the north, and arrived with high status, traveling in a litter supported by eighty lords.

His declaration, "I will be no man's tributary," sits at the center of the encounter. The line belongs to the moment when the Inca ruler confronted a small foreign force that had entered the heart of his world.

How long did the conquest take?

The conquest took about forty years to complete. It ended in Spanish victory in 1572 and the colonization of the region as the Viceroyalty of Peru.

That long span ran from the capture of Atahualpa in 1532 to the final Spanish victory forty years later. In that period, what the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire had begun at Cajamarca became the political order of colonial Peru.

What made the Spanish conquest of Peru so decisive?

The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire was also known as the Conquest of Peru. Its decisive moments came fast: Pizarro's authorization in 1529, the capture of Atahualpa in 1532, the murder of Atahualpa in 1533, and the final victory in 1572.

Those dates trace the fall of an empire that had grown from a regional state into the largest of the four grand pre-Columbian civilizations. They also trace how a force of 168 men could capture a ruler at Cajamarca and set in motion a forty-year conquest that ended in the Viceroyalty of Peru.

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