Francisco Pizarro (born c. 1471 or 1476 - death June 26, 1541) - the great conquistador of Spain. Conqueror of the Inca empire. Founder of the city of Lima. Was killed by his own soldiers.
The illegitimate son of a Spanish soldier, born around 1471 - 76, Francisco Pizarro entered the royal service in his youth. In the New World (America), he appeared in 1502, served in the military unit of the governor of Hispaniola (Santo Domingo).
1513 - Francisco participated in the military expedition of Vasco de Balboa to Panama, during which the Spaniards discovered the Pacific Ocean. From 1519 to 1523 he lived in Panama as a colonist, was elected master and mayor of this city.
Having learned about the unknown civilization of the Indians and its riches, the enterprising Pizarro began to act. Taking as companions the same adventurers as him - Diego de Almagro and the priest Hernando de Luca - and recruiting a detachment of the Spaniards, he organized two military expeditions along the Pacific coast of modern Colombia and Ecuador.
The first expedition 1524 - 1525
As can be seen from the report of Juan de Samano, Secretary of Charles V, the name of Peru was first mentioned in 1525 in connection with the completion of the first Southern Expedition of Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro. The expedition left Panama on November 14, 1524, but was forced to return in 1525.
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Second expedition 1526 - 1528
Francisco sailed again in 1526 together with Almagro and Bartolomé Ruiz, visiting Tumbes, and then returned to Panama. The Inca ruler Atahualpa personally met the Europeans in 1527, when two of Pizarro's men, Rodrigo Sánchez and Juan Martin, were brought to him, landed near Tumbes to explore the territory. They were ordered to be delivered to Quito within four days, after which they were sacrificed to the god Viracoche in the Lomas Valley.
After a second such military expedition, the Governor of Panama refused to support Pizarro's expensive ventures. The governor ordered the Spaniards to return to Panama.
As the legend says, Pizarro then drew a line in the sand with his sword and invited all members of the expedition who wish to continue looking for wealth and glory to cross this line and go with him to unknown lands. Only 12 people remained under his command, including Diego de Almagro.
With these 12 adventurers, Pizarro was able to find the Inca empire. Francisco returned victoriously to Panama. But there he did not receive support from the local governor. He categorically refused to finance and support the third military expedition to the south. Then the great adventurer sailed to Spain, where he was able to secure an audience with King Charles V. He was able to convince the king to give him money to organize a campaign of conquest.
Having received the money, Francisco Pizarro returned to Panama in 1530 with the rank of captain-general, with the family coat of arms and the right to govern over all lands 600-odd miles south of Panama. However, these lands he still had to conquer for the Spanish crown.
Third expedition - 1531
1531 January - Captain General Francisco Pizarro sailed on his third expedition to conquer the Inca empire. He set off from Panama in 3 small sailing ships to the south, having 180 infantrymen, 37 cavalrymen (according to other sources, the detachment had 65 horses) and 2 small guns.
Francisco Pizarro Expedition Route
In the detachment there were 4 of his brothers, his loyal companions in the second expedition and the Catholic missionary priest Hernando de Luca. Only three soldiers had arquebus. Another 20 were armed with long-range crossbows. The rest of the Spaniards armed themselves with swords and spears and donned steel helmets and cuirasses.
Headwinds forced the Spanish flotilla to take refuge in the bay, which received from them the name of St. Matthew. Francisco did not wait for the weather to improve, and his detachment moved south along the Pacific coast towards the modern city of Tumbes. Indian villages were plundered along the way: the Spaniards found gold in each of them.
But the great adventurer understood that he had very little strength. With the gold plundered at the beginning of the expedition, he recruited more Spanish soldiers and bought more arquebus and charges for them. Pizarro sent two ships north, one to Panama and the other to Nicaragua.
He himself with those who remained on the third sailing ship to the island of Puno south of Tumbes. So by June 1552, the first Spanish base appeared on the territory of South America, which was named San Miguel de Piura. On a ship sent to Nicaragua, about 100 reinforcements arrived.
Towards the conquest of the Inca empire
Now Captain-General Pizarro could continue his campaign of conquest. Once again on the mainland, the Spaniards ran into the fruits of their first atrocities in the land of the Indians. Now hospitality was out of the question.
The adventurer already knew a lot about the country he wanted to conquer. The Incas called themselves "Children of the Sun", their huge state with a population of about 10 million people stretched along the Pacific coast of South America.
The capital of the Inca state was the well-fortified city of Cuzco (the territory of modern Peru), located high in the mountains - the Andes. The capital of the Incas was defended by a fortress in Saxo, which has an imposing defensive rampart 10 m high. The Inca Supreme had a huge army of up to 200,000 soldiers.
By the time the Spaniards appeared on the Inca lands, led by Francisco Pizarro, a bloody civil war had recently ended there, which greatly weakened the country. At the beginning of the century, the supreme leader Guaina Capac divided the Inca empire between his sons - Atagualpa and Guascara. The first of them went to war against his brother and defeated him thanks to cunning and cruelty. At this time, the conquistador Francisco Pizarro appeared on the stage.
When news reached Atagualpa of the appearance of the Spaniards in his possessions, doing evil and sowing death, he began to gather an army of many thousands. Francisco, having learned about this, was not frightened and himself moved into the remote Andes along a mountain path to Cuzco. The detachment, led by the conquistador, consisted of only 110 well-armed infantrymen and 67 cavalrymen and had light cannons.
To the surprise of Pizarro, the Indians did not defend the mountain paths and passes. 1532, November 15 - the Spaniards, having overcome the peaks of the Andes, were able to freely enter the city of Kaksamarca abandoned by the locals and fortified in it.
A huge army of Atagualpa was already standing in front of the city in a marching camp. The supreme leader of the Incas was absolutely confident in his superiority over the few strangers. To match their ruler, his soldiers also believed in this, who had not yet seen or heard the shots of the arquebus and cannons.
Capture of Atahualpa
Francisco Pizarro, following the example of many Spanish conquerors, acted extremely cunningly and decisively. He invited Atagualpa to his negotiations, knowing full well that the Incas considered their supreme leader a demigod, who could not even be touched with a finger. On November 16, Atagualpa, accompanied by several thousand lightly armed soldiers, deprived of protective armor, solemnly arrived at the conquistador's camp. On that day, the Incas were not really afraid of the Spaniards.
The conquistador calculated his actions to the smallest detail. Pizarro ordered the soldiers to suddenly attack the bodyguards of the Supreme Inca. The cavalry attack and arquebus firing led to the fact that the Spaniards were able to quickly kill the guards of Atagualpa, and he himself was taken prisoner. The only Spaniard wounded in that battle was the great adventurer himself.
The news of the capture of a demigod - the supreme Inca - led the Indian army, which was under Kaksamarca, to such horror that it fled and never again gathered in such a multitude.
Francisco Pizarro began to demand a ransom from the leader of the Incas for his release from captivity. He promised the conquistador to fill a room 35 square meters in area with gold to the height of a raised hand, and to fill a slightly smaller room with silver twice. The Incas fully paid the ransom for the Supreme Inca. But Pizarro, having received fabulous treasures, did not keep his promise and gave the order to execute Atagualpa.
Conquest of the Inca Empire
Then the Spaniards freely entered the capital of Cuzco. The captain-general of the Spanish king acted like a seasoned conqueror. He immediately put the puppet Manco, Guascara's brother, at the head of the conquered country. A little time will pass, and Manco, having fled to the mountains in 1535, will raise the Incas to an armed struggle against the conquerors.
First uprising against Spanish rule
A small Spanish army in just a few years could conquer a huge territory inhabited by the Incas and the tribes they controlled. Francisco Pizarro became the royal governor of huge holdings in South America - most of Peru and Ecuador, northern Chile and parts of Bolivia.
The huge country of the Incas came for the time being into complete obedience to the captain-general of the king of Spain. 1535 - Francisco Pizarro, leaving his brother Juan in charge of the Inca capital of Cuzco, set out with part of his army to the Pacific coast. There he founded the city of Limu - "the city of kings".
But the conquerors were waiting for a far from cloudless rule in the conquered Indian empire. Manco acted successfully. For several months he was able to gather an army of many thousands and in February 1536 he laid siege to his capital. The siege of Cuzco lasted for six months. The small Spanish garrison was exhausted by fighting the fires that the Inca warriors produced by throwing white-hot stones wrapped in tar-cotton wool.
But the Indian army, not accustomed to waging a long siege, began to gradually disperse from Cuzco to their homes. The great Inca was forced to retreat to the mountains with the last warriors. He continued to raid the conquerors from there. Francisco Pizarro with the help of the Indians - enemies of the Incas - was able to kill Manco. Having lost their last demigod leader, the Incas ended their organized armed resistance to the Spaniards.
Death of Francisco Pizarro
Soon, open confrontation began in the very camp of the conquistadors. Diego de Almagro openly accused Francisco Pizarro of cheating his soldiers in the division of the huge treasures of the Incas. Most likely it was. Almagro's supporters rioted.
1537 - Pizarro, having received reinforcements from Spain, defeated Almagro's detachment in the battle at Las Salinas, and took him prisoner. The victory was won in large part due to the fact that the royal soldiers received new muskets, which fired several bullets linked to one another. Diego de Almagro was executed in the name of the Spanish king.
In revenge, supporters of the executed rebel in June 1541 broke into the governor's palace of the great conquistador and dealt with the aged conqueror of the Inca empire. By the will of fate, Francisco Pizarro died not at the hands of Indian warriors, but from his own soldiers, whom he made rich.
A. Shishov