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Home - Peru History - Francisco Pizarro Biography Part III - Spanish Conquistadores
Francisco Pizarro and the Spanish Conquistadores
The year 1532
finds
Pizarro and his Spanish conquistadores coming ashore on the coast near
Ecuador,
where he obtains selected gold, silver, and emeralds. He
finds success beyond all his expectaitions, but then meets his untimely
end.
Francisco Pizarro
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Part III 1532 -
1541
Conquering Peru
- Francisco Pizarro and the Spanish Conquistadores
In the year of 1532,
Pizarro and his men once more came ashore on the
coast near Ecuador,
where he was able to acquire selected gold, silver, and emeralds. These
he sent to Almagro, who had remained in Panama in order to collect
additional men.
- Journey to the Americas
- Pizarro in Panama
- Explorations of South
America
- The Famous Thirteen
- 'Capitulacion de Toledo'
- Conquering Peru
- The Death of Pizarro
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Even though Pizarro's
primary goal
had been to next embark for and then land at Tumbes just as he had one
on his prior expedition, he ended up being compelled to deal with the
Punian Indians in the Battle of Puna, resulting in three Spanish
lifeless and 400 dead or badly wounded Punians.
Shortly after, Hernando
de Soto, yet another of the Spanish conquistadores
who had signed up with the expeditionary force, showed up to help
Pizarro and together with him was finally able to get under way in the
direction of Tumbes. When they arrived there, however, it was just to
discover the area deserted and wrecked. The two companion adventurers,
whom they had counted upon to prepare the area for their arrival, had
vanished and perhaps perished in unknown conditions. The only
information they could obtain was from the main chieftains in the area,
who said that ferocious tribes of Punians had viciously attacked all of
them and destroyed the site.
Since Tumbes no longer
offered the secure living arrangements
that Pizarro and his band needed at that point, he
made the decision to pilot an
expedition into the interior of the territory. During this point in
time, Pizarro accomplished the historical landmark of founding the
first Spanish colony in Peru, calling it San Miguel de Piura in July
1532.
Francisco Pizarro and the
Spanish Conquistadores
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Following these
accomplishments, Hernando de Soto, an adventurer closely associated with many future discoveries on his
own account,
was sent to investigate further the new territories and so, following a
number of days and nights gone, came back , accompanied by a party from
the Inca (the titled ruler of the Inca
Civilization) himself as well as a
handful of gifts and a request for a conference with the Spanish representatives.
Soon after the conquest
of his sibling, Huascar, the powerful Inca ruler Atahualpa
had been recuperating in the mountains of north Peru, in the vicinity
of Cajamarca, in the local hot water springs referred to now as the
Baños del Inca (Incan Baths).
After forced marching for
nearly two months in the direction of Cajamarca,
Pizarro along with his company of Spanish soldiers,
numbering only 106 armed men and 62 cavalry, showed up and opened up
procedures intended for a conference with
Atahualpa. Pizarro dispatched Hernando de Soto, priest Vicente de
Valverde as well as indigenous translator Felipillo to address
Atahualpa at Cajamarca's main plaza.
Atahualpa, nonetheless,
rejected the presence of the Spanish conquistadores in his
country by declaring he would "be no man's tributary." His lack
of alarm, considering that there were less than 200 Spanish
conquistadores ascompared to his 80,000 warriors,
resulted in his capitulation and that of the Incan empire.
Francisco Pizarro and the
Spanish Conquistadores
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Atahualpa's rejection
encouraged Pizarro and his men
to confront the Incan forces in what became known as Battle of
Cajamarca on November 16, 1532. The Spanish conquistadores were
victorious and
Pizarro gave the death sentence to Atahualpa's 12-man personal guard
and captured the Inca in the so-called ransom room.
Atahualpa's unwillingness
to submit
resulted in Pizarro along with his men to assault the Incan forces in
what came to be called Battle of Cajamarca on November 16, 1532.
The Spanish
conquistadores ended up
being victorious
and Pizarro condemned to death Atahualpa's 12-man personal guard and
captured the Inca at the ransom room. In spite of living up to his
guarantee of filling up one room with gold and two with silver,
Atahualpa was found guilty of eliminating his brother and scheming
against Pizarro and his troops, and was condemned to death by garrote
on July 26, 1533. Pizarro wanted to get hold of grounds for killing
Atahualpa while not inflaming the people he was trying to conquer.
Twelve months afterwards,
Pizarro and his Spanish conquistadores occupied Cuzco
using local soldiers and by means of this completed the conquest of
Peru. It is contended by a few historical commentators that this
increasing opposition coming from a different Inca, Manco Inca
Yupanqui, extended theconquest. Manco Inca Yupanqui was the brother of
the figurehead king, Tupac Huallpa.
Francisco Pizarro and the
Spanish Conquistadores
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In the course of the
survey of Cuzco, Pizarro was astounded;
and by means of his representatives authored a letter to King Charles I
of Spain, stating: "This city is the finest and the most magnificent
ever before seen in this land or any place in the Indies... We are able
to guarantee your Majesty that it is so gorgeous and possesses such
excellent structures that it would be impressive even in Spain."
Once the Spanish
conquistadores had
completed the domination of Peru
by conquering Cuzco in the year 1533, Jauja, a town within the very
productive Mantaro Valley, was set up as Peru's temporary capital in
April of the year 1534.
However it ended up being too high in the Andes as well as too distant
from the ocean to function as the Spanish capital of Peru. Pizarro
therefore established the metropolis of Lima on Peru's
central coastline on January 18, 1535,
an accomplishment which he regarded as one of the greatest successes of
his life, the high point of Francisco Pizarro's biography.
After the ultimate
attempt of the Inca to regain Cuzco
had been nixed by Almagro and other Spanish conquistadores, a
disagreement took place between him and
Pizarro regarding the boundaries of their authorities. This resulted in
divisions between the Pizarro family and Almagro, who was ultimately
brought down in the course of the Battle of Las Salinas (1538) and put
to death. Almagro's son, likewise called Diego and referred to as "El
Mozo", ended up being later divested of his properties and left broken
financially by Pizarro.
Francisco Pizarro and the
Spanish Conquistadores
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The Death of Pizarro
- Francisco Pizarro and the Spanish Conquistadores
On June 26, 1541, in
Lima, Peru, "a band of 20 heavily armed followers
of Diego Almagro II, son of one of the earlier leaders of the Spanish conquistadores, assaulted Pizarro's luxurious official residence,
murdering him, after which it compelled the terrorized city council to
name the youthful Almagro the new high commander of Peru.
As outlined by Burkholder
and Johnson,
"Most of Pizarro's guests fled, but a few fought the intruders,
numbered variously between seven and 25. While Pizarro struggled to
buckle on his breastplate, his defenders, including his half-brother
Alcantara, were killed. For his part Pizarro killed two attackers and
ran through a third. While trying to pull out his sword, he was stabbed
in the throat, then fell to the floor where he was stabbed many times."
Pizarro, who now was
somewhere between 62 and 70 years old,
fell to the ground, alone, painted a cross in his own blood and called
out to Jesus Christ. According to accounts, he called out: "Come my
faithful sword, companion of all my deeds." He passed away minutes
later. Diego de Almagro junior ended up being captured and put to death
the next year following the loss of the conflict of Chupas.
Pizarro's body was for a
short period of time
buried inside the cathedral courtyard; at a later date, his head and
body ended up separated and laid to rest in different containers
beneath the ground of the large church. In the year of 1892, in getting
ready for the yearly celebration of Columbus' discovery of the
Americas, a body thought to be Pizarro's was dug up and placed on
exhibit inside a glass coffin.
On the other hand, in
1977 workers repairing the cathedral's foundation
found a lead container in a tightly-closed cell that had the words
engraved on it, "Here is the head of Don Francisco Pizarro, Don
Francisco Pizarro who discovered Peru and presented it to the
sovereignty of Castile." A crew of forensic scientists hailing from the
United States, directed by Dr. William Maples, was asked to analyze the
two bodies, and they shortly established that the corpse which usually
had been honored in the glass case for almost a hundred years had been
wrongly identified. The skull inside the lead container not only showed
the scrapes of numerous sword blows, but the features showed an
outstanding likeness to paintings done of the man in his lifetime.
Francisco Pizarro and the
Spanish Conquistadores
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The biography of
Francisco Pizarro and the Spanish Conquistadores of Peru,
although
marked by
political manipulation,
self-promotion, and even deception and ruthless killings when they
would further his ambitions, the life and
historical accomplishments of Francisco Pizarro, accompanied by his
Spanish conquistadores, certainly established
him as a leader and courageous adventure and firmly place him as one of
the leading figures in the establishment of Peru and the
history
of the Pacific Coast of South America.
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