Pizarro Captures Atahualpa and Ends the Inca Empire
A small Spanish force takes the Inca ruler hostage, collects a room full of gold and silver for his release, then kills him anyway
Quick facts
- Spanish commander
- Francisco Pizarro
- Force size
- About 180 men, 30 horses
- Inca ruler captured
- Atahualpa, executed 1533
- Full Spanish control
- By 1572
What happened
Francisco Pizarro arrived in present-day northern Peru late in 1531 with a small force of about 180 men and 30 horses. He took advantage of an ongoing Inca civil war, then requested a meeting with the Inca ruler Atahualpa, who agreed to meet at Cajamarca in November 1531. Spanish forces tried to convert Atahualpa to Christianity; he refused, and in the confrontation that followed the Spanish captured him. Atahualpa offered to fill a room with gold and silver as ransom, and the Inca delivered the treasure, but Pizarro had him executed anyway in 1533. Spain went on to suppress several Inca rebellions over the following decades, achieving full control of the former empire by 1572.
Why it matters
Pizarro's capture of Atahualpa, distantly related to his cousin Cortes's capture of the Aztec capital a decade earlier, showed that a small, well-armed Spanish force could topple an empire of millions by seizing its ruler rather than conquering its territory outright. The ransom's betrayal set the tone for Spanish rule in Peru for the following decades, and it delivered the first massive infusion of Inca gold and silver into the Spanish crown's treasury, a preview of what Potosi's mines would provide on a far larger scale.
How we know
The Library of Congress's Pizarro and the Incas exhibit and the Mariners' Museum's entry on Pizarro both describe the force size, the meeting at Cajamarca, the ransom, and Atahualpa's execution, based on period Spanish accounts of the conquest.
Sources
- Library of Congress, Exploring the Early Americas. Pizarro and the Incas · Primary source (author-declared)loc.gov · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- The Mariners' Museum and Park. Francisco Pizarro · Reputable sourceexploration.marinersmuseum.org · The domain "exploration.marinersmuseum.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- The Inca Empire → · The Inca Empire's own timeline covers its rise, its road and administrative system, and this conquest in full detail.