Francisco Pzarro's Failure

Francisco Pizarro was a well known Spanish conquistador in the 1500’s. In 1502, he traveled from Spain to the Spanish colonies and settled down in Panama. While in Panama, he became very rich and his social position in society grew (Nardo, 1947). Also, during his stay in Panama, he heard a lot about rich lands that were further south to the Panamanian settles, and soon aspired to travel South (Nardo, 1947). His first attempt at travelling South consisted of himself and eighty other men, but failed because they did not make it very far (Nardo, 1947). In the second expedition to the South, Pizarro sent a navigator to travel further than he had previously, and his navigator succeeded and brought back news of an Inca port called ‘Tumbes’ (Nardo,

Although the Spanish population was smaller than the Inca Empire, Pizarro selectively picked his best and most skilled conquistadors to come with him to conquer the Inca Empire (Nardo, 1947). These skilled men were the best of the best, and made the Spanish very strong. Pizarro was also tactful in the sense that he enlisted people who strongly disliked the Incas, such as local Indians who had been mistreated and enslaved by the Incas and Inca masters, to help him conquer the Empire (Nardo, 1947). These people already carried a lot of animosity towards the Incas, and were willing to take them down alongside the Spanish. Once the Spanish arrived in the Inca Empire, Pizarro announced that he was from across the seas and only wanted a friendly relationship with the Incas (Nardo, 1947). He said this in order to mislead and pacify the Incas, but his plan backfired when a Spaniard called Vicente started to tell the Incas that they needed to betray on their own gods and bow to their Christian God (Nardo, 1947). This immediately struck issues with Inca leaders, and they soon realized that the Spanish had ulterior motives in their Empire. Everything went to havoc when Inca leader, Atahualpa, tossed the Christian bible on the ground in defiance to Vincente (Nardo, 1947). Vicente then called for the conquistadors to open fire, which resulted in the death of over two thousand natives, with many also wounded and kept captive

When Pizarro found the port of Tumbes, he found it in ruins because there had been a civil war occurring within the Empire (Rowe, 2006). The war in the Inca Empire caused a lot of conflict for the citizens of the Empire and occurred because at one point, the Incas did not have a native ruler and they were always fighting for the throne (Rowe, 2006). This heavy fighting made it made it easy for Pizarro to establish power and conquer the Empire. Another reason why the Incas were in a very bad spot was because of a plague, which wiped out a large portion of the Empire (Rowe, 2006). When the Spanish arrived, they brought more diseases and also used the factor of the civil war to pit the different native groups against one another (Rowe, 2006). The Inca Civil War, the Inca Plague, and the diseases that the Spaniards brought to the Empire severely weakened or killed the Incas and increased the Spanish chances of success in their conquest of the Inca