Francisco Pizarro

Who was Francisco Pizarro?
Francisco Pizarro was a Spanish conquistador who led the small expeditionary force that overthrew the Inca Empire, one of the largest and most sophisticated civilisations in the pre-Columbian Americas. Born around 1478 in Trujillo, Extremadura, to modest and illegitimate circumstances, he rose from an obscure background to become governor of a vast Spanish territory stretching across much of western South America. His conquest opened Peru to Spanish colonial rule, though it was achieved through a campaign of deception and violence that has shaped his deeply controversial historical reputation ever since.

What was his early life and career in the Americas?
Pizarro crossed the Atlantic in the early years of the sixteenth century, joining the wave of Spanish adventurers seeking fortune in the newly claimed territories of the Caribbean and the isthmus of Panama. He gradually established himself as a successful colonist and encomendero in Panama, accumulating wealth and standing while gathering increasingly persistent rumours of a fabulously rich civilisation somewhere to the south. These rumours, eventually confirmed by early scouting voyages along the Pacific coast, set the direction for the rest of his career.

How did he organize the conquest of Peru?
Pizarro formed a partnership with fellow soldier Diego de Almagro and the priest Hernando de Luque to finance and organise exploratory expeditions southward along South America's Pacific coastline, seeking the wealthy kingdom rumoured to lie beyond Spanish-controlled territory. Their first two expeditions during the 1520s proved gruelling and largely unsuccessful, plagued by disease, hunger, and the genuine risk of losing the support of exhausted, demoralised men. Despite these repeated setbacks, Pizarro remained convinced enough of eventual success to continue pressing the venture forward.

What was the "line in the sand" moment at Isla del Gallo?
During one particularly desperate stretch of the second expedition, stranded and starving on Isla del Gallo, Pizarro reportedly drew a line in the sand and challenged his men directly, offering them a stark choice between returning to poverty in Panama or continuing south toward uncertain fortune. Only thirteen men chose to remain with him, a group later celebrated in Spanish accounts as the Famous Thirteen. This small band's decision to stay proved decisive, since their continued exploration eventually confirmed the existence of the wealthy empire Pizarro had been seeking all along.

How did he secure royal authorization?
Pizarro travelled to Spain in 1528 to petition the crown directly, and in 1529 he secured a formal royal agreement granting him authority to conquer and govern the territory he intended to call New Castile, along with the title of governor. This agreement notably favoured Pizarro over his partner Almagro in the division of future spoils and titles, planting the seeds of a rivalry that would eventually turn violent. Returning to the Americas accompanied by several of his brothers, Pizarro assembled a small force of roughly one hundred and eighty men and set sail for Peru at the end of 1530.

What happened at the Battle of Cajamarca?
In November 1532, Pizarro's small force reached the town of Cajamarca, where the Inca emperor Atahualpa, freshly victorious in a civil war against his brother Huáscar, agreed to a meeting with the Spanish. Rather than negotiate in good faith, Pizarro's men ambushed Atahualpa's largely unarmed escort, slaughtering thousands and capturing the emperor himself in a single, overwhelming surprise attack. This single encounter, achieved by a vastly outnumbered force through deception, superior weaponry, and the psychological shock of cavalry and firearms, effectively decided the fate of the entire Inca Empire in one afternoon.

What happened to Atahualpa after the ransom was paid? Held captive, Atahualpa offered an extraordinary ransom to secure his release, promising to fill a room with gold and twice more with silver, and over the following months vast quantities of treasure were duly delivered to the Spanish. Despite receiving this enormous payment, Pizarro ultimately reneged on his implicit promise, ordering Atahualpa's execution in 1533 on charges of plotting against the Spanish and ordering his brother's death. This calculated betrayal, following an already staggering payment, remains one of the most notorious acts of the entire Spanish conquest of the Americas.

How did he complete the conquest of the Inca Empire?
With Atahualpa dead, Pizarro marched on and occupied the Inca capital of Cusco in November 1533, initially installing a cooperative puppet ruler before consolidating Spanish control over the empire's core territories. In January 1535, he founded the city of Lima near the Pacific coast, which he intended as the new administrative capital of Spanish Peru, a role the city continues to hold as Peru's capital today. Indigenous resistance continued for years afterward, including a major uprising in 1536, but the Inca state as a unified political power had already been effectively broken.

What led to conflict with Diego de Almagro?
Tensions between Pizarro and his former partner Almagro escalated sharply over unresolved disputes concerning jurisdiction over the immensely valuable city of Cusco, eventually erupting into open warfare between rival factions of the conquistadors themselves. Pizarro's forces defeated Almagro at the Battle of Las Salinas in 1538, after which Pizarro's brother Hernando had the defeated Almagro executed, an act that would later cost Hernando two decades of imprisonment in Spain once royal authorities intervened. This bitter falling-out between former allies set the stage for Pizarro's own eventual downfall.

How did he die?
On 26 June 1541, supporters of Almagro's son, seeking revenge for his father's execution, stormed Pizarro's palace in Lima and killed him in a violent struggle, reportedly stabbing him in the throat after he had already killed two of his attackers. According to later accounts, the dying Pizarro drew a cross in his own blood on the floor and called out to Jesus as he fell. His assassination brought a sudden and violent end to a life defined almost entirely by calculated risk, betrayal, and ruthless ambition.

Why does he deserve a card?
Francisco Pizarro conquered one of history's largest empires with a force numbering only in the low hundreds, achieving in a single afternoon at Cajamarca what conventional military force alone could never have accomplished. His methods, built on deception, a broken ransom promise, and the calculated use of terror, make him one of the starkest examples in history of how a small, ruthless force could topple a vast civilisation already weakened from within. Few figures illustrate so clearly both the audacity and the brutality that defined the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

Francisco Pizarro is part of Volume III

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