Discoveries of Francisco Pizarro. The story of Francisco Pizarro. Beginning of the expedition to Peru

PISARRO FRANCISCO
OK. 1475–1541

Spanish conqueror of the Incan Empire. Captain General.

Illegitimate son of a Spanish military man, Francisco Pizarro in his youth he entered the royal military service. Information about any education he received, as well as about the presence of combat experience before his arrival from Spain to American soil, not preserved. He appeared in the New World (America) in 1502, beginning to serve in the military detachment of the governor of Hispaniola (Santo Domingo).
In 1513, Francisco Pizarro took part in Vasco de Balboa's military expedition to Panama, during which the Spaniards discovered the Pacific Ocean. From 1519 to 1523, he lived in Panama as a colonist, was elected magistrate and mayor of that city, and managed to amass a small fortune.
Interested in rumors about an Indian civilization still unknown to Europeans and its incalculable riches, the enterprising Pizarro begins to act. The Panamanian mayor, taking as his companions the same adventurers as himself - Diego de Almagro and the priest Hernando de Luca and recruiting a detachment of Spaniards, organized two military expeditions (in 1524-1525 and 1526-1528) along the Pacific coast of modern Colombia and Ecuador .
However, both of them did not have the desired success. After the second such military expedition, the governor of Panama refused to support the expensive enterprises of Francisco Pizarro. When there was no money and food, the military detachment he had assembled also disintegrated - the governor ordered the Spaniards to return to Panama.
According to legend, Pizarro then drew a line in the sand with his sword and invited all members of the expedition who wished to continue seeking wealth and glory to cross this line and follow him into unknown lands. Only twelve people remained under his command, including Diego de Almagro, who believed in their leader and his promises to make them rich.
With these twelve adventurers, Francisco Pizarro managed to discover the Inca Empire. It should be noted here that the Incas greeted the white people unknown to them with great cordiality and hospitality. For royal Spain, this was a real epoch-making discovery. With this news, clearly supported by looted gold items, domestic animals unknown to Europeans - llamas and several treacherously captured Incas, the great adventurer returned victoriously to Panama.
However, there Francisco Pizarro, to his great surprise, did not receive support from the local governor. He flatly refused to finance and support the third military expedition to the south. Arguing with the Panamanian governor was dangerous - you could easily end up in the city prison. Then the persistent Pizarro sailed to Spain, where he obtained an audience with King Charles V. It was not without difficulty that he managed to convince the Spanish monarch 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, having the family coat of arms and the right to governorship over all lands more than six hundred miles south of Panama. But he still had to conquer these lands for the Spanish crown. However, this did not bother the conquistador-adventurer - Pizarro believed in his luck. He knew for sure where the borders of the Inca country began, rich in gold and cultivated fields, where local population did not know either iron and steel, or firearms and horses, the very sight of which at one time put numerous detachments of Mexican Aztec Indians to flight.
In January 1531, Captain General Francisco Pizarro set out on his third expedition to conquer the Inca Empire. He sailed from Panama on three small sailing ships to the south, having under his command 180 infantry, 37 cavalry (according to other sources, the detachment had 65 horses) and two small guns. The detachment included four of his brothers, his faithful comrades on the second expedition and the Catholic missionary priest Hernando de Luca. Only three soldiers had arquebuses. Another twenty were armed with long-range crossbows. The rest of the Spaniards were armed with swords and spears and dressed in 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 Pizarro 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 along the way were plundered: the Spaniards found gold in each of them, which intensified their greed even more.
However, Pizarro understood that he had very little strength, especially firearms. Using the gold looted at the beginning of the campaign, he decided to recruit more Spanish soldiers and buy more arquebuses and charges for them. Pizarro sent two expedition ships north, one to Panama and the other to Nicaragua.
Since his forces became much smaller, he and his detachment crossed on a third sailing ship to the island of Puno south of Tumbes. So by June 1532, the first Spanish military base appeared in South America, called San Miguel de Piura. After some time, the ship sent to Nicaragua returned, on which the long-awaited reinforcements of about a hundred people arrived.
Now Captain General Pizarro could continue his expedition of conquest. Once again on the mainland, the Spaniards were faced with the fruits of their atrocities on Indian soil. Now there was no question of hospitality. Three soldiers sent for reconnaissance were captured by local residents and killed. Along the way we encountered only deserted villages without food supplies. However, this did not bother the conquistador and his people - they moved further and further.
Pizarro learned a lot about the country he wanted to conquer. The Incas called themselves “children of the Sun”; their huge state stretched along the Pacific coast of South America from north to south - up to 4800 kilometers in length and more than 800 kilometers in width from west to east. At the time of their discovery by Europeans, researchers estimate the number of the Incas and the Indian tribes under their control to be approximately 10 million people.
The capital of the Incan state was the well-fortified city of Cusco (in the territory of modern Peru), located high in the Andes mountains. The Inca capital was protected by a fortress at Saxo, which had an impressive defensive rampart 10 meters high.
The cultivated land was public property and was divided into three parts: the first - for the Sun (priests), the second - for the Inca (supreme ruler) and the third - for the common people. The main agricultural crops were maize and potatoes. Great importance had llama breeding. These unpretentious and hardy pets were widely used for transporting various cargoes.
Administratively, the Inca Empire was divided into large groups of families, headed by local leaders. The Incas were a confederation of tribes, the main of which were the modern Quechua and Aymara. A large number of Indian tribes paid tribute to the Incas. The Incas knew metal - copper, silver and gold, they knew how to make alloys from them and forge metal weapons, which the Aztecs did not have.
Europeans were amazed by the well-maintained roads of the Inca country. Two of them stretched from north to south: one ran along the coast of the Pacific Ocean, the second along the inaccessible Andes. Troops moved along these roads and fast messengers ran with reports for the Supreme Inca. Smoke signals were used for communication. It is known, for example, that in this way it was possible to transmit an order or report over a distance of 3,200 kilometers in just four hours. The Incas built buildings in their cities from large stones.
The Supreme Inca had a huge army numbering up to 200 thousand people. For their military successes, the Incas are called the “Romans of the New World.” Warriors devoted a lot of time to their physical perfection, especially long-distance running. However, in terms of armament, the Indian army could not be compared with the Spaniards. The country had big number high mountain stone fortresses.
By the time the Spaniards, led by Francisco Pizarro, appeared in the Incan possessions, a bloody internecine war had just ended there, which had greatly weakened the country. At the beginning of the century, the paramount leader Huayna Capac divided the Inca Empire into two parts between his two sons, Atahualpa and Huascar. The latter received a larger territory and therefore had more warriors. But his brother Atahualpa decided to capture the capital of Cuzco and become the Supreme Inca.
He managed to outwit Huascar and draw military detachments of loyal leaders to Cuzco. Atahualpa himself arrived at the capital under the pretext of submitting, accompanied by strong guards. The deception was discovered too late, and the ruler of Cuzco simply could not gather his army. A large and bloody battle took place under the walls of the capital, which lasted all day. Huascar's army was defeated, and he and his leaders were captured and killed. The new Supreme Inca exterminated his entire family and began to persecute his supporters. At that moment, conquistador Francisco Pizarro appeared on the scene.
When Atahualpa received news of the appearance of the Spaniards in his possessions, who were doing evil and sowing death in Indian villages, he began to gather an army of thousands to march against them. Pizarro, having learned about the military preparations of the Supreme Inca, was not afraid and himself moved to the inaccessible Andes along a mountain path. The Spaniards were led by Indian guides, and they confidently moved through the mountain gorges towards Cuzco. The detachment that the conquistador led consisted of only 110 well-armed infantrymen and 67 cavalrymen and had light cannons.
To Pizarro's surprise, the Indians did not defend the mountain paths and passes against him. On November 15, 1532, the Spaniards, having overcome the peaks of the Andes, freely entered the city of Caxamarca, abandoned by local residents, and fortified themselves in it. In front of the city, Atahualpa’s huge army was already standing in a marching camp. The Inca Supreme Leader was absolutely confident of his superiority over the few newcomers. Befitting their ruler, his warriors, who had not yet seen or heard arquebuses and cannons, believed in this.
Francisco Pizarro, following the example of Cortes and many other Spanish conquerors, acted with unusual insidiousness and determination. He invited Atahualpa to negotiate with him, knowing full well that the Incas considered their supreme leader a demigod who could not be touched even with a finger. On November 16, Atahualpa, accompanied by several thousand lightly armed soldiers, deprived of protective armor, solemnly arrived at the conquistador’s camp. They really weren't afraid of the Spaniards that day.
Pizarro calculated his actions to the smallest detail. He had no intention of conducting any negotiations with the Indian emperor. The conquistador ordered the Spaniards to surprise the bodyguards of the Supreme Inca. A cavalry attack and arquebus fire led to the fact that the Spaniards quickly killed Atahualpa's guards, and he himself was captured. The only one wounded among the Spaniards in that battle was Francisco Pizarro himself. The news of the capture of the demigod, the Supreme Inca, led the Indian army stationed near Caxamarca into such horror that it fled and never again gathered in such numbers.
The capture of the Supreme Inca had the most detrimental effect on the fate of his empire. The Indian tribes, dissatisfied with the power of the Incas, rebelled, and adherents of the executed Huascar reasserted themselves. The huge country found itself in the grip of anarchy and anarchy. This was only to the advantage of the Spaniards.
Francisco Pizarro demanded a ransom from the Supreme Inca for his release from captivity. He promised the conquistador and his soldiers to fill a room with an area of ​​35 square meters to the height of a raised hand, and fill a slightly smaller room twice with silver. The Incas paid the full ransom for their leader. However, Pizarro, having received fabulous treasures, did not restrain of this word and ordered the execution of Atahualpa.
Then the Spaniards freely entered the capital of the Inca Empire, the city of Cusco. The captain general of the Spanish king acted like an experienced conqueror. He immediately placed the puppet ruler Manco, Huascar's brother, at the head of the conquered Indian state. Thus, the internecine war between the sons of the supreme Incan leader Huayna Capac led to the collapse of the great state. A little time will pass, and Manco, having fled to the mountains in 1535, will begin to raise the Incas in an armed war against the Spaniards.
A small army of Spanish conquerors in just a few years conquered a vast territory inhabited by the Incas and the Indian tribes subject to them. Francisco Pizarro became the royal governor of vast possessions in South America - most of modern Peru and Ecuador, northern Chile and parts of Bolivia.
The historian Prescott wrote: “Pizarro betrayed the conquered peoples to his unbridled soldiers, who satisfied their lust in the sacred monasteries; cities and villages were given over to her for plunder; the conquerors divided the unfortunate natives among themselves as slaves and forced them to work in the mines, dispersed and senselessly destroyed herds, emptied granaries, destroyed beautiful structures that increased the fertility of the soil; paradise has been turned into a desert."
The huge Inca empire came for the time being in complete obedience to the captain-general of the king of Spain. In 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 decided to found the city of Lima - the “city of kings”. At the same time, he intended, as governor, to limit the vigorous activity of his longtime ally Diego de Almagro, who was increasingly leaving Pizarro’s subordination. And this threatened a mutiny in the army of the conqueror, already small in number.
The founding of the port city of Lima became a kind of triumph of the great Spanish conqueror. Now the governor former empire The Incas had their own capital. Tens of thousands of Indians with slavish obedience erected palaces and Catholic churches, port facilities and fortifications according to European drawings. The city was built on a deserted ocean shore in the shortest possible time and became a stronghold of the Spanish Kingdom on the Pacific coast of South America for several centuries.
However, what awaited the conquerors was a far from rosy reign in the conquered Indian power. The puppet Supreme Inca, who fled from Cuzco, acted successfully. Within just a few months, he managed to gather an army of thousands and in February 1536 besieged the capital. The siege of Cuzco lasted six months. The small Spanish garrison was exhausted by fighting fires, which the Incan warriors started by throwing white-hot stones wrapped in tarred cotton wool.
Manco rode a Spanish horse, wore steel knightly armor, and his warriors had several muskets. It is possible that all this was purchased from jewel-hungry Spanish soldiers for gold. The Indian army, not accustomed to conducting long sieges, gradually began to go home. Manco, who was unable to take Cuzco by storm or by a long siege, was forced to retreat to the mountains with the remnants of his warriors. He continued to raid the conquerors from there, but Francisco Pizarro, with the help of the Indians - the enemies of the Incas, managed to kill Manco. Having lost their last demigod leader, the Incas ceased organized resistance to the Spaniards.
Soon open armed confrontation began in the very camp of the Spanish conquerors. Diego de Almagro openly accused Francisco Pizarro of cheating his soldiers in the division of the huge Incan treasures. Most likely, this was the case. Almagro's supporters rebelled.
In 1537, Pizarro, having received reinforcements from Spain, defeated Almagro’s detachment in a battle near Las Salinas, and he himself was captured. The victory was won largely due to the fact that the royal soldiers were armed with new muskets that fired several bullets linked one to one. Diego de Almagro was executed in the name of the King of Spain.
In revenge, supporters of the executed Diego de Almagro in June 1541 broke into the governor's palace of the great conquistador and dealt with the elderly conqueror of the Inca Empire. As fate would have it, Francisco Pizarro died not at the hands of Indian warriors, but at the hands of his own soldiers, whom he made rich. However, their greed knew no bounds.
Compared to other Spanish conquerors, Francisco Pizarro achieved the best results in conquering Indian peoples and civilizations Latin America. With the smallest number of warriors, he managed to conquer vast and densely populated lands that stored untold riches, primarily gold and silver. Soon settlers from Spain flocked here, and the Catholic Church began to baptize millions of pagan Indians with the cross and sword.
Royal Spain became fabulously rich due to the precious metals that began to flow into the metropolis from the Inca Empire, which had passed into history. The great conqueror himself almost did not have to use the treasures he looted and was satisfied with the honors due to him. However, in world history Francisco Pizarro inscribed his name forever, as well as in the history of several countries in South America. The largest monument to the great conquistador was the Peruvian capital, Lima.

Conqueror of the Inca Empire Francisco Pizarro

Francisco Pizarro (born c. 1471 or 1476 - died June 26, 1541) - the great conquistador of Spain. Conqueror of the Inca Empire. Founder of the city of Lima. He was killed by his own soldiers.

The illegitimate son of a Spanish military man, born around 1471 - 76, Francisco Pizarro entered the royal service in his youth. He appeared in the New World (America) in 1502, serving in the military detachment 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 Indian civilization and its riches, the enterprising Pizarro began to act. Taking as his companions the same adventurers as him - Diego de Almagro and the priest Hernando de Luca - and recruiting a detachment of Spaniards, he organized two military expeditions along the Pacific coast of modern Colombia and Ecuador.

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.

Second expedition 1526 - 1528

Francisco sailed again in 1526 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 Sanchez and Juan Martin, were brought to him, landing 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 Viracocha in the Lomas Valley.

After the second such military expedition, the governor of Panama refused to support Pizarro's expensive enterprises. The governor ordered the Spaniards to return to Panama.

As the legend goes, Pizarro then drew a line in the sand with his sword and invited all members of the expedition who wished to continue to seek 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 obtain 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, having the family coat of arms and the right to governorship over all lands more than 600 miles south of Panama. However, he still had to conquer these lands for the Spanish crown.

Third expedition - 1531

Route of expeditions of Francisco Pizarro

1531, January - Captain General Francisco Pizarro sailed on his third expedition to conquer the Inca Empire. He set out from Panama on 3 small sailing ships to the south, having under his command 180 infantrymen, 37 cavalrymen (according to other sources, the detachment had 65 horses) and 2 small guns.

The detachment included 4 of his brothers, his faithful comrades on the second expedition and the Catholic missionary priest Hernando de Luca. Only three soldiers had arquebuses. Another 20 were armed with long-range crossbows. The rest of the Spaniards armed themselves with swords and spears and dressed in 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. Using the gold looted at the beginning of the expedition, he recruited more Spanish soldiers and bought more arquebuses and charges for them. Pizarro sent two ships north: one to Panama, the other to Nicaragua.

He himself and those who remained went on the third sailing ship to the island of Puno south of Tumbes. So, by June 1552, the first Spanish base arose in South America, which was named San Miguel de Piura. About 100 reinforcements arrived on a ship sent to Nicaragua.

On the way to conquering 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 on the land of the Indians. Now there was no question of hospitality.

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 approximately 10 million people stretched along the Pacific coast of South America.

The capital of the Inca state was the well-fortified city of Cusco (the territory of modern Peru), located high in the Andes mountains. The Inca capital was protected by a fortress in Saxo, which had an impressive defensive rampart 10 m high. The Supreme Inca had a huge army numbering up to 200,000 warriors.

By the time the Spaniards, led by Francisco Pizarro, appeared on the lands of the Incas, a bloody internecine war had recently ended there, which had 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 scene.


When news reached Atagualpa about the appearance of Spaniards in his possessions, who were doing evil and sowing death, he began to gather an army of thousands. Francisco, having learned about this, was not afraid and himself moved into the inaccessible Andes along a mountain path to Cusco. The detachment that the conquistador led consisted of only 110 well-armed infantry and 67 cavalry and had light cannons.

To Pizarro's surprise, 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 Caxamarca, abandoned by local residents, and fortified themselves in it.

In front of the city, Atagualpa’s huge army was already standing in a marching camp. The supreme leader of the Incas was absolutely confident of his superiority over the few strangers. Befitting their ruler, his warriors, who had not yet seen or heard the shots of arquebuses and cannons, believed in this.

Captivity of Atahualpa

Francisco Pizarro, following the example of many Spanish conquerors, acted extremely insidiously and decisively. He invited Atagualpa to negotiate with him, knowing full well that the Incas considered their supreme leader a demigod who could not be touched even 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. The Incas were not really afraid of the Spaniards that day.

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 fire led to the fact that the Spaniards were able to quickly kill Atagualpa's guards, and he himself was captured. The only one wounded among the Spaniards in that battle was the great adventurer himself.

The news of the capture of the demigod - the Supreme Inca - led the Indian army located near Caxamarca into such horror that it fled and never again gathered in such numbers.

Francisco Pizarro began to demand ransom from the Inca leader for release from captivity. He promised the conquistador to fill a room of 35 square meters with gold to the height of a raised hand, and to fill a slightly smaller room twice with silver. The Incas paid the full 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

First revolt against Spanish rule

Then the Spaniards freely entered the capital of Cusco. The captain general of the Spanish king acted like an experienced 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 begin to raise the Incas in an armed struggle against the conquerors.

A small Spanish army in just a few years could conquer a vast territory inhabited by the Incas and the tribes they controlled. Francisco Pizarro became the royal governor of vast possessions 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 Lima - the “city of kings”.

But what awaited the conquerors was a far from rosy reign in the conquered Indian empire. Manco acted successfully. Within a few months, he was able to gather an army of thousands and in February 1536 besieged his capital. The siege of Cuzco lasted for six months. The small Spanish garrison was exhausted from fighting fires that Inca warriors started by throwing white-hot stones wrapped in tarred 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 his last warriors. He continued to launch raids against 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 ceased organized armed resistance to the Spaniards.

Death of Francisco Pizarro

Soon, open confrontation began in the conquistador camp itself. Diego de Almagro openly accused Francisco Pizarro of cheating his soldiers in the division of the huge Incan treasures. Most likely, this was the case. Almagro's supporters rebelled.

1537 - Pizarro, having received reinforcements from Spain, defeated Almagro’s detachment in the battle of Las Salinas, and he himself was captured. The victory was won largely due to the fact that the royal soldiers were armed with new muskets that fired several bullets interlocked with 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 elderly conqueror of the Inca Empire. As fate would have it, Francisco Pizarro died not at the hands of Indian warriors, but at the hands of his own soldiers, whom he made rich.

100 Great Adventurers

Francisco Pizarro

(1478 - 1541)

Spanish conquistador. In 1513-1535 he participated in the conquest of Peru. He defeated and destroyed the Inca state of Tahuantinsuyu, founded seven cities, including Lima. In 1535 he was granted the title of marquis. Killed in Lima.

Francisco Pizarro was born in Trujillo, Extremadura province, 150 kilometers southwest of Madrid.

Francisco was the illegitimate son of Don Gonzalo Pizarro, nicknamed the Tall One, an excellent soldier who received a noble title for bravery in battles against the Moors. His mother, Francisca Gonzalez, was the daughter of a commoner. The boy was never taught to read; he played with his peers in the vicinity of Trujillo, sometimes looking after sheep or pigs. From his early youth he longed for adventure.

In all likelihood, Pizarro left Trujillo at the age of 19 and joined the Spanish army in Italy. This tempered him and prepared him for difficult expeditions to South America. It is reliably known that in 1502 he went to America as an experienced soldier. Young Pizarro took part in a bloody campaign against the Indians on the island of Espagliola (now Haiti). He soon joined Alonso de Ojeda, who was famous for using Spanish tactics in battles with the natives. Cutting through their ranks, he made a clearing in the crowd with dead bodies on both sides

Pizarro was about 35 years old when he took part in the famous crossing of Panama with Vasco Nunez de Balboa. Thanks to this, the Pacific Ocean was included in the Spanish possessions. This was the beginning of the “daring campaign for the Great Prize,” as the Spanish conquests in South America later came to be called. In 1519, the city of Panama was founded, and Pizarro became one of its first inhabitants. He received his share of the land on which the Indians worked. And even became governor. When he was well over forty, he became rich, gained honor and respect, although most people of his position would prefer to relax after a stormy and full of adversity life

In the 16th century, more than 200 thousand Spaniards crossed the Atlantic. Not only the nobles, thirsty for glory, wanted to try their luck: among the emigrants there were unlucky merchants, impoverished artisans, and wandering monks - the latter described the adventures of adventurers on the pages of chronicles.

What made Pizarro dare to take a desperate journey along the coast of South America, play with fate, subject his life and health to new tests, pursuing an illusory dream? Many Pizarro biographers attribute this sense of adventure to his nature as a born gambler. In his later years he loved to play dice, skittles, and pelota (Basque ball game). And at the same time, he was a balanced and prudent person. He had only two passions: fighting and searching. And more than peace, he longed for glory.

To finance the expedition to America, he recruited Diego de Almagro and the priest Hernando de Luque to the project. The three of them bought a ship, equipped it with everything necessary, and hired people. On November 14, 1524, Pizarro sailed from Panama, leading the first of his three exploring expeditions.

However, it was only in 1528 that luck smiled on Pizarro. Having crossed the equator, his detachment landed on the coast of Ecuador and Peru. In one place they were greeted by a female leader, and by the way she and her entourage behaved, how much gold and silver they had on them, they realized that they had found themselves in very rich lands.

Returning to Panama, Pizarro decided that it was necessary to get to Spain as soon as possible, since then not a single conquistador dared to take a step without royal permission. At the end of 1528, Pizarro arrived at the court of King Charles in Toledo. Francisco, both with his appearance and speech, made a strong impression on the 28-year-old king. At the same time, Hernán Cortés arrived in Toledo, having by that time conquered the Aztecs of Mexico, and now amazed the court with valuables brought from the conquered lands, whose territory exceeded the whole of Spain. Cortes was Pizarro's cousin and probably gave him some practical advice, and also provided him with money. Gifts in the form of llama skins and Incan cult objects made of gold presented to the king provided Pizarro with the title of governor and allowed him to receive royal blessing. He was endowed with such broad powers that none of the conquistadors had been awarded in the entire history of the Spanish conquest of South America.

Pizarro sailed from Spain in January 1530, but only a year later, in January 1531, the expedition was finally able to leave Panama. Three ships - two large and one small, on board which were 180 soldiers, 27 horses, weapons, ammunition and belongings. The force was too small to conquer an empire that stretched thousands of miles inland to the Amazon jungle. Pizarro knew that the entire vast territory of the Incas was covered with a network of military roads, that numerous fortresses were guarded by strong garrisons, and that the country unquestioningly obeyed one autocratic ruler. But he hoped to succeed, although not only people were against him, but also nature itself! The vain Pizarro believed that he was quite capable of repeating the achievements of his fellow countryman Cortes.

Pizarro was neither a diplomat nor a great commander, but he was distinguished by courage and determination, as evidenced by Pizarro's first actions as commander of the expedition.

Captain Ruiz sailed along the coast straight to Tumbes, but after two weeks storms, headwinds and currents forced him to take refuge in the bay

Saint Matthew. The Spaniards found themselves 350 miles from Tumbes, and yet Pizarro went ashore and walked south. The ships caught up with him, following along the coast. After spending thirteen days cramped aboard three small ships battling wind and weather, the soldiers were exhausted.

Despite this, Pizarro, after a difficult journey through the deep rivers of the Coaque region, raided the small city. The Spaniards were lucky: they plundered 20 thousand pesos worth of gold and silver, mostly in the form of crude jewelry. Emeralds were also found in the city, but only a few, including Pizarro and the Dominican monk Father Reginalde de Pedraza, knew their true price. Pizarro traded this relatively small booty for the opportunity to take the Indians by surprise. He loaded the treasures onto ships and sent them to Panama in the hope that, having seen them, the rest of the conquistadors would join him. He then resumed his advance south.

It was not possible to loot any more. The villages along the way were abandoned, and all the most valuable things were taken away. The conquistadors suffered from terrible heat and tropical downpours. Their skin became covered with huge purulent ulcers. People lost consciousness and died. It was the most foolish beginning of a campaign ever conceived by a military leader, and the fact that the Spanish soldiers reached the Bay of Puayaquil is a most eloquent testimony to their steadfastness. Camp life lasted fifteen months.

Pizarro decided that Puna Island could be a suitable base for them. The inhabitants of Pune were at enmity with Tumbes, who lay only thirty miles away. The island was large and wooded; here there was no fear of a surprise attack. Pizarro set up camp and waited for reinforcements. During the voyage to the south, two ships joined him. The first brought the royal treasurer and other officials who did not have time to join the expedition when it sailed from Seville. The second - 30 soldiers under the command of Captain Benalcazar.

Indians arrived from Tumbes, and although Pizarro knew that they were the sworn enemies of the inhabitants of Puna, he received them at his headquarters. And then, when his two interpreters warned Pizarro that the leaders of Puna had gathered in council and were preparing an attack, he immediately surrounded them at the meeting place and handed them over to the residents of Tumbes. The result was a bloody massacre, leading to the uprising that he tried so hard to prevent. The camp was attacked by several thousand Puna warriors, and the Spaniards had to seek refuge in the forest. The losses were relatively small: several were killed, Hernando Pizarro's brother was wounded in the leg by a dart. But the Indians continued to attack the camp.

When two more ships arrived with a hundred volunteers and horses (the ships were commanded by Hernando de Soto), Pizarro felt that he had enough strength to move to the mainland. The weak resistance of the Tum-Bes was quickly suppressed by the cavalry of Hernando Pizarro. The main detachment of the Spaniards crossed the bay on two ships.

Finally they entered Tumbes - the city where, as legend said, the Maidens of the Sun King lived, where golden fruits hung in the gardens, and the temples were lined with gold and silver. However, they were bitterly disappointed: the city of Tumbes in the Gulf of Guayaquil, described four years earlier as prosperous, lay in ruins, and its population died out from smallpox. The same insidious disease, in all likelihood, claimed the life of the Supreme Inca Huayna Capaka, around 1530. Nothing remained of the city except a fortress, a temple and a few buildings. The people who had sailed seven hundred miles, and then walked another three hundred through terrible swamps, through thickets of rhizophora and jungle, constantly encouraging themselves with visions of the golden city, were shocked when the pitiful ruins appeared before their eyes.

Pizarro lost the opportunity to quickly get rich, but, as it turned out, he received something much more - the key to conquering the country. The territory was fragmented and could again submit to one ruler. Pierro found out this when he asked about the reasons for such a deplorable state of the city. Its destruction was the work of the islanders from Pune. According to the Peruvians, the Sun King, Inca Huascar, was too busy with the war with his brother Atahualpa to provide the city with the necessary help. He even recalled his warriors from the fortress.

The struggle for power ended shortly before Pizarro's landing in Tumbes Ata-huallpa won, and his army captured Huascar. The usurper from Quito became In-coy (supreme ruler), but the inhabitants of Tumbes and other areas did not approve of the change of ruler. The Inca Empire was fragmented, which Pizarro took advantage of.

Leaving part of the detachment in Tumbes, he went with the best soldiers into the interior of the country to win over the native population. Francisco used Cortez's policies. Robbery was prohibited. Dominican monks converted Indians to Christianity. The campaign turned into a crusade, and the soldiers began to feel a sense of their divine destiny. The thirst for gold did not diminish, but now it was dressed in the mantle of Christ's truth.

Pizarro led his people from one village to another, so that they had neither time nor strength to think about the future. Indian leaders who resisted were burned alive as a warning to others, and soon the entire area was conquered. Here, for the first time, the conquerors began to recruit the population into auxiliary troops, and although there is no mention of Indian allies in Spanish sources, there is little doubt that Pizarro tried to strengthen his small detachment at the expense of local residents.

In June he founded a settlement on the Chira River, about 80 miles south of Tumbes. The settlement was built according to the usual colonial pattern: a church, an arsenal and a courthouse. However, even though San Miguel had a legally appointed city government, Pizarro exercised his powers from Spain. This gave him the opportunity to give each colonist land, and since the Indians were accustomed to the stick discipline imposed by their own rulers, they did not complain. The Spaniards melted all the gold and silver they mined into bars, and Pizarro managed to persuade the soldiers to give up their share. Therefore, after deducting the king's share, a fifth, he was able to send the treasure on two ships to Panama, paying the expedition's bills.

The treasures, of course, will confirm the captains' stories about the brilliant opportunities opening up for the settlers in New Castile. But Pizarro could not decide whether he should wait for reinforcements or go on a campaign right away? He pondered for three weeks until he discovered that inaction breeds discontent. Most likely, it was the soldiers’ mood that played a decisive role: Pizarro decided to speak. Moreover, Atahualpa left the Inca capital of Cusco and was now in Cajamarca. Cuzco was about 1,300 miles from San Miguel, so Pizarro and his men, loaded with their belongings, could have covered that distance in a few weeks along Inca roads. Cajamarca was only about 350 miles away, at an altitude of 9 thousand feet. The journey, according to the allied Indians, should have taken no more than 12 days. Pizarro did not want to miss the opportunity to quickly get to the Inca ruler.

On September 24, 1532, about six months after his first landing on the coast, Pizarro set out from a small settlement. The detachment consisted of 10 infantrymen (but only 20 of them were armed with crossbows or arquebuses) and 67 horsemen. It was a pitiful army, unable to resist the Incas. Atahualpa was reported to have been treated at the volcanic springs of Cajamarca (a wound received during a civil war against his own brother had festered). In addition, he toured his new possessions, seeking their complete subjugation. He was accompanied by an army, numbering, according to some estimates, from forty to fifty thousand warriors.

Having crossed the Chira River on rafts, the Spaniards spent the night in the Indian settlement of Poechos and went south to the Piura River. Here they turned east, inland, following the riverbed of the Piura.

There was a murmur in the ranks of the Spaniards. Some of the soldiers were losing their presence of mind. At the end of the fourth day, Pizarro stopped to prepare for battle. He approached the detachment with a proposal: anyone who did not support the enterprise could return to San Miguel and receive the same allotment of land and the same number of Indians as any soldier in the garrison. But only nine people wanted to return to “base.” Probably, not only Pizarro’s calls, but also the surrounding situation forced the others to continue on their way. By then they must have been well beyond Tambo Grande, on the main Inca road leading out of Tumbes.

In November 1532, Francisco Pizarro made a very bold decision that determined his future fate. The main royal road of the Incas between Quito and Cuzco ran through the valleys of the Andes, and Pizarro learned that the victorious Inca Atahualpa was following it south to be crowned in Cuzco. The Spaniards were shocked by the awesome majesty of the Indian army. But Pizarro, with his eloquence, inspired new strength in the soldiers, promising them rich booty. His words remain in the chronicles: “There is no difference between big and small, between foot and horse... On that day everyone was knights.”

Pizarro pinned his only hope on a desperately daring plan - to try to take the Inca army of thousands by surprise. Atahualpa's army began to move towards midday. But his exit was preceded by a solemn parade. All Indians wore large gold and silver jewelry on their heads, similar to crowns. The chant began.

Only towards the end of the day the leading parts of this magnificent procession entered the central square of Cajamarca. The soldiers carried Atahualpa on a stretcher covered with silver. On his head was a golden crown, and on his neck was a necklace of large emeralds. The Inca ordered the bearers to stop while the rest of the warriors continued to fill the square.

Pizarro, calm and decisive, gave the signal for battle. The artilleryman brought the fuse to the cannon barrel. Horsemen and foot soldiers burst out of their hiding places screaming to the sound of war bugles. Panic began among the Indians, the attacking Spaniards mowed them down right and left. The Incas were unarmed, in the ensuing crush they could not come to their senses for a long time, they interfered with each other, and the conquistadors with their sharply sharpened peaks let out rivers of blood

Pizarro was a poor horseman, so he fought on foot, with a sword and a dagger. Making his way through the crowd to Atahualpa's stretcher, he grabbed Inca by the hand and tried to pull him down. Many Indians had their hands cut off, but they continued to hold the throne on their shoulders. In the end they all died on the battlefield. The horsemen who arrived in time overturned the stretcher, and Atau-alpa was captured.

The massacre continued in the valley. Within two hours six or seven thousand Indians lay dead. Each Spaniard killed approximately 15 Indians. In a report to the king, Pizarro’s secretary wrote that he and his people had accomplished the incredible: they had captured a powerful ruler with small forces. Drenched in the blood of the Incas, the conquistadors hardly understood what they were doing. One of the participants in this massacre later said that it was not done by them, because there were too few of them, but by the will of God.

Player Pizarro broke the bank. Having captured the godlike Inca, he paralyzed life throughout the empire.

The tragedy of the Incas was that their ruler did not understand that these 160 foreign soldiers were not just bandits, but harbingers of a coming colonial invasion. He considered them simply greedy treasure hunters. And Pizarro supported this delusion. Noticing an unquenchable thirst for gold among his jailers, Atahualpa decided to buy his freedom. In return, he offered to fill the cell where he was kept with gold to the height of 10.5 Spanish feet (294 centimeters). And also give double the amount of silver against gold. In addition, he promised that these treasures would be delivered to Cajamarca within 60 days from the date of the agreement. And Atahualpa kept his word: caravans of llamas flocked to Cajamarca, delivering gold from different parts of the empire. The order of the supreme ruler, even if he was captured, but for the Incas still remained the Sun King, was carried out unquestioningly. All the wealth of the state, found and not found, was considered the property of the Incas.

But the Spaniards treacherously violated this treaty. Atahualpa remained Pizarro's hostage for 8 months. At this time, however, he continued to fulfill the duties of the ruler of the empire, issue decrees, and send messengers. He ordered the leaders not to interfere with the Spaniards who penetrated into remote corners of the country and plundered temples. By being accommodating, he hoped to buy freedom.

By mid-1533 the ransom had been collected. The room was filled with fabulously beautiful gold items. Many of them were of considerable artistic value, but for the Spaniards it was only expensive metal, and everything was melted down into ingots. A fifth of them was sent to the King of Spain, the rest was divided among the conquistadors, with the most gold going to, of course, Pizarro. And despite this, Atahualpa was executed.

Spanish authorities in Panama condemned the execution. They believed that Atahualpa should have been taken to Central America or Spain. King Carlos also wrote to Pizarro about his dissatisfaction with the violent death: Atahualpa was still a monarch, and his execution undermined faith in the divine origin of power.

So, the conquest of Peru began with the capture and execution of its ruler, battles followed later. During the 800-mile march along the Great Inca Road from Cajamarca to Cuzco, Pizarro's force fought four battles against Atahualpa's army. The Incas fought bravely and a number of the invaders were killed. But still they could not resist the weapons and tactics of the Spaniards. The great tactical advantage of the conquistadors was their mounted warriors - before the arrival of the Europeans, horses were not seen in America. The Incas thought more about how to kill one such animal that was pursuing them than ten foot soldiers. And for almost every Spaniard killed, hundreds of Incas were killed.

On November 15, 1533, Pizarro came for the main prize - he set foot in the Inca capital of Cusco.

To consolidate the gains, Pizarro elevated one of the surviving sons of Huayna Capaca - Manco, he was crowned at the beginning of 1534. The conquistadors hoped that the new Inca would become a puppet in their hands and assist the Spaniards in enslaving their people.

When Pizarro was already well over fifty, he essentially became the ruler, or better yet, the robber of a huge country. The treasures of Cuzco were captured, melted down and distributed among the conquerors. There was even more gold and silver than from the ransom of Atahualpa.

Pizarro had no experience at all in government. The age and hardships experienced made themselves felt. To force the Spaniards to stay in this distant country, he gave each officer a reward of a thousand Indians. Pizarro ordered the priest of Cuzco to protect the interests of the Indians, and also issued a decree providing for punishment for the Spaniards for abusing the natives. But this did not help much; the Indians died out catastrophically quickly. The irrigation economy and terrace farming of the Incas fell into decay.

Pizarro saw his main task in building cities for the Spaniards. He founded seven of them - and all seven have survived to this day. It was decided to locate the capital on the coast, in order to maintain maritime connections with the rest of Spanish America. The city appeared in 1535 on the banks of the Rimac River and was originally called Ciudad de los Reyes - “city of kings”. However, it is not such a pretentious name that has been preserved, but a distorted toponym of the river itself - Lima.

In his later years, Pizarro worked on building streets in cities and gave away houses to his friends. The Indians also built his personal residence in the Spanish style, with a patio planted with imported olive and orange trees.

But the calm time did not last long. Pizarro's younger brothers and other Spaniards in Cuzco broke the treaty and insulted the puppet ruler Manco. Enraged, he secretly mobilized his army and readied his weapons. In April 1536, Mano disappeared from Cuzco and called his leaders to a meeting, where they vowed to expel the hated conquerors from Peru. And already in May, 190 Spaniards in Cuzco found themselves surrounded by Indians.

Manco's revolt continued until December. Four expeditions sent by Pizarro in support of his brothers were defeated in the mountains, even on the approaches to Cuzco. About 500 Spaniards were killed. And yet the Peruvians failed to liberate their country. Reinforcement ships arrived from Central America, and the blockade of Cuzco was broken. Manco fled to the Amazon jungle, to the sacred city of Machu Picchu, where he ruled the remnants of his empire with his three sons for 35 years.

But Pizarro experienced even greater difficulties than with the Indians with his old comrade-in-arms and even once friend Diego de Almagro. He always organized supplies and replenished Pizarro’s expedition with people. And he was cruelly wounded by the fact that the king appointed him only the governor of Peru. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, Almagro accused Pizarro of appropriating all the titles

Then Pizarro made a diplomatic move. Almagro was given land in the south of Peru as a reward for his diligence, but when Diego arrived there, he was disappointed - there was nothing to profit from. He did not know that Potosi was located on the territory under his control, where the Spaniards would later discover the richest deposits in the world silver Almagro laid claim to Cuzco. The battles between the Spaniards did not take long to arrive, and they were no less fierce than the battles with the Indians

The civil strife ended in Cusco in 1538, when Almagro was defeated by Pizarro's brother Hernando. The frantic and bloodthirsty Hernando executed 120 people and killed Almagro himself as a traitor. But it was his mistake. Returning to Spain, he was imprisoned for this act of revenge.

Having defeated Manco and Almagro, Pizarro finally established himself in the new city of Lima. He was busy arranging his house, tending to the garden, walking the streets, visiting old soldiers, wearing an old-fashioned black robe with a red knight's cross on the chest, cheap deerskin shoes and a hat. The only expensive thing he owned was a marten fur coat sent by his cousin Cortez

Pizarro loved to play with his four young sons, although he never married their Indian mother or any other woman. He was indifferent to good wines, food, horses. Aged and incredibly rich, this most successful of all conquistadors seemed to simply did not know what to do with the wealth that suddenly fell upon him. He made several wills. His main concern was to continue the family tree and glorify the name of Pizarro. He ordered all his heirs, both male and female, to bear this surname

But the execution of Almagro entailed retribution. A handful of his supporters in Lima felt bitterness from defeat and poverty. There is a legend that they had only one hat for all, therefore, like real Spanish hidalgos, they could appear on the streets only one at a time. They became the allies of the young son of Almagro They were united by hatred of Pizarro, and they decided to kill him. Information about the impending conspiracy reached the governor, but he did not pay attention to the warnings

On Sunday morning, July 26, 1541, Pizarro was receiving guests in his palace when 20 people with swords, spears, daggers and muskets burst into the house. The guests fled, some jumped straight out of the windows. 63-year-old Pizarro defended himself in the bedroom with a sword and dagger. He fought desperately, killed one of the attackers, but the forces were unequal, and soon he fell dead from the many wounds inflicted

The place where he was assassinated in the presidential palace is now covered with marble slabs. In Plaza Armas in Lima there is a cathedral, also associated with the name of Pizarro. In 1977, during renovation work on the cathedral, phobes and a lead box were discovered in the brickwork of the vaults. It contained a skull. and the hilt of the sword was engraved on the outside with the inscription “This is the head of the Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro, who discovered and conquered the Peruvian Empire, placing it under the rule of the King of Castile.”