Pizarro Follows Cortés the Killer

Francisco Pizarro wasn't the first Spaniard to overthrow a South American civilization. When Hernan Cortés came to Mesoamerica with his galleons and guns, he subdued the Aztec people with few men. In general, he denied offers of peace and coexistence in favor of plunder and enslavement.

Cortés sailed to South America from Cuba under the Spanish flag, but against the protests of the governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez, who wanted to put someone else in charge of the expedition. Back home in Spain, Velázquez painted Cortés as power-hungry and reckless. But King Charles V forgave Cortés after he conquered the Aztecs in 1521 and returned home with their wealth.

Despite the murders and deaths of tens or even hundreds of thousands of Aztecs, the explorer inspired others to follow in his footsteps. Not the least of these was Francisco Pizarro. He, too, wished for riches, and he followed Cortés' example.

Pizarro, like all other Europeans, had the distinct advantage of firearms over the indigenous population he sought to subjugate. The Inca hadn't been exposed to gunpowder until the rifles and cannons of the Spaniards were trained on them. And in addition to the actual advantages the gun offered over the spear or the arrow, it also gave the Spaniards a psychological advantage [source: Minnesota State University].

As in Mexico, psychology played a part in the Andes. Montezuma originally mistook Cortés as a returning god; Atahualpa, who had assumed power as the Inca emperor, believed Pizarro and his men were demigods. It was through this initial trust that Pizarro was able to gain Atahualpa's confidence. He soon captured the ruler and held him for ransom.

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Incan ruler Atahualpa begs for mercy from the conquistador Francisco Pizarro. After receiving a ransom for the ruler, Pizarro executed Atahualpa.

After he was paid, Pizarro retained the ruler rather than release him. He attempted to use him as a puppet dictator, carrying out the Spaniard's will through the Incan emperor's decrees. But Pizarro found this tactic useless; Atahualpa was executed at the hands of his captor. The blood of thousands more loyal to the Incan ruler was shed soon after.

The brutality of the Spaniards had become apparent to the Inca. Revolts and battles became normal, and to quash these skirmishes, Pizarro used another Cortés tactic: collusion. The conquistador identified tribes who were enemies of the Inca or unhappy with Inca rule, and established alliances with them.

Superior weaponry, psychological warfare, a perfectly timed arrival and native allies certainly helped Pizarro. But remember the Spaniard arrived in the Andes with fewer than 200 men. Even with these advantages, he wouldn't have been successful had it not been for another weapon, unexpected by both sides.

Biological warfare in the form of smallpox allowed Pizarro to conquer the Inca. Smallpox spread quickly through the Americas prior to Pizarro's arrival. Having lived alongside livestock for millennia gave much of Europe immunity to the worst ravages of smallpox. But the indigenous tribes of the Americas had no such advantage.

Smallpox unexpectedly killed Incan emperor Huayna Cupac, leaving the empire in civil unrest and war. The disease decimated the In­can population, paving the way for Pizarro's paltry troops to conquer a once-vast nation. "So complete was the chaos that Francisco Pizarro was able to seize an empire the size of Spain and Italy combined with a force of 168 men," writes Charles Mann in "1491" [source: Mann].

Ultimately, the diseases the Europeans brought with them did more damage than guns or greed. Within the 130 years following Columbus an estimated 95 percent of the Americas' inhabitants died [source: Mann].

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