History UsefulNotes / SpanishConquestOfTheIncaEmpire

The Inca Empire, called ''Tahuantinsuyo'' in their language, was likely the largest and most advanced of the UsefulNotes/PreColumbianCivilizations. It started off in the Peruvian Andes, when the city state of Cusco started a campaign of expansion, though more bureaucratic and regulated than savage or militaristic. Unlike the Mexicas, HumanSacrifice was not instrumental in Inca culture, although they did practice it in small numbers, mainly sacrificing children in the mountains.

Pizarro and Atahualpa traded messages of peace, after which the Inca invited him to meet in the city of Cajamarca. However, one of the indigenous chieftains in the Spanish party, Guachapuro, unmasked an Inca spy and warned that Atahualpa was luring them into a trap (apparently, the emperor planned to destroy them and retain some Spanish slaves as artisans to capitalize on their advanced crafts and weapons). Certainly, Pizarro found Cajamarca empty and shadowed by an army of 30,000-50,000 headed by Atahualpa, and a tumultuous first interview between the emperor and Hernando Pizarro seemed to confirm their fears. The oncoming battle seemed utterly hopeless for the meager 150 Spaniards, but Francisco decided to [[OutGambitted turn the trap on its head]] and pretend to invite Atahualpa to their camp. The emperor, overconfident by his superiority, arrived with just his civilian entourage, shadowed from afar by 8,000 warriors under his general Rumiñahui, and this gave Pizarro the chance he needed: he captured Atahualpa and charged against Rumiñahui while unveiling the Spanish cavalry and firearms, easily routing the indigenous natives by sheer confusion and terror.

The Spaniards seized an insane amount of booty, but just as importantly, the news of Atahualpa's predicament overjoyed the partisans of Huáscar and other tribes that couldn't wait to be freed from the Atahualpist rule, like the Chancas, Huancas, Cañaris and Chachapoyas, all of which would progressively come to [[EnemyMine ally with the Iberians]] (it's even claimed the Cañaris had been secretly in league with Pizarro since his arrival in Tumbes, although this is unlikely). Atahualpa tried to bribe his way out by handing Pizarro a mountain of treasure, which Hernando was sent to bring, and meanwhile the emperor and Pizarro got to know each other to find out the best course of action. This accidentally prompted the Inca civil war to be reignited: when Pizarro requested to meet the imprisoned Huáscar, Atahualpa had his brother secretly executed to prevent him from becoming a replacement to his throne. Anyway, Pizarro also received Atahualpa's sister Quispe Sisa (baptized as Inés) in marriage.

The Inca treasure was bigger than anything the conquistadores had ever dreamed of, but [[GoldFever as it often happens]], it would end up bringing only trouble. After their arrival, Almagro and his people were annoyed that their part was way smaller due to having missed the fight, while other crewmen who chose to return to Spain found their own parts confiscated by King Charles V, who wanted it (and all money in America, really) to fund his wars in Europe. And while all of this happened, the Spanish captains and allies argued unceasingly about what to do with Atahualpa, fueled by apparently believable reports that the Inca might still be planning to catch them off guard and revolt. In the end, on July 1533, and very much against Pizarro's wishes, the emperor was put on trial and executed on rather absurd charges, being replaced by a PuppetKing in the form of another brother, Túpac Hualpa.

As the Inca empire itself still remained technically unconquered, Pizarro marched towards its capital, Cusco, now enjoying the safety and armies provided by the Huascarists and the rest of the tribes opposed to the Atahualpa regime. However, [[TheRemnant several Atahualpist generals]], of which Quizquiz and Rumiñahui were the greatest, were preparing to fight him to take over the weakened empire, setting defensive measures that forced Pizarro to strengthen his position before continuing. Pizarro's multi-national army fought several battles, with Almagro and Soto often complicating things due to their eagerness to grab money, but altogether they managed to carve their way towards Cusco, which was taken and divested of its gold reserves.

Being busy with Cusco, Manco deployed his general Quizu Yupanqui to besiege the city of Lima too. Four Spanish parties were ambushed and wiped out before Lima's major Francisco de Godoy realized what was happening, and after finding out about it, Pizarro quickly closed the city off. The Spaniards had been caught divided and were confused about each other's whereabouts and status, but they gathered the city's native allies, around 30,000 auxiliars, and set in motion a counterattack, while their civilians took refuge in the city's harbor in case they had to get the heck out. In one of their skirmishes, helped by their cavalry, they managed to kill Yupanqui, which disorganized his army and forced it to withdraw.

The reverse to Lima happened in Cusco. Manco had overpowered the city's defenses and started conquering it with his much greater numbers, but Hernando offered a strong resistance with the local Cañaris, Chachapoyas, black slaves and all defenders he could find, numbering another 30,000. After Juan Pizarro died in the fighting, Hernando managed to slowly push the Incas back by sheer attrition, although he failed spectacularly at attacking Manco's camp in Ollantaytambo, where the Incas unveiled battle tactics they had learned from the Spaniards. Hernando seemed to be in trouble, but the arrival of Almagro with another army of 50,000 indigenous allies turned the tide again. Seeing himself outnumbered and realizing he had lost his chance, Manco ultimately abandoned his position for the forests of Vilcabamba.

Almagro easily overtook Cusco, from which he also defeated a Pizarrist army headed by Pedro de Alvarado's nephew Alonso. Almagro seemed to have the advantage, having captured Hernando Pizarro, but the shrewd Francisco feigned a truce to ask the king for arbitration, and when his brother was liberated, the Pizarros went "[[ISurrenderSuckers haha]] [[ILied I lied]]" and marched against Almagro. In the final battle at Las Salinas, Almagro's army was defeated, with the man himself executed by Hernando, reportedly against the wishes of Francisco, who still wanted to keep his old friend alive. The following year, the empire scored a goal on Manco Inca by [[IHaveYourWife capturing his favorite wife Cura]],[[note]]According to tradition, Gonzalo Pizarro and his men raped her, and chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo claims the reason why Manco had revolted in the first place was that the Pizarros had conducted a gang rape on all of his wives and sisters. This has been considered to be quite improbable and most likely [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade anti-Pizarrist propaganda]], though. Oviedo, a highly controversial character in Spain due to his Aristotelian proto-racist theories, was a staunch Almagrist ([[LoonyFan ironically so]], considering that Almagro had a mestizo son). Gonzalo later went on to become a rebel against the crown, meaning that he was even more of an acceptable target for popular slander.[[/note]] but no diplomatic solution was given; as the elder Pizarro learned his negotiators had been executed by Manco, he threw Cura to the vengeful Cañaris for them to kill her.

Over the next decades, Manco's successors made moves towards surrendering the Neo-Inca state to the Spanish viceroyalty, although this only happened after the last one, Túpac Amaru I, was captured and executed - by a Cañari executioner, for extra irony and poetic justice. This would be the end of the conquest of Perú, leaving behind the ruins of an empire and the continued rise of another. Ironically, when the dust of the multi-racial fratricides finally settled, the Inca was the last man standing: Paullu Inca, who had managed to survive all the political changes, earn King Charles V's gratitude and being named ''Alférez Real de los Incas'', the head of a council of 24 members of the main Inca noble houses, who would continue being part of the administration under the Spanish viceroy.

Ironically, despite the tortuousness of its course, the conquest of the Incas might have been the most successful Spanish venture for all the sides involved. Not only did the Inca Empire get to retain its structre under the Spanish administration to a degree greater than the dismantled Mexicas and the fragmented Mayans, eased by the admirable Inca organization and the need to keep it running to control the country, but the whole resultant viceroyalty would become the wealthiest of the Spanish Empire for the combo of precious metals and sea trading routes, to the point that in the following centuries, even miners and workers enjoyed reportedly a higher standard of life than their homologues in many cities in Europe.

This chapter of the Conquest of America could be considered the DarkerAndEdgier sequel to the capture of México. Compared to the colourful epic of the Mexican conquest, Pizarro's reign was an ugly affair marked by constant betrayals, bad strategic decisions and bloody large-scale battles, whose plots brought the Crown of Spain plenty of gold yet no less as many headaches. Unlike the Mexica Empire, which offered the commodity of having failed to submit rival states that rolled the Spaniards into their ancestral enmities in the lush Mesoamerican jungle, the Inca Empire was a dry, mountainous domain that had assimilated all possible competition and had only shattered in factions due to a bloody civil war, making its conquest more akin to bursting into a DeadlyDecadentCourt, in which nobody could thrive without backstabbing someone regardless of color and race, than engaging in a military campaign.

The conquest of the Inca Empire was the Spanish Empire's next great enterprise after they took control of Central America following their [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheAztecEmpire Conquest of the Aztec Empire]] in the 16th century. It was undergone mainly by conquistadores UsefulNotes/FranciscoPizarro, a distant uncle to UsefulNotes/HernanCortez, and Diego de Almagro, his [[TheLancer Lancer]] and eventually FriendTurnedRival.

Almagro easily overtook Cusco, from where he also defeated a Pizarrist army headed by Pedro de Alvarado's nephew Alonso. Almagro seemed to have the longer end of the stick, having captured Hernando Pizarro, but the shrewd Francisco feigned a truce to ask the king for arbitration, and when his brother was liberated, the Pizarros went "[[ISurrenderSuckers haha]] [[ILied I lied]]" and marched against Almagro. In the final battle in Las Salinas, Almagro's army was defeated, with the man himself being executed by Hernando, reportedly against the wishes of Francisco, who still wanted to keep his old friend alive. The following year, the empire scored a goal on Manco Inca by [[IHaveYourWife capturing his favorite wife Cura]],[[note]]According to tradition, Gonzalo Pizarro and his men raped her, and chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo claims the reason why Manco had revolted in the first place was that the Pizarros had conducted a gang rape on all of his wives and sisters. This has been considered to be quite improbable and most likely [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade anti-Pizarrist propaganda]], though. Oviedo, a highly controversial character in Spain due to his Aristotelian proto-racist theories, was a staunch Almagrist ([[LoonyFan ironically so]], considering that Almagro had a mestizo son). Gonzalo later went to become a rebel against the crown, meaning that he was even more of an acceptable target to popular slander.[[/note]] but no diplomatic solution was given; as the elder Pizarro learned his negotiators had been executed by Manco, he threw Cura to the vengeful Cañaris for them to kill her.

After those movements, the original players finished exiting the game. In 1541, Pizarro sent his brother Hernando to Spain to defend his actions against Almagro, only for Hernando to be jailed there for the next 20 years due to his own charges. In his absence, Francisco, the great conquistador, would be murdered by Almagro's followers, who were finally submitted themselves by the royal arbiter originally proposed by Hernando, Cristóbal Vaca de Castro (with the help of UsefulNotes/FranciscoDeCarvajal and a younger, presumably sane UsefulNotes/LopeDeAguirre). For his part, Manco Inca would be murdered three years later by runaway Almagrists he had welcomed in his Neo-Inca state as military consultants, while Gonzalo Pizarro, the last brother, would shockingly revolt in 1548 against the Spanish Crown due to their New Laws, being ultimately defeated and executed.

* Creator/CliveCussler's ''Inca Gold'' features the conquest in its background.

* ''VideoGame/{{Inca}}'' and its sequel are an interesting version of the conquest literally JustForFun/RecycledInSpace, only with Aguirre in Pizarro's place for extra craziness.

This chapter of the Conquest of America could be considered the DarkerAndEdgier sequel to the capture of México. Compared to the colourful epic of the Mexican conquest, Pizarro's reign was an ugly affair marked by constant betrayals, bad strategic decisions and bloody large-scale battles, whose plots brought the Crown of Spain gold in plenty yet not any fewer headaches. Unlike the Mexica Empire, which offered the commodity of having failed to submit rival states that rolled the Spaniards into their ancestral enmities in the lush Mesoamerican jungle, the Inca Empire was a dry, mountainous domain that had assimilated all possible competition and had only shattered in factions due to a bloody civil war, making its conquest more akin to bursting into a DeadlyDecadentCourt, in which nobody could thrive without backstabbing someone regardless of color and race, than engaging in a military campaign.

Ironically, despite the tortuousness of its course, the conquest of the Incas might have been the most successful Spanish venture for all the sides involved. Not only the Inca Empire got to retain its structre under the Spanish administration to a degree greater than the dismantled Mexicas and the fragmented Mayans, eased by the admirable Inca organization and the need to keep it running to control the country, but the whole resultant viceroyalty would become the wealthiest of the Spanish Empire for the combo of precious metals and sea trading routes, to the point that in following centuries, even miners and workers enjoyed reportedly a higher standard of life than their homologues in many cities in Europe.

Tne success of Pizarro's empress entered Spanish language in the form of an idiom, ''valer un Perú/Potosí'' (roughly, "to be worth a Peru/Potosi," Potosí being a successful mining town of the viceroyalty).

The Inca Empire, called ''Tahuantinsuyo'' in their language, was likely the largest and most advanced of the UsefulNotes/PreColumbianCivilizations. It started off in the Peruvian Andes, when the city state of Cusco started a campaign of expansion, though more burocratic and regulated than savage or militaristic. Unlike the Mexicas, HumanSacrifice was not instrumental for Inca culture, although they did practice it in small numbers, mainly sacrificing children in the mountains.

At the time of the conquest, the empire had no real political competition around. Their only great conflict had been against invasions of Guarani tribes from the heart of South America, who were seen by the Incas as something like the early barbarian migrations of the Roman Empire, but which were more or less under control by the time of king Huayna Cápac. Note the curiosity that one of those Guarani invasions was captained by a MightyWhitey, a Spanish-Portuguese castaway named Aleixo Garcia, but the Inca Empire managed to repeal his incursion and he died shortly after without leaving a mark. Anyway, Huayna also died, supposedly from one of the strains of smallpox accidentally brought by the Spanish presence in Mesoamerica,[[note]]Spanish chroniclers identified his death by smallpox in Inca records, but modern historians have questioned it, as other Spaniards had the chance to see Huayna's mummy and they reported no pox marks on him, which they would have no doubt recognized due to their own familiarity with the disease. A second version, maybe the correct, has Huayna dying of neumonia after bathing on a lake.[[/note]] and without him, a bloody civil war for the throne exploded between his sons Huáscar and Atahualpa.

As with the Aztecs, there is the popular belief that the conquistadores were initially mistaken by returning gods, maybe related to the deity Huiracocha. Again, this impression comes mostly from sources written at least two decades after the conquest, when Christian missionaries and superstitious natives would be both inclined to see religious predestinations where there was none.

Their first attempt to border the Pacific coast was hard, as the presence of hostile natives and the lack of interesting gains forced them to return. The second seemed to go the same road, to the point Pizarro and Almagro argued and almost had a duel to death. Dávila' successor Pedro de los Ríos eventually retained Almagro during a resupply trip and ordered Pizarro to return, but at that point, Pizarro managed to get 13 crewmen to stay with him and continue, later called the ''Trece de la Fama'' ("[[TheNotableNumeral The Famous Thirteen]]"). This proved to be the best decision for them, as Pizarro eventually made contact with Tumbes, a rich land that was tributary of the infinitely richer Inca Empire. The expedition returned while leaving three ''famosos'' as intendants in Tumbes.

In order to get permission to expand towards the empire, Pizarro sailed back to Spain with his amazing findings and managed to convince King UsefulNotes/CharlesV himself to authorize his further exploits (folklore claims that his relative UsefulNotes/HernanCortez helped him, but there is controversy whether Pizarro and Cortés even knew each other personally). Francisco then returned with his half-brothers, the PowerTrio of Gonzalo, Hernando and Juan, and after gathering a fleet with Almagro again in the supply lines, he performed his third and definitive travel to the lands of the Incas. This time there was success in finding valuable gold and jewels, which prompted many people back home to follow them.

In 1531, Pizarro arrived to Puná island, near Tumbes, and tried to strike an alliance with their chieftains, Tumbalá and Chilimasa. However, it turned out those two were now vassals to Inca emperor Atahualpa, who had devastated their cities into submission and ordered them to wipe out any possible invader (the intendants left there were basically MIA), and it was only under the warning of a native translator, and the timely reinforcements of an expedition by the unruly Hernando de Soto, that the Spaniards survived the trap. Their following campaigns to subject native communities brought news to Atahualpa himself, who wondered if the strange foreigners were supernatural beings, but in turn, Pizarro and company also gathered info about the Inca Empire and the civil war that Atahualpa had just won against Huáscar.

Pizarro and Atahualpa traded messages of peace, after which the Inca invited him to meet in the city of Cajamarca. However, one of the indigenous chieftains in the Spanish party, Guachapuro, unmasked an Inca spy and warned that Atahualpa was luring them into a trap (apparently, the emperor planned to destroy them and retain some Spanish slaves as artisans to capitalize on their advanced crafts and weapons). Certainly, Pizarro found Cajamarca empty and shadowed by an army of 30,000-50,000 headed by Atahualpa, and a tumultuous first interview between the emperor and Hernando Pizarro seemed to confirm their fears. The oncoming battle seemed utterly hopeless for the meager 150 Spaniards, but Francisco decided to [[OutGambitted turn the trap on its head]] and pretend to invite Atahualpa to their camp. The emperor, overconfident by his superiority, arrived with just his civilian entourage, shadowed from afar by 8,000 warriors under his general Rumiñahui, and this gave Pizarro chance he needed: he captured Atahualpa and charged against Rumiñahui while unveiling the Spanish cavalry and firearms, easily routing the indigenous by sheer confusion and terror.

The Spaniards seized an insane booty, but just as importantly, the news of Atahualpa's predicament overjoyed the partisans of Huáscar and other tribes that couldn't wait to be freed from the Atahualpist rule, like the Chancas, Huancas, Cañaris and Chachapoyas, all of which would progressively come to [[EnemyMine ally with the Iberians]] (it's even claimed the Cañaris had been secretly in league with Pizarro since his arrival in Tumbes, although this is unlikely). Atahualpa tried to bribe his way out by handing Pizarro a mountain of treasure, which Hernando was sent to bring, and meanwhile the emperor and Pizarro got to know each other to find out the best course of action. This accidentally prompted the Inca civil war to be buried deeper: when Pizarro requested to meet the imprisoned Huáscar, Atahualpa had his brother secretly executed to prevent him from becoming a replacement in the throne. Anyway, Pizarro also received Atahualpa's sister Quispe Sisa (baptized as Inés) in marriage.

The Inca treasure was bigger than anything the conquistadores had ever dreamed, but [[GoldFever as it often happens]], it would end up bringing only trouble. After their arrival, Almagro and his people were annoyed that their part was way smaller due to having missed the fight, while other crewmen who chose to return to Spain found their own parts confiscated by King Charles V, who wanted it (and all money in America, really) to fund his wars in Europe. And while all of this happened, the Spanish captains and allies argued unceasingly about what to do with Atahualpa, fueled by apparently believable reports that the Inca might be still planning to catch them off guard and revolt. At the end, on July 1533, and very against Pizarro's wishes, the emperor was put on trial and executed on rather absurd charges, being replaced by a PuppetKing in the form of another brother, Túpac Hualpa.

As the Inca empire itself still remained technically unconquered, Pizarro marched towards its capital, Cusco, now enjoying the safety and armies provided by the Huascarists and the rest of the tribes opposed to the Atahualpa regime. However, [[TheRemnant several Atahualpist generals]], of which Quizquiz and Rumiñahui were the greatest, were preparing to fight him to take over the weakened empire, setting defensive measures that forced Pizarro to strengthen his position before continuing. Pizarro's multi-national army fought several battles, with Almagro and Soto often complicating things due to their eagerness to grab money, but they altogether managed to carve their way towards Cusco, which was taken and, as it could not be otherwise, divested of its gold reserves.

Hualpa died poisoned, likely by Atahualpists, and needed yet another replacement, so Pizarro supported the election of Huascarist general Manco Inca. More battles followed, with the Spanish-Huascarist alliance beating their enemies in Maraycalla, Teocaxas and Pancallo. A bizarre event came in 1534 when Pedro de Alvarado, Hernán Cortés' former lieutenant, came from the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheMaya Conquest of the Maya]] with 500 Spaniards and 2,000 Mayan warriors, trying to steal his piece of the Inca. However, Pizarro sent Almagro to negotiate with him, and after many considerations, Alvarado joined them in exchange for (guess it) a lot of gold. At the end, the allies defeated Quizquiz, who died betrayed by another chieftain, and Rumiñahui, who was captured and executed.

The conquest seemed to end there, in November 1533, so Pizarro and company passed time developing their new lands and founding or enlarging cities, most importantly Lima. By Manco Inca's suggestion, Almagro also started his own expedition to the southern lands of Collasuyo (now Chile). However, much to their shock, it turned out that it had all been a BatmanGambit to divide their forces by Manco, who had secretly concocted to betray the Spaniards, apparently in vengeance for bad treatment. The emperor's plans were discovered by Hernando Pizarro, but Manco deceived him to escape, and then used his royal status to gather an utterly gigantic army of around 100,000 Incas. Surprised by such a horrifying twist, Hernando was defeated and had to return to Cusco, which was promptly besieged.

Being busy with Cusco, Manco deployed his general Quizu Yupanqui to besiege the city of Lima too. Four Spanish parties were ambushed and wiped out before Lima's major Francisco de Godoy realized was happening, and after finding about it, Pizarro quickly closed the city off. The Spaniards had been caught divided and were confused about each other's whereabouts and state, but they gathered the city's native allies, around 30,000 auxiliars, and set in motion a counterattack, while their civilians took refuge in the city's harbor in case they had to get the heck out. In one of their skirmishes, helped by their cavalry, they managed to kill Yupanqui, which disorganized his army and forced it to withdraw.

The reverse to Lima happened in Cusco. Manco had overpowered the city's defenses and started conquering it with his much greater numbers, but Hernando offered a strong resistance with the local Cañaris, Chachapoyas, black slaves and all defenders he could find, numbering another 30,000. After Juan Pizarro died in the fights, Hernando managed to slowly push the Incas back by sheer guts, although he failed spectacularly at attacking Manco's camp in Ollantaytambo, where the Incas unveiled battle tactics they had learned from the Spaniards. Hernando seemed in trouble, but the arrival of Almagro with another army of 50,000 indigenous allies turned the tide again. Seeing himself outnumbered and realizing he had lost his great chance, Manco ultimately abandoned his position for the forests of Vilcabamba.

Since 1537, the conflict became stagnant. Manco opted to install a vestigial territory, the Neo-Inca state of Vilcabamba, from which he directed guerrilla action against their enemies; among the latter, a clash for power broke out unexpectedly, as Almagro, discouraged by his lack of success in Collasuyo, allied with Manco's replacement Paullu Inca and capitalized on the ravaged state of things to revolt against Pizarro. This was the end of a VitriolicBestBuds friendship that had started fifteen years earlier. As a bonus, Pizarro also got divorced from his Inca wife Inés, their marriage embittered by the events, and instead hooked up with her relative Cuxirimay Ocllo (baptized Angelina).

Almagro easily overtook Cusco, from where he also defeated a Pizarrist army headed by Pedro de Alvarado's nephew Alonso. Almagro seemed to have the longer end of the stick, having captured Hernando Pizarro, but the shrewd Francisco feigned a truce to ask the king for arbitration, and when his brother was liberated, the Pizarros went "[[ISurrenderSuckers haha]] [[ILied I lied]]" and marched against Almagro. In the final battle in Las Salinas, Almagro's army was defeated, with the man himself being executed by Hernando, reportedly against the wishes of Francisco, who still wanted to keep his old friend alive.

After those movements, the original players finished exiting the game. In 1541, Pizarro sent his brother Hernando to Spain to defend his actions against Almagro, only for Hernando to be jailed there for the next 20 years due to his own charges. In his absence, Francisco, the great conquistador, would be murdered by Almagro's followers, who were finally submitted themselves by the royal arbiter originally proposed by Hernando, Cristóbal Vaca de Castro (with the help of a young, presumably sane UsefulNotes/LopeDeAguirre). For his part, Manco Inca would be murdered three years later by runaway Almagrists he had welcomed in his Neo-Inca state as military consultants, while Gonzalo Pizarro, the last brother, would shockingly revolt in 1548 against the Spanish Crown due to their New Laws, being ultimately defeated and executed.

At the time of the conquest, the empire had no real political competition around. Their only great conflict had been against invasions of Guarani tribes from the heart of South America, who were seen by the Incas as something like the early barbarian migrations of the Roman Empire, but which were more or less under control by the time of king Huayna Cápac. Note the curiosity that one of those Guarani invasions was captained by a MightyWhitey, a Spanish-Portuguese castaway named Aleixo Garcia, but the Inca Empire managed to repeal his incursion and he died shortly after without leaving a mark. Anyway, Huayna also died of smallpox, likely one of the strains accidentally brought by the Spanish presence in Mesoamerica, and without him, a bloody civil war for the throne exploded between his sons Huáscar and Atahualpa.

Atahualpa eventually won the war, arresting and imprisoning his brother, after which he initiated a massive campaign of punishment against those tribes and states that had supported Huáscar. The tribe of the Cañaris, whose renowned warriors had composed Huáscar's royal guard, suffered the greatest of the decimations, to the point that by the time the Spaniards arrived, they found a male Cañari alive for every sixteen of their women. Other tribes, like the Huancas and Chachapoyas, suffered his wrath as well, leaving many of them swearing revenge on their new ruler and all his regime. Atahualpa's rise, however, would be cut short for the arrival of the Spaniards not much after.

In 1512, rumors about yet another mighty indigenous empire came to the Spanish conquistadores stationed in the city of La Antigua (modern Unguía, Colombia). The major of the city, Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a young entrepreneur who had originally come as a stowaway, sent south an expedition that found a new sea, later revealed to be the Pacific Ocean. However, the rights to conquer the new lands would be stolen by a political enemy, Pedrarias Dávila, who pulled strings to get Balboa executed. Eleven years and an Aztec Empire later, conquistadores Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro decided to gather funds and give it a try, so another Spanish expedition sailed off from Panamá.

At the time of the conquest, the empire had no real political competition around. Their only great conflict had been against invasions of Guarani tribes from the heart of South America, who were seen by the Incas as something like the early barbarian migrations of the Roman Empire, but which were more or less under control by the time of king Huayna Cápac. Note the curiosity that one of those Guarani invasions was captained by a MightyWhitey, a Spanish-Portuguese castaway named Aleixo Garcia, but the Inca Empire managed to repeal his incursions and he died shortly after. Anyway, Huayna also died of smallpox, likely one of the strains accidentally brought by the Spanish presence in Mesoamerica, after which a bloody civil war for the throne exploded between his sons Huáscar and Atahualpa.

Atahualpa eventually won the war, arresting and imprisoning his brother, after which he initiated a massive campaign of punishment against those tribes and states that had supported Huáscar. The tribe of the Cañaris, whose renowned warriors had composed Huáscar's royal guard, suffered the greatest of the decimations, to the point that by the time the Spaniards arrived, they found a male Cañari alive for every sixteen of their women. Others tribes, like the Huancas and Chachapoyas, suffered his wrath as well, leaving many of them swearing revenge on their new ruler and all his regime. Atahualpa's rise, however, would be cut short for the arrival of the Spaniards not much after.

As with the Aztecs, there is the popular belief that the conquistadores were initially mistaken by returning gods, maybe related to the deity Huiracocha. Again, this impression comes mostly from sources written at least two decades after the conquest, when Christian missionaries and superstitious natives would be both inclined to see religious predestinations where there were none.

In 1512, rumors about yet another mighty indigenous empire came to the Spanish conquistadores stationed in the city of La Antigua (located in modern Unguía, Colombia). The major of the city, Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a young entrepreneur who had originally come as a stowaway, sent south an expedition that found a new sea, later revealed to be the Pacific Ocean. However, the rights to conquer the new lands would be stolen by a political enemy, Pedro Arias Dávila, who pulled strings to get Balboa executed. Eleven years and an Aztec Empire later, conquistadores Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro decided to gather funds and give it a try, so a Spanish expedition sailed off from Panamá.

Their first attempt to border the Pacific coast was hard, as the presence of hostile natives and the lack of interesting gains forced them to return. The second seemed to go the same road, to the point Pizarro and Almagro argued and almost had a duel to death. Arias' successor Pedro de los Ríos eventually retained Almagro during a resupply trip and ordered Pizarro to return, but at that point, Pizarro managed to get 13 crewmen to stay with him and continue, later called the ''Trece de la Fama'' ("[[TheNotableNumeral The Famous Thirteen]]"). This proved to be the best decision, as Pizarro eventually made contact with Tumbes, a rich land that was tributary of the infinitely richer Inca Empire. The expedition returned while leaving three ''famosos'' as intendants in Tumbes.

In order to get permission to expand towards the empire, Pizarro sailed back to Spain with his amazing findings and managed to convince King UsefulNotes/CharlesV himself to authorize his further exploits (folklore claims that his relative UsefulNotes/HernanCortes helped him, but there is controversy whether Pizarro and Cortés even knew each other personally). Francisco then returned with his half-brothers, the PowerTrio of Gonzalo, Hernando and Juan, and after gathering a fleet with Almagro again in the supply lines, performed his third and definitive travel to the lands of the Incas. This time there was success in finding valuable gold and jewels, which prompted many people to follow them.

In 1531, Pizarro arrived to Puná island, near Tumbes, and tried to strike an alliance with their chieftains, Tumbalá and Chilimasa. However, it turned out those two were now vassals to Inca emperor Atahualpa, who had devastated their cities into submission and ordered them to wipe out any possible invader (the intendants left there were basically MIA), and it was only under the warning of a native translator, and the timely reinforcements of an expedition by the unruly Hernando de Soto, that the Spaniards survived the trap. Their following labors to subject native communities brought news to Atahualpa himself, who wondered if the strange foreigners were supernatural beings, but in turn, Pizarro and company also gathered info about the Inca Empire and the civil war that Atahualpa had just won against Huáscar.

Pizarro and Atahualpa traded messages of peace, after which the Inca invited him to meet in the city of Cajamarca. However, one of the indigenous chieftains in the Spanish party, Guachapuro, unmasked an Inca spy and warned that Atahualpa was luring them into a trap to submit and enslave the Spaniards and capitalize on their advanced crafts and weapons. Certainly, Pizarro found Cajamarca empty and shadowed by an army of 30,000-50,000 headed by Atahualpa, and a tumultuous first interview between the emperor and Hernando Pizarro seemed to confirm their fears. The inevitable battle seemed utterly hopeless for the meager 150 Spanish, but Francisco decided to turn the trap on its head and pretended to invite Atahualpa to their camp. The emperor, overconfident by his superiority, arrived with just his civilian entourage, shadowed from afar by 8,000 warriors under his general Rumiñahui, and this gave Pizarro chance he needed: he captured Atahualpa and charged against Rumiñahui while unveiling the Spanish cavalry and firearms, easily routing the indigenous by sheer confusion and terror.

The Spaniards seized an insane booty, but just as importantly, the news of Atahualpa's predicament overjoyed the partisans of Huáscar and other tribes that couldn't wait to be freed from the Atahualpist rule, like the Chancas, Huancas, Cañaris and Chachapoyas, all of which would progressively come to [[EnemyMine ally with the Iberians]] (it's even claimed the Cañaris had been secretly in league with Pizarro since his arrival in Tumbes, although the truth is unclear). Atahualpa tried to bribe his way out by handing Pizarro a mountain of treasure, with Hernando being sent to bring it, and meanwhile the emperor and Pizarro got to know each other to find out the best course. This accidentally prompted the Inca civil war to be buried deeper: when Pizarro requested to meet the imprisoned Huáscar, the latter thought about befriending him, which moved Atahualpa to have Huáscar secretly executed just in case. Anyway, Pizarro also received Atahualpa's sister Quispe Sisa (baptized as Inés) in marriage.

The Inca treasure was bigger than anything the conquistadores had ever dreamed, but [[GoldFever as it often happens]], it would end up bringing only trouble. After their arrival, Almagro and his people were annoyed that their part was way smaller due to having missed the fight, while other crewmen who chose to return to Spain already found their own parts confiscated by King Charles V, who wanted it (and all money in America, really) to fund his wars in Europe. And while all of this happened, the Spanish captains and allies argued unceasingly about what to do with Atahualpa, fueled by apparently believable reports that the Inca might be still planning to catch them off guard and revolt. At the end, on July 1533, and very against Pizarro's wishes, the emperor was put on trial and executed on rather absurd charges, being replaced by a PuppetKing in the form of brother Túpac Hualpa.

As the Inca empire itself still remained technically unconquered, Pizarro marched towards its capital, Cusco, now with the safety and mighty indigenous armies provided by the Huascarists and the rest of the tribes opposed to the Atahualpa regime. However, [[TheRemnant several Atahualpist generals]], of which Quizquiz and Rumiñahui were the greatest, were preparing to fight him to take over the weakened empire, setting defensive measures that forced Pizarro to strengthen his position before continuing. Pizarro's multi-national army fought multiple battles, with Almagro and Soto often complicating things due to their eagerness to grab money, but they altogether managed to carve their way towards Cusco, which was taken and, as it could not be otherwise, divested of its gold reserves.

The conquest seemed to end there, in November 1533, so Pizarro and company passed time developing their new lands and founding or enlarging cities, most importantly Lima. Almagro also started his own expedition to the southern lands of Collasuyo (now Chile). However, much to their shock, it turned out that the latter had been a BatmanGambit to divide their forces by Manco Inca, who had secretly concocted to betray the Spaniards, apparently in vengeance for bad treatment. The emperor's plans had been discovered by Hernando Pizarro, but Manco deceived him to escape and used his royal status to gather an utterly gigantic army of around 100,000 Incas. Surprised by such a horrifying twist, Hernando was defeated and had to return to Cusco, which was besieged.

Being busy with Cusco, Manco deployed his general Quizu Yupanqui to besiege the city of Lima too. Four Spanish parties were ambushed and wiped out before Lima's major Francisco de Godoy realized was happening, and after hearing it, Pizarro quickly closed the city off. The Spaniards had been caught divided and were confused about each other's whereabouts and state, but they gathered the city's native allies, around 30,000 auxiliars, and set in motion a counterattack, while their civilians took refuge in the city's harbor in case they had to get the heck out. In one of their skirmishes, helped by their cavalry, they managed to kill Yupanqui, which disorganized his army and forced it to withdraw.

The reverse to Lima happened in Cusco. Manco had overpowered the city's defenses and started conquering it with his much greater numbers, but Hernando offered a strong resistance with the local Cañaris, Chachapoyas, black slaves and all defenders he could find, numbering another 30,000. After Juan Pizarro died in the fights, Hernando managed to slowly push the Incas back by sheer guts, although he failed spectacularly at attacking Manco's camp in Ollantaytambo, where the Incas unveiled battle tactics they had learned from the Spaniards. However, with the arrival of Almagro with another army of 50,000 indigenous allies, Manco saw himself outnumbered and endangered, and ultimately abandoned his position for the forests of Vilcabamba.

Since 1537, the conflict became stagnant. Manco opted to install a vestigial territory, the Neo-Inca state of Vilcabamba, from which he directed guerrilla action against their enemies; among the latter, a clash for power broke out unexpectedly, as Almagro, discouraged by his lack of success in Collasuyo, and allied with Manco's replacement Paullu Inca, capitalized on the ravaged state of things to revolt against Pizarro. This was the end of a VitriolicBestBuds friendship that had started fifteen years earlier. As a bonus, Pizarro also got divorced from his Inca wife Inés, their marriage embittered by the events, and instead hooked up with her relative Cuxirimay Ocllo (baptized Angelina).

After those movements, the original players finished exiting the game. In 1541, Pizarro sent his brother Hernando to Spain to defend his actions against Almagro, only for Hernando to be jailed there for the next 20 years due to his own charges. In his absence, Francisco, the great conquistador, would be murdered by Almagro's followers, who were finally submitted themselves by the royal envoy originally proposed by Hernando, Cristóbal Vaca de Castro (with the help of a young, presumably sane UsefulNotes/LopeDeAguirre). For his part, Manco Inca would be murdered three years later by runaway Almagrists he had welcomed in his Neo-Inca state as military consultants, while Gonzalo Pizarro, the last brother, would shockingly revolt in 1548 against the Spanish Crown due to their New Laws, being ultimately defeated and executed.

Over the next decades, Manco's successors made moves towards surrendering the Neo-Inca state to the Spanish viceroyalty, although this only happened after the last one, Túpac Amaru I, was captured and exected - by a Cañari executioner, for extra irony and poetic justice. This would be the end of the conquest of Perú, leaving behind the ruins of an empire and the continued rise of another. Ironically, when the dust of the multi-racial fratricides finally settled, the Inca was the last man standing: Paullu Inca, who had managed to survive all the political changes, earn King Charles V's gratitude and being named ''Alférez Real de los Incas'', the head of a council of 24 members of the main Inca noble houses, who would continue being part of the administration under the Spanish viceroy.

* ''VideoGame/{{Inca}}'' and its sequel are an interesting version of the conquest literally RecycledInSpace, only with Aguirre in Pizarro's place for extra craziness.

The conquest of the Inca Empire was the Spanish Empire's next great enterprise after they took control of Central America following their [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheAztecEmpire Conquest of the Aztec Empire]] in the 16th century. It was undergone mainly by conquistadores UsefulNotes/FranciscoPizarro, a second cousin to UsefulNotes/HernanCortez, and Diego de Almagro, his [[TheLancer Lancer]] and eventually FriendTurnedRival.

This chapter of the Conquest of America could be considered the DarkerAndEdgier sequel to the capture of México. Compared to the colourful epic of the Mexican conquest, Pizarro's empress was an ugly affair marked by constant betrayals, bad strategic decisions and desperate scuffles, whose plots brought the Crown of Spain gold in plenty yet not any fewer headaches. Unlike the Mexica Empire, whose various native rivals struck friendships with the Spaniards from the very beginning and rolled them into their ancestral enmities in the lush Mesoamerican jungle, the Inca Empire was a dry, mountainous domain that had assimilated all possible competition of its lands, making its conquest more akin to bursting into a DeadlyDecadentCourt, in which nobody could thrive without backstabbing someone, than engaging in a true military campaign.

Ironically, despite the tortuousness of its course, the conquest of the Inca Empire might have been the most successful Spanish venture for all the sides involved. Not only the Inca aristocrats got to retain their power under the Spanish administration to a degree greater than the hard-conquered Mexicas and the fragmented Mayans, eased by the admirable native organization of their empire, but the lands would become the wealthiest of the Spanish Empire for the combo of precious metals and sea trading routes. It entered Spanish language in an idiom, ''valer un Perú/Potosí'' (roughly, "to be worth a Peru/Potosi," Potosí being a successful mining town of the viceroyalty).

At the time of the conquest, the empire had no real political competition around. Their only great conflict had been against invasions of Guarani tribes from the heart of South America, who were seen by the Incas as something like the early barbarian migrations of the Roman Empire, but which were more or less under control by the time of king Huayna Cápac. Note the curiosity that one of those Guarani invasions was captained by a MightyWhitey, a Portuguese castaway named Aleixo Garcia, but the Inca Empire managed to repeal his incursions and he died shortly after. Anyway, Huayna also died of smallpox, likely one of the strains accidentally brought by the Spanish presence in Mesoamerica, after which a bloody civil war for the throne exploded between his sons Huáscar and Atahualpa. Atahualpa eventually won, imprisoning his brother, but his rise would be cut short for the arrival of the Spaniards not much after.

In 1531, Pizarro arrived to Puná island, near Tumbes, and tried to strike an alliance with their chieftains, Tumbalá and Chilimasa. However, it turned out those two were now vassals to Inca emperor Atahualpa, who had devastated their cities into submission and ordered them to wipe out any possible invader (the intendants left there were MIA), and it was only under the warning of a native translator, and the timely reinforcements of an expedition by the unruly Hernando de Soto, that the Spaniards survived the trap. Their following labors to subject native communities brought news to Atahualpa himself, who wondered if the strange foreigners were supernatural beings, but in turn, Pizarro and company also gathered info about the Inca Empire and the civil war that Atahualpa had just won against Huáscar.

Pizarro and Atahualpa traded messages of peace, after which the Inca invited him to meet in the city of Cajamarca. However, one of the indigenous chieftains in the Spanish party, Guachapuro, unmasked an Inca spy and warned that Atahualpa was luring them into a trap to submit and enslave the Spaniards. Certainly, Pizarro found Cajamarca empty and shadowed by an army of 30,000-50,000 headed by Atahualpa, and a tumultuous first interview between the emperor and Hernando Pizarro seemed to confirm their fears. The inevitable battle seemed utterly hopeless for the meager 150 Spanish, but Francisco decided to turn the trap on its head and pretended to invite Atahualpa to their camp. The emperor, overconfident by his superiority, arrived with just his civilian entourage, shadowed from afar by 8,000 warriors under his general Rumiñahui, and this gave Pizarro chance he needed: he captured Atahualpa and charged against Rumiñahui while unveiling the Spanish cavalry and firearms, easily routing the indigenous by sheer confusion and terror.

The Spaniards seized an insane booty, but just as importantly, the news of Atahualpa's predicament overjoyed the partisans of Huáscar and other tribes that couldn't wait to be freed from the Inca rule, like the Huancas, Cañaris and Chachapoyas, all of which would progressively come to [[EnemyMine ally with the Iberians]] (it's even claimed the Cañaris had been secretly in league with Pizarro since his arrival in Tumbes, although this is unlikely). Atahualpa tried to bribe his way out by handing Pizarro a mountain of treasure, with Hernando being sent to bring it, and meanwhile the emperor and Pizarro got to know each other, which accidentally prompted the Inca civil war to be buried deeper: when Pizarro requested to meet the imprisoned Huáscar, the latter thought about befriending him, which moved Atahualpa to have Huáscar secretly executed just in case. Anyway, Pizarro also received Atahualpa's sister Quispe Sisa (baptized as Inés) in marriage.

As the Inca empire itself still remained unconquered, Pizarro marched towards its capital, Cusco, now with the safety of his alliances with the Huascarists and the rest of the anti-Inca tribes. However, [[TheRemnant Several Atahualpist generals]], of which Quizquiz and Rumiñahui were the greatest, were preparing to fight him to take over the weakened empire, setting defensive measures that forced Pizarro to strengthen his position before continuing. Pizarro's army fought multiple battles, with Almagro and Soto often complicating things due to their eagerness to grab money, but they altogether managed to carve their way towards Cusco, which they sacked.

As Hualpa had died poisoned, likely by Atahualpists, and needed yet another replacement, Pizarro supported the election of Huascarist general Manco Inca. More battles followed, with the Spanish-Huascarist alliance beating their enemies in Maraycalla, Teocaxas and Pancallo. A bizarre event came in 1534 when Pedro de Alvarado, Hernán Cortés' former lieutenant, came from the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheMaya Conquest of the Maya]] with 500 Spaniards and 2,000 Mayan warriors, trying to steal his piece of the Inca. However, Pizarro sent Almagro to negotiate with him, and after many considerations, Alvarado joined them in exchange for a lot of gold. At the end, the allies defeated Quizquiz, who died betrayed by another chieftain, and Rumiñahui, who was captured and executed.

The reverse to Lima happened in Cusco. Manco had overpowered the city's defenses and started conquering it with his much greater numbers, but Hernando offered a strong resistance with the Cañaris, Chachapoyas, black slaves and all defenders he could find, gathering around 30,000. After Juan Pizarro died in the fights, Hernando managed to slowly push the Incas back by sheer guts, although he failed spectacularly at attacking Manco's camp in Ollantaytambo, where the Incas unveiled battle tactics they had learned from the Spaniards. However, with the arrival of Almagro with another army of 50,000 indigenous allies, Manco saw himself outnumbered beyond possibility and abandoned his position for the forests of Vilcabamba.

Almagro easily overtook Cusco, from where he also defeated a Pizarrist army headed by Pedro de Alvarado's nephew Alonso. Almagro seemed to have the longer end of the stick, having captured Hernando Pizarro, but the shrewd Francisco feigned a truce to ask the king for arbitration, and when his brother was liberated, the Pizarros went "[[ISurrenderSuckers haha]] [[ILied I lied]]" and marched against Almagro. In the final battle in Las Salinas, Almagro's army was defeated, with the man himself being executed by Hernando, reportedly against the wishes of Francisco, who still wanted to keep his old friend alive. The conflict also brought the death of Manco Inca, murdered in 1544 by disgruntled Almagrists he had welcomed in his Neo-Inca state as military consultants.

With those movements, the original factions finished exiting the game. Out of the Pizarro brothers, Hernando was sued and jailed in Spain, Gonzalo would be later executed for revolting himself against King Philip II for unrelated reasons, and Francisco, the great conquistador, would be murdered by Almagro's followers, who were finally submitted themselves by an envoy of the king, Cristóbal Vaca de Castro (with the help of a young, presumably sane UsefulNotes/LopeDeAguirre). Meanwhile, over the next decades, Manco's successors made moves towards surrendering the Neo-Inca state to the Spanish viceroyalty, being tired of guerrilla, although this only happened after the last one, Túpac Amaru I, chose to DoNotGoGentle instead.

This would be the end of the conquest of Perú, leaving behind the ruins of an empire and the continued rise of another. Ironically, when the dust of the multi-racial fratricides finally settled, it could be said that out of the original players, the Inca was the last man standing: Paullu Inca, who had managed to survive all the political changes, earned King Charles V's gratitude and was named ''Alférez Real de los Incas'', the head of a council of 24 members of the main Inca noble houses, who would continue being part of the administration under the Spanish viceroy.

At the time of the conquest, the empire had just suffered a bloody civil war, in which the two sons of the king Huayna Cápac, named Huáscar and Atahualpa, fought for the throne. Atahualpa eventually won, capturing and imprisoning his brother, but his rise would be cut short for the arrival of the Spaniards not much after.

In 1512, rumors about yet another mighty indigenous empire came to the Spanish conquistadores stationed in the city of La Antigua (located in modern Unguía, Colombia). The major of the city, Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a young entrepreneur who had originally come as a stowaway, sent south an expedition that found a new sea, later revealed to be the Pacific Ocean. However, the rights to conquer the new lands would be stolen by a political enemy, Pedro Arias Dávila, who pulled strings to get Balboa executed. 11 years and an Aztec Empire later, when conquistadores Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro decided to gather funds and give it a try, a Spanish expedition sailed off from Panamá.

Their first attempt to border the Pacific coast was hard, as the presence of hostile natives and the lack of interesting gains forced them to return. The second seemed to go the same road, to the point Pizarro and Almagro argued and almost had a duel to death. Arias' successor Pedro de los Ríos eventually retained Almagro during a resupply trip and ordered Pizarro to return, but at that point, Pizarro managed to get 13 crewmen to stay with him and continue, later called the ''Trece de la Fama'' ("[[TheNotableNumeral The Famous Thirteen]]"). This proved to be the best decision, as Pizarro eventually made contact with the Inca Empire in the land of Tumbes.

In order to get permission to expand further, Pizarro sailed back to Spain with his findings and managed to convince King Charles V himself, not without the help of Hernán Cortés. He returned with his brothers, the PowerTrio of Gonzalo, Hernando and Juan, and after gathering a fleet with Almagro again in the supply lines, performed his third travel to the lands of the Incas. This time there was success in finding valuable gold and jewels, which prompted many people to follow them.

In 1531, Pizarro arrived in an island near Tumbes and made alliances with two native chieftains, but those had been apparently ordered by Inca emperor Atahualpa to wipe out any possible invader, and it was only under the warning of a native translator, and the timely reinforcements of an expedition by the unruly Hernando de Soto, that the Spaniards survived. The next battles against natives brought news of the conquistadores to Atahualpa himself, who wondered if the strange foreigners were supernatural beings, but Pizarro and company also heard about Cusco, the rich capital of the Inca Empire, and the civil war that Atahualpa had just won against Huáscar.

Pizarro and Soto advanced towards Cajamarca, near to where Atahualpa was supposedly warring, and traded messages of peace with him. However, Pizarro's native messenger Guachapuro warned the Spaniards that Atahualpa might be luring them into a trap, and after a not very peaceful meeting between the emperor and Hernando Pizarro, it was apparent that he was right, for Atahualpa had a force of 8,000 placed nearby under the command of his general Rumiñahui. The inevitable conflict seemed hopeless, being just 150 Spaniards with no native allies, but Francisco decided to hit first to turn the trap on its head: luring Atahualpa to the city without his army, Pizarro shockingly captured him and charged against Rumiñahui's army. Terrified by the Spanish cavalry and firearms, and morally decapitated by the capture of their emperor, they fell into chaos and were easily routed.

The Spaniards seized an insane booty, but just as importantly, their capture of Atahualpa overjoyed the partisans of Huáscar and other tribes that couldn't wait to be freed from the Inca rule, like the Huancas, Cañaris and Chachapoyas, all of which [[EnemyMine allied with the Iberians]]. Atahualpa tried to bribe his way out by offering Pizarro a mountain of treasure, so Pizarro sent his brother Hernando to bring it while he stayed to receive Almagro, who brought himself a much needed expedition of reinforcement. Francisco and Atahualpa got to know each other, which accidentally prompted the Inca civil war to be buried deeper: when Pizarro requested to meet the captured Huáscar, the latter thought about replacing Atahualpa, which moved the emperor to have Huáscar executed. By this time, Pizarro also received Atahualpa's sister Quispe Sisa (baptized as Inés) in marriage.

The Inca treasure was bigger than anything the conquistadores had ever dreamed, but [[GoldFever as it often happens]], it would end up bringing only trouble. Almagro and his people were annoyed that their part was way smaller due to having arrived late to the fight, while other crewmen who returned to Spain found their own parts confiscated by King Charles V, who wanted it (and all money that could be extracted in America, really) to fund his wars in Europe. And while all of this happened, the Spanish captains and allies argued unceasingly about what to do with Atahualpa, fueled by apparently believable reports that the Inca might have been planning to catch them off guard and revolt. At the end, on July 1533, and against Pizarro's wishes, the emperor was put on trial and executed on rather absurd charges, being replaced as a PuppetKing by his brother Túpac Hualpa.

As the Inca empire itself still remained unconquered, Pizarro marched towards its capital, Cusco, with the safety of his alliance with the Huascarists and the rest of the renegade tribes. [[TheRemnant Several Atahualpist generals]], of which Quizquiz and Rumiñahui were the greatest, were preparing to fight him to take over the weakened empire, setting defensive measures that forced Pizarro to strengthen his position before continuing. Pizarro's army fought multiple battles, with Almagro and Soto often complicating things due to their eagerness to grab money, but they altogether managed to carve their way towards Cusco, which they sacked.

Ironically, despite the tortuousness of its course, the conquest of the Inca Empire might have been the most successful Spanish venture for all the sides involved. Not only the Inca aristocrats got to retain their power under the Spanish administration to a degree greater than the riotous Mexicas and the fragmented Mayans, eased by the admirable organization of their empire, but the lands would become the wealthiest of the Spanish Empire for the combo of precious metals and trading routes. It entered Spanish language in an idiom, ''valer un Perú/Potosí'' (roughly, "to be worth a Peru/Potosi," Potosí being a successful mining town of the viceroyalty).

The Inca Empire, called ''Tahuantinsuyo'' in their language, was likely the largest and most advanced of the UsefulNotes/PreColumbianCivilizations. It started off in the Peruvian Andes, when the city state of Cuzco started a campaign of expansion, though more burocratic and regulated than savage or militaristic. Unlike the Mexicas, human sacrifice was not instrumental for Inca culture, although they did practice it in small numbers, mainly sacrificing children in the mountains.

In 1512, rumors about yet another mighty indigenous empire came to the Spanish conquistadores stationed in the city of La Antigua (located in modern Unguía, Colombia). The major of the city, Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a young entrepreneur who had originally come as a stowaway, sent south an expedition that found a new sea, later revealed to be the Pacific Ocean. However, the rights to conquer the new lands would be stolen by a political enemy, Pedro Arias Dávila, who pulled strings to get Balboa executed. 11 years later, when conquistadores Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro decided to gather funds and give it a try, a Spanish expedition sailed off from Panamá.

In 1531, Pizarro arrived in an island near Tumbes and made alliances with two native chieftains, but those had been apparently ordered by Inca emperor Atahualpa to wipe out any possible invader, and it was only under the warning of a native translator, and the timely reinforcements of an expedition by the unruly Hernando de Soto, that the Spaniards survived. The next battles against natives brought news of the conquistadores to Atahualpa himself, who wondered if the strange foreigners were supernatural beings, but Pizarro and company also heard about Cuzco, the rich capital of the Inca Empire, and the civil war that Atahualpa had just won against Huáscar.

Pizarro and Soto advanced towards Cajamarca, near to where Atahualpa was supposedly warring, and traded messages of peace with him. However, Pizarro's native messenger Guachapuro warned the Spaniards that Atahualpa might be luring them into a trap, and after a not very peaceful meeting between the emperor and Hernando Pizarro, it was apparent that he was right, for Atahualpa had a force of 8.000 placed nearby under the command of his general Rumiñahui. The inevitable conflict seemed hopeless, being just 150 Spaniards with no native allies, but Francisco decided to hit first to turn the trap on its head: luring Atahualpa to the city without his army, Pizarro shockingly captured him and charged against Rumiñahui's army. Terrified by the Spanish cavalry and firearms, and morally decapitated by the capture of their emperor, they fell into chaos and were easily routed.

The Spaniards seized an insane booty, but just as importantly, their capture of Atahualpa overjoyed the partisans of Huáscar and others tribes that couldn't wait to be freed from the Inca rule, like the Huancas, Cañaris and Chachapoyas, all of which [[EnemyMine allied with the Iberians]]. Atahualpa tried to bribe his way out by offering Pizarro a mountain of treasure, so Pizarro sent his brother Hernando to bring it while he stayed to receive Almagro, who brought himself a much needed expedition of reinforcement. Francisco and Atahualpa got to know each other, which accidentally prompted the Inca civil war to be buried deeper: when Pizarro requested to meet the captured Huáscar, the latter thought about replacing Atahualpa, which moved the emperor to have Huáscar executed. By this time, Pizarro also received Atahualpa's sister Quispe Sisa (baptized as Inés) in marriage.

The Inca treasure was bigger than anything the conquistadores had ever dreamed, but [[GoldFever as it often happens]], it would end up bringing only trouble. Almagro and his people were annoyed that their part was way smaller due to having arrived late to the fight, while other crewmen who returned to Spain found their own parts confiscated by King Charles V, who wanted it (and all money that could be extracted in America, really) to fund his wars in Europe. And while all of this happened, the Spanish captains and allies argued unceasingly about what to do with Atahualpa, fueled by apparently believable reports that the Inca might have been planning to catch them off guard and revolt. At the end, on July 1533, and against Pizarro's whishes, the emperor was put on trial and executed on rather absurd charges, being replaced as a PuppetKing by his brother Túpac Hualpa.

As the Inca empire itself still remained unconquered, Pizarro marched towards its capital, Cuzco, with the safety of his alliance with the Huascarists and the rest of the renegade tribes. [[TheRemnant Several Atahualpist generals]], of which Quizquiz and Rumiñahui were the greatest, were preparing to fight him to take over the weakened empire, setting defensive measures that forced Pizarro to strengthen his position before continuing. Pizarro's army fought multiple battles, with Almagro and Soto often complicating things due to their eagerness to grab money, but they altogether managed to carve their way towards Cuzco, which they sacked.

As Hualpa had died poisoned, likely by Atahualpists, and needed yet another replacement, Pizarro supported the election of Huascarist general Manco Inca. More battles followed, with the Spanish-Huascarist alliance beating their enemies in Maraycalla, Teocaxas and Pancallo. A bizarre event came in 1534 when Pedro de Alvarado, Hernán Cortés' former lieutenant, came from the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheMaya Conquest of the Maya]] with 500 Spaniards and 2.000 Mayan warriors, trying to steal his piece of the Inca. However, Pizarro sent Almagro to negotiate with him, and after many considerations, Alvarado joined them in exchange for a lot of gold. At the end, the allies defeated Quizquiz, who died betrayed by another chieftain, and Rumiñahui, who was captured and executed.

The conquest seemed to end there, in November 1533, so Pizarro and company passed time developing their new lands and founding or enlarging cities, most importantly Lima. Almagro also started his own expedition to the southern lands of Collasuyo (now Chile). However, much to their shock, it turned out that the latter had been a BatmanGambit by Manco Inca, who had secretly concocted to betray the Spaniards and had tried to divide their forces. The emperor's plans had been discovered by Hernando Pizarro, but Manco deceived him to escape and used his royal status to gather a gigantic army of around 100.000 Incas. Surprised by such a horrifying twist, Hernando was defeated and had to return to Cuzco, which was besieged.

Being busy with Cuzco, Manco deployed his general Quizu Yupanqui to besiege the city of Lima too. Four Spanish parties were ambushed and wiped out before Lima's major Francisco de Godoy realized was happening, and after hearing it, Pizarro quickly closed the city off. The Spaniards had been caught divided and were confused about each other's whereabouts and state, but they gathered the city's native allies and prepared for counterattack, while their civilians took refuge in the city's harbor in case they had to get the heck out. In one of their skirmishes, helped by their cavalry, they managed to kill Yupanqui, which disorganized his army and forced it to withdraw.

The reverse to Lima happened in Cuzco. Manco had overpowered the city's defenses and started conquering it with his much greater numbers, but Hernando offered a strong resistance with the Cañaris, Chachapoyas, black slaves and all defenders he could find. After Juan Pizarro died in the fights, Hernando managed to slowly push the Incas back by sheer guts, although he failed spectacularly at attacking Manco's camp in Ollantaytambo, where the Incas unveiled battle tactics they had learned from the Spaniards. However, with the arrival of Almagro with much greater forces, Manco abandoned his position for the forests of Vilcabamba.

Since 1537, the conflict became stagnant. Manco opted to install a vestigial territory, the Neo-Inca state of Vilcabamba, from which he directed guerrilla action against their enemies; among the latter, a clash for power broke out unexpectedly, as Almagro, discouraged by his lack of success in Collasuyo, and allied with Manco's replacement Paullu Inca, capitalized on the ravaged state of things to revolt against Pizarro. This was the end of a VitriolicBestBuds friendship that had started back fifteen years earlier. As a bonus, Pizarro also got divorced from his Inca wife Inés, their marriage embittered by the events, and instead hooked up with her relative Cuxirimay (baptized Angelina).

Almagro easily overtook Cuzco, from where he also defeated a Pizarrist army headed by Pedro de Alvarado's nephew Alonso. Almagro seemed to have the longer end of the stick, having captured Hernando Pizarro, but the shrewd Francisco feigned a truce to ask the king for arbitration, and when his brother was liberated, the Pizarros went "[[ISurrenderSuckers haha]] [[ILied I lied]]" and marched against Almagro. In the final battle in Las Salinas, Almagro's army was defeated, with the man himself being executed by Hernando, reportedly against the wishes of Francisco, who still wanted to keep his old friend alive. The conflict also brought the death of Manco Inca, murdered in 1544 by disgruntled Almagrists he had welcomed in his Neo-Inca state as military consultants.

With those movements, the original factions finished exiting the game. Out of the Pizarro brothers, Hernando was sued and jailed in Spain, Gonzalo was executed for revolting himself against King Philip II for unrelated reasons, and Francisco, the great conquistador, would be murdered by Almagro's followers, who were finally submitted themselves by an envoy of the king, Cristóbal Vaca de Castro. Meanwhile, over the next decades, Manco's successors made moves towards surrendering the Neo-Inca state to the Spanish viceroyalty, being tired of guerrilla, although this only happened after the last one, Túpac Amaru I, chose to DoNotGoGentle instead.

This would be the end of the conquest of Perú, leaving behind the ruins of an empire and the continued rise of another. Ironically, when the dust of the multi-racial fratricide battles finally settled, it could be said that out of the original players, the Inca was the last man standing: Paullu Inca, who had managed to survive all the political changes, earned King Charles V's gratitude and was named ''Alférez Real de los Incas'', the head of a council of 24 members of the main Inca noble houses, who would continue ruling under the Spanish viceroy.

* ''VideoGame/{{Inca}}'' and its sequel are an interesting version of the conquest literally RecycledInSpace, only with UsefulNotes/LopeDeAguirre in Pizarro's place for extra craziness.

* ''VideoGame/{{Inca}}'' and its sequel are an interesting version of the conquest literally RecycledInSpace, only with UsefulNotes/LopeDeAguirre in Pizarro's place for extra craziness.

The conquest of the Inca Empire was the Spanish Empire's next great enterprise after they took control of Central America following their [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfMexico Conquest of the Aztec Empire]] in the 16th century. It was undergone mainly by conquistadores UsefulNotes/FranciscoPizarro, a second cousin to UsefulNotes/HernanCortez, and Diego de Almagro, his [[TheLancer Lancer]] and eventually FriendTurnedRival.

* ''VideoGame/{{Inca}}'' and its sequel are an interesting version of the conquest literally RecycledInSpace, only with Lope de Aguirre in Pizarro's place for extra craziness.

The conquest of the Inca Empire was the Spanish Empire's next great enterprise after they took control of Central America following their [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfMexico Conquest of the Aztec Empire]] in the 16th century. It was undergone mainly by conquistadores Francisco Pizarro, a second cousin to UsefulNotes/HernanCortez, and Diego de Almagro, his [[TheLancer Lancer]] and eventually FriendTurnedRival.

The Inca treasure was bigger than anything the conquistadores had ever dreamed, but [[GoldFever as it often happens]], it would end up bringing only trouble. Almagro and his people were annoyed that their part was way smaller due to having arrived late to the fight, while other crewmen who returned to Spain found their own parts confiscated by King Charles V, who wanted it (and all money that could be extracted in America, really) to fund his wars in Europe. And while all of this happened, the Spanish captains and allies argued unceasingly about what to do with Atahualpa, each having different interests about his life or death. At the end, on July 1533, the emperor was put on trial and executed on rather absurd charges, being replaced as a PuppetKing by his brother Túpac Hualpa.

This chapter of the Conquest of America could be considered the DarkerAndEdgier sequel to the capture of México. Compared to the colourful epic of the Mexican conquest, Pizarro's empress was an ugly affair marked by constant betrayals, bad strategic decisions and desperate scuffles, whose plots brought the Crown of Spain gold in plenty yet not any fewer headaches. Unlike the previous, where the Spaniards enjoyed friendships with native civilizations from the very beginning and participated in their ancestral enmities in the lush Mesoamerican jungle, the Inca Empire was a dry, mountainous domain that had assimilated all possible competition of its lands, making its game of loyalties more akin to a DeadlyDecadentCourt, in which nobody could thrive without backstabbing someone, than a true campaign.

Ironically, despite the tortuousness of its course, the conquest of the Inca Empire might have been the most successful American conquest for all the sides involved. Not only the Inca aristocrats got to retain their power under the Spanish administration to a truly unusual degree, eased by the admirable organization of their empire, but the lands would become the wealthiest of the Spanish Empire for the combo of gold and trading routes. It entered Spanish language in an idiom, ''valer un Perú/Potosí'' (roughly, "to be worth a Peru/Potosi," Potosí being a successful mining town of the viceroyalty).

This chapter of the Conquest of America could be considered the DarkerAndEdgier sequel to the capture of México. Compared to the colourful epic of the Mexican conquest, Pizarro's empress was a slow, ugly affair marked by constant betrayals, bad strategic decisions and desperate scuffles, whose plots brought the Crown of Spain gold in plenty yet not any fewer headaches. Unlike the previous, where the Spaniards enjoyed friendships with native civilizations from the very beginning and participated in their ancestral enmities in the lush Mesoamerican jungle, the Inca Empire was a dry, mountainous domain that had assimilated all possible competition of its lands, making its game of loyalties more akin to a DeadlyDecadentCourt in which nobody could thrive without backstabbing someone.

Ironically, despite the tortuous of its course, the conquest of the Inca Empire might have been the most successful American conquest for all the sides involved. Not only the Inca aristocrats got to retain their power under the Spanish administration to a truly unusual degree, eased by the admirable organization of their empire, but the lands would become the wealthiest of the Spanish Empire for the combo of gold and trading routes. It entered Spanish language in an idiom, ''valer un Perú/Potosí'' (roughly, "worth a Peru/Potosi," Potosí being a successful mining town of the viceroyalty).

In 1531, Pizarro arrived in an island near Tumbes and made alliances with two native chieftains, but those had been secretly ordered by Inca emperor Atahualpa to wipe out any possible invader, and it was only under the warning of a native translator, and the timely reinforcements of an expedition by the unruly Hernando de Soto, that the Spaniards survived. The next battles against natives brought news of the conquistadores to Atahualpa himself, who wondered if the strange foreigners were supernatural beings, but Pizarro and company also heard about Cuzco, the rich capital of the Inca Empire, and the civil war that Atahualpa had just won against Huáscar.

Pizarro and Soto advanced towards Cajamarca, near to where Atahualpa was supposedly warring, and traded messages of peace with him. However, Pizarro's native messenger Guachapuro warned the Spaniards that Atahualpa might be luring them into a trap, and after a not very reassuring meeting between the emperor and Hernando Pizarro, it was apparent that he was right, for Atahualpa had a force of 8.000 placed nearby under the command of his general Rumiñahui. The inevitable conflict seemed hopeless, being just 150 Spaniards with few native allies, but Francisco decided to hit first to turn the trap on its head: he lured Atahualpa to the city without his army and captured him, after which Pizarro charged against Rumiñahui's army. Terrified by the Spanish cavalry and firearms, and morally decapitated by the capture of their emperor, they fell into chaos and were easily routed.

The Spaniards seized an insane booty, but just as importantly, their capture of the emperor overjoyed the partisans of Huáscar and others tribes that couldn't wait to be freed from the Inca rule, like the Huancas, Cañaris and Chachapoyas, all of which [[EnemyMine allied with the Iberians]]. Atahualpa tried to bribe his way out by offering Pizarro a mountain of treasure, so Pizarro sent his brother Hernando to bring it while he stayed to receive Almagro, who brought a much needed expedition of reinforcement. Francisco and Atahualpa got to know each other, which accidentally prompted the Inca civil war to be buried deeper: when Pizarro requested to meet the captured Huáscar, the latter thought about replacing Atahualpa, which moved the emperor to have Huáscar executed. By this time, Pizarro also received Atahualpa's sister Quispe Sisas (baptized as Inés) in marriage.

As the Inca empire itself still remained unconquered, Pizarro marched towards its capital, Cuzco, with the safety of his alliance with the Huascarists and the rest of the renegade tribes. Several Atahualpist generals, of which Quizquiz and Rumiñahui were the greatest, were preparing to fight him to take over the weakened empire, setting defensive measures that forced Pizarro to strengthen his position before continuing. Pizarro's army fought multiple battles, with Almagro and Soto often complicating things due to their eagerness to grab money, but they altogether managed to carve their way towards Cuzco, which they sacked.

Since 1537, the conflict became stagnant. Manco opted to install a vestigial territory, the Neo-Inca state of Vilcabamba, from which he directed guerrilla action against their enemies, while among those, a clash for power broke out unexpectedly, as Almagro, discouraged by his lack of success in Collasuyo, and allied with Manco's replacement Paullu Inca, capitalized on the ravaged state of things to revolt against Pizarro. This was the end of a VitriolicBestBuds friendship that had started back fifteen years earlier. As a bonus, Pizarro also got divorced from his Inca wife Inés, their marriage embittered by the events, and instead hooked up with her relative Cuxirimay (baptized Angelina).

Almagro easily overtook Cuzco, from where he also defeated a Pizarrist army headed by Pedro de Alvarado's nephew Alonso. Almagro seemed to have the longer end of the stick, having captured Hernando Pizarro, but the shrewd Francisco feigned a truce to ask the king for arbitration, and when his brother was liberated, the Pizarros went "[[ISurrenderSuckers haha just kidding]]" and marched against Almagro. In the final battle in Las Salinas, Almagro's army was defeated, with the man himself being executed by Hernando, reportedly against the wishes of Francisco, who still wanted to keep his old friend alive. The conflict also brought the death of Manco Inca, murdered in 1544 by disgruntled Almagrists he had welcomed in his Neo-Inca state as military consultants.

This would be the end of the conquest of Perú, leaving behind the ruins of an empire and the continued rise of another. Ironically, when the dust of the fratricide battles finally settled, it could be said that out of the original players, the Inca was the last man standing: Paullu Inca, who had managed to survive all the political changes, earned King Charles V's gratitude and was named ''Alférez Real de los Incas'', the head of a council of 24 members of the main Inca noble houses, who would continue ruling under the Spanish viceroy.

The conquest of the Inca Empire was the Spanish Empire's next great enterprise after they took control of Central America following their [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfMexico Conquest of the Aztec Empire]] in the 16th century. It was undergone mainly by conquistadors Francisco Pizarro, a second cousin to UsefulNotes/HernanCortez, and Diego de Almagro, his [[TheLancer Lancer]] and eventually FriendTurnedRival.

As with the Aztecs, there is the popular belief that the conquistadors were initially mistaken by returning gods, maybe related to the deity Huiracocha. Again, this impression comes mostly from sources written at least two decades after the conquest, when Christian missionaries and superstitious natives would be both inclined to see religious predestinations where there were none.

In 1531, Pizarro arrived to an island near Tumbes and made alliances with two native chieftains, but those had been secretly ordered by Inca emperor Atahualpa to wipe out any possible invader, and it was only under the warning of a native translator, and the timely reinforcements of an expedition by the unruly Hernando de Soto, that the Spaniards survived. The next battles against natives brought news of the conquistadores to Atahualpa himself, who wondered if the strange foreigners were supernatural beings, but Pizarro and company also heard about Cuzco, the rich capital of the Inca Empire, and the civil war that Atahualpa had just won against Huáscar.

Pizarro and Soto advanced towards Cajamarca, near to where Atahualpa was supposedly warring, and traded messages of peace with him. However, Pizarro's native messenger Guachapuro warned the Spaniards that Atahualpa might be luring them into a trap, and after a not very reassuring meeting between the emperor and Hernando Pizarro, it was apparent that he was right, for Atahualpa had a force of 8.000 placed nearby under the command of his general Rumiñahui. The inevitable conflict seemed hopeless, being just 150 Spaniards with few native allies, but Francisco decided to hit first and staged his own trap: he lured Atahualpa to the city without his army and captured him, after which Pizarro charged against Rumiñahui's army. Terrified by the Spanish cavalry and firearms, and morally decapitated by the capture of their emperor, they fell into chaos and were easily routed.

The Spaniards seized an insane booty, but just as importantly, their capture of the emperor overjoyed the partisans of Huáscar and other tribes unfriendly to the Incas, like the Huancas, Cañaris and Chachapoyas, all of which quickly [[EnemyMine allied with them]]. Atahualpa tried to bribe his way out by offering Pizarro a mountain of treasure, so Pizarro sent his brother Hernando to bring it while he stayed to receive Almagro, who brought a much needed expedition of reinforcement. Francisco and Atahualpa also got to know each other, which accidentally prompted the Inca civil war to be buried deeper: when Pizarro requested to meet the captured Huáscar, the latter thought about replacing Atahualpa, which moved the emperor to order Huáscar to be executed. By this time, Pizarro also received Atahualpa's sister Quispe Sisas (baptized as Inés) in marriage.

The Inca treasure was bigger than anything the conquistadores had ever dreamed, but as it often happens, it would end up bringing only trouble. Almagro and his people were annoyed that their part was way smaller due to having arrived late to the fight, while other crewmen who returned to Spain found their own parts confiscated by King Charles V, who wanted it (and all money that could be extracted in America, really) to fund his wars in Europe. And while all of this happened, the Spanish captains and allies argued unceasingly about what to do with Atahualpa, each having different interests about his life or death. At the end, on July 1533, the emperor was put on trial and executed on rather absurd charges, being replaced as a PuppetKing by his brother Túpac Hualpa.

As the Inca empire itself still remained unconquered, Pizarro marched towards its capital, Cuzco, enjoying now the safety of his alliance with the Huascarists, as well as extra treats with natives that couldn't wait to be freed from the Inca rule. Several Atahualpist generals, of which Quizquiz and Rumiñahui were the greatest, were preparing to fight him to take over the weakened empire, setting defensive measures that forced Pizarro to strengthen his position before continuing. Pizarro's army fought multiple battles, with Almagro and Soto often complicating things due to their eagerness to grab money, but they altogether managed to carve their way towards Cuzco, which they sacked.

As Hualpa had died poisoned, likely by Atahualpists, and needed yet another replacement, Pizarro supported the election of Huascarist general Manco Inca. More battles followed, with the Spanish-Huascarist alliance beating their enemies in Maraycalla, Teocaxas and Pancallo. A bizarre event came in 1534 when Pedro de Alvarado, Hernán Cortés' famed lieutenant, arrived with 500 Spaniards and 2.000 Mexican warriors, trying to steal his piece of the conquest. However, Pizarro sent Almagro to negotiate with him, and after many considerations, Alvarado joined them in exchange for a lot of gold. At the end, the allied defeated Quizquiz, who died betrayed by another chieftain, and Rumiñahui, who was captured and executed.

The conquest seemed to end there, in November 1533, so Pizarro and company passed time developing their new lands and founding or enlarging cities, most importantly Lima. Almagro also started his own expedition to the southern lands of Collasuyo (now Chile). However, much to their shock, it turned out that it had all been a BatmanGambit by Manco Inca, who had secretly concocted to betray the Spaniards and had tried to divide their forces. The emperor's plans had been discovered by Hernando Pizarro, but Manco deceived him to escape and used his royal status to gather a gigantic army of around 100.000 Incas. Surprised by such a horrifying twist, Hernando was defeated and had to return to Cuzco, which was besieged.

Since 1537, the conflict became stagnant. Manco opted to install a vestigial territory, the Neo-Inca state of Vilcabamba, from which he directed guerrilla action against their enemies, while among those, a clash for power broke out unexpectedly, as Almagro, discouraged by his lack of success in Collasuyo, and allied with Manco's replacement Paullu Inca, capitalized on the ravaged state of things to revolt against Pizarro. This was the end of an admittedly VitriolicBestBuds friendship that had started back fifteen years earlier. As a bonus, Pizarro also got divorced from his Inca wife Inés, their marriage embittered by the events, and instead hooked up with her relative Cuxirimay (baptized Angelina).

Almagro easily captured Cuzco, from where he also defeated an army sent by Pizarro and headed by Pedro de Alvarado's nephew Alonso. Almagro seemed to have the longer end of the stick, but the shrewd Francisco, by this point expert in making military miracles, returned the favor in Las Salinas, where he defeated him. Almagro was executed by Hernando Pizarro, reportedly against the wishes of Francisco, who still wanted to keep his old friend alive. The conflict also brought the death of Manco Inca, murdered in 1544 by disgruntled Almagrists he had welcomed in his Neo-Inca state as military consultants.

With those movements, the original factions finished exiting the game. Out of the Pizarro brothers, Hernando was sued and jailed in Spain, Gonzalo was executed for revolting himself against King Philip II, and Francisco, the great conquistador, would be murdered by Almagro's followers, who were finally submitted themselves by an envoy of the king, Cristóbal Vaca de Castro. Meanwhile, over the next decades, Manco's successors made moves towards surrendering the Neo-Inca state to the Spanish viceroyalty, being tired of guerrilla, although this only happened after the last one, Túpac Amaru I, chose to DoNotGoGentle instead.

* ''VideoGame/{{Inca}}'' and its sequel are an interesting version of the conquest literally RecycledINSPACE, only with Lope de Aguirre in Pizarro's place for extra craziness.

This chapter of the Conquest of America could be considered the DarkerAndEdgier sequel to the capture of México. Unlike the previous, where the Spaniards enjoyed friendships with native civilizations from the very beginning and wrote together a quite colourful epic in their lush jungles, the conquest of the Inca Empire was a slow, ugly affair marked by constant betrayals among just everybody, bad strategic decisions, and desperate scuffles in dry mountains, whose plots brought the Crown of Spain gold in plenty yet not any fewer headaches.

This would be the end of the conquest of Perú, leaving behind the ruins of an empire and the continued rise of another. Ironically, when the dust of the fratricide battles finally settled, it could be said that out of the original players, the Inca was the last man standing: Paullu Inca, who had managed to survive all the political changes, earned King Charles V's gratitude and was named ''Alférez Real de los Incas'', the head of a council of 24 members of the main Inca noble houses, who would continue ruling under the Spanish viceroy. The

This chapter of the Conquest of America could be considered the DarkerAndEdgier sequel to the capture of México. Unlike the previous, where the Spaniards enjoyed friendships with native civilizations from the very beginning, fought in alliances against their enemies, and wrote together a quite colourful epic in their lush jungles, the conquest of the Inca Empire was a slow, ugly affair marked by constant betrayals among just everybody, bad strategic decisions, and desperate scuffles in dry mountains, whose plots brought the Crown of Spain gold in plenty yet not any fewer headaches.

Pizarro and Soto advanced towards Cajamarca, near to where Atahualpa was supposedly warring, and traded messages of peace with him. However, Pizarro's native messenger Guachapuro warned the Spaniards that Atahualpa might be luring them into a trap, and after a not very reassuring meeting between the emperor and Hernando Pizarro, it was apparent that he was right, for Atahualpa had a force of 8.000 placed nearby under the command of his general Rumiñahui. The inevitable battle seemed hopeless, being just 150 Spaniards with few native allies, but Francisco decided to hit first and staged his own trap: he lured Atahualpa to the city without his army, only with his royal entourage, and then captured him, after which Pizarro charged against Rumiñahui's army. Terrified by the Spanish cavalry and firearms, and morally decapitated by the capture of their emperor, they fell into chaos and the Spaniards easily routed them.

The Spaniards seized an insane booty, but just as importantly, their capture of the emperor overjoyed the partisans of Huáscar and other tribes unfriendly to the Incas, like the Huancas, Cañaris and Chachapoyas, all of which quickly [[EnemyMine allied with them]]. Atahualpa tried to bribe his way out by offering Pizarro a mountain of treasure, so Pizarro sent his brother Hernando to bring it while he stayed to receive Almagro, who brought a much needed expedition of reinforcement. Francisco and Atahualpa also got to know each other, which accidentally prompted the Inca civil war to be buried deeper: when Pizarro requested to meet the captured Huáscar, the latter thought about replacing Atahualpa, which moved the emperor to order Huáscar to be executed just in case. By this time, Pizarro also received Atahualpa's sister Quispe Sisas, baptized as Inés, in marriage.

The Inca treasure was bigger than anything the conquistadores had ever dreamed, but as it often happens, it would end up bringing only trouble. Almagro and his people were annoyed that their part was way smaller due to having arrived late to fight, while other crewmen who returned to Spain found their own parts confiscated by King Charles V, who wanted it to fund his wars. And while all of this happened, the Spanish captains and allies argued unceasingly about what to do with Atahualpa, each having different interests about his life or death. At the end, on July 1533, the emperor was put on trial and executed on rather absurd charges, being replaced as a PuppetKing by his brother Túpac Hualpa.

As the Inca empire itself still remained unconquered, Pizarro marched towards its capital, Cuzco, enjoying now the safety of his alliance with the Huascarists, as well as later treats with natives that couldn't wait to be freed from the Inca rule, like the Huancas and the Cañaris. Several Atahualpist generals, of which Quizquiz and Rumiñahui were the greatest, were preparing to fight him to take over the weakened empire, setting defensive measures that forced Pizarro to strengthen his position before continuing. Pizarro's army fought multiple battles, with Almagro and Soto often complicating things due to their eagerness to grab money, but they altogether managed to carve their way towards Cuzco, which they sacked.

As Hualpa had died mysteriously, likely poisoned by Atahualpists, and needed yet another replacement, Pizarro supported the election of Huascarist general Manco Inca. More battles followed, with the Spanish-Huascarist alliance beating their enemies in Maraycalla, Teocaxas and Pancallo. A bizarre event came in 1534 when Pedro de Alvarado, Hernán Cortés' famed lieutenant, arrived with 500 Spaniards and 2.000 Mexican warriors, trying to steal his piece of the conquest. However, Pizarro sent Almagro to negotiate with him, and after many considerations, Alvarado joined them in exchange for a lot of gold. At the end, the allied defeated Quizquiz, who died betrayed by another chieftain, and Rumiñahui, who was captured and executed.

Being busy with Cuzco, Manco deployed his general Quizu Yupanqui to besiege the city of Lima too. Four Spanish parties were ambushed and wiped out before Lima's major Francisco de Godoy realized was happening, and after hearing it, Pizarro quickly closed the city off. The Spaniards had been caught divided and were confused about each other's whereabouts and state, but they gathered the city's native allies and prepared for counterattack, while their civilians took refuge in the city's harbor in case they had to get the heck out. In one of their skirmishes, helped by their cavalry, they managed to kill Yupanqui, which decapitated his army and forced it to withdraw.

Since 1537, the conflict became stagnant. Manco opted to install a vestigial territory, the Neo-Inca state of Vilcabamba, from which he directed guerrilla action against their enemies, while among those, a clash for power broke out unexpectedly, as Almagro, discouraged by his lack of success in Collasuyo, and allied with Manco's replacement Paullu Inca, capitalized on the ravaged state of things to revolt against Pizarro. This was the end of an admittedly VitriolicBestBuds friendship that had started back fifteen years earlier. As a bonus, Pizarro also got divorced from his Inca wife Inés, their marriage embittered by the events, and instead married her sister Angelina.

With those movements, the original factions started exiting the game. Out of the Pizarro brothers, Hernando was sued and jailed in Spain, Gonzalo was executed for revolting himself against King Philip II, and Francisco, the great conquistador, would be murdered by Almagro's followers, who were finally submitted themselves by an envoy of the king, Cristóbal Vaca de Castro. Meanwhile, over the next decades, Manco's successors made moves towards surrendering the Neo-Inca state to the Spanish viceroyalty, being tired of guerrilla, although this only happened after the last one, Túpac Amaru I, chose to DoNotGoGentle instead.

This would be the end of the conquest of Perú, leaving behind the ruins of an empire and the continued rise of another.

This chapter of the Conquest of America could be considered the DarkerAndEdgier sequel to the capture of México. Unlike the previous, where the Spaniards enjoyed friendships with native civilizations from the very beginning, fought in alliances against their enemies, and wrote together a quite colourful epic in their lush jungles, the conquest of the Inca Empire was a slow, ugly affair marked by constant betrayals among everybody, bad strategic decisions, and desperate scuffles in dry mountains, whose results brought the Crown of Spain gold in plenty yet not any fewer headaches.

The Inca Empire, called ''Tahuantinsuyo'' in their language, was likely the largest and most advanced of the UsefulNotes/PreColumbianCivilizations. It started off in the Peruvian Andes, when the city state of Cuzco started a campaign of expansion, more burocratic and regulated than savage or militaristic. Unlike the Mexicas, human sacrifice was not instrumental for Inca culture, although they did practice it in small numbers, mainly sacrificing children in the mountains.

Pizarro and Soto advanced towards Cajamarca, near to where Atahualpa was supposedly warring, and traded messages of peace with him. However, Pizarro's native messenger Guachapuro warned the Spaniards that Atahualpa might be luring them into a trap, and after a not very reassuring meeting between the emperor and Hernando Pizarro, it was apparent that he was right. The impending battle seemed hopeless to a ridiculous degree, being just 150 Spaniards with few native allies against 20.000 Inca warriors, but Francisco staged a daring ambush on the city and threw against them his cavalry and firearms, something the Inca had never encountered, which terrified them into complete chaos. The Spaniards easily routed them and captured Atahualpa himself.

The Spaniards seized an insane booty, but most importantly, their capture of the emperor overjoyed the partisans of Huáscar, who quickly allied with them in an EnemyMine situation. Atahualpa tried to bribe his way out by offering Pizarro a mountain of treasure, so Pizarro sent his brother Hernando to bring it while he stayed to receive Almagro, who brought a much needed expedition of reinforcement. Francisco and Atahualpa also got to know each other, which accidentally prompted the Inca civil war to be buried deeper: when Pizarro requested to meet the captured Huáscar, the latter thought about replacing Atahualpa, which moved the emperor to order him to be executed just in case. By this time, Pizarro also received Atahualpa's sister Quispe Sisas, baptized as Inés, in marriage.

As Hualpa had died mysteriously, likely poisoned by Atahualpists, and needed yet another replacement, Pizarro supported the election of Huascarist general Manco Inca. More battles followed, with the Spanish-Huascarist alliance beating their enemies in Maraycalla, Teocaxas and Pancallo. A bizarre event came in 1534 when Pedro de Alvarado, Hernán Cortés' famed lieutenant, arrived with 500 Spaniards and 2000 Mexican warriors, trying to steal his piece of the conquest. However, Pizarro sent Almagro to negotiate with him, and after many considerations, Alvarado joined them in exchange for a lot of gold. At the end, the allied defeated Quizquiz, who died betrayed by another chieftain, and Rumiñahui, who was captured and executed.

The conquest seemed to end there, in November 1533, so Pizarro and company passed time developing their new lands and founding or enlarging cities, most importantly Lima. Almagro also started his own expedition to the southern lands of Collasuyo (now Chile). However, much to their shock, it turned out that it had all been a BatmanGambit by Manco Inca, who had secretly concocted to betray the Spaniards and had tried to divide their forces. The emperor's plans had been discovered by Hernando Pizarro, but Manco deceived him to escape and used his royal status to gather a gigantic army of 100.000-200.000 Incas. Surprised by such a horrifying twist, Hernando was defeated and had to return to Cuzco, which was besieged.

The reverse happened in Cuzco. Manco had overpowered the city's defenses and started conquering it with his much greater numbers, but Hernando offered a strong resistance with the Cañaris, Chachapoyas, black slaves and all defenders he could find. After Juan Pizarro died in the fights, Hernando managed to slowly push the Incas back by sheer guts, although he failed spectacularly at attacking Manco's camp in Ollantaytambo, where the Incas unveiled battle tactics they had learned from the Spaniards. However, with the arrival of Almagro with much greater forces, Manco abandoned his position for the forests of Vilcabamba.

Since 1537, the conflict became stagnant. Manco opted to install a vestigial territory, the Neo-Inca state of Vilcabamba, from which he directed guerrilla action against their enemies, while among those, a clash for power broke out unexpectedly, as Almagro, discouraged by his lack of success in Collasuyo, and allied with Manco's replacement Paullu Inca, capitalized on the ravaged state of things to revolt against Pizarro. This was the end of an admittedly VitriolicBestBuds friendship that had started back fifteen years earlier. As a bonus, Pizarro also got divorced from his Inca wife, embittered by the events, and instead married her sister Angelina.

Almagro easily captured Cuzco, from where he also defeated an army sent by Pizarro and headed by Pedro de Alvarado's nephew Alonso. Almagro seemed to have the longer end of the stick, but the shrewd Francisco, by this point expert in making military miracles, returned the favor in Las Salinas, where he defeated him. Almagro was executed by Hernando Pizarro, reportedly against the wishes of Francisco, who still wanted to keep his old friend alive. The conflict also brought the death of Manco Inca, murdered by disgruntled Almagrists he had welcomed in his Neo-Inca state as military consultants.

With those movements, the original factions started exiting the game. Out of the Pizarro brothers, Hernando was sued and jailed in Spain, Gonzalo was executed for revolting himself against King Philip II, and Francisco, the great conquistador, would be murdered by Almagro's followers, who were finally crushed themselves by an envoy of the king, Cristóbal Vaca de Castro. Meanwhile, over the next decades, Manco's successors made moves towards surrendering the Neo-Inca state to the Spanish viceroyalty, being tired of guerrilla, although this only happened after the last one, Túpac Amaru I, chose to DoNotGoGentle instead.

This would be the end of the conquest of Perú, leaving behind the ruins of an empire and the rising of another.

This chapter of the Conquest of America could be considered the DarkerAndEdgier sequel to the capture of México. Unlike the previous, where the Spaniards enjoyed friendships with native civilizations from the very beginning, fought on their behalf against their enemies, and wrote together a quite colourful epic in their lush jungles, the conquest of the Inca Empire was a slow, ugly affair marked by constant betrayals, bad strategic decisions and desperate scuffles in dry mountains, whose results brought the Crown of Spain gold in plenty yet not any fewer headaches.

At the time of the conquest, the empire had just suffered a bloody civil war, in which the two sons of the king Huayna Cápac, named Huáscar and Atahualpa, fought for the throne. Atahualpa eventually won, capturing and imprisoning his brother, but his rise happened shortly after the arrival of the Spaniards.

Their first attempt to border the Pacific coast was hard, as the presence of hostile natives and the lack of interesting gains forced them to return. The second seemed to go the same road, to the point Pizarro and Almagro argued and almost had a duel to death. Arias' successor Pedro de los Ríos eventually retained Almagro during a resupply trip and ordered Pizarro to return, but at that point, Pizarro managed to get 13 crewmen to stay with him and continue, later called the ''Trece de la Fama'' ("The Famous Thirteen"). This proved to be the best decision, as Pizarro eventually made contact with the Inca Empire in the land of Tumbes.

In 1531, Pizarro arrived to an island near Tumbes and made alliances with two native chieftains, but those had been secretly ordered by Inca emperor Atahualpa to wipe out any possible invader, and it was only under the warning of a native translator, and the timely reinforcements of an expedition by the unruly Hernando de Soto, that the Spaniards survived. The next battles against natives brought news of the conquistadores to Atahualpa himself, who wondered if the strange foreigners were ''huiracocha'' or gods, but Pizarro and company also heard about Cuzco, the rich capital of the Inca Empire, and the civil war that Atahualpa had just won against Huáscar.

The Spaniards seized an insane booty, but most importantly, their capture of the emperor overjoyed the partisans of Huáscar, who quickly allied with them in an EnemyMine situation. Atahualpa tried to bribe his way out by offering Pizarro a mountain of treasure, so Pizarro sent his brother Hernando to bring it while he stayed to receive Almagro, who brought a much needed expedition of reinforcement. Francisco and Atahualpa also got to know each other, which accidentally prompted the Inca civil war to be buried deeper: when Pizarro requested to meet the captured Huáscar, the latter thought about replacing Atahualpa, which moved the emperor to order him to be executed just in case.

As Hualpa had died mysteriously, likely poisoned by Atahualpists, and needed yet another replacement, Pizarro supported the election of Huascarist general Manco Inca. More battles followed, with the Spanish-Huascarist alliance beating their enemies in Maraycalla, Teocaxas and Pancallo. A bizarre welding came in 1534 when Pedro de Alvarado, Hernán Cortés' famed lieutenant, arrived with 500 Spaniards and 2000 Mexican warriors, trying to steal his piece of the conquest. However, Pizarro sent Almagro to negotiate with him, and after many considerations, Alvarado joined them in exchange for a lot of gold. At the end, the allied defeated Quizquiz, who died betrayed by another chieftain, and Rumiñahui, who was captured and executed.

Being busy with Cuzco, Manco deployed his general Quizu Yupanqui to besiege the city of Lima too. Four Spanish parties were ambushed and wiped out before Lima's major Francisco de Godoy realized was happening, and after hearing it, Pizarro quickly closed the city off. The Spaniards had been caught divided and were confused about each other's whereabouts and state, but they gathered the city's native allies (among them the countrymen of Pizarro's native wife, Inés Huayla) and prepared for counterattack, while their civilians took refuge in the city's harbor in case they had to get the heck out. In one of their skirmishes, helped by their cavalry, they managed to kill Yupanqui, which decapitated his army and forced it to withdraw.

Since 1537, the conflict became stagnant. Manco opted to install a vestigial territory, the Neo-Inca state of Vilcabamba, from which he directed guerrilla action against their enemies, while among those, a clash for power broke out unexpectedly, as Almagro, discouraged by his lack of success in Collasuyo, and allied with Manco's replacement Paullu Inca, capitalized on the ravaged state of things to revolt against Pizarro. This was the end of an admittedly VitriolicBestBuds friendship that had started back fifteen years earlier.

This would be the end of the conquest of Perú, leaving behind the ruins of an empire and the continuing rising of another.

The conquest of the Inca Empire was the Spanish Empire's next great enterprise after they took control of Central America following their [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfMexico Conquest of the Aztec Empire]] in the 16th century. It was undergone mainly by conquistadors Francisco Pizarro, a second cousin to UsefulNotes/HernanCortez, and Diego de Almagro, his Lancer and eventually FriendTurnedRival.

!!Conquest of the Empire

!!The last Inca