Atahualpa

Atahualpa came to supreme power in the Inca Empire through victory in a civil war and held it for barely a year before his capture and execution by Spanish forces. A son of the emperor Huayna Capac, he was born around 1502; the chronology of his life, like that of all pre-conquest Andean rulers, rests on Spanish colonial chronicles and is approximate. He spent much of his youth with his father on campaign in the northern provinces around Quito, while his half-brother Huáscar resided at the dynastic capital of Cusco.

Huayna Capac died around 1527, probably in an epidemic, likely smallpox, that spread through the Andes ahead of the Europeans themselves and also killed the designated heir. The succession fractured along the lines of the late emperor's two power bases: Huáscar was recognized at Cusco, while Atahualpa controlled the seasoned northern army under generals including Quizquiz and Chalcuchima. The resulting war ravaged the empire for several years and ended shortly before the Spanish arrival, when Atahualpa's forces defeated and captured Huáscar near Cusco. Atahualpa, encamped at Cajamarca, was effectively master of Tawantinsuyu but had not yet been installed at the capital.

It was there, in November 1532, that Francisco Pizarro's company of fewer than two hundred Spaniards confronted him. Invited to a meeting in the town square, Atahualpa arrived with a large but lightly armed retinue; after a brief exchange involving the friar Vicente de Valverde, the Spaniards attacked with horses, steel, and firearms, killed thousands of his attendants, and seized the emperor. From captivity Atahualpa ordered Huáscar's death, fearing the Spaniards might restore his rival, and offered the famous ransom: a large room filled once with gold and twice with silver. The treasure was delivered and melted down over the following months.

The ransom did not buy his freedom. In July 1533, after accusations that included ordering Huáscar's killing and plotting against the Spaniards, Atahualpa was condemned in a summary proceeding and executed by garrote at Cajamarca, accepting baptism shortly before death to avoid being burned. The Spaniards installed his brother Manco Inca as a client ruler in Cusco; Manco's later rebellion produced the rump Neo-Inca state at Vilcabamba, where descendants of Huayna Capac resisted until 1572.