How 200 Conquistadors Conquered an Empire of 10 Million | Today In History | World History Today
Channel: History Continued
Date: 2021-08-29

Atahualpa was the last Inca Emperor. After defeating his brother, Atahualpa became very briefly the last Sapa Inca or sovereign emperor of the Inca Empire before the Spanish conquest ended his reign.

Before the Inca Emperor Huayna Capac died in Quito in 1524, possibly due to smallpox, a disease brought by Europeans, he had appointed his son Ninan Cuyochi as his successor. Ninan died of the same disease. The Cusquenian nobles named Huáscar, another son of Huayna as sovereign emperor, and he appointed his brother Atahualpa as governor of Quito. The Inca Civil War began in 1529 when Huáscar declared war on Atahualpa, for fear that he would try to carry out a coup d'état against him. Atahualpa became Inca emperor in May 1532 after he had defeated and imprisoned Huáscar and massacred any pretenders to the throne.

The Inca people named their empire "Land of the Four Quarters" or Tahuantinsuyu and in 1533 it was the largest in the world. It covered 2,500 miles and stretched from southern Colombia in the north to central Chile in the south. It rose between 1200 and 1300 AD in the valley of Cusco, an increase in temperatures allowing the Inca to inhabit ever higher altitudes and produce agricultural surpluses. The astonishing site of Machu Picchu is evidence of this. The empire successfully built a road network of 14,000 miles and 10 million people lived within its borders. So how did a mere 200 Spanish conquistadors capture its Emperor-god Atahualpa and conquer an entire empire on August 29, 1533?

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