Francisco Pizarro

Biographical Facts:

Pizarro was born in Trujillo, Spain in 1478. Nobody knows the exact date. His parents never married and he was brought up by his mother's parents. His father was the Royal Infantry Captain of Spain, so he was an important guy. His mother was just a regular person. During his childhood he never went to school and thus never learned to read. So he couldn't do a chore or small job that needed education. He herded pigs. After about 15 years of pig herding in 1502 he moved to the West Indies or what is now Haiti. There he lived with his father's brother. And it is said that maybe his father's brother helped Pizarro on his expeditions.

Major Achievements:
Pizarro's first expedition was in 1509 and he was the first mate. The captain was Balboa, another famous explorer. The expeditions purpose was to explore the land that is now Panama. The crew founded Panama City and Pizarro was an important townsperson there. Then in 1527 he made his first expedition on his own to find a rumored civilization called the Incas. Pizarro's first mate was a good friend, his name was Diego de Almagro. They sailed down the coast of western South America. There they went inland a little ways and found evidence of the Incas and gold. Then he returned to Panama with the news. The whole expedition took one year.

   Then when he was back in Panama he made plans to sail back to Spain and tell the King and Queen the news and get more men and provisions for crops and other foods that were not abundant in Panama. With this news, the King appointed him the governor of Peru, the name of this land that he had found. Then he sailed back to Panama, where he made plans for a long expedition and war on the Incas that would make him the ruler of Peru.

    For this expedition he went down where he had gone before and a little farther. He went deep into the land and there he did not find any signs of Incas, so he traveled up the coast. Then he went inward towards the Incas. There he was invaded by a large Inca army. Many of his men were lost in the battle, and many provisions and maps that they had were lost. They returned to their ships and set sail back to Panama, realizing that the Incas were very powerful. Then on his last expedition he took a huge army and lots of supplies and went back to the Inca city. There he laid siege on the city and wiped it out, but he managed to capture the Inca ruler Atahualpa. Then he set a ransom of a room of gold and then the same room filled two times with silver. The Incas agreed and paid the ransom, but Pizarro killed Atahualpa anyway. Then the remaining men traveled down very far to Lima and Cuzco. In Lima Pizarro was murdered by Almagros son who wanted revenge for his father's death. Pizarro's half brother killed Almagro.

Country & Reason:
Pizarro was from Spain and was sent to explore for the Spanish crown. After Pizarro explored and conquered a lot of South America, Spain was the greatest country in the world. Pizarro, besides conquering Peru, also got Ecuador and Columbia for Spain. The main reason Pizarro was sent to explore was for conquest. Spain already had lots of land in the New World but they wanted more. Pizarro destroyed the Incas because he wanted their land. He was like his relative, Hernando Cortes, who wiped out the Aztecs, Pizarro did the exact same thing but with a different group of people. Something that happened after Peru was conquered that was not really an objective was that the remaining Incas  were converted to Catholicism. This expanded Spain's main religion too.

  Impact on Natives:

PIzarro killed and slaughtered the Incas, destroyed their culture and ruined an entire civilization. He killed everyone that he and his army saw, children, moms and of course warriors. He also ruined most of their monuments, and then wiped out the places that they lived and worshiped. So he had a very bad impact on all the Inca people. Also he killed their ruler, Atahualpa, which destroyed most of their organization. All the survivors of the battles ran away and without their ruler the Inca survivors had no idea how to re-group themselves into a bigger army. These small bands were easy to kill. And then, when all the Incas were prisoners or were dead, Pizarro had Peru for Spain.

Personal Reaction:
I don't think that what Pizarro did was right. He just came over and killed everyone. He killed Atahualpa even after the Incas paid the ransom. His half brother killed his first mate Almagro under Pizarro's direction, which was not a good thing to at all! I don't think that that is very fair. He told someone to kill his friend! I don't think that he was a very nice guy, at least from what all the books said about him. He killed Spanish people too, I think that is murder. After he died his countrymen left his body in Peru, and didn't give it a proper burial becuase he was so bad.

Bibliography:

Explorers From Ancient Times to the Space Age Vol. 3 pp.12-15

The World Book Encyclopedia Vol. 15 P pp 504-505

Explorers and Discoverers Vol. Hi-Pi pp. 669-673

The Grolier's Student Library of Explorers and Exploration Vol. 5 Latin America pp. 30-33

http://www.uccalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/inca.html

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7012/pizarro.html

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