In 1532, the fifty-four-year-old Spanish conquistador Francisco
Pizarro led a force of 167 men, including his four brothers, to
the shores of Peru. Unbeknownst to the Spaniards, the Inca
rulers of Peru had just fought a bloody civil war in which the
emperor Atahualpa had defeated his brother Huascar. Pizarro and
his men soon clashed with Atahualpa and a huge force of Inca
warriors at the Battle of Cajamarca. Despite being outnumbered
by more than two hundred to one, the Spaniards prevailed -- due
largely to their horses, their steel armor and swords, and their
tactic of surprise. They captured and imprisoned Atahualpa.
Although the Inca emperor paid an enormous ransom in gold, the
Spaniards executed him anyway. The following year, the Spaniards
seized the Inca capital of Cuzco, completing their conquest of
the largest native empire the New World has ever known. Peru was
now a Spanish colony, and the conquistadors were wealthy beyond
their wildest dreams.n But the Incas did not submit willingly. A
young Inca e