Francisco Pizarro's Early Expeditions and the Road to the Inca Conquest

This episode delves into the early life and motivations of Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish conquistador who would eventually conquer the Inca Empire. Born into extreme poverty in Extremadura, Spain, Pizarro's humble origins and lack of education fueled a deep-seated desire for wealth, status, and respect, which he found unattainable in the rigid class system of his homeland. His early career in the New World saw him amass a fortune as a slaver and plantation owner, but an unfulfilled ambition for greater achievement led him to a series of disastrous expeditions. The narrative highlights the influence of the 'great man theory' of history, positing Pizarro as a singular figure whose obsession would dramatically alter the course of events, while also acknowledging the broader historical forces at play, such as the Spanish Reconquista's legacy and the myth of El Dorado.

The podcast details Pizarro's involvement in the discovery of the Pacific Ocean with Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a partnership that ended in betrayal, and how the legendary exploits of his distant cousin, Hernan Cortes, in conquering the Aztec Empire, reignited Pizarro's lust for adventure. A comparison is drawn between Pizarro and Cortes, noting Pizarro's coarser nature and illiteracy versus Cortes's noble background and legal education, yet both shared an unyielding drive for conquest. Pizarro's first significant expedition south along the Pacific coast was fraught with hardship, culminating in the famous 'line in the sand' moment where he dramatically challenged his disheartened men to choose between poverty in Panama and the riches of Peru.

This pivotal moment led to the discovery of Tumbes, an Incan port city that provided the first tangible evidence of the wealthy empire to the south. The episode then shifts to the Inca perspective, describing their empire in the throes of a devastating civil war between brothers Atahualpa and Huascar, compounded by a spreading plague. Initial Inca reactions to the Spanish were a mix of confusion, curiosity, and underestimation, with messengers reporting strange, bearded men who 'talked to white cloths' and rode 'large sheep.' Atahualpa, preoccupied with consolidating his victory, initially viewed the small Spanish contingent as a minor curiosity, perhaps even a source for hunting new 'llamas,' rather than a serious threat.

Pizarro, recognizing the need for greater resources, returned to Spain to secure royal authorization. The Queen of Spain, eager to replicate the success of the Aztec conquest, granted him a charter, renaming the Inca lands 'New Castille' and appointing him a knight, effectively legitimizing his religious and military mission. Armed with this royal backing, Pizarro embarked on his final voyage. Upon returning to Tumbes, he found it destroyed by the Inca civil war, a stark reminder of the empire's internal strife. Undeterred, and employing brutal terror tactics like burning local chiefs alive, Pizarro resolved to march into the mountains towards Cajamarca, where Atahualpa, still underestimating the foreign intruders, had agreed to meet, setting the stage for the dramatic confrontation that would seal the fate of the Inca Empire.

The great man theory was an idea that gained currency in the 19th century and argued that history was a product of the impacts of great men, unique individuals who were highly influential due to their natural abilities, their heroic courage, or their superior intellects.

If you are so hungry for gold that you leave your lands to cause strife in those of others, I shall show you a province where you can quell this hunger.

Pizarro seems to have had the example of his great predecessor before his eyes on more than one occasion, but he fell far short of his model, for his coarser nature and more ferocious temper often betrayed him into acts most repugnant to sound policy which would never have been countenanced by the conqueror of Mexico.

He was a very Christian man and very zealous in the service of his majesty. He was tall and spare, having a good face and a thin beard. Personally, he was valiant and vigorous, a truthful man. It was his custom whenever anyone asked him for anything always to say no. He said this in order that he might not fail to keep his word, and though he said no, he always did in the end what was asked of him if there were not reason against it.

Friends and comrades, on that side are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching storm, desertion, and death. On this side, ease and pleasure. There lies Peru with all its riches. Here, Panama and its poverty. Choose. Each man, what best becomes a brave Spaniard? For my part, I go south.

It was manifestly the work of heaven that the natives of the country should have received him in so kind and loving a spirit as best fitted to facilitate the conquest.

They reported having observed that certain people had arrived in their land, people who were very different from us in custom and dress. When my father heard this, he was beside himself and said, "How dare those people intrude into my country without my authorization and permission? Who are these people and what are their ways?"

We have witnessed with our own eyes that they talk to white cloths by themselves, and that they call some of us by our names without having been informed by anyone, and only looking into the sheets which they hold in front of them.

As these Spaniards were so free from all restraint and held the honor of the people so lightly, in return for the hospitality and friendliness with which they were received, the Indians saw how little reverence the Spaniards felt for the sun and how shamelessly and without the fear of god they violated the women, began to say that such people were not sons of god but that they were worse than Supais, which is their name for devil.

Without the Inca having the slightest knowledge of it, their land had been renamed New Castille with the stroke of a pen 10,000 kilometers away.