The fall of the Inca
Pizarro seizes an emperor in the middle of a civil war and a smallpox epidemic.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 40 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Early Modern, Holocene
Pizarro reaches Peru in 1532 as the Inca are emerging from a succession war fought after smallpox — arriving ahead of the Spanish — killed the emperor Huayna Capac and his heir. He captures Atahualpa at Cajamarca, collects a room filled with gold as ransom, and executes him anyway. Resistance continues from Vilcabamba until 1572. Timing mattered as much as technology.