Francisco Pizarro

 Francisco Pizarro was a famous explorer and within his early 50’s. He was a Spanish Officer of Panama. A decade later he was in search of the Incas. He discovered the Incas but whilst there he also founded Lima, now the capital of Peru.

Pizarro brought the culture and religion of Spain to South America. He also occupied the most amount of land that any Spanish man working for the king had done.

Pizarro, born in 1475 in Trujillo, Spain, and he grew up in a poor city of Spain. Pizarro, the illegal son of the Gonzalo Pizarro, didn’t learn to read or write since he lived with his grandparents in a poor region of Spain. Pizarro use to be a swine farmer before entering military school and didn’t receive an education.

In 1502, when Pizarro was older, he traveled to the Caribbean islands of Hispaniola. He went on an expedition, in 1510, and he traveled with Vasco Nuñez de Balboa where they soon founded the Pacific Ocean. From 1519 until 1523 he was the colonizer of Panama. By 1522, after hearing the victory of Hernan Cortes in Mexico, and the cities of the gold in the south, Pizarro wanted to head an expedition to the south. So Pizarro went to explore the Inca. Pizarro wanted to explore the Inca because of the wealth, fame from his people, and also because at that time the Spanish wanted to be the greatest and largest country in the world.

After seven years, in 1526, Pizarro went on an expedition with 13 men that accompanied him and they marched into the city Cajamarca. The Inca emperor Atahualpa agreed to meet with Pizarro. Pizarro forced Atahualpa to convert his religion to Christianity or to accept Pizarro to rule the Inca Empire. After refusing both offers, Pizarro captured Atahualpa and over 1,000 Indians were killed. Then Pizarro marched to Cuzco and set up, Manco. But Manco escaped and fled to another country. In January 1531, Pizarro traveled to Peru with 200 soldiers and 65 horses. As a surprise for Pizarro, his 4 brothers joined him on the expedition and his original 13 men. His friend, Diego de Almagro and Hernando de Luque also accompanied him. With less than 200 soldiers, Pizarro conquered most of Peru, Ecuador, half of Chile and Bolivia.

Later in 1535, Pizarro founded the “City of the Kings,” now in Lima. In 1537, Diego betrayed Pizarro and believed that he didn’t get an even amount of the Inca riches as he deserved. On June 26^th, 1541 Pizarro was killed but Pizarro’s fantastic accomplishments were remembered for 3 centuries. The Spanish language and religion are still used until this day throughout out most of South America.

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