After years of preliminary exploration and military skirmishes, 168 Spanish soldiers under conquistador Francisco Pizarro, along with his brothers in arms and their indigenous allies, captured the last Sapa Inca, Atahualpa, at the Battle of Cajamarca in 1532.

The conquest of the Inca Empire (called "Tahuantinsuyu"[3] or "Tawantinsuyu"[4] in Quechua, meaning "Realm of the Four Parts"),[5] led to spin-off campaigns into present-day Chile and Colombia, as well as expeditions to the Amazon Basin and surrounding rainforest.

[7][8] Some scholars, such as Jared Diamond, believe that while the Spanish conquest was undoubtedly the proximate cause of the collapse of the Inca Empire, it may very well have been past its peak and already in the process of decline.

He could trace his lineage back to a "stranger king" named Manco Cápac, the mythical founder of the Inca clan,[9]: 144  who, according to tradition, emerged from a cave in a region called Paqariq Tampu.

On his accession to the throne, Huayna Capac had continued the policy of expansion by conquest, taking Inca armies north into what is today Ecuador.

The second was Atahualpa, an illegitimate son who was likely born of a daughter of the last independent King of Quitu, one of the states conquered by Huayna Capac during the expansion of the Inca Empire.

The Spanish conquistador Pizarro and his men were greatly aided in their enterprise by invading when the Inca Empire was in the midst of a war of succession between the princes Huáscar and Atahualpa.

When both Huayna Capac and his eldest son and designated heir, Ninan Cuyochic, died suddenly in 1528 from what was probably smallpox, a disease introduced by the Spanish into the Americas, the question of who would succeed as emperor was thrown open.

Historians are unsure if a united Inca Empire would have defeated the Spanish in the long term due to factors such as the high mortality from disease and the resulting social disruption, and the superior military technology of the conquistadors, who possessed horses, dogs, metal armor, swords, cannons, and primitive, but effective, firearms.

Huáscar seemed poised to bring the war to a rapid and decisive conclusion, as troops loyal to him took Atahualpa prisoner, while he was attending a festival in the city of Tumebamba.

Atahualpa sent his forces south under the command of two of his leading generals, Challcuchima and Quisquis, who won an uninterrupted series of victories against Huáscar that soon brought them to the very gates of Cuzco.

The victorious generals sent word north by chasqui messenger to Atahualpa, who had moved south from Quito to the royal resort springs outside Cajamarca.

The messenger arrived with news of the final victory on the same day[citation needed] that Pizarro and his small band of adventurers, together with some indigenous allies, descended from the Andes into the town of Cajamarca.

Unknown to Pizarro, as he was lobbying for permission to mount an expedition, his proposed enemy was being devastated by the diseases brought to the American continents during earlier Spanish contacts.

When Atahualpa arrived with about 6,000 unarmed followers, Friar Vincente de Valverde and the interpreter Felipillo met them and proceeded to "expound the doctrines of the true faith" (requerimiento) and seek his tribute as a vassal of King Charles.

Atahualpa was forced to submit to baptism to avoid being burned at the stake and in the hopes of one day rejoining his army and killing the Spanish; they referred to him as Francisco for the purposes of the ritual.

[9]: 191, 210, 216 Benalcázar, Pizarro's lieutenant and fellow Extremaduran, had already departed from San Miguel with 140 foot soldiers and a few horses on his conquering mission to Ecuador.

At the foot of Mount Chimborazo, near the modern city of Riobamba (Ecuador) he met and defeated the forces of the great Inca warrior Rumiñawi with the aid of Cañari tribesmen who served as guides and allies to the conquering Spaniards.

Rumiñahui fell back to Quito, and, while in pursuit of the Inca army, Benalcázar was joined by five hundred men led by Guatemalan Governor Pedro de Alvarado.

Greedy for gold, Alvarado had set sail for the south without the crown's authorization, landed on the Ecuadorian coast, and marched inland to the Sierra.

He began his rule as an ally of the Spanish and was respected in the southern regions of the empire, but there was still much unrest in the north near Quito where Atahualpa's generals were amassing troops.

Led by Atahualpa's generals Rumiñahui, Zope-Zupahua and Quisquis, the native armies were finally defeated, effectively ending any organized rebellion in the north of the empire.

The siege of Cuzco was waged until the following spring, and during that time Manco's armies managed to wipe out four relief columns sent from Lima, but was ultimately unsuccessful in its goal of routing the Spaniards from the city.

Another element that the Spanish brought with them were African slaves to work alongside captive Incas for use in labor with things such as agriculture and mining for silver.

While this was the case for every group of Native-Americans invaded by Europeans during this time period, the Inca population suffered an exceptionally dramatic and rapid decline following contact.

But, it is sometimes argued, and equally disputed among scholars that the Inca began to contract these diseases several years before the Spanish appeared in the region, as it was possibly carried to their empire by traders and travelers.

The basic policy of the Spanish towards local populations was that voluntary vassalage would yield safety and coexistence, while continued resistance would result in more deaths and destruction.

As Pizarro and the Spanish subdued the continent and brought it under their control, they forcefully converted many to Christianity, claiming to have educated them in the ways of the "one true religion.

[32] According to archaeologist Torben Rick, parts of the northern coast of Peru may look completely natural and pristine, "but if you rewind the clock a couple of millennia, you see that people were actively shaping this land by creating beach ridge systems".

The first part of Madame de Graffigny's epistolary novel Lettres d'une Péruvienne narrates the abduction of Zilia, an Inca princess, by the Spaniards during the Conquest.