Pizarro Ambushes Atahualpa

November 16, 1532

At Cajamarca, in the Andean highlands, Francisco Pizarro and one hundred sixty-eight Spaniards lured the Inca emperor Atahualpa into a trap and slaughtered his unarmed retinue. Horses and arquebuses panicked warriors who had never seen them. By nightfall the ruler of a continent was Pizarro's prisoner. The ransom demanded, a room of gold and two of silver, was paid in full before Pizarro executed Atahualpa anyway.