Atahualpa
Sapa Inca


Atahualpa, Atahuallpa, Atabalipa, or Atawallpa (March 20, 1497 – August 29, 1533), was the last Sapa Inca or sovereign emperor of the Tahuantinsuyu, or the Inca Empire, prior to the Spanish conquest of the Incan Empire. Atahualpa became emperor upon defeating his older half-brother Huáscar in a civil war sparked by the death of their father, Inca Huayna Capac, from an infectious disease which may have been smallpox.

During the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, the Spaniard Francisco Pizarro captured Atahualpa and used him to control the Inca empire. Eventually, the Spanish executed Atahualpa, ending the Inca Empire (although several successors claimed the title of Sapa Inca ("unique Inca") and led a resistance against the invading Spaniards). After Atahualpa died, the Incan Empire began to erode.

About the birthplace of Atahualpa there are many versions. Most chroniclers suggest he was born in Quito.

Quizquiz, along with Chalkuchimac and Rumiñahui, were Atahualpa's leading generals. In April 1532, along with his companions, Quizquiz led the armies of Atahualpa to victory in the battles of Mullihambato, Chimborazo and Quipaipan, where he, along with Chalkuchimac defeated and captured Huáscar and promptly killed his family, seizing capital Cuzco.

The final battle between the warring brothers took place at the Battle of Quipaipan, where Huáscar was captured and his army disbanded. Atahualpa was resting in the city of Cajamarca in the Andes with his army of about 80,000 troops on his way south to Cuzco to claim his throne when he encountered the Spanish led by Pizarro.



On November 17 the Spaniards sacked the Inca army camp in which they found great gold, silver, and emeralds. Noticing their lust for precious metals, Atahualpa offered to fill a large room about 22 feet (6.7 m) long and 17 feet (5.2 m) wide up to a height of 8 feet (2.4 m) once with gold and twice with silver within two months. It is commonly believed that Atahualpa offered this ransom to regain his freedom; however, it seems likelier that he did so to avoid being killed, as none of the early chroniclers mention any commitment by the Spaniards to free Atahualpa once the metals were delivered.

After several months in fear of an imminent attack from general Rumiñahui, the outnumbered Spanish saw Atahualpa as too much of a liability and decided to execute him. Pizarro staged a mock trial and found Atahualpa guilty of revolting against the Spanish, practicing idolatry, and murdering Huáscar, his brother. Atahualpa was sentenced to execution by burning. He was horrified, since the Inca believed that the soul would not be able to go on to the afterlife if the body were burned. Friar Vicente de Valverde, who had earlier offered his breviary to Atahualpa, intervened, telling Atahualpa that if he agreed to convert to Catholicism, he would convince Pizarro to commute the sentence. Atahualpa agreed to be baptized into the Catholic faith. He was given the name Juan Santos Atahualpa in honor of the feast day of the beheading of St. John the Baptist, which falls on August 29. In accordance with his request, he was strangled with a garrote on August 29, 1533. Following his execution, his clothes and some of his skin were burned, and his remains were given a Christian burial. Atahualpa was succeeded by his brother, the puppet Inca Túpac Huallpa, and later by another brother Manco Inca.

After Pizarro's death, Inés Yupanqui, the favorite sister of Atahualpa, who had been given to Pizarro in marriage by her brother, married a Spanish cavalier named Ampuero and left for Spain. They took her daughter by Pizarro with them, and she was later legitimized by imperial decree. Francisca Pizarro Yupanqui married her uncle Hernándo Pizarro in Spain, on October 10, 1537— they had a son, Francisco Pizarro y Pizarro. This son, in turn, married twice and had offspring, the Marqueses de La Conquista. The Pizarro line survived Hernando's death, although it is currently extinct in the male line. Pizarro's third son, by a relative of Atahualpa renamed Angelina, who was never legitimized, died shortly after reaching Spain.[25] Another relative, Catalina Capa-Yupanqui, who died in 1580, married a Portuguese nobleman named António Ramos, son of António Colaço and wife Violante Fernandes Veloso. Their daughter was Francisca de Lima, who married Álvaro de Abreu de Lima, another Portuguese nobleman, and had issue in Portugal.