legs to poles with iron hoops and his neck
with another and then, with two men holding
his hands, proceeded to burn the soles of his
feet. From time to time, the commander
would look in and repeat that they would
torture him to death slowly unless he
produced more gold, and this is what they
did, the King eventually succumbing to the
agonies they inflicted on him.
The strategy and institutions of conquest perfected in
Mexico were eagerly adopted elsewhere in the Spanish
Empire. Nowhere was this done more effectively than in
Pizarro’s conquest of Peru. As de las Casas begins his
account:
In 1531 another great villain journeyed with a
number of men to the kingdom of Peru. He
set out with every intention of imitating the
strategy and tactics of his fellow adventurers
in other parts of the New World.
Pizarro began on the coast near the Peruvian town of
Tumbes and marched south. On November 15, 1532, he
reached the mountain town of Cajamarca, where the Inca
emperor Atahualpa was encamped with his army. The next
day, Atahualpa, who had just vanquished his brother
Huáscar in a contest over who would succeed their
deceased father, Huayna Capac, came with his retinue to
where the Spanish were camped. Atahualpa was irritated
because news of atrocities that the Spanish had already
committed, such as violating a temple of the Sun God Inti,
had reached him. What transpired next is well known. The
Spanish laid a trap and sprang it. They killed Atahualpa’s
guards and retainers, possibly as many as two thousand
people, and captured the king. To gain his freedom,
Atahualpa had to promise to fill one room with gold and two
more of the same size with silver. He did this, but the
Spanish, reneging on their promises, strangled him in July
1533. That November, the Spanish captured the Inca
capital of Cusco, where the Incan aristocracy received the
same treatment as Atahualpa, being imprisoned until they
produced gold and silver. When they did not satisfy