Financial History Issue 116 (Winter 2016) | Page 13

EDUCATORS’ PERSPECTIVE

Cuzco to be crowned king of the 90-yearold Inca Empire; he had defeated his halfbrother Huascar in the civil war that broke
out after their father, Huayna Capac, died
in 1527. On the way, Atahualpa stopped
to take in the baths at Cajamarca, where
he encountered strange bearded men who
rode even stranger beasts. This encounter
with the Spanish conquistadors was about
to change Atahualpa’s life dramatically.
He never made it to Cuzco.
Francisco Pizarro set out with fewer
than 200 men into unknown South American territory (present day Peru) to search
for gold. Hernando Cortes’s success in
Mexico fueled gold fever in other Spanish explorers who were anxious to hit the
next jackpot. Pizarro did just that in Peru,
and it happened in the most unusual way.
When Pizarro encountered Atahualpa at
Cajamarca, the Incan army accompanying
the new ruler consisted of up to 40,000
soldiers, yet Pizarro’s small band was able
to inflict enormous casualties on this vast
Incan army. According to historian Hugh
Thomas, “No Spaniards seem to have died,
but the Indians killed were without limit.”
Estimates run from 2,000-8,000 deaths.
Montaigne ends his essay, On Coaches,
with a description of Atahualpa’s capture:
Instead of using coaches or vehicles of
any kind they [the Incan Kings] have
themselves carried on the shoulders
of men. The day he was captured, that
last King of Peru was in the midst of
his army, borne seated on a golden
chair suspended from shafts of gold.
The Spaniards in their attempts to
topple him (as they wanted to take him
alive) killed many of his bearers, but
many more vied to take the places of
the dead, so that, no matter how many
they slaughtered, they could not bring
him down until a mounted soldier
dashed in, grabbed hold of him and
yanked him to the ground.
Instead of being crowned king, Atahualpa was now Pizarro’s prisoner. He
mistakenly thought that if he paid a ransom
to these foreign devils, they would free him
and leave his country forever. He could

then continue on to Cuzco. When Pizarro
asked Atahualpa how much gold he could
muster, Atahualpa reached his hand as
high as he could on the wall in the room
where H[