Execution of Atahualpa

Continued on from the Peruvians slaughtered.........


After holding the Inca Atahualpa for months while the ransom for his release was being brought into Cajamarca there were rumors being spread that the Inca was plotting for his rescue and a large force was being assembled in a town some distance away. Pizarro decided to send one of his Captains, de Soto, with a number of cavalry to the town to find out if the rumors were true so to clarify the situation.

While de Soto was away, the perceived threat of the Inca became too great and Pizarro's soldiers and some senior officers became extremely distrustful of the situation and demanded the Inca be killed. There was a general perception that the Incan was so important in controlling the empire that without his rule, the empire would crumble. This turned out to be a fair assessment.

To give his execution some legitimacy, Pizarro staged a mock trial and found Atahualpa guilty of revolting against the Spanish, practicing idolatry and murdering Huáscar, his brother. The actual charges are incredibly laughable when read in retrospect considering the Spanish did not control Peru and the ‘laws’ being applied were from Spain….

Atahualpa was sentenced to execution by burning. At the time this was not a regular method of the Spanish to execute people in their own country and it seems odd that the Conquistadors chose this extremely painful method in Peru. The Inca was particularly horrified by this as the Incas believed that the soul would not be able to go on to the afterlife if the body was burned. Friar Valverde, who had earlier tried to convert Atahualpa, intervened again, telling Atahualpa that if he agreed to convert to Christianity he would convince Pizarro to change the sentence to a more reasonable way of death. Atahualpa agreed to be baptized and was given the name Juan Santos Atahualpa and, in accordance with his request, was strangled instead of being burned.


This entire episode was critical in the history of Peru and the Spanish Conquest. It is also a blight on the Spanish people and Christianity, in that it would take such action for the sake of gold and silver. But, perhaps this is just being human.