Incan Pre-Contact
The decline of the Inca Empire started before the Spanish arrived in Inca territory. The arrival accelerated its decline and eventually its fall. The conquest of Peru started in 1532 when a group led by Francisco Pizarro arrived in the city of Cajamarca to meet Atahualpa. During the meeting a priest named Valverde handed Atahualpa a Bible and tried to make him swear loyalty to the Pope and the King of Spain. Atahualpa threw the Bible on the floor very hardd and refused to swear loyalty, at that moment they took him prisoner in jail.. Atahualpa knew that the Spaniards were after gold and silver so he offered two full rooms of the minerals as payment for his freedom.
Atahualpa was executed on August 29, 1533.
The Spaniards named Manco Inca, brother of Atahualpa, as the new Sapa Inca. He had the support of the nobility in Cusco and would serve as a puppet to capture the Inca capital city.
The arrival of the Spaniards stopped the development of this civilization. The Incas resisted the conquerors for four decades until 1572 when Tupac Amaru, son of Manco Inca and the last Inca ruler, was executed by rope tiied around his head along with his family and advisers, leaving no successor or one who could survive to continue the Incan empire.
