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1529 to 1532 - Royal approval 1529 – Pizarro seeks royal approval in Spain  Arriving in
Spain, Pizarro "passed before the King's eyes all the
length of Peru, the quality of the land and its great treasures".
The recent success and return of Cortés from Mexico helped
Pizarro to recruit ambitious, young, would-be conquerors for
a third expedition. King Charles authorised Pizarro to discover
and conquer Peru and named him "Governor and Captain-General
of Peru".The King also appointed Almagro to be "Commandant of Tumbez" . When Pizarro returned to Panama with the news, Almagro was angered by such a meager appointment and was only persuaded to continue with the expedition by promises of the governorship of territories beyond Peru. 1530 The third expedition Pizarro and Almagro set sail on their third expedition from Panama with 180 men and 37 horses. Included in the expedition were three Pizarro's younger half-brothers: Hernando, Juan and Gonzalo. 1531 The Inca City of Tumbez found destroyed  Advancing overland from the north coast of Ecuador, Pizarro and his men arrived in Tumbez to find the city destroyed and no sign of the Spaniard who had stayed behind in 1528. Natives informed the Spanish that the city had been destroyed as the result of a recent civil war within the Inca Empire.Unknown to the Spanish, an epidemic of smallpox had swept across the Inca Empire since their arrival at Tumbez in 1528. Lacking any immunity to the disease, many thousands of Indians died including the ruling Inca, Huayna-Capac, and his natural heir, Ninan Cuyuchi. With no clear heir to the Empire, civil war soon ensued between two of the Inca's sons: Huascar in charge of the capital at Cuzco and Atahualpa in charge of the royal army at Quito. 1532 The conquest begins Reinforcements from Panama arrived to join Pizarro, including the seasoned conquerors Sebastián de Benalcázar and Hernando de Soto. The Spanish established their first settlement, San Miguel de Piura, about 120 miles south from the ruins of Tumbez. On the 24 September 1532, after months of hesitation, Pizarro finally started his march southwards into the heart of the Inca Empire, accompanied by just 168 men and 62 horses. |
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