The Fall of the Incas: Massacre in the Andes (Part 2)

Summary

The Rest Is History – The Fall of the Incas: Massacre in the Andes (Part 2)

Podcast: The Rest Is History
Hosts: Tom Holland & Dominic Sandbrook
Date: February 19, 2026
Theme: The Spanish Conquest of the Incas – The Massacre at Cajamarca

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Episode Overview

This gripping episode continues Tom and Dominic’s deep dive into one of the most dramatic and violent encounters in world history: the fateful confrontation between Francisco Pizarro’s conquistadors and the Inca emperor Atahualpa at Cajamarca in 1532. The hosts narrate the Spanish ascent into the Andes, analyze what both sides knew—and misunderstood—about each other, and reconstruct, moment by moment, the chilling massacre that marked the beginning of the end for the Inca Empire.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Setting the Stage: Spanish Encounters in Peru

• Spanish Ascent into the Andes: The conquistadors, with fewer than 200 men, make a perilous climb through dizzying mountain pathways, exposed to freezing cold and potential ambush at every turn.
  • Dramatic excerpt from Peter Shaffer’s “The Royal Hunt of the Sun” recited by Tom – 04:18–06:00.
• Contextualizing the Moment: Pizarro arrives in a land ravaged by smallpox and civil war, with the Inca Empire divided between Atahualpa in the north and Huascar in the south.
• Echoes of Cortez and the Aztecs: The Spanish see parallels with the recent conquest of Mexico and spot opportunities in Inca divisions.

2. Spanish Motives, Mindset, and Preparation

• Legal and Religious Pretext: The Spanish, empowered by Charles V and papal license, plan to impose vassalage through a legal document (“the requerimiento”) and, if refused, justify violence.
  • “Violence is always part of the Spanish repertoire… theatrical terror has been an important part of their armoury.”
    – Dominic (11:04)
• Composition of the Expedition: A motley group—most not professional soldiers, but tradesmen seeking wealth or land. Pizarro himself is a notable outlier in age and experience.

3. Cross-Cultural Encounters and Espionage

• First Impressions:
  • The Incas’ well-kept roads and storehouses awe the Spanish; llamas, the lack of wheels, and the local terror of horses stand out.
  • Atahualpa’s spies initially view the Spanish as disheveled and weak, suggesting, “Kill them all except for three—the blacksmith, the horse-tamer, and the barber, because he makes men look young again.”
    – Dominic recounting the spy’s recommendation (17:12)
• Incan Reactions:
  • No evidence they considered the Spaniards “gods”—they responded pragmatically, perhaps seeing the newcomers as possible mercenaries in their civil war.
  • “Most people are making much more pragmatic political considerations.”
    – Dominic (23:13)

4. Approaching Cajamarca: Nerves and Calculations

• Sheer Audacity:
  • “I cannot imagine doing it. It just seems insane behavior.”
    – Tom (25:24–26:26)
• Atahualpa’s Calculus:
  • He lets the Spaniards approach, dismissing concerns they might be a threat, and showing personal bravado—eager to see their horses and new weaponry up close.
• Spanish Fear:
  • The Spanish are terrified. Pedro Pizarro notes, “Many Spaniards urinated without noticing it, out of pure terror.”
    – (51:54)
• Deserted Cajamarca:
  • The city is eerily empty on Spanish arrival, adding to the atmosphere of dread.

5. The Fateful Meeting: Ritual, Misunderstanding, and Mishap

• Diplomatic Gifts and Misread Signals:
  • Inca envoy’s pots and skinned ducks are overanalyzed by the paranoid Spanish.
• Standoff at the Hot Springs:
  • Soto and Hernando Pizarro approach Atahualpa, who refuses to be cowed. He is described with “all the majesty in the world… with many chiefs near him.”
    – Eyewitness account (33:46)
  • Atahualpa’s self-restraint and control is chilling: “He doesn’t show a flicker of emotion.”
• Cultural Miscommunication:
  • Language fails, interpreters stumble, intensifying mutual incomprehension (“What does this fellow mean?… as if he were dumb.” – Atahualpa, via interpreter, 33:46)

6. The Spanish Plan the Trap

• Council of War:
  • Pizarro tells his men: “Every man a knight,” boosting morale.
    – (47:43)
  • The strategy: hide in the square’s surrounding barracks, wait for Atahualpa’s arrival, signal with gunfire and trumpets, then burst out to attack and seize the Emperor.

7. The Showdown and Massacre

• Requerimiento and the Pretext for Violence:
  • The friar Valverde confronts Atahualpa with a cross and missal, recites the requirements for submission, and demands vassalage to the Spanish king and Christ.
  • Atahualpa, baffled and impatient, examines the prayer book, tosses it aside (accounts vary), provoking the Spanish—“That proud dog has thrown my book… He has become a Lucifer.” – Valverde (59:10)
• The Signal:
  • Trumpets and gunfire erupt, the Spanish charge, and chaos descends:
    • “The Spanish have tied bells and rattles to their horses’ bridles to make the maximum possible noise.”
      – Dominic (60:48)
    • “Ride them down. Don’t let any of them escape.”
      – Quote from Spanish captains (62:54)
  • The Incas, disarmed and crammed together, panic and are slaughtered—thousands die, including much of the Inca elite.
  • “During all this, no Indian even raised a weapon against a Spaniard.”
    – (62:54)
• Dominic:
  • “The Spanish went about their business like slaughter men with cattle, just killing them grimly, methodically, without pity.” (62:54)
• Tom:
  • “So it is a complete decapitation… a complete catastrophe for the Inca state.” (64:06)

8. Atahualpa’s Capture

• Drama at the Litter:
  • The Spanish hack through attendants, tear the crown from Atahualpa, and Pizarro shields him from being killed, preferring a live prize.
    • “Pizarro… grabbed hold of Atahualpa’s left arm, but he couldn’t pull him out of the litter…” (65:15)
• A Surreal Aftermath:
  • Atahualpa is cleaned up and, astonishingly, shares a bed with Pizarro that night:
    • “You’ll sleep with me tonight… He will sleep next to me. We will sleep side by side.” – Pizarro (66:51)
  • “One of the most incredible days in history…” (67:16)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Peril of Conquest:
  • “It is folly to be so concerned about 170 men… Let them keep coming.” – Atahualpa (paraphrased by Dominic, 25:29)
• On Inca Pragmatism:
  • “There is absolutely no evidence for this whatsoever. The Incas definitely didn’t think they were gods.” – Dominic (21:17)
• On the Sights of Battle:
  • “It looked like a brilliantly star-studded sky” – Pedro Pizarro, describing the Inca campfires (50:21)
• On Spanish Fear:
  • “I saw many Spaniards urinate without noticing it, out of pure terror.” – Pedro Pizarro (51:54)
• On The Massacre:
  • “The Spanish went about their business like slaughter men with cattle…” – Atahualpa's nephew, Titu Cusi (63:19)
• Aftermath:
  • “Truly, it was not accomplished by our own forces… it was by the grace of God. But of course, it wasn’t really the grace of God. It was the recklessness, the ingenuity, the daring of Pizarro and the brutality of the conquistadors…” – Dominic (68:08)
• On History’s Turning Point:
  • “Night falls over Cajamarca… It has been one of the most incredible days in history.” (67:19)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Summary | |-----------|----------------| | 04:18 | Dramatic reading from “The Royal Hunt of the Sun” – setting the tone of peril | | 09:11 | Geographic and political context – Spanish route, Inca civil war | | 13:06 | Who were the conquistadors? Discussion of their backgrounds and aims | | 17:08 | Atahualpa’s spies/espionage and Inca attitudes toward Spanish newcomers | | 21:17 | Busting the “Spaniards as gods” myth | | 23:49 | Atahualpa’s political pragmatism and calculations | | 29:44 | The deserted town of Cajamarca, atmosphere of dread | | 33:46 | First confrontation between Spanish and Atahualpa | | 47:43 | Council of war: Pizarro’s speech and plan for the ambush | | 51:54 | The Spanish terror – candid account of fear and tension | | 53:43 | Atahualpa advances; the Inca procession enters Cajamarca | | 56:25 | Friar Valverde delivers the requerimiento and the fateful “book” incident | | 60:48 | The signal: chaos erupts, massacre begins | | 62:54 | Cavalry’s role, slaughter of the Incas, eyewitness metaphors | | 65:15 | Atahualpa’s dramatic capture and the “table and chairs” dinner | | 66:51 | Atahualpa and Pizarro sleep side by side in the aftermath | | 68:08 | Reflections on the day’s brutality and historical significance |

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Tone and Presentation

The episode blends vivid historical narration with the hosts’ signature dry wit and occasional dark humor. Tom and Dominic guide listeners through chaos and complexity with expert clarity, often pausing to challenge myths, interrogate the sources, and highlight the terrifying audacity of the Spanish invasion.

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Closing

The story ends with Atahualpa a prisoner, the Inca Empire decapitated, and a continent on the cusp of seismic transformation.
Tom: “The story, of course, isn’t over, because there are still only 168 Spaniards and they are still surrounded by tens of thousands of Inca warriors…” (68:15)
Stay tuned for the next installment, where Pizarro’s choices will determine the fate of an empire.

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For history fans, this episode is a masterclass in both narrative tension and critical inquiry, vividly reanimating one of the most consequential moments of early modern global history.

Transcript

[Dominic]

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[Tom]

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[Dominic]

Yeah, I've always been fascinated by the great mysteries of history. Like what happened to the Maya civilization of Central America? Why were all those great cities deserted? But Tom, there's one mystery that's always fascinated you, isn't there?

[Tom]

Yes, Dominic, I've always been fascinated by the question of how humans came to make and use fire. How did that originate? And a tremendous discovery was announced just last year that the place where it seems fire was invented was Suffolk.

[Dominic]

Well, you know, one of the things that makes history so fascinating is the kind of back and forth between sources to try and explain these great mysteries. And you know, what's built for that kind of thinking. Claude is built for that way of thinking. It doesn't smooth things over. It helps you dig into the disagreement to reveal something new. An anthropic just committed to not running adverts in Claude. So your thinking stays yours.

[Tom]

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[Dominic]

Hello everybody. Now, we promised that we would be back with more news about the thrilling Rest is History Festival. And we can now reveal some more of the massive names who will be joining us at Hampton Court palace on the 4th and 5th of July this year. One of them is the brilliant Tracey Borman, who will be joining us to talk about the secrets of the Tudors. And the other, another massive fan favorite is Katja Heuer, who will be talking about her new work on Weimar Germany.

[Tom]

So I will be joined by Mary Beard to talk about what else Rome. And I will also be joined by friend of the show Ali Ansari to talk about what else Persia.

[Dominic]

I will also be joined by massive fan favourite and Irish national treasure Paul Rous, who will be joining us to talk about the history of Ireland.

[Tom]

And I will be joined by Helen Castor to talk about very appropriately, considering that we're at Hampton Court, Elizabeth I. A few names left to announce and you'll be able to find the full lineup on the new Rest is History website very soon.

[Dominic]

But Tom, the one Thing that's puzzling me. How will our listeners be able to join us at this new festival?

[Tom]

Well, Dominic, the answer is very simple. They will have to become members of the Rest Is History Club because this festival is exclusive to members of the Rest Is History Club.

[Dominic]

If you are a member, you can enter the ballot for two tickets. Now, you might think, I actually don't want to enter the ballot. I'd like guaranteed tickets. And the way to do that is to become an Athelstan. Because if you're one of our Athelstan members, then you are guaranteed access to two tickets.

[Tom]

So you are going to receive full details via email. And if you would like any extra information on the festival, on the ballot, on the guests, whatever, then click the link in the episode description.

[Dominic]

So, for a chance to join us at the inaugural Rest Is History Festival, sign up to the club [e-mail] because believe me, this is something that you won't want to miss.

[Tom]

Have you ever climbed a mountain in full armor? Well, that's what we did. Pizarro going first. The whole way up a tiny path into the clouds with drops sheer on both sides, into nothing. For hours we crept forward like blind men, the sweat freezing on our faces, lugging, skittery, leaking horses and pricked all.

[Dominic]

The time for the ambush that would.

[Tom]

Tip us into death. Each turn of the path it grew colder. The friendly trees of the forest dropped away and there were only pines. Then they went too, and there just scrubby little bushes standing up in ice. All round us the rocks began to whine with cold. And always above us or below us, those filthy condor birds hanging on the air with great tasselled wings. Then night we lay down twos and threes together on the path and hugged like lovers for warmth in that burning cold. And most cried. We got up with cold iron for bones and went on. Four days like that, groaning, not speaking, the breath ablaid in our lungs. Four days slowly, like flies on a wall. Limping flies, dying flies up an endless wall of rock. A tiny army lost in the creases of the moon. So that was old Martin in Peter Schaffer's play the role Hunt of the sun, which came out in 1964. I'm going to confess, I had no idea really how to play him. I've tried out a range of tones and accents and voices.

[Dominic]

The voice changed from line to line, though.

[Tom]

Yeah, it did. Dominic. I'm assuming that all the readings for the series are going to be coming from this play, are they?

[Dominic]

No, I Don't think they are, no. Oh.

[Tom]

Cause I thought that over the process of the six episodes we're doing, I could maybe by episode six, I would finalise how old Martin should actually have.

[Dominic]

Spoken because his narrative stops too soon.

[Tom]

Oh, okay.

[Tabitha Syrett]

Yeah.

[Dominic]

We have to find some other readings for the later episodes.

[Tom]

Okay. So whatever one thinks of old Martin and how he should be speaking, what he is doing there is describe the point in our story where the Spanish conquistadores are inching their way through the Andes towards their showdown with the Inca emperor Atahualpa. And Dominic, we've said it before, we're gonna say it again. This is one of the most dramatic confrontations in history. It is up there with Cortez meeting Moctezuma. It is that seismic.

[Dominic]

It is. Absolutely. It is. It's an amazing scene in the play, actually. So it ends with the Spanish on the hillside above the town of Caiamarca where they're due to meet Atahualpa. And Martin says you could almost touch the silence up on the hill. We could see the Inca's tents and the light from his fires ringing the valley. There's this sense of gathering tension and excitement. Very, very dramatic moment. And that is the story we are telling today. So they're meeting with Atahualpa and what happens next? So let's just remind listeners where we got to. So the year's 1532. The veteran conquistador Francisco Pizarro has landed in PERU with around 200 men, looking for adventure, for glory, and for gold. And he is convinced that somewhere south along the Pacific coast is this rich and sophisticated kingdom. And of course, he is right. This kingdom is Tawantinsk Soyo, the land of the four quarters, or as we would call it, the empire of the Incas, one of the largest empires in the world at this point. From their heartland in Cusco, the incas ruled about 12 million people all the way from Colombia and Ecuador in the north to Chile in the south. Pizarro has made a stunning discovery. He's landed at a place called Tumbes, and he has discovered that the empire is in chaos. That's been ravaged by smallpox and by this fratricidal civil war between two claimants to the throne. Huascar, the older and brother, who is based in Cusco, and Atahuallpa the younger, who is formerly his viceroy in Quito in Ecuador. So a very Game of Thrones style struggle for the throne. And now Pizarro and his men. So that is his brothers, Hernando Gonzalo, and Juan and his lieutenant, Hernando de Soto, great horseman, posh but sinister and short. They can see their opening. If they can profit from the Incas divisions, then maybe they can emulate Pizarro cousin Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of the Aztecs. So let's pick up the story from where we left off. It is mid winter, which means it's what we would call summer in, in Peru. Pizarro is still in the far northwestern corner. He is about 900 miles north of modern day Lima. So that is about 1,300 miles north of Cusco, the Inca capital.

[Tom]

Is there a road that goes straight there though?

[Dominic]

No, a series of roads.

[Tom]

The Incas have built this incredible road network. So it's actually not as far as it might sound.

[Dominic]

Well, it's still far, but it's.

[Tom]

Yeah, but it's, you know, you don't have to hack your way through jungles or anything.

[Dominic]

No, there's not too much hacking, but there's a lot of crossing of rope bridges and everyone knows that's dangerous, vertiginous ascents and descents and stuff like that.

[Tom]

Llama action.

[Dominic]

Exactly. But Pizarro wants to make sure that his governorship that he has been awarded by the Spanish king is on firm foundations. So the first thing he does is to establish a new town. This is from his cousin Cortez's Mexican playbook. This is what Cortez had done. You establish a town, you establish a municipal government and that gives you the legal foundation that means you can't be challenged for governorship of this country.

[Tom]

Can I ask you, Dominic?

[Dominic]

Yeah.

[Tom]

What has Charles V licensed Pizarro to do? It's the notion that Pizarro will turn up, found a city and that the, the Incas will be so peaceable that they'll just go, that's great. And if they don't, is there a license to kind of attack them with horses and gunpowder and stuff?

[Dominic]

So as we will discover under the, the regulations From I think 1513, the Council of Castile, you read them this thing called the requirement, which explains to them the history of the world.

[Tom]

Yeah.

[Dominic]

The story of Jesus and the fact that Charles V, the king of Spain, has been licensed by the Pope to export Christianity to the Americas. When you read them this, they are legally bound to submit to vassalage and if they don't, you can kill them.

[Tom]

So that essentially is the legal framework.

[Dominic]

Yes, exactly.

[Tom]

But is Pizarro expecting that he's going to have to fight?

[Dominic]

Yeah, I'm sure he is.

[Tom]

Or is he Hoping that perhaps they could arrive at a mutually acceptable accommodation.

[Dominic]

I think ideally they'll reach an accommodation, but violence is always part of the Spanish repertoire, and everywhere the Spanish have been so, in the Caribbean, in every island in Mesoamerica, in Central America, everywhere they have been, theatrical terror has been an important part of their armoury.

[Tom]

I just wonder, though, because it is very punchy, even by the stands of the Spanish, to invade an empire consisting of 12 million people with under 200 people.

[Dominic]

Yeah, yeah, it is. I mean, some people might say, you might say bonkers if it were not for the fact that we all know that they do it. I know he's thinking he's going to get reinforcements, that they're going to arrive at any moment.

[Tom]

Are the Spanish going to think of Atahualpa as a usurper? So does that invalidate him as someone with whom they can negotiate?

[Dominic]

No, I don't think so straight away, but I think the further they get, the more they realize the divisions of the civil wars are a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for them. Initially, they think of Atahualpa as a potential collaborator. Yeah, that's what they want, really. That's what all empires want. They don't want to fight unnecessarily. They may have to, but ideally everyone will collaborate with them. And in fact, the Spanish will find plenty of people who collaborate with them in the Inca Empire, as they did with the Aztecs.

[Tom]

It's kind of opportunistic. Militarism, then, is basically their mood.

[Dominic]

Yeah, I think that's the right. That's the right way of putting it. So Pizarro moves out on the 24th of September with his men. He's left some men behind to found this new town, San Miguel de Tangaradara. And what that means is that he now has, what is it, 167 men plus him. So 61 horsemen, 106 infantry. And there's a brilliant book of historical detective work called the Men of Cuyamarca by James Lockhart, American historian, in about 1970, where he really dug into where they're all from and what they all did. Most of them are from the poorer, more rural western and southern parts of Spain, so extra Madura, you know, Andaluthia and so on. They're quite young, by and large. They're in their 20s. The more senior people are in their early 30s.

[Tom]

So Pizarro, he's unusually old, then.

[Dominic]

He's a real outlier. He's about 52, I would say.

[Tom]

Yeah.

[Dominic]

These are not trained soldiers, by and Large. There's loads of accountants, tailors, merchants, craftsmen. There's a barber, there's a stonemason. These are people who basically were. They weren't the poorest of the poor. They were artisans, I guess, who have decided to, you know, seek a new, new life and a new fortune.

[Tom]

There are some out there. There's the Cretan guy, the artillery man. So it's good to have him on the scene. He's come with Pizarro and some guns.

[Dominic]

And Pizarro's brother Hernando, who fought in Italy. So there's a couple of people with military experience. And a lot of these people will have seen action in the Caribbean and that involved basically killing defenseless indigenous people, natives. That's the action that they're used to. They're not, you know, trained, professional soldiers by any means. And why are they here? They are here really for money. Some of them are there for adventure. Some of them may be there for crusading zeal. You know, the Dominicans, for example. There are five or six Dominicans who are with them.

[Tom]

Yes, of course. Dr. Valverde among them.

[Dominic]

Exactly. But there's a transactional element. When they've got their gold, they either settle down with a farm in Peru or a lot of them will go back to Spain. That's the plan. So anyway, they set off 24th of September. It's a grueling, grueling trudge. So as one account puts it, there was much sun, little shade, much sand and no water, because this part of Peru is a kind of coastal desert plain. So they're making good time, about 14 miles a day. They're absolutely fascinated by what they see. I mean, they write these fantastic accounts. The temples, the llamas, the very well ordered roads and bridges, the storehouses of food by the roadside. I mean, that's a very good sign as far as they're concerned. That means there is a lot of order and civilization. If there are sort of well maintained.

[Tom]

Storehouses, do they note with surprise the lack of wheels?

[Dominic]

I think it becomes obvious why there's no wheels. Because there are no horses. And whenever they go, people shy away from the horses, are absolutely astonished and horrified. A horse is a very frightening thing, I think, if you've never seen a horse. And we know throughout the Americas, when the Spanish turned up with horses, people were absolutely stupefied and amazed and frightened. But so they're beginning to attract attention. At one point, a messenger hails them on the road, and he says, I have been sent by Huascar, the Defeated brother by his faction. At least he has heard that you have come to bring justice to Peru and he wants to ask for your protection. And Pizarro gives him a kind of non committal answer. He says, where there's injustice, you know, we'll put it right, but nothing more than that. There's also a very weird incident quite early on when the Spanish notice a kind of young man hanging around their camp and sort of lurking generally. And he's dressed as a sort of street peddler and he has this huge shawl that he wears over his head and shoulders to protect him from the sun. And he's always trying to get him to buy his trinkets. And they call him Apu. Apu is very interested in their horses and their swords and actually it turns out that Apu is a spy sent by Atahualpa. So not a very good one. Not a terribly good one, no. Now, I mentioned Aterwel, but what's he up to? The emperor, or at least the would be emperor. He's been fighting his brother. He has made camp about 300 miles away in the mountains near the town of Cayamarca. His priority is not the Spanish, it is the civil war. So he's waiting for news from the south, where his commander, who has the excellent name of Kiskis, is leading the final assault on Cuzco. So when he gets news that a load of blokes with beards have turned up on the coast. They've been looting villages. They've been behaving poorly in storehouses, helping themselves to the food. They've been very rude to some of the locals. He's perturbed, you know, what's all this? But he's not especially frightened. Apu reports back and says the Spanish are in absolute shambles, actually.

[Tom]

Yeah, he says they're kind of villains, aren't they? Kind of indigents and robbers.

[Dominic]

Yeah, exactly. He says they're just an absolute bunch of rogues. Apu actually says, I think we should let them come. Kill them all, except for three, because three of them are worth something. They've got a blacksmith who makes swords, amazing swords. We should keep him. We should keep the guy who's the horse tamer because he can control these incredible beasts and quite sweetly, he says we should keep the barber because he makes men look young again nice.

[Tom]

By shaving them.

[Dominic]

By shaving them, presumably.

[Tom]

So there are people in Peru who do have beards.

[Dominic]

I guess so. I don't know. I was thinking about this. Surely Andean's Clean shaven, surely relatively clean shaven.

[Tom]

I don't know, but I mean, because the whole stuff about bearded men coming.

[Dominic]

Yeah, exactly.

[Tom]

Important, isn't it? I suppose a Spanish beard is larger and bulkier than an Andean beard, an Indian beard.

[Dominic]

You never would see an Andean beard particularly, would you?

[Tom]

It's always about beards, isn't it, in history?

[Dominic]

Anyway, Atwelp is intrigued by all this and he sends one of his senior officers called Sinking Chara to investigate. Confusingly, some chronicles say Seeking Char is the same person as Apu and some chronicles say he isn't. So Listers can decide for themselves.

[Tom]

A rich unknowability, isn't it, of the.

[Dominic]

Past, Seeking Chara, whether he's Apu or not. He arrives at this provincial capital called Cachas on 10 October and he finds that Hernando de Soto, the dashing horseman, has already arrived with a scouting party. And who have we here now? Unfortunately, Sesoto is behaving very poorly. So Cachas, this place has a college attached to its sun temple and the college houses 500 ayes, which are young women from noble families who've been chosen for their bloodline or their beauty. And basically they will spend four years weaving cloth and brewing beer for the emperor. They're sort of virgins of the temple, I suppose.

[Tom]

Vestal virgin equivalents.

[Dominic]

Exactly. Soto and his men have dragged them out into the square and are busy divvying them up among themselves. Seeking Chara is appalled when he sees this, but obviously he can't really do anything about it because he doesn't. He can't match the Spanish muscle. He introduces himself to Soto. Soto says, great, when we're finished with these women, I'll take you back to Pizarro. Which he does. They go back to Pizarro's camp. Seeking Char is very cool, actually, and we're told he entered as casually as if he'd been brought up all his life among Spaniards. This is because, of course, he's on home territory and he's used to. He's an important person, he's used to being treated with respect. This leads me to believe, by the way, that he's not appu because if you'd been hanging around in a shawl pretending to sell trinkets and then you return, you would, you would look shame faced, I think.

[Tom]

But I mean, not to do him down. I mean, he's obviously a very, very cool customer. You have to have incredible courage to turn up and confront these terrible men.

[Dominic]

He's brought them some nice gifts, though. He's bought them two pots that are shaped as forts, weirdly, and some skinned ducks. And the Spanish take the gifts. And it's amusing, actually. The Spanish are convinced themes must have some secret meaning. They're overthinking. So they're kind of staring at the pot. They're massively overthinking it. They're like, did the pots mean there are a lot of castles? And what about the ducks? They will skin us alive. That's what the Spanish say. They think that they're going to be skinned alive like the ducks. Actually, I think he's just giving them some. Something to eat. Anyway, Siken Chara spends two days in the camp. He makes a note of everything. And finally he says to Pizarro, listen, the emperor would like you to continue to Cuyamarca, and he will greet you personally. And Pizarro is like, brilliant. This is what he wants. So he sends Seeken Chara back. He says, here's a lovely gift for you and for the emperor, a nice linen shirt. We've got two glass goblets from Venice and some scissors and some combs and a mirror. So back they go with the gifts. Now, important to say at this point, some people may be listening to this and thinking, do the Incas believe that the Spaniards are gods? Which is a thing you often hear, as you do about the conquest of Mexico. There was absolutely no evidence for this whatsoever. The Incas definitely didn't think they were.

[Tom]

Gods, but they thought they might be. I mean, some Incas seem to have thought they might be messengers of the gods. So Viracocha, the creator God, they call them. These are viracochas.

[Dominic]

Yeah, Viracocha's messengers, or sons of viracocha. Exactly.

[Tom]

And there is that kind of Quetzalcoatl stuff that you have in Mexico with the idea of bearded men coming from the sea and that these are veracochas.

[Dominic]

I'm not sure about that, Tom. I don't. I don't agree with that. I think for a couple of reasons. First of all, I think people end up, even in the 16th century, conflating the two conquests and taking details from one and putting them in the other as the stories are repeated and written down by other chroniclers, by. Basically, it's that classic thing that historians do. The myths are repeated in secondary histories, and then people stop questioning them. But the thing about that they are the sons of Viracocha or the messengers of Viracocha or whatever this is almost certainly either a literary formula or it's a courtesy. I don't think people think they are literally sent by the gods because the way the Incas behave towards them is exactly as they would behave if they thought there were other human beings like themselves.

[Tom]

Yeah, accepted. But just. Just to kind of slightly push on this. The Incas are living among chaos, their empire is being swept by plague, there is this terrible civil war, and now these peculiar people with mad animals have turned up.

[Dominic]

Yeah.

[Tom]

Is there a sense of the kind of the Incan cosmology of different ages, of, you know, cycles of time and might this be presaging a new cycle of time, a kind of apocalyptic sense?

[Dominic]

I think there is. I mean, there's definitely apocalyptic there, there's definitely a strain. There were stories of the end of the world and things like that, but you don't get a massive sense that people think this is the end of days. These people are the heralds of some terrible doom, all of this kind of thing. I think actually most people are making much more pragmatic political considerations.

[Tom]

I mean, you can do both, can't you?

[Dominic]

Rather than apocalyptic or eschatological ones. There's no. We don't have really that much evidence of people thinking in apocalyptic terms about the coming of the Spaniards, but we do have evidence about them making kind of Machiavellian calculation about what they can do with this new variable of 168 people with the horses in particular. I think that's what Atahualpa is doing, by the way. I think Atahualpa is sitting there in Cuyamarca. He's thinking about the civil war. All the evidence actually for the next year or so is that that's pretty much all Atahualpa is thinking about, is the civil war. I think he thinks these will be excellent mercenaries or if he can kill.

[Tom]

Them, get their horses, get their. The guy who can make the swords for him.

[Dominic]

Yes, of course.

[Tom]

You know, it's literally a cutting edge, isn't it?

[Dominic]

Exactly that, that. I think that's his. I think his military technology really interests him and he thinks, brilliant, I can use this to finish off Huasca's faction, complete my victory in the civil war. There's no reason for him to think this is an existential threat. The Spaniards, of course, know what happened in Mexico to Montezuma. He doesn't know. He's never heard of the Spaniards before. I mean, even at this stage, they are maybe thinking a decapitation strategy. You capture the top man, maybe some of his family, some of the elite. And then you leave the empire leaderless. It worked for Anan Cortez, it worked for your cousin Francisco. Maybe it'll work for you.

[Tom]

I guess that kind of, you know, capturing leading people is in the DNA of the, of the Spaniards. I mean, it's in the DNA of all Christians. I mean, all that 100 years war stuff. Yeah, capturing people and using that to get money is what, what European soldiers do, isn't it?

[Dominic]

1527, they invaded the Rome, sacked Rome.

[Tom]

Took the Pope prisoner, thereby causing the English Reformation.

[Dominic]

Yeah, exactly. So the Spanish are coming closer and closer, just as old Martin describes in that reading from the play. They turn in land from the Pacific and they go up into the Andes. They go up through this valley, through the cotton fields, into the canyons. They're now about 13,000ft above sea level. So they're breathless, they're cold, it's absolutely freezing. There's no shelter. They're very, very anxious because they can see people watching them the whole time from kind of watchtowers.

[Tom]

I cannot imagine doing it.

[Dominic]

It's crazy.

[Tom]

It just seems insane behavior.

[Dominic]

And Ando Pizarro said, you know, they could have finished us off at any time. We couldn't use the horses on the mountain roads, off the roads, we could take neither horses nor foot soldiers. We were completely vulnerable, snaking along these kind of mountain passes. And the incubs are watching us, but they're not acting. And actually we know from what we get a sense from later chronicles and things that some of Atahualpa's counselors said, why are you letting these people come? Why not just strike now and kill them all? And Atahualpa says to them, it is folly to be so concerned about 170 men. Let's find out who they are. What have we got to lose? Let them keep coming. He really wants to see the horses. He wants to see these guys who have strange weapons that make an explosion and everyone runs away, arquebuses and stuff. And it's a bit different from Montezuma. Montezuma was in his capital, in the palace. Atahualpa is with his army. He's in a military camp with 80,000 men. Why would he be frightened about fewer than 200?

[Tom]

He's just won a very bloody war. No one can be in any doubt that he's ready to crush his enemies if he has to.

[Dominic]

Right, exactly. On the 9th of November, they get another messenger from Atahualpa. The messenger brings them 10 llamas as a Gift. And he says the emperor is at the hot springs near Caiamaka, outside Cajamarca. They're five days march away. He's looking forward to seeing you. They make slow progress, and five days later, they reach the last village before the Valley of Cai Marker, which is called Zavana. They've now been on the road for 52 days, six months in total, since they left the coast. Because they've dallied at first, another messenger brings them food from Atahualpa, says he can't wait. Looking forward to seeing you. And Pizarro says to his men, right, get ready for battle now. Like, we're pretty close. So that's the 14th. The next day is the 15th. The path rises for the last time in the mountains, and they reach the highest point at around midday, and they look down and they see the valley of Cuyamarca. It's only a few miles wide. It's very fertile fields of cotton plantations. They can see the stone buildings of the town glinting in the sunlight. And then beyond that, four miles behind the town, they can see this, what looks like a sea of white shapes. And these are the tents of Atahualpa's army, tens of thousands strong. So to quote one of the conquistadors, so many tents were visible that we were filled with great apprehension. We never thought that Indians, his terminology, not mine, could maintain such a proud estate, nor have so many tents in such good order. It filled all of us Spaniards with fear and confusion, but it was not appropriate to show any fear, far less to turn back. And so Pizarro says, come on, then, let's do this. And they spur their horses and they begin to descend the path towards the town of Cayamarca.

[Tom]

God.

[Dominic]

So they approach the wall of Kayamarca. They go through the gate. Kaimaka today is a very kind of handsome Spanish colonial town. At the time, it was an Inca town of about 2,000 people. And when they get there, there's hardly anybody there. The streets are deserted, quiet. There are no people to be seen. One Spanish memoirist said later, all we could hear was the ghostly keening of women singing of the death that awaits the strangers who have provoked the wrath of the great Inca. I mean, that's pretty terrifying. So they press on. They go past a sun temple, they go past another of these convents, and they emerge into this main square of Kaimaka. Now, very important for people to get this into their heads. This square is surrounded on three sides by these kind of long, low stone buildings which were basically they're 200 yards long, and each of these buildings had about 20 doors in it. And basically what they were, they were called kalankas. And they were used as dormitories for people who came through the town to work in the kind of labor gangs or in the army or even pilgrims arriving for religious festival or something like that. They're there surrounded by these long, low buildings in the middle of this square, and there's no one else there. And it starts to rain, and they say, well, let's go into these buildings. And they go and take shelter in the barracks.

[Tom]

Dominic, also, can I just ask, in the middle of this square, there's a kind of a ceremonial platform, isn't there? So that's also going to play a part.

[Dominic]

Exactly. So Pizarro and his captains gather around. They have a little council of war, and they're all very nervous. You know, there's no one here. What's going on?

[Tom]

I mean, how could you not be nervous?

[Dominic]

Of course I'm not. I'm not knocking them.

[Tom]

Sound like you're. You're judging them.

[Dominic]

I wouldn't be nervous.

[Tom]

From the heart of the Cotswolds, Yeah.

[Dominic]

He sends his lieutenant and Nando de Soto. He says, I want you to go over to Atahualpa. Go over to his camp, wherever he is. He's at these hot springs or whatever they are. Take 15 of your best horsemen. Take one of the interpreters with you. The Spanish can't agree. Whether it's Felipio or Martini, I don't know they know the difference. Find out what he wants, what his plan is, you know, where does he want us to stay, all of this. Soto goes off with the cavalry, 15 men. And Francisco goes for a walk with his brother Hernando. And Hernando goes with him and says, I think we made a mistake, actually. You've just sent our best horsemen off to Atahualpa, but there's only 15 of them, and if the Incas turn on them, you know, there's curtains for them. And Francisco says, yeah, you're right, actually, you go after them. Take 20 more men and go after them. And Hernando does. And that's very lucky for us and for everyone listening to this podcast, because among the men that Hernando takes are people who wrote books about it afterwards. So there's a guy called Miguel de Estete, and there's a guy called Diego de Trujillo, and they both wrote long eyewitness accounts of the meeting, which, of course, in traditional Spanish, conquistador Fashion disagree with each other on the details, but anyway. So Hernando is following Soto along the stone road which goes out for four miles from the town to a place called Pulta Marca. Today it's called Bagnos del Inca, the baths of the Inca, which tells you what it was like because it's basically a spring, it's a spa. Atahualpa is taking the waters there. And to get there they have to go past through Atahualpa's army to all the tents. And Estete in his account says, you know, we were absolutely terrified advancing through these ranks and ranks of soldiers who are just staring at us in silence.

[Tom]

But having to, to kind of convey a sense of cool and fortitude.

[Dominic]

Of course, imagine, imagine it's like the bit in Apocalypse now when they arrive at Marlon Brando's camp and all the tribesmen are just sort of staring at them silently. It's like that. And finally they get through the camp and there's Atahualpa's sort of palace building, his country house or whatever it is, this stone building with two towers and it's got. There's about 400 warriors guarding it and all they can hear is the water bubbling in the pipes and pools of the hot springs. Just this deathly silence. And their interpreter says, we'd like to see the emperor. And no one, you know, Atahualpa doesn't come out. And Hernando Pizarro, who's very hot tempered, starts shouting, tell that dog to come out.

[Tom]

Oh, it's lucky they didn't speak Spanish.

[Dominic]

Yeah. And eventually a nobleman appears and it's their old mate, Sikhin Chara. And he. There's some form of interaction, very garbled, actually. And eventually the moment comes where they will see the emperor. Though what's unclear from the accounts is if they go in or Atahualpa comes out. I think they go in, actually.

[Tom]

Apu isn't around.

[Dominic]

Well, Apu may be seeking Chara. This is the confusing thing. So why are all the accounts so garbled? This cuts to the confusion of the story. The Spaniards themselves are very confused because they don't really know what's going on. They don't speak a word of Quechua. They're in this new land. They might as well be on an alien planet. Weird people, weird customs, all this. And their interpreters are useless. So whoever is there, either Felipio or Martinillo, they stumble and stutter. They must be frightened themselves. They're stumbling and stuttering over their words. And actually when they do talk to Atahualpa. Atahualpa at one point says of the interpreter, what does this fellow mean? Stammering from one word to another and from one mistake to the next as if he were dumb.

[Tom]

How do we know he said that?

[Dominic]

Because the interpreter must have translated.

[Tom]

But how can we trust the interpreter if they're useless?

[Dominic]

Well, I think it's highly unlikely you'd make that up about yourself. The emperor is saying that I'm a useless translator. You're not going to make that up. But anyway, throughout this story runs this thread of misunderstanding, possibly deliberate misinformation. In the Aztec story, listeners will recall that Malinche may well have been manipulating the whole thing. And we don't. We just don't know about these interpreters, these boys, whether they were making stuff up or whatsoever. Anyway, this is now the moment when they first lay eyes on the emperor. To quote one conquistador, he was seated on a small stool, very low on the ground, as the Turks and Moors are accustomed to sit with all the majesty in the world, surrounded by all his women and with many chiefs near him. And they describe him probably in his early 30s. He's got long black hair. He wears his hair long because he's been injured in the civil war in the ear, and he's covering that up.

[Tom]

Oh, that's bad if you're a big ear, isn't it?

[Dominic]

Yes, I guess so. Exactly. So that's probably why he grows his hair. He has a brightly colored cloak. He's got this thing on his brow which is the crown, the circlet of red wool threaded with gold, and this kind of red tassel that hangs above his eyes. And this crown is called the mascapecha, which is the crown of the Sapa Inca. But he's sitting on the stool, and he doesn't move. He doesn't even look at them. And they advance closer. Strangely, they're still on horseback. I don't quite know how this works, whether he's come out or they've gone in, but they're still on their horses because we are told Soto's horse was so close to Atahualpa that the breath from its nostrils stirred the tassel. But still Atahualpa doesn't show a flicker of emotion.

[Tom]

Well, that speaks very well of his courage, doesn't it?

[Dominic]

Very well, because they're terrified of the horses. Soto takes a gold ring off his finger and he hands it to Atahualpa. And he says, with the translator speaking, he says, I give you this as a token of Peace and friendship. Atahualpa puts out his hand. He takes the ring, but he still won't meet Soto's eye, and he doesn't show a flicker of emotion. And Soto then gives a prepared speech. He says, I've come on behalf of a mighty king, King Charles. He has appointed Francisco Pizarro as governor of these lands. And Pizarro would be absolutely thrilled if you would come and see him in the town. Atualba says nothing and he still doesn't raise his eyes. And one of his noblemen speaks up through the interpreter and says, you know, the Sapa Inca is not going to be going anywhere. This is the last day of his ritual fast in celebration of his victory in the war, and he will not be accompanying you. And Hernando Pizarro at this point completely loses patience. And he says, for God's sake, man, when you look at us or whatever, he shouts at Atahualpa. And now, for the first time, Atahualpa raises his eyes to meet them. His eyes are blazing with fury. They are implacable and they are, if they can be cold and blazing, they're both blazing and cold. And his eyes meet theirs. And now, at last, he speaks.

[Tom]

Are you leaving us on that cliffhanger on that?

[Dominic]

Yeah. Oh, my God.

[Tom]

Unbearable tension. Well, we better go and have a break and listen to some adverts or something. Unless, of course, you're a member of the rest of history club. Anyway, we will be back to find out what Atahualpa has to say to the Spaniards. This episode is brought to you by Claude by Anthropic. Now history lives in the contradictions.

[Dominic]

Yeah, I've always been fascinated by the great mysteries of history. Like what happened to the Maya civilization of Central America? Why were all those great cities deserted? But, Tom, there's one mystery that's always fascinated you, isn't there?

[Tom]

Yes, Dominic. I've always been fascinated by the question of how humans came to make and use fire. How did that originate? And a tremendous discovery was announced just last year that the place where it seems fire was invented was Suffolk.

[Dominic]

Well, you know, one of the things that makes history so fascinating is the kind of back and forth between sources to try and explain these great mysteries. And, you know, what's built for that kind of thinking, Claude, is built for that way of thinking. It doesn't smooth things over. It helps you dig into the disagreements to reveal something new and anthropic. Just committed to not running adverts in Claude. So your thinking stays yours.

[Tom]

Try Claude for free. At Claude AI Restishory.

[Dominic]

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Book Club, a new podcast from Goal Hanger, hosted by me, Dominic Sambrook, and me, Tabitha Syrett.

[Dominic's Producer]

As some of you may know, I have been Dominic's producer on the Rest Is History, and we even did a miniseries last year about all things books.

[Dominic]

And since we enjoyed that so much, we have decided to roll it out as its own show. So it'll be coming out every Tuesday. We'll be doing a different book each time and digging into all the stories behind them.

[Dominic's Producer]

And we are going to be talking about the historical contexts behind some of the greatest, greatest and most famous books of all time. We're going to be digging into the remarkable people behind them, the unexpected stories behind the stories, and also unraveling the plot of each book a bit and delving into the depths of the story.

[Dominic]

Now, you don't have to have read the books to listen to the show, but we hope that by the end of each episode, you will be able to pretend to people that you've read them. That is the key thing. And either way, whether you read them or not, we hope that you'll learn lots of fascinating facts, you'll do lots of great stories, and maybe Tabby the Odd laugh.

[Dominic's Producer]

We will be looking at thrilling gothic bodice rippers like Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein, as well as iconic stories like the Great Gatsby or Little Women, and then also some more modern stuff. So Game of Thrones, Normal People, the Hunger Games, Hamnet, all manner of exciting stories.

[Dominic]

So please join us on our journey into all things books. Wherever you get your podcasts, just search for the book club every Tuesday and hopefully we will see you there.

[Tom]

This episode is brought to you by Rocket Money.

[Dominic]

Tom. We often talk about how to organize our finances. I'm very conscious that I'm paying for a lot of mad subscriptions. And there's one thing that we've talked about often, the show, it's the thing that we probably hate more than any other. And it's a hidden fee. I would love to get my finances under control. There are all these things piling up on our bank statements, and I think I need to fix this problem. I need to sort this out and to stop this.

[Tom]

I mean, my finances are so chaotic that I need this app.

[Dominic]

So I'll tell you what it is. It's called Rocket Money. It's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions. It monitors your spending, and it helps to lower your bills so that you can and Grow your savings with Rocket Money.

[Tom]

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[Dominic]

RocketMoney.com is history. Rocketmoney.com is history. Hello everyone.

[Tom]

Welcome back to the Rest Is history. It is the 15th of November 1532. We are outside the town of Kamaka and Hernando de Soto and Hernando Pizarro are face to face with the emperor of the Incas, the redoubtable, terrifying Atahualpa with his. What was it? Dominic? His blazing and ice cold eyes.

[Dominic]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tom]

And so there's been a very tense standoff. And now Atahualpa has raised those blazing and ice cold eyes to meet the eyes of the Spaniards. He's about to speak. And Dominic, what does he say?

[Dominic]

Nothing good. He says, I've heard complaints about you from my men in the north. My captain and San Miguel sent to tell me that you've treated the chiefs badly and for threw them into chains. And he sent me an iron collar. He says that he killed three Christians and one horse. And Hernando Pizarro now does all the talking and he is a very undiplomatic man. He says your men in San Miguel were women. They were no better than women. One horse was enough to conquer the whole land. And when you see us fight, you will know what kind of men we are. And Atahualpa then says. And this goes back to something you were saying in the first half tomorrow. He says, I could have stopped you coming, but I chose not to. I know you are the sons of Viracocha. You are messengers from our God King Pachacuti. Your coming was foretold by my father, Huayna Capac. So I gave orders that nobody was to stop or harm you.

[Tom]

But you think this is fabricated by a Spaniard who is muddling it up with what Moctezuma had said to Cortez. Do you or do you think this is authentically what he might have said?

[Dominic]

I think there are multiple explanations of this. So one of them is he genuinely think their messengers from his the God king Pachacuti. I think this is extremely unlikely. Nothing that Atahualpa does If he genuinely thought that, would he not have met their eyes earlier? Would he not be a bit more polite? I think, of course, he would have behaved differently if he genuinely thought that. So I think there are two possibilities. One is that this is a literary flourish and that, you know, this has now become the formula that when you write a chronicle of Spanish conquest of somewhere in the Americas, the king greets you with these kinds of words. And this is what the read is like. Number two is. He does say this. This. Actually, I think number two is probably right. He probably does say something a bit like this. And it's a courtesy.

[Tom]

I would have said so, too, because, I mean, who or what is viracocha to the Spaniards? Yeah, I mean, they don't care.

[Dominic]

It might be embellished or whatever. I think it's a little bit, like, to borrow what math, the great historian Matthew Restell said about when this happened in Mexico. He said it's a little bit like. It's an exaggerated version of when someone comes to your house and you say, oh, do what you like. You know, fete comme shaveu. You know, relax, enjoy. You don't really mean it. You don't mean do whatever you like.

[Tom]

You.

[Dominic]

You say, you know, flowery things to make people feel welcome. And this is what Atahualpa is doing anyway. When he does this, Hernando moderates his tone and he says, my brother, the governor, they always call Francisco Pizarro the governor.

[Tom]

Governor?

[Dominic]

Yeah. Not. The governor loves you dearly. If you have any enemies, we will send horsemen to deal with them for you. With 10 Horsemen, we could defeat all your enemies. Your own men will only be needed to mop up the people who run away. And Ando says this to Atualpa, and Atahualpa just gives this cold smile. And Ando himself, who wrote a memoir of it, recalls he smiled as someone who did not think much of us, of course, Atahualpa may be very excited by this, deep down, because he may be thinking, yeah, these horses were a big deal, and I could really finish off my brother's faction with these horses.

[Tom]

And of course, he doesn't need the Spaniards to ride them in the long run.

[Dominic]

Exactly, he says. Atualpa now says, will you dine with me? And they say, no, we have to go back. He says, would you like drinks? He gets women to bring them jugs of this beer, this chicha. And then the sun is setting, and Atahualpa says, would you like to stay the night? And Hernandez says, no, we'd like to go back to our friends in the town in Cuyamarca. And Atahualpa says, okay, you can stay in these barracks around the town square.

[Tom]

Square.

[Dominic]

Brilliant. And then he says, I'll see you tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll come into Cajamarca to meet your leader. But there's one more moment before they leave. Atahualpa clearly fascinated by the horses. So. And then the de Soto, dressage champion of Spain, gives him a little riding demonstration. He wheels around on this horse. We're told that Atahualpa was amazed and amazed at seeing the agility with which it wheeled. But the common people showed even greater admiration. There was much whispering, so there's clearly a little. Little crowd. One squadron of troops drew back when they saw the horse coming towards them. And there's actually a dark side to this story. So when the Spanish have gone, Atahualpa says, those soldiers who drew back, round them all up, please, and execute them because they showed fear. And we can't show fear at the strangers, animals. And some sources say, he said, find their wives and children and kill them too. I want to make sure that nobody does this again and that, you know, we don't show the slightest flicker of fear when we see the Spaniards horses.

[Tom]

So end the bloodline of these cowards.

[Dominic]

Exactly, exactly. You said that with real relish, Tom. I could see you saying that, actually. If one of our producers showed fear of a horse, I think I'd have.

[Tom]

Been a good Inca.

[Dominic]

So night falls in Cajamarca, but the Spanish can't sleep. So Pizarro has a young cousin called Pedro who acted as his page. And Pedro described a council of war in Pizarro's quarters. We took many views and opinions among ourselves about what should be done. All were full of fear, for we were so few and so deep in the land where we could not be reinforced. Of course, let's remind ourselves there are 168 of them. They are thousands of miles from help. There are several million people between them and the coast, and they are basically up against 80,000 Incas camped in the tents just outside the town.

[Tom]

So quite a tight corner.

[Dominic]

It's. Yeah. The odds are against them, I think it's reasonable to say. And Pizarro encourages his men, says, come on, we've got this. We can do this. And he. One of the chronicles says, you know, that night he went around, he said, you know, every man a knight. Every man is a knight. It's very like the kingdom of heaven, if you've seen that film. The Orlando Bloom Crusades film, where at the end he knights everybody in the defense of this city. So even though that he's saying all this, they must be thinking, jesus, this is going to be tough. So the question is, what will they do when morning comes when Atahualpa turns up? Now, some Spanish chroniclers said later, Pizarro is hoping that Atahualpa will submit, will agree to accept Charles V as its overlord and Jesus as the, as you know, the master of all. I think this is highly unlikely that Pizarro thought that would actually happen. I mean, he'd be mad if he thought that would happen. I think he was always going to use some form of violence. He knew what his cousin Cortez had done in Mexico. And as Matthew Restall says in his excellent books about the Spanish conquest of the Americas, standard practice was theatrical terror. You strike first, you use surprise. You use your military technology, which is your horses, your swords and so on, and your guns. Yeah, and your guns. And you hope that that will prevail. You can frighten people into acquiescing. And so this is what Pizarro says to his men. He says, look, we're going to take advantage of the geography. When Atahualpa and his men arrive, we will allow them to filter into the main square, whereas you rightly said, Tom, there's a platform in the middle, and Atualpa will probably go up onto the platform or something like that. We'll see. Now, meanwhile, we will be in the barracks, which are on three sides of the square. Everyone will wait for my signal to burst out of the doorways on two sides. We'll have most of the horses under Soto and my brother Hernando and the other big cheeses, and they can deal with the Inca troops on the third side. I'll be there with a smaller group of people, and our job is to snatch Atahualpa. And as for the rest of the men, we're not talking about huge numbers. You hide in the alleys around the square. When the fighting starts, try to seal off the square, and that will mean that the Incas can't escape, and they'll be at the mercy of our cavalry. And as for the signal, when Atahualpa has taken his place in the center of the square, Pedro de Candia, the guy from Crete, the artilleryman, he can fire his guns, blow a load of trumpets, and when you hear that, it's game on. And we'll do this.

[Tom]

And Pedro de Candia is on this raised platform?

[Dominic]

Yes, he is he's on the platform.

[Tom]

So kind of relatively speaking, commanding heights.

[Dominic]

Exactly. Right now. Miguel de Estete, who's one of the memoirists, described the mood after the meeting broke up and darkness drew out him. Few slept and we kept watching the square from which the campfires of the Indian army could be seen. It was a terrible sight. Most of them were on a hillside and close to one another. It looked like a brilliantly star studded sky. So they're kind of looking out at these campfires, these tents and they're absolutely. The Spanish, you know, they're absolutely terrified. So the hours pass, they don't get much sleep. Dawn breaks 16-11-1532. Atahualpa's ritual fast is over. He and his closest friends have been drinking to mark the end of the fast. He's in no hurry to go anywhere actually, probably got a bit of a hangover. So all morning the Spanish wait, their Dominicans have held mass, everything is ready. The tension, you know, mounting all the time. A messenger arrives mid morning from Atahualpa's camp and he says Atahualpa's still coming. He's coming with his men but. And his men will be armed. Pizarro says fine, you can come however he likes. I will welcome him as a friend and a brother. That's nice. Another hour goes by, no one comes. Then another messenger arrives and he says actually they've changed their mind. They're going to leave their weapons behind.

[Tom]

And why is that do you think?

[Dominic]

I genuinely don't know. I think it never really occurs to Atahualpa that he'd need the weapons. He's got so many men.

[Tom]

Yeah, I suppose.

[Dominic]

Got so many men and then the Spanish would be mad to attack him. Just thinks highly. 168 men against 80,000. I mean you'd never do that. Still they don't come though. At midday there's movement in Atualpa's camp and the Spanish lookouts say the entire plain is full of men. Now Pizarro's men have all taken their places in the barracks and then hiding and whatnot. And you can imagine how nervous they are. Now Pedro Pizarro said, I saw many Spaniards urinate without noticing it, out of pure terror. So the Incas start to advance towards the town and I quote, they all wore large gold and silver discs like crowns on their heads. They were apparently all coming in their ceremonial clothes with a livery of checkered colors like a chessboard. And as they march, the Incas are kind of doing this motion to Sweep the ground as if clearing rubbish off the ground or something. And they're singing a song which the Spanish don't understand, but one of them said it was by no means lacking grace for those of us who heard it. Half a mile outside the town, the Incas stop, and Pizarro can't believe it. He sends out an interpreter. Why have you stopped? Natu Alpa's men say, well, we've been told to halt. It's mid afternoon now and the emperor has decided he'd like to spend the night outside the city and come in tomorrow. And Pizarro is horrified by that. He doesn't want the Incas right outside the town overnight because the one thing the Spanish are dreading is a night attack. And he sends another Spaniard to go and implore, Atahualpa, please come and visit us before nightfall. You know we won't harm you, we won't hurt you. You don't. You can come without fear. As a slightly weird thing to say, why would Atahualpa be frightened? There's no reason for him to be afraid. The Spanish are rather giving themselves away there.

[Tom]

I think they are, aren't they? Yeah, I mean, it's betraying their secret thoughts.

[Dominic]

It is exactly. It is. Anyway, the sun is beginning to sink and at last Atahualpa moves. He advances now with about 6,000 men, leaving most of his army outside the town. His men, as they promised, have left their, as it were, the heavier weapons behind. They've got slings, they've got stones, and they've got little axes, maybe, kind of ceremonial axes almost. They come through the gate, they come along the street. At last they enter the central square. The vanguard, then the emperor's party, many of them wearing these big feathered headdresses and stuff. And Atahualpa himself, he is sitting, and I quote, on a very fine litter lined with feathers of many colors and embellished with plates of gold and silver. 80 lords carried him on their shoulders, all wearing a very rich blue livery. He was seated on the litter on a small stool with a rich saddle cushion, very richly dressed, with his crown on his head and a collar of large emeralds around his neck, very like Montezuma on the causeway being brought out to meet N and Cortez.

[Tom]

I mean, it is amazing how many parallels between those two stories. There are.

[Dominic]

It is, isn't it? I agree completely.

[Tom]

You do wonder, did it actually happen? Or are the two accounts bleeding into one another? They're not making it up, but yeah.

[Dominic]

I think the Two accounts do bleed into each other a bit, actually. I think that's what makes it quite hard to. To discern the truth. That said, there are enough Spanish accounts of this incident, of course, for us not to doubt it.

[Tom]

And the example of what Cortez did with Moctezuma is obviously an inspiration here completely.

[Dominic]

So the sun has now almost set. There are thousands of Incas in the square. Atahualpa signals from the litter and he's raised up high above people's heads. And one of his captains steps forward with his personal standard, as if to claim this kind of central platform. Now, what is Atahualpa thinking at this moment? Everything we know of him is that he is a very ruthless and proud and, if necessary, violent man. I don't think he senses any danger. I think he thinks the Spanish are shambles and are undisciplined. I think his plan is that at some point this evening he will take Pizarro prisoner. Possibly he will kill him, possibly he will kill the Spaniards. But what he wants are the horses to use in his war. What he doesn't expect is that the Spaniards won't be there. And he. He calls out in Quechua, where are they? You know, where are you? And two Spaniards come out of one of these barracks. One of them is a guy called Hernando del Dana, who had learned a little Quechua, so he. So he could work as a. He could help with the interpreting. And the other is the Dominican friar, Vicente de Valverde.

[Tom]

Great to have a Valverde back on the show.

[Dominic]

And he is with one of these interpreters, either Martinillo or Filipio, and he is holding a cross in one hand and a prayer book in the other. And he advances towards Atahualba. And there are different accounts, very confusing accounts, what happened next, but here is, I think, a way through. Valverde kicks off by saying to Atualpa, would you like to come inside and have dinner with Francisco Pizarro? And this is obviously a ploy to get him apart from his men. And Atahualpa says, no. And Atahualpa says straight away, he's less conciliatory today. And he says, I've come to tell you to return everything you've stolen since you entered my kingdom. I mean, clearly, I think this is. He's getting gearing up for a fight. And Valverde, who must have been very nervous, begins to recite something. And the interpreter is translating all the time. And Valverde says, I'm a minister of Christ. And he starts gabbling about the history of the world. Jesus came into the world crucified to save sinners. My King Charles V has sent me to tell you all about this. You must accept Christ as your master in heaven. You must accept my King Charles V as your master on earth. You must become his vassal. You must give up your gods. And if you don't quote, if you refuse and seek to resist, then you and all your people will be destroyed, just as the pharaoh of old and all his host perished in the Red Sea. I mean, if the translator is interpreting all this, Atahualpa must have been listening to this, thinking, what is this?

[Tom]

I can't believe he said that.

[Dominic]

Yeah, well, of course it just seems extraordinary.

[Tom]

But it's signaling how the Spaniards will cast the downfall of Atahualpa. Right?

[Dominic]

Of course, of course. Now, I think what Valverde is doing, I think what a lot of historians think what Valverde is doing is he is reciting a version of the requirements, which is this bizarre legal document. We mentioned already that since 1513, Spanish captains are legally bound to read out to the peoples of the Americas before they kill them. Now, even at the time when the Council of Castile approved this, lots of Spaniards said, are you mad? You're going to read this out to people before you attack them? I mean, expect them to understand it. And of course, the interpreters are useless in Cayamarca, so they're kind of mistranslating things. And Atahualpa, listening to this, must have just thought. Thought what?

[Tom]

Gibberish. Yeah.

[Dominic]

Now at a whelper is looking confused, angry, impatient. And Valverde says, perhaps you'd like to have a look at my prayer book. Making Chad small talk at a welper to stress has never seen a book before or writing of any kind.

[Tom]

No, because he's only got chords with knots in.

[Dominic]

Hasn't he called with knots? Valverde gives him the book. And it's one of those books that must have like a buckle or a clip or a lock or something like that on it. And Atahualpa tries to open it and he can't open it. He's never seen an object like this. And Valverde reaches out to help him. Atahualpa hits him contemptuously, manages to open the book and stares at it. And we are told he looked with great interest at. At the construction of the book, the sort of the. What it was. But obviously he doesn't know that these symbols are words or that there's a story or that they're prayers or whatever. It's just madness to Him. Now, what happens next is unclear. Some people say Atahualpa threw the book down in the dust. And with contempt, some say that actually Valverde took the book back and dropped it, or dropped it while handing it to him, or something like this. Anyway, at some point, the book ends up on the ground in the dust, and this is the pretext that the Spanish need. When the book falls, Atahualpa shouts something to his own men. But Valverde is already running back to the barracks and he's shouting to Bizarro, come out. Come out, Christians. The dogs have rejected the word of God. That proud dog has thrown my book of holy law to the ground. He has become a Lucifer, or words to that effect. That is the trigger for Pedro de Candia on the platform to fire his guns into the crowd at the Incas. At the Incas. Now, of course, the Incas must have seen the guns, but they didn't know what they were. So what a shock that is. Suddenly, the guns, there's a huge, you know, bang, bang, bang. The Incas are reeling in the crowd. Then Pedro de Candia says, sound the trumpets. The trumpets blast. So there's a sort of sensory overload. And it's at that point that the Spanish horsemen burst out of the barracks on their horses. They've got their swords drawn. They're all screaming, santiago, Santiago. Which is their kind of war cry. And it's very like the bit at the end of the two towers Helms deep when the riders of Rohan kind of burst out of the fortress, cutting a sway through the orcs. This is the scene in the square. So the Spanish have tied bells and rattles to their horses bridles to make the maximum possible, possible noise. And the Incas, of course, who are not used to horses, who are frightened of horses straight away, they're in total chaos. They're screaming, they're running everywhere, they're stampeding and crushing each other.

[Tom]

Well, it's come as a complete surprise, right?

[Dominic]

Total surprise. The Spanish have come from nowhere. Guns, horses. This is stuff they've never seen before. The swords are flashing, The Incas are slipping and falling everywhere. There's bodies piling up, there's blood everywhere. People are literally suffocating each other in the crush and the carnage. And when they get to the ends, to the. To the gates, to the ways out of the square, Pizarro's other men are there, swords drawn to block them. Now, some of the Incas manage to break through a low wall and to get out of the square into the fields. Beyond. So thousands of people start streaming out into the fields, but the Spanish horsemen are following them out, and the captains are shouting, and I quote, ride them down. Don't let any of them escape. And there's this scene of utter slaughter. The cavalry riding them down one by one without mercy, cutting them down. The whole thing takes two hours, and it is a complete and utter walkover. The Wikipedia entry calls it the Battle of Cuyamarca, but it's not a battle. But it's not a battle. It's a complete massacre. So Spanish sources themselves said, you know, once the cavalry had done their work and then burst out following the people who were running away, the foot soldiers went into the square and they put every single person there to the sword. During all this, no Indian even raised a weapon against a Spaniard. Atahualpa's nephew, Titu Cusi, who wrote his own version of events long time afterwards, said it was said that the Spanish went about their business like slaughter men with cattle, just killing them grimly, methodically, without any pity.

[Tom]

I mean, that metaphor, it shows how.

[Dominic]

Long after it must have been for.

[Tom]

An Inca to come up with that.

[Dominic]

Exactly, yeah. John Hemming, in his brilliant book, the Conquest of the Incas, said, you know that. How do you know how many people died? Somewhere between 2 and 8,000. Even if you take a kind of lower estimate, each Spaniard must have killed probably 10, 12, 14, 15 Peruvians each. I mean, there's a lot of bloodshed. It. It's a. It's a dreadful, dreadful story. And among the people who are killed, of course, are Atahualpa's elite, his stewards, his servants, his friends, his counselors, his chief advisors, his chief nobleman, his chief captains. All of these people who would have been with him, who would never have. They would never have thought that anything like this could happen.

[Tom]

So it is a complete decapitation.

[Dominic]

Yeah, Complete catastrophe for the Inca state.

[Tom]

And Dominic, I have to ask, what about the emperor?

[Dominic]

Well, so right at the beginning, Pizarro and his men had made straight for the litter and they'd been shouting Santiago as well. They hacked their way through the crowd and Pizarro, we're told, grabbed hold of Atahualpa's left arm, but he couldn't pull him out of the litter, which of course, has been held up quite high. And loads of Incas are clinging to the litter to stop them taking the Emperor. And the Spanish, I mean, a hideous scene, are literally hacking at the Inca's arms, cutting off their hands, cutting off their arms in an attempt to get the litter down. But more Incas are rushing around to protect him. Eventually, one of the Spaniards, Miguel de Estete, who wrote a really good memoir about all this, he pulled the crown off Atahualpa's head and then he slashed at Atahualpa with his knife. And Pizarro shouted, no, don't kill him, and he put his hand in the way. So his own man cut his hand, which is now dripping with blood. Eventually, in the chaos, seven or eight Spaniards managed to kind of weigh down one side of the litter and they dragged Atahualba out and they bundled him away through the chaos towards the Temple of the sun. And they locked him in this temple while the rest of their comrades went about their murderous work in the square. And then when the fighting had totally died down, they brought him out again. They dragged him to one of the barracks. He's covered with, you know, blood. His clothes are ragged, all of that. They give him new clothes. Are they European clothes or that? I don't know, actually, it just says new clothes, so I'm guessing maybe European clothes. And then they bring him in to see Pizarro, who, like a Bond villain, set up. We meet again. Mr. Atahualpa sets up a table and chairs for dinner. Actually, it's interesting, the table and chairs. The Incas didn't eat with the table and chairs. So are we led to believe that the Spanish had brought a table and chairs with them?

[Tom]

Yeah, that sounds improbable.

[Dominic]

It's a mad detail. But so much of this story is mad. And actually, it's going to get madder because Atahualpa sits down to dinner with Pizarro surrounded by Spanish guards and servants. As John Hemings says in his brilliant book, what a weird scene. The Spaniards are caked in blood and sweat and Pizarro is having dinner and Atahualpa is sitting there. I mean, completely traumatised. Right.

[Tom]

Do we know what they're eating?

[Dominic]

I don't know. What? Guinea pig, surely. Guinea pig. Guinea pig and sweet potatoes. And then, if that's not weird enough, Pizarro says a sentence that I don't think anyone listening to this will expect. You'll sleep with me tonight.

[Tom]

This is the beginning of a beautiful.

[Dominic]

Friendship because basically he says to the servants, make up a mattress for the emperor. He will sleep with me. Me next to me. We will sleep side by side. And so you have this incredible scene, the most powerful man in South America bedding down for the night right next to this illegitimate, illiterate Spanish veteran who has just Pulled off one of the most amazing coups in all history.

[Tom]

Do you think either of them get any sleep?

[Dominic]

I see Pizarro as a snorer, to be honest. So I think it's a tough night for Atahualpa. Night falls over Cayamarca outside the city in their. Their camp. The Inca ar is just in disbelief at what's happened in the square. The, the carrion crows are feasting on the bodies of the dead. And in Pizarro's quarters here in Atahualpa, lying, you know, a few inches away from each other with Spanish guards by the door. It has been one of the most incredible days in history. One chronicler said. Truly, it was not accomplished by our own forces, for there were so few of us. It was by. By the grace of God. But of course, it wasn't really the grace of God. It was the recklessness, the ingenuity, the daring of Pizarro and the brutality of the conquistadors that had brought all this about.

[Tom]

And I suppose the complete miscomprehension that Atahualpa had of what he was up against. I mean, cruel and brutal though he is as well.

[Dominic]

Yeah, of course. I mean, my heart doesn't bleed for Atahualpa, but what happened to the Incas in that square is still brutal, still pretty, pretty brutal, pretty horrible. But the story, of course, isn't over because there are still only 168 Spaniards and they are still surrounded by tens of thousands of Inca warriors and they're still at the heart of a country of more than 10 million people, you know, who are not necessarily very friendly to them. So Pizarro now has some choices to make, and we will soon find out what his plan is and what he has in mind for Atahualpa, emperor of the Incas. But we won't find out until the next episode.

[Tom]

So members of the rested history club can hear that episode right now and a massive excitement. They will be able to get the next three episodes on Thursday. And if you are not a member of the Rest is history club, not a member of our happy band of conquistadors, and you would like to join them, Then head to therestishory.com to sign up. But for now, adios.

[Dominic]

Adios. Troy, the Odyssey, the Iliad, all of these great ancient epics depict a monumental collapse that destroyed the interconnected empires of 3,000 years ago. And to understand the Bronze Age apocalypse that that homer wrote about 400 years after it happened, subscribe to Empire World History. A fellow goal hanger podcast where we are deep diving into the biggest imperial collapse in ancient history.

[Tom]

To get a flavour of the series.

[Dominic]

Here is a clip from our episode with none other than Stephen Fry.

[Tabitha Syrett]

It is one of my favorite subjects, the story of the Greeks and the siege of Troy and Odysseus return home. Of course I say Greeks. Homer called them the Achaeans, the Danaans, the Argives. The word Greeks is a much later one, but it refers really to the Mycenaeans, a warrior aristocracy essentially obsessed with honor and reputation that would give them an eternal glory. A kleos, as they called it. It's the kleos that's in the name of so many Greeks. You know, Cleopatra and all the Socrates, Heracles, who's Hercules, you know, hero's glory. He was actually named Heracles because she hated him, because he was a love child of Zeus. And she never liked Zeus's love childs. Her husband, her errant husband. And so as an attempt to placate her, Teiresias, because he was born in Thebes, suggested that he change his name as a baby. This was to Heracles, the glory of Heracles.

[Tom]

It didn't help much.

[Tabitha Syrett]

It didn't help at all. Athena even put her on here as Brad Breast when Hera was asleep because it would bond them if he suckled her milk. But she woke and saw it and tossed him away and her breast milk spread across the sky to form the Milky Way.

[Dominic]

I didn't know that story because Galaxy.

[Tabitha Syrett]

Of course, is from the Greek for milk, galactic, as in lactic. So the chocolate makers are right. Anyway, this is completely separate.

[Dominic]

Keep going, don't stop.

[Tom]

Well, we really hope you enjoyed that. Clipped him More on the the Bronze Age apocalypse and how it shaped the ancient Greek epics. Just subscribe to Empire wherever you get your podcasts.