Conflicts between conquistadors and rebellions
28-749: End of the Neo-Inca state The Battle of Jaquijahuana was fought between the forces of Gonzalo Pizarro and Pedro de la Gasca , on April 9, 1548, during the Revolt of the Encomenderos [ es ] by the Spanish conquistadores . After the successful Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire , the assassination of Francisco Pizarro in 1541, and the execution of his main antagonist, Diego de Almagro (1538) and his son, El Mozo (1542), most of
56-627: A brief period, Gonzalo concluded the expedition was a complete failure and decided to take a northern route back to Quito with 80 of the remaining men, unknowingly relinquishing the success to Orellana, who ended up discovering and exploring the entire length of the Amazon River . Upon his return to Quito, Gonzalo learned that the Almagristas (as the followers of Almagro were called) had assassinated his brother Francisco Pizarro on June 26, 1541 in retaliation for Almagro's execution. By this time
84-515: A cult following, it has appeared on Time magazine's list of "All Time 100 Best Films". In 2011 NetEnt, a leading global supplier of online casino software and games released a video slot called Gonzo's Quest for desktop and mobile browsers. A decade later in 2021 Evolution acquired the rights to the Gonzo's Quest IP and released Gonzo's Treasure Hunt Live a live casino game show game also playable on desktop and mobile browsers. Both titles feature
112-455: A further 220 Spaniards and 4,000 Native Americans. Orellana, Gonzalo's second-in-command and relative, was sent to Guayaquil to gather more troops and horses. Gonzalo Pizarro and his followers left Quito on February 1541, a month before Orellana, who was able to bring 23 men and several horses. By March, the two met at the valley of Zumaco and started their march across the Andes . After following
140-643: A harquebus shot to the leg at the battle while fighting for the royalists. The battle itself proved to be a disaster for Gonzalo Pizarro, with all his men who hadn't already defected being killed or captured on the field, while de la Gasca's men reportedly suffered a single casualty. Gonzalo himself, along with his most loyal commander, Francisco de Carvajal , dubbed the Demon of the Andes , were captured on field of battle and executed by beheading. De la Gasca then made efforts to consolidate his control over Peru, which remained
168-455: A royal colony and viceroyalty until the revolutionary actions of José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar during the early 19th century. Gonzalo Pizarro Gonzalo Pizarro y Alonso ( [gonˈθalo piˈθaro] ; 1510 – 10 April 1548) was a Spanish conquistador . He was the younger paternal half brother of Francisco Pizarro , who led the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire . Pizarro
196-566: The Crown 's representative, Cristóbal Vaca de Castro , had arrived in Peru amidst the confusion after Pizarro's death. Gonzalo offered to help capture those responsible for his brother's death, but was refused. The Almagristas were finally defeated in the battle of Chupas on September 16, 1542, and their leader, Diego Almagro El Mozo , was executed. Emperor Charles V then appointed Blasco Núñez Vela as Peru's first viceroy in 1544. Núñez introduced
224-822: The New Laws , which were framed by Bartolomé de las Casas to protect the indigenous peoples . Many of the conquistadors living in Peru were against these laws since they could no longer exploit the natives. This prompted Gonzalo Pizarro and Francisco de Carvajal to organize an army of followers with the intent of suppressing the New Laws. Many conquistadors turned against the Viceroy and joined Gonzalo's side, as his surname provided an effective rallying point. The rebel army defeated Núñez in 1546 at Añaquito near Quito . Although some, such as Carvajal, advised Gonzalo to proclaim himself King of Peru and to disown any further claim by
252-509: The Pizarro brothers and their followers marched towards the Inca capital of Cuzco to complete the conquest, capturing the city on 15 November 1533 after a brief battle with the Inca forces under Quizquiz holding it after previously defeating the central government and massacring the nobility of Cuzco. Gonzalo, and his brother Juan, were made regidores of the city on 24 March 1534. Cusco
280-485: The battle of Chupas on September 16, 1542. Two years later, King Charles eventually sent his own envoy, Blasco Núñez Vela , as governor over the recently found Viceroyalty of Peru , and as well to ensure the accomplishment of the New Laws enacted in 1542 to protect the native Peruvian population of Peru. Gonzalo Pizarro , however, refused to relinquish power and the sovereignty over Peru once belonging to him and his brothers. With his namesake as an ensuring symbol of
308-551: The conquest of Peru in 1530. Gonzalo was also the brother of Hernando Pizarro and Juan Pizarro . A lieutenant of his brother Francisco during the conquest, Gonzalo Pizarro was one of the most corrupt, brutal and ruthless conquistadors of the New World , being far less restrained towards the natives and the Inca than his older brothers. After Inca emperor Atahualpa was captured in the Battle of Cajamarca and later executed,
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#1732780150560336-485: The 1,200 men strong army of Gonzalo Pizarro entered Lima. Upon arrival to Panama, however, Vela was released, and returned to Peru with royal claims as the rightful viceroy and governor of Peru, landing in Tumbes . The two gathered supporters and met on January 18, 1546 at Añaquito in present-day Ecuador , superiority in numbers and firepower ensured victory for Gonzalo Pizarro, who crushed the army of Blasco Núñez Vela, who
364-487: The King of Spain to the land, Gonzalo refused. Over the following months, however, the support for Gonzalo diminished when the King's new representative, Pedro de la Gasca , arrived with the intention of offering pardon and repealing the New Laws. Most of Gonzalo's army deserted him just before the crucial battle of Jaquijahuana near Cusco , that would determine the fate of the conquest. No longer supported by an army against
392-515: The King's new representative, Gonzalo Pizarro surrendered and was beheaded by the royal forces on the field of battle, being the last of the Pizarro brothers to die a violent death (with Hernando dying of old age in Spain some three or six decades later). Gonzalo Pizarro has been immortalised in several different projects over the years. In 1972 Werner Herzog wrote and directed the film Aguirre,
420-613: The Spaniards in a number of sieges and battles for control of the land and temporarily captured Cuzco on May 6, 1536. The Incas were later defeated by the heavily armed Spanish soldiers led by Gonzalo and Juan. Smallpox was also spread among the natives and many perished. When Almagro returned from Chile disappointed in not finding any gold, he captured and imprisoned Gonzalo and Hernándo on 8 April 1537. Gonzalo managed to escape and re-join Francisco Pizarro, while Almagro
448-573: The Wrath of God , a film that featured actor Klaus Kinski and Alejandro Repullés who played Gonzalo. The film reimagines two expeditions led by Gonzalo Pizarro, one in 1541, which resulted in the European discovery of the Amazon river by Francisco de Orellana , and another in which Pizarro and his men went in search of El Dorado. Aguirre, the Wrath of God received widespread critical acclaim and developed
476-439: The competent commanders of the recently founded New Castile Governorate had been lost in the ensuing power struggle. In 1540, second in line of the Pizarro brothers , Hernando Pizarro , returned to Spain to defend the question of his and his brothers' reign in Peru against accusations of abuse of power. He was eventually imprisoned on orders of King Charles . The Almagristas, followers of Diego de Almagro, met their downfall in
504-470: The conduct of the Spaniards towards Incan women, especially after Gonzalo raped his queen and sister-wife Cura Ocllo . According to Fernández de Oviedo , Hernando Pizarro , Juan Pizarro and Gonzalo Pizarro "left no one single women or sister of his [Manco's] unviolated", and had taken the Inca princesses as concubines. The Spaniards corrupt rule and disrespectful treatment towards Manco Inca Yupanqui led to large-scale rebellion. The Incas fought
532-531: The courses of the Coca and Napo rivers, the expedition started to run out of provisions. About 140 of the 340 Spaniards and 3,000 out of 4,000 natives died. In February 1542, the leaders decided Orellana would take 50 men and continue sailing down the Napo river in search of food, then return to Pizarro. However, the return trip proved impossible because of adverse currents and Orellana's own pursuit of discovery. After
560-497: The crown, and proclaimed he would not enforce the New Laws, whose dispositions demanding better conditions for native laborers had led many powerful encomenderos to join Pizarro's cause. After initial skirmishes, the two forces went close to a confrontation in late 1547 at Jaquijahuana (Xaquixaguana, Sacsahuana) plains near Cuzco , but de la Gasca succeeded in avoiding battle, gaining precious time which he employed to convince even more of Pizarro's officers to switch sides, among them
588-512: The former reign of the Pizarros, he gathered supporters, mainly opposed by formal governor of New Castile, Cristóbal Vaca de Castro , victor at Chupas over the Almagristas. The Viceroy arrived at Lima , new capital of Peru, and was sworn into office on May 17, 1544. He shortly after had Castro imprisoned and sent home to Spain. On September 18, Gonzalo Pizarro managed to depose Blasco Núñez Vela and sent him as prisoner to Panama . On October 28,
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#1732780150560616-457: The notorious Alonso de Alvarado . Although Pizarro had arrived to Jaquijahuana with a vastly superior force, by the time the two sides finally met on the battlefield in April 1548, the situation had reversed, a steady string of defections having left Pizarro's forces in grave numerical inferiority and poor morale. The notorious conquistador Lope de Aguirre, known as the 'wrath of god', was injured by
644-463: The west coast of northern Peru and founded the city of Lima in 1535. Gonzalo, Juan and his younger brother Hernándo ruled Cuzco as a dictatorship dominated by greed, corruption and brutality; torturing and executing those who refused to accept Spanish rule. Particularly egregious was the conduct of Juan and Gonzalo Pizarro towards the Inca Emperor, Manco Inca Yupanqui . Manco was angered by
672-445: Was decapitated on the field of battle. This, in its turn, ensured a struggle for the control of Peru between Gonzalo Pizarro and the royal forces. The king then appointed Pedro de la Gasca as new governor of Peru; meanwhile, the land itself fell under control by Gonzalo Pizarro and his forces. De la Gasca landed in Peru in 1547, winning supporters to his initially inferior forces by promising amnesty to those having committed treason to
700-518: Was on his way to Lima to negotiate with Francisco on who would control Cuzco. These negotiations led to Hernándo's release. Hernando and Gonzalo then led an army against Almagro, defeating him in the Battle of Las Salinas . Almagro was captured, condemned for treason, and executed in Cusco on July 8, 1538. In November 1539, Francisco Pizarro appointed Gonzalo vice-governor of Quito , which had been taken in 1534 by Sebastián de Benalcázar . Gonzalo
728-540: Was ordered to explore east of Quito to investigate the rumors of a rich native kingdom to the east, called El Dorado , and of the so-called Land of Cinnamon - "País de la Canela ". Gonzalo set about organising an expedition in Cusco ; among those he recruited was Francisco de Orellana , a veteran of the conquest of the Inca and a dependable supporter of the Pizarro brothers. With 170 Spaniards and 3,000 Native Americans, Gonzalo marched to Quito in December 1540 and enlisted
756-451: Was split into factions behind Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro , but these two signed a new article of agreement on 12 June 1535. Almagro then left Cuzco, having been given the honor by Spanish King Charles I of exploring the southern part of Peru (modern-day Chile ) Gonzalo and Juan Pizarro both looked after the settlements in Cuzco, while their eldest brother Francisco explored
784-562: Was the illegitimate son of Gonzalo Pizarro y Rodríguez de Aguilar (1446–1522), who, as an infantry colonel, served under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba during the Italian Wars . He was also the younger paternal half brother of Hernándo Pizarro y de Vargas and the older paternal full brother of Juan Pizarro y Alonso . Born in Trujillo, Spain , Gonzalo Pizarro accompanied his eldest brother, Francisco Pizarro, in his third expedition for
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