Atahualpa's main army, tens of thousands strong, was camped nearby but did not engage.
Balance of forces
Inca escort in the square~5,000-6,000
Spanish conquistadors168
Forces in the square; the larger Inca army did not engage.
Quick answer
Spain won at Cajamarca on 16 November 15322, when 168 conquistadors under Francisco Pizarro ambushed the Inca emperor Atahualpa in the middle of his own realm and took him alive. The capture of a living god-king paralysed the Inca Empire and set the Spanish conquest of Peru in motion.
On 16 November 1532, in the highland town of Cajamarca, 168 Spanish adventurers under Francisco Pizarro ambushed the Inca emperor Atahualpa in the middle of his own realm, surrounded by an army of tens of thousands. In a few violent minutes they killed thousands of his followers and took the emperor himself alive. The capture of a living god-king paralysed the Inca Empire and set the conquest of Peru in motion.
A tiny force in a vast empire
Pizarro reached Cajamarca with about 168 men, 62 of them on horseback, and a few small cannon and firearms. The Inca Empire he faced was the largest state in the Americas, and its ruler Atahualpa had just won a civil war3 and commanded armies numbering in the tens of thousands. Atahualpa, curious and unafraid, agreed to meet the strangers at Cajamarca.
The growth of the Inca Empire under successive rulers from 1438 to 1533. By the time Pizarro arrived it stretched for thousands of kilometres along the Andes. Public domain
The trap in the square
Pizarro hid his men in the buildings around Cajamarca's great square. Atahualpa entered on the evening of 16 November with several thousand attendants, most of them unarmed4, trusting in his overwhelming numbers. When the emperor rejected a friar's demands5, Pizarro gave the signal and his hidden troops opened fire and charged.
Atahualpa on his throne in Cajamarca facing Pizarro and the friar Vicente de Valverde, a drawing by the Andean chronicler Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, about 1615. Public domain
Fewer than two hundred men walked into an empire and walked out holding its emperor.
Guns, horses and steel
The Spanish had gunpowder, steel swords and, above all, cavalry, none of which the Inca had faced before. In the packed square the panicked, largely unarmed crowd could not fight back effectively. Thousands were cut down in the crush while the Spaniards suffered almost no losses3. Pizarro seized Atahualpa personally and dragged him out alive.5
Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru, painted by John Everett Millais in 1846 and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Public domain
A ransom and an empire lost
Atahualpa offered to fill a room with gold and silver5 for his freedom, and the Spanish accepted the greatest ransom in history, then executed him anyway in 15332. With their god-emperor first captive and then dead, and their empire already split by civil war, the Inca could not organise effective resistance in time. Cajamarca is the classic example of how a handful of men, exploiting shock, surprise and technology, toppled a great empire.
Atahualpa held prisoner by the Spaniards, another drawing by Guaman Poma de Ayala from his chronicle of about 1615. Public domain
Frequently asked questions
When and where was the Battle of Cajamarca?
It took place on 16 November 1532 in the main square of Cajamarca, in the highlands of northern Peru, during the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
How many Spaniards were there?
Francisco Pizarro had about 168 men, roughly 106 on foot and 62 on horseback1, with a few small cannon and firearms.
Was it really a battle?
It was more an ambush and massacre than a battle. Atahualpa entered the square with several thousand mostly unarmed attendants; the Spanish attacked by surprise, killed thousands, and captured the emperor, losing almost no one themselves.
Why could so few Spaniards win?
Surprise, the terror of cavalry, gunpowder and steel against a crowd that was largely unarmed and unprepared, plus the shock of seizing the emperor, decided it. The wider Inca army nearby was left leaderless.
What happened to Atahualpa?
He paid an enormous ransom of gold and silver for his release, but the Spanish executed him in 1533. The loss of the emperor helped paralyse Inca resistance and open the way to the conquest of Peru.
Sources and notes
Numbered notes in the text point to the works below.
James Lockhart, The Men of Cajamarca: A Social and Biographical Study of the First Conquerors of Peru (University of Texas Press, 1972). ↩ ab
Hernando Pizarro, Letter to the Judges of the Royal Audience of Santo Domingo, Written 1533; English translation hosted by NC State University: https://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/hi216/documents/pizarro.htm. ↩ abc
