Juan Pizarro II
Juan Pizarro (
1511 -
1536) was a
Spanish conquistador who accompanied his brothers
Francisco,
Gonzalo and
Hernándo Pizarro for the conquest of
Peru in
1532.
Illegitimate son of Captain Gonzalo Pizarro and Maria Alonso. Half brother of
Francisco and
Hernando Pizarro. Full brother of
Gonzalo Pizarro.
He was one of the most ruthless, brutal and corrupt conquistadors in the
New World. Juan and his brothers, led by Francisco and friend
Diego de Almagro, conquered the mighty
Inca Empire and the
sacred Inca
capital,
Cuzco in
1533. They
imprisoned and
executed the
Inca Emperor Atahualpa and stole the
gold treasures from the city. Juan, Hernándo and
Gonzalo Pizarro were then appointed as
garrisons of
Cuzco by
Francisco Pizarro when he departed to explore the northern west coast of Peru and founded
Lima in
1535.
Juan, Gonzalo and Hernándo ruled Cuzco as a
dictatorship,
torturing and executing those who refused to accept Spanish rule. In
May 6 1536, the Inca's, led by the crowned puppet Inca Emperor
Manco Inca Yupanqui, rebelled due to mistreatment and gathered 100,000
Inca warriors to overthrow the
Spaniards in Cuzco. This led to many
sieges and
battles for control of the land, over ten months. The Inca's, however, failed to drive the Spaniards from the city, and all succumbed to
small pox.
Juan eventually died in the battle of
Sacsayhuamán, an Inca
fortress near Cuzco, when he tried to break the siege on Cuzco by leading an army out of the
palace and attacking the Inca fortress. He was struck on the head by a large stone hurled by an
Inca warrior as he was trying to climb the high walls of
Sacsayhuamán. Juan's soldiers won the battle, gained control of the fortress and weakened the Inca's control of Cuzco. Juan's death did not stop the Spanish from destroying the Incas. In 1536-37, his brother,
Francisco Pizarro, and his army of 300 soldiers fought the Inca's in the port of Lima, and ran them down with heavily armed calveries, defeating Manco Inca's force. Manco eventually escaped to the jungles of
Vilcabamba.
