Gonzalo Pizarro
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Gonzalo Pizarro (b.1506 - d.1548) was a Spanish conquistador.
Gonzalo was one of the conquistadors that accompanied Francisco Pizarro's conquest of Peru in 1532. He was the brother of Francisco, Juan and Hernándo Pizarro. He was also one of the most corrupt, brutal and ruthless conquistadors in the New World.
The Pizarro brothers led by Francisco and Diego de Almagro conquered the sacred Inca city of Cuzco in 1533. They imprisoned, executed the Inca emperor Atahualpa and stole the gold treasures from the city.
Almagro left Cuzco later in 1534 and was given the honour of Spanish King Charles V to explore the southern part of Peru and look for more treasures. Upon his departure, Gonzalo and Juan were appointed by Francisco as garrisons of the Inca Capital, Cuzco, with out Almagro knowing it.
Gonzalo and Juan Pizarro both looked after the settlements in Cuzco, while his eldest brother Francisco went to the north to explore the west coast of Peru and founded the city of Lima in 1535. Gonzalo, Juan and his younger brother Hernándo ruled Cuzco with dictatorship, greed, corruption, brutality and tortured and excecuted those who refused to accept Spanish rule.
Their corrupt rule also brought a rebellion by the Inca's who began to fight for equal rights and demanded freedom from harsh Spanish rule which was led by Manco. The Inca's fought the Spaniards in a number of seiges, battles for control of the land and captured the sacred Inca city, Cuzco in May 6, 1536. The Inca's were later defeated by the heavily armed Spanish soldiers led by Gonzalo, Juan and the diseases they brought with them called Small pox.
Juan dies in the battle of Sacsahuaman an Inca fortress near Cuzco, when he and his soldiers tried to break the seige on Cuzco by attacking the fortress. His force were victorious in the battle, but the Inca rebellion would last for the next 50 years, before the Spanish were able to control Peru.
Gonzalo and Hernándo were captured by Almagro upon his return from Chile in 1537 and imprisoned them. They fought their companion and bitter rival Diego de Almagro and his force in the Battle of Las Salinas in April 1538, when Gonzalo found out that Almagro also wanted to take control of Cuzco. While Almagro was in Lima for negotiation with Francisco for control of Cuzco. Gonzalo and Hernándo escaped and saw this act as a threat and led an army against Almagro, condeming him of treason and defeated his force. Almagro was later captured, and excecuted under Gonzalo's orders.
In his later years, he also led an expedition in search of El Dorado. In February 1541 he left Quito and crossed the Andes with a force of 200 Spaniards and 4,000 Indians. In December 1541 Pizarro sent his second in command Francisco de Orellana ahead in a boat to search for food. When Orellana failed to return , Pizarro returned to Quito, arriving in August 1542 with only about eighty men. He never founded the City.de:Gonzalo Pizarro es:Gonzalo Pizarro