Cannons and arquebuses roared. In the diverse and crowded surroundings of the Inca, it was difficult for the Indian warriors, dumbfounded by the sudden attack, to organize resistance. The cavalry left no hope for the screaming, panicked crowd. Pizarro with a group of soldiers made his way to the throne of the Inca and captured him. The Indians stopped fighting. The pogrom lasted only half an hour. In and around the square, according to Francisco Jerez, Pisarro's personal secretary, 2,000 corpses remained. The conquistadors suffered no casualties at all. Atahualpa, outwardly remaining calm, said: "This is a common thing in war: either win or be defeated."
Could a former swineherd, who never mastered the wisdom of literacy, imagine that such a triumph would be in his life? The winners captured the richest trophies, but the Inca himself turned out to be the most valuable. Pizarro narrowed the boundaries of the emperor's possessions to one room measuring 22 feet long and 16 feet wide. Atahualpa promised to fill this room with jewels up to the height of a raised hand for his release. The Spaniard, of course, agreed.
The gold rush has begun. A red line was drawn along the walls in the room of the Inca at the appointed place, and hundreds of messengers went to all parts of the empire. And the riches created by many generations of people flowed in an uninterrupted stream to Kaja-marka. The gold and silver of the temples of the Sun and the palaces of the great cities of Cusco, Huamachuco, Huyla-sa, Puitou and Siklalama were sacrificed to the short-sightedness of Atahualpa.
He did not doubt the imminent release and thought about the future. And this future could be crossed out by the brother and legitimate heir of Huascar, who could be used in their own interests by the Spaniards. Through faithful men who were among those who brought gold, Atahualpa ordered the destruction of Wa-scar. And he was drowned in the Anda-mana River, drowned, because, according to the belief of the Incas, only a drowned man will never rise again.
The gullible Atahualpa found peace: the main rival in the struggle for the throne became a ghost, and he has freedom ahead - after all, he, the powerful Inca, poured jewels to the greedy Spaniards to the red line ...
What were the treasures received from Atahualpa, and how did the conquistadors divide them among themselves? Gold was collected in the amount of 15.5 million gold pesos and 25,805 pounds of silver. After a fifth of all the treasures were allocated to the royal crown, the rest was distributed as follows: Pizarro received 57,222 gold pesos and 1,175 pounds of silver, as well as the golden throne of the Inca, valued at 25 thousand gold pesos. His brother Hernando received 31,800 gold pesos and 1,175 pounds of silver, each cavalryman 8,880 and 181, respectively, and each infantryman 4,440 and 90 and a half pounds of silver.
Having become the owner of fabulous wealth, Pizarro nevertheless was in no hurry to provide the promised freedom to the royal prisoner. He understood that Atahualpa would stop at nothing, wanting to avenge the insult, and then it would hardly be possible not only to save the trophies obtained, but also to save a life. To prevent this, Pizarro decided to arrange a trial for the Inca. Atahualpa was accused of killing Huascar, illegally seizing the throne, idolatry, polygamy, embezzling the treasury, and even preparing an anti-Spanish coup. The verdict - burning alive at the stake - chilled Atahualpa's soul. It was not a painful death that was terrible - the warrior was not afraid of it. The Incas believed in immortality at the end of earthly life, but only if the body of the deceased was embalmed.
That is why Atahualpa was horrified by the thought of death. Shortly before the start of the execution, Valverde once again invited the emperor to accept the Christian faith. The Inca flatly refused. And then the priest offered him to change the fire for a noose, but with the condition of obligatory baptism. Atahualpa agreed, receiving the name Juan during the ceremony. Then, to the sound of religious psalms performed by several Spaniards, the life of a thirty-year-old Inca was cut short. The continuation of the judicial hypocrisy of the self-proclaimed servants of Themis was a sophisticated mockery of the memory of the deceased: the next day, Pizarro arranged a solemn funeral, in which he himself and other conquistadors, dressed in mourning clothes, took part. The executioners "mourned" the victim. In fairness, it must be said that some Spaniards protested against this trial and especially the death sentence, believing that Charles V should decide the fate of Atahualpa.
The death of Atahualpa plunged the Inca empire into chaos, which Pizarro took full advantage of, subduing it with "little blood", almost without suffering losses.
They were joined by a part of their former opponents - the popolans, who became landowners, and a significant part of the common people, which the merchants in power ripped off like sticky. The whole 14th century for Florence, it passed under the sign of unrest, conspiracies, riots (of which the largest was the uprising of carders - ciompi) and various foreign invasions. The contradictions could not be smoothed out by any improvements and rearrangements in the authorities, about which Dante wrote with irony:
The subtlest charters of the master,
you will try them on in October, it happened,
and demolish by mid-November.
In fact, in Florence, power at this time passes to the workshops. It is they, and not communal councils, who have a real influence on the life of the city. This did not happen in other republics.
In Genoa, the struggle between noble landowners and merchants, Guelphs and Ghibellines, determined the life of the city during the 13th century. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Polanska commune reigned. The grandees are sent into exile, and the rivalry of strong Polan families begins - Fieschi, Adorio, Fregoso. The doge of the republic sometimes changed several times a year, however, as a contemporary wrote, invariably "from bad to worse." Despite internal turmoil, Genoa is actively fighting Venice for power over the sea. Finally, the Genoese rushed to the East, and the Venetians to the West; the war for spheres of influence ends in a draw. But battles and unrest weakened Genoa so much that it first submits to France, then to Milan, and this gives rise to a new series of internal conflicts between "patriots" and "traitors". However, the economic strength of Genoa remains, the Bank of St. George, established in 1407, whose clients were almost all the monarchs of Europe, in particular the Spanish king, acquires great importance.
Venice in the war with Genoa did not gain anything, but did not lose anything either. Wealth, possessions, independence - everything remained with her. The reason for this happy outcome was the internal unity of the Venetian state. While other republics, unable to maintain themselves at the stage of democracy, constantly slipped into anarchy or foreign tyranny, in Venice the power of the patrician oligarchy was being strengthened. There were not so many land holdings for the feudal nobility to have significant influence. The number of families with the right to participate in communal councils was limited to a very narrow circle of old wealthy families. The power of the doge extended no further than the right to give wise advice. Attempts of coups and uprisings of the Republic of St. Mark (as Venice was called) nipped in the bud and henceforth, in the event of such troubles, the Council of Ten (deciumvirate) was established - an intelligence and secret investigation body for cases of treason. The Council's judgment was swift and merciless. Legislative power remained in the hands of wealthy patricians. Wealthy townspeople made only one concession: they were subject to the laws of the republic.
Gradually, in Venice, a special stratum of state officials-townspeople developed. This compromise, skillful internal politics, and the wealthy republic's generosity in bread, circuses, and housing for the poor helped keep the Republic of St. Mark's peace and tranquility. The ruling nobility was united by the idea of serving the state. If the Florentine banker acted "in the name of God and profit", then the Venetian patrician served "God and Holy Venice". A "noble" person was bound to be a patriot. The state in Venice subjugated the church, actively and intelligently intervened in the economy, not yielding a single drop of political influence to the workshops. By the beginning of the XV century. Venice was one of the most powerful and richest states in Europe.
With the help of gold, the Venetians, Genoese and Florentines subjugate the entire observable world from England to Persia and from Sweden to Egypt. The fleets of Genoa and Venice are masters of the Mediterranean; the day is not far off when the ships of the Genoese Columbus and the Venetian Sebastian Cabot will rush to the New World.
In the XV century. the Italian republics are strong enough to start the battle for the redivision of Italy. At first, it was only about mastering the river and land trade routes; for this, they spared neither strength nor money to pay for the condottieri - hired commanders. Condottieri in the service of merchants are redrawing the political map of Italy beyond recognition. Florence captures Pisa and Livorno. Genoa also expands its possessions: under Doge Florenzo Foscari, the Republic of St. Mark captures a huge territory in northern Italy.
The political destinies of cities are changing. In Florence, the mediocre aristocracy that came to power discredited the republic - and Cosimo Medici, the richest banker, the leader of the supporters of the grandees, a subtle and intelligent man, appeared on the political scene. Under his son Lorenzo the Magnificent, a wise politician and educated philanthropist, Florence finally found the long-awaited inner peace and prosperity.
Both the strongest republics of Italy, Venice and Florence, hatched far-reaching conquest plans. They were fed by an idea that at that time dominated the minds of not only thinkers and politicians, but also of the common people - the idea of unifying Italy by the hand of a strong ruler. Venice and Florence were strong enough to listen favorably to these voices, but still not strong enough to win the power struggle.
According to one of the Aztec legends, the world was completely destroyed four times by tigers, hurricanes, fire and water. After each such catastrophe, mankind arose anew, having inherited absolutely nothing from previous generations. It is curious that after the third cataclysm, according to the Aztecs, some of the remaining people turned into monkeys, and after the fourth, it became necessary to create a new Sun.
And then, as the legend says, the gods gathered in Teotihuacan and asked each other which of them would dare to "take care that there was a day, that there was light." (Teotihuacan is the center of one of the most important pre-Columbian civilizations of Central Mexico, the Toltec civilization (I-XII centuries AD). Currently, this ancient city, located 50 km from the Mexican capital, left the pyramids of the Moon and the Sun, the ruins of palaces and temples, monuments of sculpture and colorful paintings.The city center is crossed by the main street - the Road of the Dead 4 km long.) And two gods volunteered to do this - the powerful and arrogant "ruler of shells" god Tecuxistecatl and the poor, extraordinarily brave god Nanahuatzin. In Teotihuacan, a fire blazed that had been burning for four years. These two gods, who volunteered to sacrifice themselves for the creation of a new luminary, had to rush into it. The tongues of flame did not frighten only Nana-uacin, and the cowardly Tecuxistecatl preferred to rot in the resulting ashes of the fire. And it is not surprising that since then, radiance and brilliance come from Nanahuatzin, who became the god of the Sun, and deathly pallor - from Tecuxistekatl, who turned into the god of the Moon.
However, in order not to dim the brilliance of the Sun, the god of war Uitzilopochtli had to wage a fierce battle daily with the stars and the Moon. In this difficult confrontation, only the souls of those who died on the battlefield or were sacrificed could help him. This is how the idea of human sacrifice arose. It is central to the religion of the Aztecs, who justified it as follows. People cannot live without the daily participation of the gods, and they, in turn, need a person to support them, sacrificing their own life for this. From it, the gods receive a life-giving magical substance for themselves, contained in the blood and in the human heart...