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Francisco Pizarro
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Francisco Pizarro Portrait of Francisco Pizarro painted by an anonymous artist, showing a bearded man in dark clothing with a white ruffled collar and a black cap, against a plain background. Map of northern South America showing the routes of early European explorers in the 1500s. Color-coded lines trace the journeys of Francisco Pizarro, Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada, Sebastian Benalcazar, Nikolaus Federmann, Gonzalo Pizarro, and Francisco de Orellana, with routes passing through present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and along the Amazon River to the Atlantic coast. Major cities such as Lima, Quito, Bogota, and Cuzco are labeled. Francisco Pizarro and Atahuallpa
The Downfall of the Mighty Inca Empire
Francisco Pizarro's Ruthless Quest for El Dorado
Francisco Pizarro
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Francisco Pizarro
Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro.

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish explorer
Written by
Manuel Ballesteros-Gaibrois
Professor and Head, Section of American History, University of Madrid. Author of Francisco Pizarro and others.
Manuel Ballesteros-Gaibrois
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Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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History

Francisco Pizarro (born c. 1475, Trujillo, Extremadura, Castile [Spain]—died June 26, 1541, Lima [now in Peru]) was a Spanish conqueror of the Inca empire and founder of the city of Lima in Peru. Like other Spanish conquistadors of the early 16th century, Pizarro operated within a broader context of European expansion driven by the pursuit of wealth, imperial competition, and the spread of Christianity. Reports of rich civilizations in the Americas, combined with the recent...

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