Early Modern
Inca Civil War (c. 1529-1532): Atahualpa against Huáscar
Atahualpa's generals defeated and captured Huáscar in 1532, but the war left the empire divided and weakened just as the Spanish arrived.
Region
Americas
Early Modern
Battle of Cajamarca (1532): The Capture of Atahualpa
Spanish victory; Atahualpa was captured, paid a huge ransom in gold and silver, and was executed in July 1533.
Early Modern
Spanish Conquest of the Inca Empire (1532-1572): Pizarro
The Inca Empire was destroyed and replaced by the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru, though an Inca state survived in Vilcabamba until 1572.
Early Modern
Jacques Cartier's Voyages to Canada (1534-1542)
Cartier mapped the St Lawrence and established France's claim to Canada, but his attempted colony of 1541-1543 failed.
Early Modern
Viceroyalty of New Spain (1535): Spanish Rule from Mexico City
New Spain became the richest and most populous part of the Spanish Empire, governed from Mexico City until Mexican independence in 1821.
Early Modern
Spanish Conquest of the Muisca (1536-1540): Jiménez de Quesada
The Muisca were brought under Spanish rule, Bogotá was founded in 1538 and the region became the New Kingdom of Granada.
Early Modern
Siege of Cusco (1536-1537): Manco Inca's Great Rebellion
The Spanish garrison held Cusco; Manco Inca withdrew and founded an independent Inca state in Vilcabamba that lasted until 1572.
Early Modern
Battle of Las Salinas (1538): Pizarro against Almagro
Victory for the Pizarro faction; Diego de Almagro was captured and executed in Cusco in July 1538.
Early Modern
Hernando de Soto Expedition (1539-1543): Across the Southeast
No gold or empire was found; de Soto died in 1542 and about 300 survivors reached Mexico in 1543, leaving the earliest written record of the Mississippian chiefdoms.
Early Modern
Coronado Expedition (1540-1542): Searching for Cíbola
No gold was found; the expedition returned to Mexico in 1542, having made the first European contact with the Pueblo peoples and the Great Plains.
Early Modern
Pedro de Valdivia and the Founding of Santiago de Chile (1541)
Santiago del Nuevo Extremo was founded as the base of Spanish Chile, beginning a long conflict with the Mapuche known as the Arauco War.
Early Modern
Assassination of Francisco Pizarro (1541) in Lima
Pizarro was killed; Almagro's son briefly seized power until royal forces defeated him at Chupas in September 1542.