Atahualpa (ca. 1502-1533) was the Inca emperor of Peru whose capture and execution by Francisco Pizarro enabled the conquistadores to secure the Inca lands for the Spanish crown.

Atahualpa, whose name means "virile-sweet," was a son of the emperor Huayna Capac, last of the family of Incas to rule an undivided empire which extended from present-day southern Colombia through Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia into northwestern Argentina and northern Chile. At Huayna Capac's death (ca. 1528) in Quito, this vast territory was divided between two of his sons: Huáscar, who won the imperial throne in the capital city of Cuzco to the south, and his half-brother Atahualpa, who gained the northern portion of the kingdom, with its center in the city of Quito.

The division led to civil war between the half-brothers, reaching a peak in 1532 with the defeat and imprisonment of Huáscar. At this point...