Pizarro

Pizarro is one of the best known yet least understood figures of world history. His life is an extraordinary story of adversity and tragedy. An illiterate Spanish slaver of possible African ancestry, he set out in 1530, at the age of 55, to finally make the conquest of Peru. While Pizarro may legitimately be described as audacious, ruthless and cruel, luck played a part in his success also - his 200 men should not have been able to defeat an army of more than 30,000. But they did and Pizarro joins the few whose military influence literally changed the course of history and the future of a continent and its peoples. After his conquest of the Inca the majority of South America's population lived within the borders of the new territory.Fabulous wealth flowed back to Spain and Pizarro and many of his companions became rich beyond their wildest dreams. Not a bad conclusion for an illiterate, illegitimate pig-herder from Spain's most desolate region. Stuart Stirling brings Pizarro fully to life while also doing justice to the extraordinary background of exploration, discovery, empire building and the clash of cultures