The Incas: Captured in Cajamarca

November 16, 1532 is the day the Inca Empire began to fall to the Spanish. 

Atahualpa was aware of Pizarro's landing in Tumbez thanks to his messenger network. He had only recently triumphed over his brother in a was of succession and, understandably, did not accurately access the threat the small Spanish force posed to his power. He said that he planned to "sacrifice some of the Spaniards to the sun and castrate others for service in his household and in guarding his women." Unfortunately for him, that's not how things went down.

On November 16, Atahualpa arrived in the town square of Cajamarca with thousand of unarmed attendants to meet with Pizarro. A Spanish priest presented the Inca with a Christian breviary (religous book). Atahualpa, who may never have seen writing before (the only known Incan system of record keeping involves complicated knot tying in ropes) threw the holy book aside. The Spanish, being good Christian men, used that as an excuse to attack. They fired their cannons and the calvary, which had been hidden behind buildings, charged out into the square. In the confusion, Atahualpa was captured. The capture of the Inca was Pizarro's main objective. He had learned from his cousin Cortés's success the power of capturing or killing the monarch. Because the Incas considered the emperor to be a god, they couldn't just pick a new ruler. Pizarro would use that to his advantage, and later install a puppet government subserviant to the Spanish crown. 

And in so, in just one afternoon, 168 Spanish soldiers toppled an empire.

A oil painting by the Peruvian artist Juan Lepiani
depicting the battle of Cajamarca. Source