The most important event of the conquest of Peru was the conversion of Inca Atahualpa to Christianity. This act had immediate juridical consequences, since if the Inca converted and accepted the Catholic religion, his entire kingdom and subjects would do so as well.
Atahualpa’s conversion took place between November 16, 1532, and August 29, 1533, the date on which he was executed after a trial that found him guilty of murdering his brother Huáscar and of other acts of barbarity.
The Spanish Monarchy, and the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, devoted themselves passionately to the task of evangelizing the world and confronting the Muslim, who represented a constant political and economic threat.
The Ottoman Empire controlled the Mediterranean trade routes to the East, as well as the ports along the North African coast. The gigantic—and until then impossible—task of crossing the Atlantic Ocean to reach China, evangelize it, trade, and attack the Turk from the rear was carried out by Spain, with its faith in God and in the Catholic Church.
Eratosthenes, three centuries before the Christian era, had already speculated about the Earth’s diameter, but it was the Spaniards who confirmed it.
Speculation is what differentiates us from animals; only humans possess it. In the end, it was not necessary to attack the Ottomans from the rear: the Spanish Monarchy defeated them at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.
On the journey of the Catholic Monarchs’ enterprise, the Indies appeared in Columbus’s path, an event that changed the history of humanity and gave an unprecedented boost to Christianity, as well as to its enemies within.
The work of conquest and evangelization of the new territories was carried out according to the law.
The priest and the notary accompanied the soldier of the Tercio, whose military tradition went back to the Roman legions stationed in Hispania.
During his captivity, the Inca used to dine with Francisco Pizarro and play chess. Someone among Pizarro’s troops must have taught him. Perhaps it was Fray Vicente de Valverde, from Oropesa and Toledo, a Spanish nobleman, relative of Pizarro, of the Dominican Order and student at the University of Salamanca, where he studied under Francisco de Vitoria.
Fray Vicente was not just any priest; On the contrary, he was the best Europe could offer the world and, precisely, the one in charge of explaining the Gospel to the Inca.
The religion of the Inca nobility was not very far from Catholic doctrine: they had a single supreme god, the Sun, and, more importantly, Inca religion had a place where their god dwelled, the Hanan Pacha; the Kay Pacha, the world inhabited by the living; and the Uku Pacha, where life originates, with seeds and trees, and where the ancestors dwell and births are conceived.
It is the earthly paradise, from which one emerges to inhabit the Kay Pacha. It was not a difficult task for the Inca to understand the meaning of the Catholic Gospel, especially when observing how the Spanish soldiers knelt devoutly before the cross and before Valverde to receive communion.
It is also said that Atahualpa wept a lot during his process of conversion. This is not a sign of cowardice; noble is the one who weeps in recognizing his errors and sins.
Atahualpa had committed acts of extreme cruelty against his own brother and family, killing entire populations. “Blessed are those who mourn” (Matthew 5:4). Valverde, the theologian, must have explained to him the value of repentance and forgiveness.