Battle of Mount Chimborazo
Battle of Mount Chimborazo | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of Spanish conquest of Peru | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Remnants of Inca Empire | Spanish Empire | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Rumiñahui | Sebastián de Belalcázar | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown, but severely high | Unknown |
Prelude
Francisco Pizarro had toppled the Inca Empire, captured its Emperor Atahualpa and demanded a room of gold and two rooms with silver, he got the treasure but still executed Atahualpa. Hearing of this Rumiñahui took his forces towards the Northern Inca Capital of Quito, where it's believed he buried the gold then he heard that the Spanish forces were marching towards Ecuador to capture him. So he decided to burn Quito to the ground to take the glory away from the Spanish of taking the city, then he took the Sun Virgins and killed them to preserve their purity. Then he prepared his army for the battle.
The battle
Pizarro sent one of his lieutenants Sebastián de Belalcázar to pursue and capture Rumiñahui, collect gold from the temples and graves in Quito and capture that city. While in Ecuador, Rumiñahui rallied his forces and marched them south. Both forces met at a plain near Mount Chimborazo. Neither the Spanish or the Incas had the upper hand at the beginning of the battle but then Rumiñahui's army started beating the Spanish back even though the Spanish possessed fire arms and cannon, when Belalcázar was about to retreat to avoid insurmountable casualties Mount Chimborazo went into activity, startling the inca warriors that saw it as a bad omen and retreated. Eventually, Rumiñahui was captured and submitted to questioning under duress (tortured) by the Spanish but he did not reveal the location of the temples' treasure.