Francisco Pizarro

Spanish conquistador who captured and destroyed the Inca Empire — one of the most strategically audacious acts in history, achieving the largest empire in the Americas with fewer than 200 men.

The Cajamarca ambush (1532): Pizarro's capture of the Inca Emperor Atahualpa with 168 men against an army of 80,000 is the extreme case of shock, audacity, and information asymmetry in conquest. The Inca had no experience of the European tactical repertoire (firearms, horses, steel, ambush of a divine ruler) and could not process the event coherently. Pizarro then held Atahualpa for the largest ransom in history (a room filled twice with silver and once with gold), executed him anyway, and used Inca political divisions to pacify the empire. The Inca conquest is even more extreme than Mexico because Pizarro was also illiterate.