THE THREE PARTNERS OF THE CONQUEST - HISTORY - 2025

The three partners in the conquest of Peru were the conquerors Diego de Almagro and Francisco Pizarro, and the Spanish clergyman Hernando de Luque. Each of them made a commitment to carry out this colonizing enterprise. On the one hand, the priest Hernando de Luque was in charge of financing and supplying the expedition.

On the other hand, Diego de Almagro had the function of drawing up the planning, economic advice and administrative management, and Francisco Pizarro was in charge of directing and executing the expeditionary tasks. In addition to them, the rich Spanish merchant and banker Gaspar de Espinoza, who financed through priest Luque, also participated.

Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro and the priest Hernando de Luque.

Likewise, Pedro Arias Dávila, governor of Castilla de Oro and Nicaragua, was the one who approved the expedition's license. Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro were soldiers, men hardened in the work of conquest and the Spanish expeditions in Central America.

Both contributed mostly their experience, since in 1524 they made a first expedition to Peru that was a total failure and they swore to try again at any cost. Among the agreements signed by the three partners was the commitment to divide into three equal parts what was found in the expedition.

The pact was formalized in a mass (before God), as was the tradition, in which the three men communicated with the same host divided into three parts.

Levante Company

For the conquest of the southern territories, in which the existence of rich deposits of gold and other precious metals was supposed, the Compañía de Levante was founded. It was so named because it sought to conquer the territories located in the southeast of the isthmus. This company was also known as the Panama Pact, because it was there that it was signed.

The pact was signed on March 10, 1526 on the occasion of the second expedition of Pizarro, Almagro and Luque to Peru. It is said that the pact to discover and conquer Peru had already been signed two years earlier on the occasion of the first expedition to the south, but there is no document that proves it with certainty.

For the second expedition to Peru, and thanks to the efforts of the clergyman Hernando de Luque, the three partners obtained the license to start the company, upon payment to the governor of the mainland, Pedro Arias Dávila, of 1,000 gold Castilians.

Arias Dávila had participated as a partner in the first expedition to Peru and was the official who issued these types of licenses. As compensation, he received the agreed sum of money and left the company.

In the agreement signed for the creation of the Levante Company, Hernando de Luque's contribution of 20,000 gold Castilians was recorded to cover the expenses of the expedition. The Compañía de Levante was a model of private company used during the Conquest of America to finance colonizing expeditions.

The capitalist partners, the interested colonists and merchants, and the conquerors who led the expeditions participated in these enterprises.

Francisco Pizarro

Pizarro was born in Trujillo on March 16, 1478 and was assassinated in Lima on June 26, 1541. At the time of the conquest of Peru, he was a man close to 50 years of age who had led an adventurous life and was in search of of fortune for his old age.

In the Levante Company his functions were perfectly clear: he would once again be the leader or military commander of the second expedition, taking into account his knowledge and skills.

First expedition

Pizarro's first expedition to the south started in November 1524 was a total failure. Neither the weather nor the winds helped the maritime expedition that took its course from Panama to the island of Taboga.

Two boats with one hundred and ten men on board participated in the expedition. The largest was called Santiago, in honor of the patron saint of Spain. The second ship was smaller and, like the first, not in its best shape.

After disembarking at a place they called Puerto de Piña (because of the coniferous forest they found), they went into the jungle in search of the mythical Biru. During most of the journey, they could not find food, nor did indigenous people.

This deeply depressed the crew members, starving and with no hope of finding food, much less fortune. Pizarro convinced his men to stand firm, but half his army died.

Pizarro did not want to return empty-handed, to have to account to his partners for the 10,000 ducats of Castile that they had invested in the expedition.

After enduring the onslaught of the sea, with the boats making water, without provisions and badly injured after an attack by a tribe of natives, he had to return to Panama.

Diego de Almagro

He was born in 1475 in Almagro, Spain, and died in Cuzco, Peru, in 1538. His stubbornness and ambition to conquer the southern territories, as well as his fellow adventurer Francisco Pizarro, led him to insist on this enterprise.

He arrived in America in 1514 accompanying the expedition to Panama led by Pedro Arias Dávila. Later he associated with Pizarro on the two expeditions to the south.

After signing the Compañía de Levante, Almagro assumed responsibility for logistics, communications and the quartermaster or planning of the expedition and the recruitment of expedition members.

Younger than Pizarro, Diego de Almagro had earned a reputation as a brave and expeditionary soldier, although he had failed to climb positions as a forward.

Search for Pizarro

For the first expedition to the south, Almagro took the initiative to charter a ship to go in search of Pizarro, from whom he had received no news. This is how he embarked on a journey with about sixty men.

During the trip he spotted traces of the Santiago, Pizarro's boat. He also reached the so-called Burnt Town, the fort that the Spanish conqueror had burned to retaliate for the fierce Indian attack against him and his troops.

Almagro tried to assault and take the indigenous town, but the ferocity shown by the natives made him change his mind and retreat. During the confrontation, the conqueror received an arrow in the eye that left him one-eyed for life. A black slave traveling with him managed to save him from certain death.

Pizarro was unaware that his friend and partner was after his search on the San Cristóbal ship. Injured and unable to find Pizarro, Almagro decided to embark back to Panama. Upon reaching the Las Perlas archipelago, he learned that the Santiago and its survivors had returned to Panama and that Pizarro was waiting in Chochama.

Six months before, Pizarro had embarked on the first expedition, in mid-1525. Then, Almagro headed for Chochama to meet again with his adventure companion whom he found in very bad condition. It was a very emotional meeting.

Despite this circumstance, he convinced Almagro to return to Panama and plan a new expedition, the second, which had the same result as the first. It was at that time that they once again partnered in the Levante Company to obtain funds and insist on the conquest of Peru.

Hernando de Luque

He was an Andalusian priest born in Morón de la Frontera, of whom no further information is available about his first years of life. Like Almagro, Hernando de Luque also embarked on Pedro Arias Dávila's (Pedrarias) expedition to America.

He lived in Panama, where he served as a teacher. He had a vocation for business, which made him a wealthy man along with his friends and associates Gaspar de Espinoza and Pedrarias Dávila.

In the Compañía de Levante he assumed the functions of managing the raising of the capital necessary for the financing of the company, as well as obtaining the respective legal coverage and political protection.

Capitulation of Toledo

In 1528 Pizarro returned to Panama and gave the good news of having discovered the Empire of Tahuantinsuyo (Inca). However, the news was not well received by the governor, Pedro de los Ríos, who put obstacles to the conqueror to undertake a new expedition, the third.

It was then that the three partners made the decision to negotiate with the king directly for the conquest of Peru. Pizarro traveled to Spain in October of that year with the mission of convincing King Carlos V, accompanied by Pedro de Candia and loaded with gifts for the monarch.

Hernán Cortés, his relative and conqueror of Mexico, arranged for him to be received by the king in Toledo, to whom he explained his plans. Pizarro negotiated the terms with the Council of the Indies and was granted the Capitulation of Toledo on July 26, 1529.

With the authorization to conquer Peru signed by Carlos V's mother, Queen Juana la Loca, Pizarro returned to Panama. The document allowed Diego de Almagro to be elevated to the rank of hidalgo and appointed governor of the fortress of Tumbes, apart from the allocation of a generous annual income of 300,000 maravedíes.

On the other hand, the priest Hernando de Luque was proposed as bishop of Tumbes to the pope. In return, the Crown would obtain the fifth real (20% of the wealth) that they achieved in the company. Although the capitulation benefited the three partners, it was the source of discord between them.

References

1. In search of Peru: the first two expeditions (1524-1528). Retrieved July 4, 2018 from books.openedition.org
2. The conquest of the Inca Empire. Consulted of elpopular.pe
3. The Travels of Francisco Pizarro. Consulted of blogs.ua.es
4. The conquest of Peru is the historical process of annexation of the Inca Empire or Tahuantinsuyo to the Spanish Empire. Consulted of es.wikipedia.org
5. The partners of the conquest of Peru. Consulted of summarydehistoria.com
6. The partners of the conquest. Consulted of xmind.net