Francisco Pizarro and His Brothers: Illusion of Power in Sixteenth-Century Peru

In Francisco Pizarro and His Brothers, Rafael Varón Gabai breaks fresh ground in his reconstruction of the Pizarros’ conquest as a new form of business enterprise, built up by Francisco Pizarro both to conduct government and to manage his family’s exploitation of Peru.

The private nature of the Pizarro enterprise, together with the public political support it received at first from the Spanish Crown, allowed Pizarro to build an organization of several hundred people.