On 25 September 1513, a force of weary Spanish explorers cut through the forests of Panama and were confronted with an ocean: the Mar del Sur, or the Pacific Ocean. Six years later the Spaniards had established the town of Panama as a base from which to explore and exploit this unknown sea. It was the threshold of a vast expansion. From the first small band of Spanish adventurers to enter the mighty Inca empire, to the execution of the last Inca forty years later, The Conquest of the Incas is a story of bloodshed, infamy, rebellion and extermination, told as convincingly as if it happened yesterday.

Author Biography

John Hemming was Director of the Royal Geographical Society in London from 1975 to 1996. and is the author of fourteen books. On publication, The Conquest of the Incas won the Robert Pitman Literary Prize and the Christopher Medal in New York.