Atahualpa and the Bible Lesson Plan

Central Historical Question:

Did Atahualpa hold a Bible to his ear?

Materials:
• Atahualpa and the Bible PowerPoint
• Textbook Passage
• Documents A-C
• Graphic Organizer

Plan of Instruction:

Note: This lesson is not intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the Inca
Empire or of the Spanish conquest of the empire. You can access a Reading Like a
Historian lesson plan on the expansion of the Inca Empire at
https://sheg.stanford.edu/history-lessons/inca-empire

1. Use the PowerPoint to provide basic background information about Atahualpa and
Francisco Pizarro.
a. Slide 2: Inca Empire. In the 1400s, the Inca drastically expanded their
territory, and by 1533, their empire spanned 2,400 miles, from present-day
Colombia in the north to present-day Chile in the south. They called their
empire Tawantinsuyu, which means “The Four Parts Together” in Quechua,
the main language of the empire. About 10 to 12 million people lived within
the empire. Inca society was based on both long-standing customs and new
inventions. Poetry, theater, astronomy, textile arts, engineering, farming, and
religion were important features of the society.

b. Slide 3: Sapa Inca Atahualpa. Sometime between 1525 and 1527, the Sapa
Inca, or ruler, of the empire, named Huayna Capac, was notified of the arrival
of the Europeans on the northwest coast. Soon after, thousands of Inca,
including the emperor and his heir to power, died of disease, possibly
smallpox, which was introduced to the Americas by Europeans. (Pedro
Pizarro, a Spanish conquistador and author of Document B, wrote, “Had
Huayna Capac been alive when we Spaniards entered this land it would have
been impossible to win it, for he was greatly loved by his subjects.”) Scholars
estimate that 50% or more of the Inca may have died of the disease. The
death of the emperor and his heir led to a battle for the throne between
Huayna Capac’s two eldest surviving sons: Atahualpa and Huáscar. This
power struggle engulfed the empire in a civil war. In 1532, Atahualpa became
the 14th Sapa Inca when he defeated his brother in the civil war.

c. Slide 4: Francisco Pizarro. Pizarro was a conquistador who led the expedition
that began the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. With the support of King
Charles I and Queen Isabel of Spain, he fought to expand the Spanish

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 Empire and Christianity into South America and to enrich himself. For eight
years, Pizarro had largely failed, but in the aftermath of the enormous
epidemic and civil war that had ravaged the Inca Empire, Pizarro and his men
began to violently overtake the destabilized Inca in 1532.

d. Slide 5: Meeting in Cajamarca. Atahualpa met the Spaniards in November

1532 in the town of Cajamarca. Atahualpa had been traveling with his army to
Cuzco to claim his position as emperor after his victory over his brother
Huáscar. Pizarro asked Atahualpa to come to the town’s plaza. Once there,
his men took Atahualpa prisoner and massacred thousands of Inca,
beginning the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.

e. Slide 6: Aftermath. Atahualpa negotiated for his release by paying the

Spaniards with treasures that they melted down to an estimated eleven tons
of gold and thirteen tons of silver. But the Spanish never freed Atahualpa and
instead executed him in July 1533. Atahualpa’s forces fiercely battled the
Spanish, but for a time those who had been loyal to his brother Huáscar
cooperated with the Spanish, who thus captured the Inca capital in November
1533, one year after the meeting at Cajamarca. Shortly after, the Spaniards
looted what had been perhaps the richest city in all of the Americas. The army
of the diminished Inca government continued to fight against the invaders for
over 30 years.

f. Slide 7: Central Historical Question. Because the meeting between Atahualpa

and the Spaniards in Cajamarca was so important, many stories and legends
have been told about what happened there, including one that Atahualpa held
a Bible to his ear in the meeting in Cajamarca. Today we will explore three
different accounts to answer the central historical question: Did Atahualpa
hold a Bible to his ear?

2. Round 1. Hand out the textbook passage and have students answer the questions
individually.

3. Discuss student answers. Ask students:

a. Why would Atahualpa hold a Bible to his ear?
b. What picture does this account paint of Atahualpa?
c. How reliable is this account?
d. How could we find out if this account is accurate or not?

4. Round 2. Distribute Documents A and B and the Graphic Organizer. Have students
read both documents and answer the corresponding sections of the Graphic
Organizer.

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5. Review student answers:
a. Document A Graphic Organizer
i. Students should note that both of these accounts were written by
Spanish conquistadors.

ii. A strength of Document A is that it is an eyewitness account written

within a couple years of the event. A limitation is that Xeres likely
wanted to present his and the other conquistadors’ actions in a positive
light and Atahualpa’s actions in a negative light, rather than tell the
story as accurately as possible. Since he was writing for a Spanish
audience, including the king and queen, he likely gave an account that
he thought would earn him money or status, perhaps at the expense of
truthfulness.

iii. According to Document A, Atahualpa asked for the Bible, did not know
how to open it, and threw it to the ground.

b. Document B Graphic Organizer

i. A strength of Document B is that it was written by someone who likely
communicated with eyewitnesses and was knowledgeable about the
early events of the conquest. A limitation is that he was not an
eyewitness himself and, as with the Document A, may have sought to
portray the conquistadors positively and Atahualpa’s actions negatively
at the expense of accuracy. That Document B was written decades
after the event could mean that Pizarro consulted and corroborated
multiple reports of the event, perhaps strengthening the account. It
could also mean that he relied on Xeres’s account, with all of its
various limitations, to inform his own, and that anyone he may have
spoken with who witnessed the events firsthand may have
misremembered them over time.

ii. According to Document B, Atahualpa asked for the breviary, did not
know how to open it, and threw it to the ground.

6. Round 3. Distribute Document C and the Guiding Questions. Have students read the
document and answer the corresponding sections of the Graphic Organizer and all
of the Guiding Questions.

7. Review student answers:

a. Document C Graphic Organizer
i. Students should note that Document C is from the perspective of an
Inca ruler, though the Spanish priest’s translation and mestizo scribe’s
transcription may have influenced what was written in the book.

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 1. Note: If students struggle with identifying the perspective of the
source because of the ambiguity of the circumstances of its
creation, explain to them that scholars also wrestle this issue.
Another passage in the document reads, “[Since] I [Titu Cusi]
am unfamiliar with the phrases and modes of expression used
by the Spaniards in such writings— [I] have asked the reverend
fray don Marcos García and the secretary Martín de Pando to
arrange and compose the said account in their customary ways
of expression.” While scholars debate the degree and kind of
influence that the translator and scribe may have had on the
final manuscript, they do treat this collaborative source as an
account primarily authored by Titu Cusi. If students want
additional information about the context in which the book was
produced, you can share that we also know that Titu Cusi
dictated the account in Vilcabamba, the Inca rebel stronghold
from which he ruled, and that the manuscript was completed
shortly after Titu Cusi spoke to the translator.

ii. A strength of Document C is that as the head of the Inca government,

Titu Cusi would have been knowledgeable of the events that had
occurred and may have been based on eyewitness accounts. A
limitation is that he was not an eyewitness to the early events of the
conquest. That the book was written decades after the event at
Cajamarca could mean that those he had spoken with may have
misremembered what took place. As one of few surviving Inca
accounts of the conquest from the 16th century, it is an invaluable
source, and may be based on Inca information about Atahualpa’s
actions (or likely behavior). At the same time, Titu Cusi’s motivation for
writing it may have influenced the story he told at the expense of
accuracy.

iii. According to Document C, Atahualpa threw down the book or letter

than the Spanish had presented only after Spaniards had disrespected
him by not drinking what he offered them.

b. Guiding Questions
i. Atahualpa’s perspective and other Inca eyewitnesses’ perspectives are
missing from these documents. So, too, are the perspectives of the
Spaniard(s) who presented the book or letter to Atahualpa. These
perspectives would be valuable in determining whether or not
Atahualpa held the Bible to his ear.

ii. Be sure to note the similarities and differences of the textbook account
and Documents A, B, and C.

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 iii. None of the three historical documents mention that Atahualpa held
the Bible to his ear, suggesting that it didn’t happen, and the textbook
account is inaccurate.

8. Whole-Class Discussion. Whose answer to the question, “Did Atahualpa hold the
Bible to his ear?” changed after reading the historical documents? Why?

9. (Optional) Assessment. In addition to monitoring student learning and understanding

during the lesson, you may want to assess student learning later in the unit or on an
end-of-unit exam. One idea would be to use the following HAT from Beyond the
Bubble: https://sheg.stanford.edu/history-assessments/atahualpa-and-de-soto

This assessment presents students with an engraving made in 1858 that depicts the
meeting of the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and Sapa Inca Atahualpa,
at which the conquistador invited the emperor to meet with Francisco Pizarro in
Cajamarca. The assessment measures students' ability to source a document. To
answer the question correctly, students must notice both the date of the event
(1532) and the date of the painting (1858) and understand that the intervening time
makes it a less useful source for a historian trying to learn about the meeting
between these men. You could use this assessment as an activity to spiral back to
thinking about source information and get a sense of student learning. You could
also build this into a broader assessment to gauge whether students have learned
the skills and content taught in this lesson and determine whether students need
further instruction in these areas.

Citations

Textbook passage
Burstein, S. M., & Shek, R. (2006). World history: Medieval to early modern times. San
Diego, CA: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.

Document A
Francisco de Xeres. (1872). Report of Francisco de Xeres. In C. R. Markham (Ed. &
Trans.), Reports on the discovery of Peru. New York: Burt Franklin. Retrieved from
http://archive.org/details/reportsondiscove04mark

Document B
Pedro Pizarro. (1921). Relation of the discovery and conquest of the kingdoms of Peru.
In P.A. Means (Trans.), Documents and narratives concerning the discovery and
conquest of Latin America. New York: Cortes Society. (Original work published 1571).
Retrieved from http://archive.org/details/relationofdiscov00pizauoft

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Document C
Titu Cusi Yupanqui. (2005). An Inca Account of the Conquest of Peru (R. Bauer,
Trans.). University Press of Colorado. (Original work published 1570)

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