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Atawallpa (or Atahualpa) was the emperor of the Inca Empire when the Europeans arrived in the 1500s.
At the time, the Inca Empire was undergoing a succession crisis (Atawallpa and his brother were fighting over who would become emperor, which generated a civil war). By the time the Spaniards arrived, Atawallpa had succeeded in becoming emperor, but his empire was devastated and weakened. On top of that, the Spaniards had steel weapons and gunpowder, and also brought along a whole lot of European diseases.
As a results, even thought there were only a hundred or so Spaniards and thousands of Incas, the Spaniards managed to wiped out a huge part of the Inca population and conquered the Inca Empire relatively quickly.
Atawallpa's downfall is linked directly to the leader of the Spanish conquistadors, Fracisco Pizarro. Pizarro and his troops tricked Atawallpa, captured him, held him hostage, forced him to hand over tons of silver to the Europeans, and eventually executed him. For many, Atawallpa's death marked the end of the Inca Empire.
