Gun, germ and steel by Jared Diamond

In this article one of the most crucial events are explained such as the biggest ransom in history and how Atahualpa was captured.

Historically the greatest ransom paid was that paid for Atahualpa who was the emperor of the Incas, to the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in Cajamarca, Peru. Since there was a just gold instead of money at that time amount of the ransom was too much. The ransom payment received by Pizarro, is recognized as the largest ever paid in the world. That is ,the amount of the ransom was over two billion.

So, what made Atahualpa so valuable?
In the beginning of the 15th century Incas was one of the most powerful empires in the world. It seemed the biggest empire in America before Kolomb. But there was a deficiency about army equipment for Incas.
Well known Anthropologist who is Gordon  Mcevan clarifies this situation pretty good with his thoughts.

When we compare army capacity of the Pizarro and Atahualpa, Atahualpa has an overhelming advantage with his 80.000 soldiers against Pizzaro's less than 200 soldiers.

But the Pizzaro used his logic rather than army.

Then, how Pizarro took Atahualpa  as a prisoner?

pizzaro send his brother as an envoy. Pizarro invited Atahualpa back to Cajamarca for a feast in honor of Atahualpa’s throne. Though he had nearly 80,000 soldiers with him in the mountains, Atahualpa consented to attend the feast with only 5,000 unarmed men. pizzaro's priest urged Atahualpa to convert and accept Charles V as sovereign. Atahualpa angrily refused, prompting Valverde to give the signal for Pizarro to open fire. Then the pizzaro trapped the Atahualpa, the panicking Incan soldiers because of both big horses and the gunpowder made easy prey for the Spanish. Pizarro’s men slaughtered the 5,000 Incans in just an hour. Pizarro himself suffered the only Spanish injury: a cut on his hand as he saved Atahualpa from death. At the and of the war, Pizzaro took Atahualpa as a prisoner and requested ransom from Incas. Although he is given the ransom, and Atahualpa was killed as a result of burning.