The Royal Hunt of the Sun is a story mainly based on the conquest of Peru by Spain. Along the way it explores many different sub-themes and ideas. Questions are raised about faith, friendship, leadership, greed and two distinctively different ways of life. The two main characters exhibit conflicting views on all the issues.
The overthrow of the Peruvian Empire is a phenomenal story as it demonstrates the vulnerability of a society that considered itself almost indestructible. It showed how focused a civilisation can be on one leader, and how simply it can collapse when this leadership is removed. Pizarro recognised this and that is how his small army of almost two hundred conquered a nation of millions. He told his men "One man: that^s all. Get him, the rest collapse." (page 28) The conquest of Peru was a clash between two religions that were immediately very different but similar in principal. Christianity was a religion with a rapidly expanding following. Its leaders virtually granted permission for Christians to kill in order to spread the faith. This occurred in The Royal Hunt of the Sun when the priests inferred that Pizarro should take the life of Attahuallpa so that the Spanish would survive and the Christian belief would spread throughout South America. The priest Valverde said "^the lives of a hundred and seventy of the faithful. Are you going to sacrifice them for one savage?" (page 70) On the other hand the Inca belief was a lot more settled and humane. The Inca God and ruler Atahuallpa claimed "I have priest power^I confess my people of all crimes against the sun." (page 19) They both believed in a supreme being, who would be killed by its enemies and rise from the dead.
Pizarro and Atahuallpa came from similar backgrounds but their immediate appearance was quite different. When they came together their similarities became evident and their friendship flourished at an early stage. While Atahuallpa was...