Francisco Pizarro

About Francisco Pizarro

Francisco Pizarro, ranked #874 in historical importance by MIT's Pantheon project, was a Spanish conquistador best known for leading the expedition that conquered the vast Inca Empire in South America between 1532 and 1533. His actions fundamentally reshaped the geopolitical landscape of the continent, leading to the collapse of a major pre-Columbian civilization and the establishment of Spanish colonial rule over the region. Though his impact on world history is significant enough for a high ranking, his modern digital footprint is comparatively modest.

In 2025, Pizarro garnered approximately 343K Wikipedia pageviews, placing his internet attention roughly equal to his historical importance, evidenced by an Attention Gap of only ~1x. This level of visibility contrasts sharply with contemporary explorers like Francis Drake, who achieved a much higher importance rank (#955) but pulled in more than double the views (742K). Conversely, Pizarro secured significantly more attention than major figures ranked far higher in historical weight, such as Louis XVIII of France (#454 importance) or Musa I of Mali (#244 importance), who each attracted fewer than 50K views in the same period.

Looking at short-term trends, interest in Pizarro appears to be slightly waning; his 2025 Momentum shows a -12% drop when comparing activity in the first quarter to the third quarter, despite a minimal year-over-year increase of +0.2%.