Although "Diary of a Conquistador" is a novel, all events, dates and the names of the main characters in the Spanish conquest of the Inka Empire are historical facts. The novel tries to illustrate the gradually emerging conflicts within the Spanish ranks, highlighting occasional Spanish bewilderment about Inka Culture, and also the fatally flawed strategy of Inka rulers to defend their Imperium. The initial band of less than two hundred Spaniards had certainly inflicted heavy defeats on Inka armies less than eighteen months of its arrival, however, the ultimate destruction of the Empire was not caused by slaughtering the native population but by all the European diseases the Spanish have brought along with them.