In 1532, the Spaniard Francisco Pizarro (1471-1541) and his men contact with the Inca Empire. The Inca population during that time was estimated to be more than 17 million. Fast-forward only 1 year and Pizarro managed to kidnap Atahualpa (1502-1533), the Inca emperor. Pizarro promised to set him free, if he would fill several rooms with gold, silver and other valuables. Atahualpa was a powerful and wealthy leader and asked his people to comply. They quickly managed to fill the room with what would amount to several billions of Dollars of todays money. Pizarro took it all and still executed Atahualpa. But how was all of this possible?

The Ransom Room which was filled with gold (By Antonio Velasco. (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons)
We are not responsible for the contents of external links. Full disclaimer can be found here.
Information sources:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pizarro-executes-last-inca-emperor
http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/theconquestofperu/tp/Ten-Facts-About-The-Conquest-Of-The-Inca-Empire.htm
Image Sources:
Pizarro image: By Amable-Paul Coutan [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Ransom room image: By Antonio Velasco. (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons