Francisco Pizarro (c. 1475–June 26, 1541) was a Spanish conquistador, conqueror of the Inca Empire and founder of the city of Lima, the modern-day capital of Peru.

Pizarro was born in 1471 (other sources may differ, 1475-1478, unknown) in Trujillo, (Extremadura), Spain. He was an illegitimate son of Gonzalo Pizarro (senior) who as colonel of infantry afterwards served in Italy under Gonsalvo de Cordova, and in Navarre, with some distinction. Francisco was the eldest brother of Gonzalo Pizarro (junior), Juan Pizarro, and Hernando Pizarro. He was also the second cousin of Hernándo Cortés, the Conquistador of Mexico.

Of Pizarro's early years hardly anything is known; but he appears to have been poorly cared for, and his education was neglected, leaving him illiterate. Shortly after the news of the discovery of the New World had reached Spain he was in Seville. He sailed to the New World in 1502, landing in the West Indies and lived on the island of Hispaniola, where he took part in various Spanish missions of exploration and conquest. He is heard of in 1510 as having taken part in an expedition from Hispaniola to Urab under Alonso de Ojeda, by whom he was entrusted with the charge of the unfortunate settlement at San Sebastián. In 1513, Pizarro accompanied Vasco Núñez de Balboa (whom he later helped to bring to the executioner's block) in his crossing of the Isthmus of Panama to discover the Pacific and to establish a settlement at Darién, Panama. He also received a repartimiento under Pedro Arias de Ávila (Pedrarias), and became a cattle-farmer at Panama.