This past weeks chapters concentrated a lot on the warfare behind the conquest of the Aztec and Inca civilizations. It is fascinating to me, and I'm sure a multitude of people, including Restall that such a small number of people could overwhelm so many. Once I read the chapter Apes and men I realized why this was so. Warfare is waged differently between civilizations. There are three reasons why in my mind these differences really created the edge for the Spaniards. The first was weaponry, the Aztec used obsidian blades and clubs which are great weapons if there not going up against steel armor and steel swords. The Spaniards realized this advantage and took full advantage of this, designing tactics to full utilize these weapons of "superiority" pg 145. Restall also says about steel swords "It alone was worth more than a horse, a gun, and a mastiff put together." pg 143. This quote signify's just how much stock the Spaniards put in there swords.
The second is the application of warfare. The Aztec mixed their religion with warfare unlike the Spanish who kept these separated. The Aztec religion required large amounts of human sacrifice, so the way they fought battle was very different. They would go into battle in order to capture future human sacrifice victims. Killing the enemy was not the purpose of warfare for the Aztec. This worked against other tribes but when the Spanish waged war they went for the jugular. They would attack in ways that would maximize casualties and deaths not captured troops. The Spaniards also had native allies that would accompany them into battle. Imagine for a second thousands of men with almost no protective armor clashing at each other and then pockets of concentrated steel armed men going around and systematically inflicting the most damage as possible. This application of warfare could never have been changed for the Aztec because it was a part of their religion. The Spanish never had this problem in fact they used their religion to strengthen their military interests and their military interests to strength their religion.
The third and last reason is the mixture of both the equipment and the application of warfare. A weapon is only as good as the person wielding it. The Spanish were accustom to going into civilizations especially in the Caribbean and knew very well how to deal with different tribes; such as pitting them against each other in order to weaken the strongest tribe and then turn their backs on their allies and doing the same to them. Pizarro did this against the Inca, he arrived in the middle of a war of succession that he helped turn into a civil war pitting brothers against each other. In this way he was able to gain aspects and information into Inca culture while having them fight each other in turn weakening themselves for his future battles against the Inca.
In conclusion it was a trio of tactics, application of warfare, and equipment that in my mind ultimately led to the change of power in the Americas. If the Aztec or Inca had just been able to change or adapt to the way warfare was being waged in their country history could have turned out very differently.
I am unsure how familiar you are with the history of the "Reconquista", so this may already be apparent to you, but I would point out that the Spanish had far more experience in this type of warfare than is really pointed to by Restall.
ReplyDeleteSpain as an entity did not exist until well into the latter part of the seventeenth century. Prior to this it was a disparate group of kingdoms held together by political alliance and a shared religion. Even today one can visit "Spain" and see that each region still has its own individual dialect and coat of arms. Because of this situation the "Spanish" as they have been referred to (Castillians would be more appropriate) had close to seven centuries worth of experience in political intrigue and turning one local fiefdom against another. Superior firepower played a factor, but the Conquistadors won in large part by adept political maneuvering, which by that point in history would have come as standard procedure.