Conquistadores

[Viggen]

This Conquistadores always amazed me, i mean marching like Pizarro with not even 200 men and taking the Incan empire in basically 1 day? (Battle of Cajamarca)

"Governor Pizarro now sent Friar Vicente de Valverde to go to speak to Atahualpa, and to require Atahualpa in the name of God and of the King of Spain that Atahualpa subject himself to the law of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the service of His Majesty the King of Spain. [The priest advanced] with a cross in one hand and the Bible in the other hand, and going among the Indian troops up to the place where Atahualpa was

[DecimusCaesar]

btw. how can you be scared of a horse?

 

One of my friends used to be terrified of horses before, but then again he didn't like any sort of farmyard animal.

The Spanish horses, if they were like the horses used by Norman Knights were specially trained to rear up and attack people in battle by biting and kicking them. The Incans and other Native peoples who had never seen horses before, thought that the Conquistadores on horseback were half man half animal.

[Ludovicus]

This Conquistadores always amazed me, i mean marching like Pizarro with not even 200 men and taking the Incan empire in basically 1 day? (Battle of Cajamarca)

"Governor Pizarro now sent Friar Vicente de Valverde to go to speak to Atahualpa, and to require Atahualpa in the name of God and of the King of Spain that Atahualpa subject himself to the law of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the service of His Majesty the King of Spain. [The priest advanced] with a cross in one hand and the Bible in the other hand, and going among the Indian troops up to the place where Atahualpa was …

 

"The Spaniards were so scared that in their diaries they said, 'We were urinating in our pants out of sheer terror"

 

...imagine, surrounded by tens of thousands of enemy warriors to go to their king and tell him to surrender (having 168 men and a few horses that might or might not scare them, to back you up)?

 

cheers

viggen

 

btw. how can you be scared of a horse?

 

One definition says that imperialism is "pestilence followed by a foreign army." The indigenous peoples of the Americas had no immunity to this deadly disease and died by the hundreds of thousands, maybe millions. Not only did the Spanish arrive with horses, but also with vicious attack dogs. The top heavy structure of Inca society, no doubt, played a big role in the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. Once Atahualpa was executed his subjects were panic stricken and unable to organize themselves.

Edited October 3, 2006 by Ludovicus

[Ludovicus]

Viggen,

Did you forget that the half-human, half horse animal would be firing a gun at you, a weapon you'd never seen?

 

Ludovicus

[Julius Ratus]

I had read once that the steel weapons and armour were far more effective than the guns. The arquebusses that the Spaniards used made a terrific noise and belched flames, but the powder was easily ruined, and the box that the Indios used had a far higher rate of fire. Any weapon the Spaniards carried could penetrate native armour, and conversely none of the native weapons could penetrate Spanish steel armour. A few (very few) Conquistadores would have had full plate mail (mostly in the early days in the Carribean and Mexico) and would have been nearly impervious. Many writings left by the natives mention that the Spanish were made of metal, refering to their armour.

[Viggen]

Viggen,

Did you forget that the half-human, half horse animal would be firing a gun at you, a weapon you'd never seen?

 

Ludovicus

 

Atahualpa was well aware of firearms and horses, he had sent several of his people to spy on the spaniards while they advanced...

 

...another thing that bothers me, if i remember correctly in the 16th century a firearm was not a machine gun, was it not that it took very very long to load put the powder in and then shoot? Didn`t it take something like at least a minute for a shot? Plenty of time, theoratically it would have been very very easy to overthrough the spaniards, what really got the average incan at that day was the arrogance of the ruling class and the fact that the "untouchable" king was within a few minutes in the hand of the Spaniards, that was imo more frightning then anything else...

 

cheers

viggen

[DecimusCaesar]

True, guns were never really useful against the natives. Neither were Crossbows. Like Julius Ratus said the swords and armour of the Conquistadors were of high quality steel and very little could penetrate them. The Conquistadors who fought against the Incas depended on a lightning quick attack to capture Atahulpa. The horses had an important part in this and in subsequent fights against the natives. The natives had no weapon to counter a good cavalry charge (except the Aztecs within the last few days of the Siege of Tenochtitlan - who created long pike-like spears)as a result the cavalry found it easy to crush the natives.

 

You often read of the Conquistadors charging (on foot and on horseback) into massive crowds of indian warriors, being highly outnumbered and still emerging victorius due to their strong armour, superior swords (many natives only had clubs with obsidian blades in them) and the fact that they were veterans of wars in Europe. The only thing that the Conquistadors really feared were the native slings (and some arrows) that would sometimes find a place between their armour.