Essay on the Long term factors involved in spanish victory over the incas
... Some scholars focus on the how and the why of the events themselves, but occasionally a more in-depth look is necessary; an examination of some of the long term factors involved in the outcomes of cultural conflict, particularly the “Collision at Cajamarca”1. Instead of looking at what proximate (directly influencing and chronologically near) factors had a direct influence on the outcome of the conflict between the Spanish and the Amerindians this essay will peruse the causes of these causes, what historian Jared Diamond called “ultimate factors”. ... More specifically, it refers to those factors that essentially began a long chain of events that would eventually lead to the direct factors we consider responsible for the outcomes of certain events. These ultimate factors are important because they are the overriding elements in any meeting between two cultures, especially that of the Spanish and the Incas. Why did not the Incas sail across the Atlantic and conquer the Europeans? Were the Spanish really so much more technologically advanced than the Amerindians? ... These questions call for research that delves into our farthest past as human beings, and investigates those ultimate factors that are responsible for where we were not only 500 years ago, but where we are today, and where we may be tomorrow. Environmental and natural factors had their part to play in the conquest of the Amerindian nations, but contribute in two distinct ways, both ultimate and proximate. While technological and cultural superiority had important roles in the conflict, they are nonetheless proximate factors, and subject, like all others to the ultimate factors that essentially determine the fates of civilizations: food production and human migration. Together, these two elements of cultural development are responsible for the varying proximate factors of any civilization at a given point in time. Some of the environmental factors involved can be likened to the controls used in a scientific experiment: certain aspects of a reaction kept a certain way to see how the variables affect the reaction in question. Geography provides our control, and has an essential role in all ultimate factors. ... Purely as a matter of distance, it should have taken man nearly twice as long to reach the Bering Strait then to reach England, and these wretched pioneers are still only halfway to their point of cultural proliferation in Central and South America. ... The Aztecs and Incas both have been described with such phrases as, “. ... a requiem for a golden age long since passed.”5 While no doubt magnificent to behold, the Amerindian nations were developmentally inferior to their European counterparts in nearly every way, and their downfall is a testament to the importance of the most critical of the ultimate factors. ... Admittedly, they were behind migratorily, but there are further geographic factors at work here, for example, the biosphere. ... The concepts of human migration and food production are fairly easy to understand, but more complex are the relationships between these two ultimate factors and all the proximate factors that had a direct impact on the conflict between the Spanish and the Incas. All of these proximate factors can be grouped under two general categories: technological superiority and cultural domination. ... Pizarro sets off into the wilderness with 168 Spanish soldiers, “unfamiliar with the terrain, ignorant of the local inhabitants, completely out of touch with the nearest Spanish reinforcements (1000 miles away in Panama)”12 and about to destroy an empire. Although the Spaniards capture of Atahuallpa was not necessary for ultimate victory; it made it infinitely easier for them. ... The Incas had evacuated the city at the approach of the Spanish, and had a large army numbering some 80,000 troops were ranged across the plains and hills on the opposite side of the city from the Spanish aliens. The Spanish arrived, scouted the city, and the surrounding environs, then held a conference to decide on a course of action. They settled on a plan in which the Spanish troops were to be divided into four squadrons and hidden in the courts surrounding a central square within the city proper. ... The Spanish friar offered Atahuallpa a bible, telling him that it was God’s law, and that they were there to do God’s will. ... When the dust cleared, there were more then 7000 Indian casualties, and not a single loss on the Spanish side, because by all accounts the Incas never lifted a weapon against their enemies. ... During the melee the Spanish cavalry knocked over Atahuallpa’s litter, and men-at-arms quickly dragged him out of the combat.