Entry for week of October 7

 This week one of the things that really stood out to me was in reading the Royal Commentaries of the Inca, learning how internal conflict can lead to the destruction of a whole empire. Atahualpa and Huascar battling for the throne caused neither of them to have it but rather the Spanish took it over. This shows that its not that the Spanish were stronger, its that these other conflicts helped them gain control. In some cases the Spanish did have the upper hand though. We read about the weaponry advantages and disadvantages in the Guilmartin article for professor Stark's class. Learning how the cutting weapons were able to kill more quickly and were easier to handle than the stone crushing weapons shows hat the Spanish were able to kill more effectively. Both internal conflict and more advanced weapons were factors in how the Spanish were able to take over. 

Comments

  1. Professor StarkOctober 12, 2021 at 3:17 PM

    Thank you, Olivia, for the post. You are right that native disunity and Spanish weaponry played a role in the Incas defeat but I was left wanting to read more about the latter and if Spanish weaponry was more advanced or just more effective. More effective suggests that the Spanish weren't superior, which is the idea behind more advanced.

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