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Jared Diamond --COLLISION AT CAJAMARCA As for contacts of New World peoples with Europe, the sole early ones
involved the Norse who occupied Greenland in very small numbers between
4D, 986 and about 1 500. But those Norse visits had no discernible impact
on Native American societies. Instead, for practical purposes the collision
of advanced Old World and New World societies began abruptly in 1492 CE,
with Christopher Columbus's "discovery" of Caribbean islands
densely populated by Native Americans. The most dramatic moment in subsequent European-Native American relations
was the first encounter between the Inca emperor Atahuallpa and the Spanish
conquistador Francisco Pizarro at the Peruvian highland town of Cajamarca
on November 16, 1532. Atahuallpa was absolute monarch of the largest and
most advanced state in the New World, while Pizarro represented the Holy
Roman Emperor Charles V (also known as King Charles I of Spain), monarch
of the most powerful state in Europe. Pizarro, leading a ragtag group
of 168 Spanish soldiers, was in unfamiliar terrain, ignorant of the local
inhabitants, completely out of touch with the nearest Spaniards (1,000
miles to the north in Panama) and far beyond the reach of timely reinforcements.
Atahuallpa was in the middle of his own empire of millions of subjects
and immediately surrounded by his army of 80,000 soldiers, recently victorious
in a war with other Indians. Nevertheless, Pizarro captured Atahuallpa
within a few minutes after the two leaders first set eyes on each other.
Pizarro proceeded to hold his prisoner for eight months, while extracting
history's largest ransom in return for a promise to free him. After the
ransom-enough gold to fill a room 22 feet long by 17 feet wide to a height
of over 8 feet-was delivered, Pizarro reneged n his promise and executed
Atahuallpa. Atahuallpa's capture was decisive for the European conquest of the Inca
Empire. Although the Spaniards' superior weapons would have assured an
ultimate Spanish victory in any case, the capture made the conquest quicker
and infinitely easier. Atahuallpa was revered by the Incas as a sun- god
and exercised absolute authority over his subjects, who obeyed even the
orders he issued from captivity. The months until his death gave Pizarro
time to dispatch exploring parties unmolested to other parts of the Inca
Empire, and to send for reinforcements from Panama. When fighting between
Spaniards and Incas finally did commence after Atahuallpa's execution,
the Spanish forces were more formidable. Thus, Atahuallpa's capture interests us specifically as marking the decisive
moment in the greatest collision of modern history. But it is also of
more general interest, because the factors that resulted in Pizarro's
seizing Atahuallpa were essentially the same ones that determined the
outcome of many similar collisions between colonizers and native peoples
elsewhere in the modern world. Hence Atahuallpa's capture offers us a
broad window onto world history. What unfolded that day at Cajamarca is well known, because it was recorded
in writing by many of the Spanish participants. To get a flavor of those
events, let us relive them by weaving together excerpts from eyewitness
accounts by six of Pizarro's companions, including his brothers Hernando
and Pedro: "The prudence, fortitude, military discipline, labors, perilous
navigations, and battles of the Spaniards-vassals of the most invincible
Emperor of the Roman Catholic Empire, our natural King and Lord-will cause
joy to the faithful and terror to the infidels. For this reason, and for
the glory of God our Lord and for the service of the Catholic Imperial
Majesty, it has seemed good to me to write this narrative, and to send
it to Your Majesty, that all may have knowledge of what is here related.
It will be to the glory of God, because they have conquered and brought
to our holy Catholic Faith so vast a number of heathens, aided by His
holy guidance. It will be to the honor of our Emperor because, by reason
of his great power and good fortune, such events happened in his time.
It will give joy to the faithful that such battles have been won, such
provinces discovered and conquered, such riches brought home for the King
and for themselves; and that such terror has been spread among the infidels,
such admiration excited in all mankind. "For when, either in ancient or modern times, have such great exploits
been achieved by so-few against so many, over so many climes, across so
many seas, over such distances by land, to subdue the unseen and unknown?
Whose deeds can be compared with those of Spain? Our Spaniards, being
few in number, never having more than 200 or 300 men together, and sometimes
only 100 and even fewer, have, in our times, conquered more territory
than has ever been known before, or than all the faithful and infidel
princes possess. I will only write, at present, of what befell in the
conquest, and I will not write much, in order to avoid prolixity. "Governor Pizarro wished to obtain intelligence from some Indians
who had come from Cajamarca, so he had them tortured. They confessed that
they had heard that Atahuallpa was waiting for the Governor at Cajamarca.
The Governor then ordered us to advance. On reaching, the entrance to
Cajamarca, we saw the camp of Atahuallpa at a distance of a league, in
the skirts of the mountains. The Indians' camp looked like a very beautiful
city. They had so many tents that we were all filled with great apprehension.
Until then, we had never seen anything like this in the Indies. It filled
all our Spaniards with fear and confusion. But we could not show any fear
or turn back, for if the Indians had sensed any weakness in us, even the
Indians that we were bringing with us as guides would have killed us.
So we made a show of good spirits, and after carefully observing the town
and the tents, we descended into the valley and entered Cajamarca. "We talked a lot among ourselves about what to do. All of us were
full of fear, because we were so few in number and we had penetrated so
far into a land where we could not hope to receive reinforcements. We
all met with the Governor to debate what we should undertake the next
day. Few of us slept that night, and we kept watch in the square of Cajamarca,
looking at the campfires of the Indian army. It was a frightening sight.
Most of the campfires were on a hillside and so close to each other that
it looked like the sky brightly studded with stars. There was no distinction
that night between the mighty and the lowly, or between foot soldiers
and horsemen. Everyone carried out sentry duty fully armed. So too did
the good old Governor, who went about encouraging his men. The Governor's
brother Hernando Pizarro estimated the number of Indian soldiers there
at 40,000, but he was telling a lie just to encourage us, for there were
actually more than 80,000 Indians. "On the next morning a messenger from Atahuallpa arrived, and the
Governor said & him' Tell your lord to come when and how he pleases,
and that, in what way soever he may come I will receive him as a friend
and brother. I pray that he may come quickly, for I desire to see him.
No harm or insult will befall him.' "The Governor concealed his troops around the square at Cajamarca,
dividing the cavalry into two portions of which he gave the command of
one to his brother Hernando Pizarro and the command of the other to Hernando
de Soto. In like manner he divided the infantry, he himself taking one
part and giving the other to his brother Juan Pizarro. At the same time,
he ordered Pedro de Candia with two or three infantrymen to go with trumpets
to a small fort in the plaza and to station themselves there with a small
piece of artillery. When all the Indians, and Atahuallpa with them, had
entered the Plaza, the Governor would give a signal to Candia and his
men, after which they should start firing the gun, and the trumpets should
sound, and at the sound of the trumpets the cavalry should dash out of
the large court where they were waiting hidden in readiness. "At noon Atahuallpa began to draw up his men and to approach. Soon
we saw the entire plain full of Indians halting periodica1.Lyto wait for
more Indians who kept filing out of the camp behind them. They kept filling
out in separate detachments into the afternoon. The front detachments
were now close to our camp, and still more troops kept issuing from the
camp of the Indians. In front of Atahuallpa went 2,000 Indians who swept
the road ahead of him, and these were followed by the warriors, half of
whom were marching in the fields on one side of him and half on the other
side. "First came a squadron of Indians dressed in clothes of different
colors, like a chessboard. They advanced, removing the straws from the
ground and sweeping the road. Next came three squadrons in different dresses,
dancing and singing. Then came a number of men with armor, large metal
plates, and crowns of gold and silver. So great was the amount of furniture
of gold and silver which they bore, that it was a marvel to observe how
the sun glinted upon it. Among them came the figure of Atahuallpa in a
very fine litter with the ends of its timbers covered in silver. Eighty
lords carried him on their shoulders, all wearing a very rich blue livery.
Atahuallpa himself was very richly dressed, with his crown on his head
and a collar of large emeralds around his neck. He sat on a small stool
with a rich saddle cushion resting on his litter. The litter was lined
with parrot feathers of many colors and decorated with plates of gold
and silver. "Behind Atahuallpa came two other litters and two hammocks, in which
were some high chiefs, then several squadrons of Indians with crowns of
gold and silver. These Indian squadrons began to enter the plaza to the
accompaniment of great songs, and thus entering they occupied every part
of the plaza. In the meantime all of us Spaniards were waiting ready,
hidden in a courtyard, full of fear. Many of us urinated without noticing
it, out of sheer terror. On reaching the center of the plaza, Atahuallpa
remained in his litter on high, while his troops continued to file in
behind him. "Governor Pizarro now sent Friar Vicente de Valverde to go speak
to Atahuallpa, and to require Atahuallpa in the name of God and of the
King of Spain that Atahuallpa subject himself to the law of our Lord Jesus
Christ and to the service of His Majesty the King of Spain. Advancing
with a cross in one hand and the Bible in the other hand, and going among
the Indian trool3s up to the place where Atahuallpa was, the Friar thus
addressed him: 'I am a Priest of God, and I teach Christians the things
of God, and in like manner I come to teach you. What I teach is that which
God says to using this Book. Therefore, on the part of God and of the
Christians, I beseech you to be their friend, for such is God's will,
and it will be for your good.' "Atahuallpa asked for the Book, that he might look at it, and the
Friar gave it to him closed. Atahuallpa did not know how-to open the Book,
and the Friar was extending his arm to do so, when Atahuallpa, in great
anger, gave him a blow on the arm, not wishing that it should be opened.
Then he opened it himself, and, without any astonishment at the letters
and paper he threw it away from him five or six paces, his face a deep
crimson. "The Friar returned to Pizarro, shouting, 'Come out! Come out, Christians!
Come at these enemy dogs who reject the things of God. That tyrant has
thrown my book of holy law to the ground! Did you not see what happened?
Why remain polite and servile toward this over-proud dog when the plains
are full of Indians? March out against him, for I absolve you!' "The governor then gave the signal to Candia, who began to fire
off the guns. At the same time the trumpets were sounded, and the armored
Spanish troops, both cavalry and infantry, sallied forth out of their
hiding places straight into the mass of unarmed Indians crowding the square,
giving the Spanish battle cry, 'Santiago!' W had placed rattles on the
horses to terrify the Indians. The booming of the guns, the blowing of
the trumpets, and the rattles on the horses threw the Indians into panicked
confusion. The Spaniards fell upon them and began to cut them to pieces.
The Indians were so filled with fear that they climbed on top of one another,
formed mounds, and suffocated each other. Since they were unarmed, they
were attacked without danger to any Christian. The cavalry rode them down,
killing and wounding, and following in pursuit. The infantry made so good
an assault on those that remained that in a short time most of them were
put to the sword. "The Governor himself took his sword and dagger, entered the thick
of the Indians with the Spaniards who were with him, and with great bravery
reached Atahuallpa's litter. He fearlessly grabbed Atahuallpa's left arm
and shouted 'Santiago!' but he could not pull Atahuallpa out of his litter
because it was held up high. Although we killed the Indians who held the
litter, others at once took their places and held it aloft, and in this
manner we spent a long time in overcoming and killing Indians. Finally
seven or eight Spaniards on horseback spurred on their horses, rushed
upon the litter from one side, and with great effort they heaved it over
its side. In that way Atahuallpa was captured, and the Governor took Atahuallpa
to his lodging. The Indians carrying the litter, and those escorting Atahuallpa,
never abandoned him: all died around him. "The panic-stricken Indians remaining in the square, terrified at
the firing of the guns and at the horses-something they had never seen-tried
to flee from the square by knocking down a stretch of wall and running
out onto the plain outside. Our cavalry jumped the broken wall and charged
into the plain, shouting, 'Chase those with the fancy clothes! Don't let
any escape! Spear them!' All of the other Indian soldiers whom Atahuallpa
had brought were a mile from Cajamarca ready for battle, but not one made
a move, and during all this not one Indian raised a weapon against a Spaniard.
When the squadrons of Indians who had remained in the plain outside the
town saw the other Indians fleeing and shouting, most of them too panicked
and fled. It was an astonishing sight, for the whole valley for 15 or
20 miles was completely filled with Indians. Night had already fallen,
and our cavalry were continuing to spear Indians in the fields, when we
heard a trumpet calling for us to reassemble at camp. "If night had not come on, few out of the more than 40,000 Indian
troops would have been left alive. Six or even thousand Indians lay dead,
and many more had their arms cut off and other wounds. Atahuallpa himself
admitted that we had killed 7,000 of his men in that battle. The man killed
in one of the litters was his minister, the lord of Chincha, of whom he
was very fond. All those Indians who bore Atahuallpa's litter appeared
to be high chiefs and councilors [sic]. They were all killed, as well
as those Indians who were carried in the other litters and hammocks. The
lord of Cajamarca was also killed, and others, but their numbers were
so great that they could not be counted, for all who came in attendance
on Atahuallpa were great lords. It was extraordinary to see so powerful
a ruler captured in so short a time, when he had come with such a mighty
army. Truly, it was not accomplished by our own forces, for there were
so few of us. It was by the grace of God, which is great. "Atahuallpa's robes had been torn off when the Spaniards pulled
him out of his litter. The Governor ordered clothes to be brought to him,
and when Atahuallpa was dressed, the Governor ordered Atahuallpa to sit
near him and soothed his rage and agitation at finding himself so quickly
fallen from his high estate. The Governor said to Atahuallpa, 'Do not
take it as an insult that you have been defeated and taken prisoner, for
with the Christians who come with me, though so few in number, I have
conquered greater kingdoms than yours, and have defeated other more powerful
lords than you, imposing upon them the dominion of the Emperor, whose
vassal I am, and who is King of Spain and of the universal world. We come
to conquer this land by his command, that all may come to a knowledge
of God and of His Holy Catholic Faith; and by reason of our good mission,
God, the Creator of heaven and earth and of all things in them, permits
this, in order that you may know Him and come out from the bestial and
diabolical life that you lead. It is for this reason that we, being so
few in number, subjugate that vast host. When you have seen the errors
in which you live, you will understand the good that we have done you
by coming to your land by order of his Majesty the King of Spain. Our
Lord permitted that your pride should be brought low and that no Indian
should be able to offend a Christian.' Let us now trace the chain of causation in this extraordinary confrontation,
beginning with the immediate events. When Pizarro and Atahuallpa met at
Calamarca, why did Pizarro capture Atahuallpa and kill so many of his
followers. Instead of Atahuallpa's vastly more numerous forces capturing
and killing Pizarro? After all, Pizarro had only 62 soldiers mounted on
horses, along with 106 foot soldiers, while Atahuallpa commanded an army
of about 80,000. As for the antecedents of those events, how did Atahuallpa
come to be at Cajamarca at all? How did Pizarro come to be there to capture
him, instead of Atahuallpa's coming to Spain to capture King Charles I?
Why did Atahuallpa walk into what seems to us, with the gift of hindsight,
to have been such a transparent trap? Did the factors acting in the encounter
of Atahuallpa and Pizarro also play a broader role in encounters between
Old World and New World peoples and between other peoples? Why did Pizarro capture Atahuallpa? Pizarro's military advantages lay
in the Spaniards' steel swords and other weapons, steel armor, guns, and
horses. To those weapons, Atahuallpa's troops, without animals on which
to ride into battle, could oppose only stone, bronze, or wooden clubs,
maces, and hand axes, plus slingshots and quilted armor. Such imbalances
of equipment were decisive in innumerable other confrontations of Europeans
with Native Americans and other peoples. The sole Native Americans able to resist European conquest for many centuries
were those tribes that reduced the military disparity by acquiring and
mastering both horses and guns. To the average white American, the word
"Indian" conjures up an image of a mounted Plains Indian brandishing
a rifle, like the Sioux warriors who annihilated General George Custer's
U.S. Army battalion at the famous battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876.
We easily forget that horses and rifles were originally unknown to Native
Americans. They were brought by Europeans and proceeded to transform the
societies of Indian tribes that acquired them. Thanks to their mastery
of horses and rifles, the Plains Indians of North America, the Araucanian
Indians of southern Chile, and the Pampas Indians of Argentina fought
off invading whites longer than did any other Native Amen- cans, succumbing
only to massive army operations by white governments in the 1870s and
1880s. Today, it is hard for us to grasp the enormous numerical odds against
which the Spaniards' military equipment prevailed. At the battle of Cajamarca
recounted above, 168 Spaniards crushed a Native American army 500 times
more numerous, killing thousands of natives while not losing a single
Spaniard. Time and again, accounts of Pizarro's subsequent battles with
the Incas, Cortés' conquest of the Aztecs, and other early European
campaigns against Native Americans describe encounters in which a few
dozen European horsemen routed thousands of Indians with great slaughter.
During Pizarro's march from Cajamarca to the Inca capital of Cuzco after
Atahuallpa's death, there were four such battles: at Jauja, Vilcashuaman,
Vilcaconga, and Cuzco. Those four battles involved a mere 80, 30, 110,
and 40 Spanish horsemen, respectively, in each case ranged against thousands
or tens of thousands of Indians. These Spanish victories cannot be written off as due merely to the help
of Native American allies, to the psychological novelty of Spanish weapons
and horses, or (as is often claimed) to the Incas' mistaking Spaniards
for their returning god Viracocha. The initial successes of both Pizarro
and Cortés did attract native allies. However, many of them would
not have become allies if they had not already been persuaded, by earlier
devastating successes of unassisted Spaniards, that resistance was futile
and that they should side with the likely winners. The novelty of horses,
steel weapons, and guns undoubtedly paralyzed the Incas at Cajamarca,
but the battles after Cajamarca were fought against determined resistance
by Inca armies that had already seen Spanish weapons and horses. Within
half a dozen years of the initial conquest, Incas mounted two desperate,
large- scale, well-prepared rebellions against the Spaniards All those
efforts failed because of the Spaniards' far superior armament. By the 1700s, guns had replaced swords as the main weapon favoring European
invaders over Native Americans and other native peoples. For example,
in 1808 a British sailor named Charlie Savage equipped with muskets and
excellent aim arrived in the Fiji Islands. The aptly named Savage proceeded
single-handedly to upset Fiji's balance of power. Among his many exploits,
he paddled his canoe up a river to the Fijian village of Kasavu, halted
less than a pistol shot's length from the village fence, and fired away
at the undefended inhabitants. His victims were so numerous that surviving
villagers piled up the bodies to take shelter behind them, and the stream
beside the village was red with blood. Such examples of the power of guns
against native peoples lacking guns could be multiplied indefinitely. In the Spanish conquest of the Incas, guns played only a minor role.
The guns of those times (so-called harquebusiers) were difficult to load
and fire, and Pizarro had only a dozen of them. They did produce a big
psycho- logical effect of those occasions when they managed to fire. Far
more important were the Spaniards' steel swords, lances, and daggers,
strong sharp weapons that slaughtered thinly armored Indians. In contrast,
Indian blunt clubs, while capable of battering and wounding Spaniards
and their horses, rarely succeeded in killing them. The Spaniards' steel
or chain mail armor and, above all, their steel helmets usually provided
an effective defense against club blows, while the Indians' quilted armor
offered no protection against steel weapons. The tremendous advantage that the Spaniards gained from their horses
leaps out of the eyewitness accounts. Horsemen could easily outride Indian
sentries before the sentries had time to warn Indian troops behind them,
and could ride down and kill Indians on foot. The shock of a horse's charge,
its maneuverability, the speed of attack that it permitted, and the raised
and protected fighting platform that it provided left foot soldiers nearly
helpless in the open. Nor was the effect of horses due only to the terror
that they inspired in soldiers fighting against them for the first time.
By the time of the great Inca rebellion of 1536, the Incas had learned
how best to defend themselves against cavalry, by ambushing and annihilating
Spanish horsemen in narrow passes. But the Incas, like all other foot
soldiers, were never able to defeat cavalry in the open. When Quizo Yupanqui,
the best general of the Inca emperor Manco, who succeeded Atahuallpa,
besieged the Spaniards in Lima in 1536 and tried to storm the city, two
squadrons of Spanish cavalry charged a much larger Indian force on flat
ground, killed Quizo and all of his commanders in the first charge, and
routed his army. A similar cavalry charge of 26 horsemen routed the best
troops of Emperor Manco himself, as he was besieging the Spaniards in
Cuzco. The transformation of warfare by horses began with their domestication
around 4000 B.C., in the steppes north of the Black Sea. Horses permitted
people possessing them to cover far greater distances than was possible
on foot, to attack by surprise, and to flee before a superior defending
force could be gathered. Their role at Cajamarca thus exemplifies a military
weapon that remained potent for 6,000 years, until the early 20th century,
and that was eventually applied on all the continents. Not until the First
World War did the military dominance of cavalry finally end. When we consider
the advantages that Spaniards derived from horses, steel weapons, and
armor against foot soldiers without metal, it should no longer surprise
us that Spaniards consistently won battles against enormous odds. How did Atahuallpa come to be at Cajamarca? Atahuallpa and his army came
to be at Cajamarca because they had just won decisive battles in a civil
war that left the Incas divided and vulnerable. Pizarro quickly appreciated
those divisions and exploited them. The reason for the civil war was that
an epidemic of smallpox, spreading overland among South American Indians
after its arrival with Spanish settlers in Panama and Colombia, had killed
the Inca emperor Huayna Capac and most of his court around 1526, and then
immediately killed his designated heir, Ninan Cuyuchi. Those deaths precipitated
a contest for the throne between Atahuallpa and his half brother Huascar.
If it had not been for the epidemic, the Spaniards would have faced a
united empire. Atahuallpa's presence at Cajamarca thus highlights one of the key factors
in world history: diseases transmitted to peoples lacking immunity by
invading peoples with considerable immunity. Smallpox, measles, influenza,
typhus, bubonic plague, and other infectious diseases endemic in Europe
played a decisive role in European conquests, by decimating many peoples
on other continents. For example, a smallpox epidemic devastated the Aztecs
after the failure of the first Spanish attack in 1520 and killed Cuitláhuac,
the Aztec emperor who briefly succeeded Montezuma. Throughout the Americas,
diseases introduced with Europeans spread from tribe to tribe far in advance
of the Europeans themselves, killing an estimated 95 percent of the pre-Columbian
Native American population. The most populous and highly organized native
societies of North America, the Mississippian chiefdoms, disappeared in
that way between 1492 and the late 1600s, even before Europeans themselves
made their first settlement on the Mississippi River. A smallpox epidemic
in 1713 was the biggest single step in the destruction of South Africa's
native San people by European settlers. Soon after the British settlement
of Sydney in 1788, the first of the epidemics that decimated Aboriginal
Australians began. A well-documented example from Pacific islands is the
epidemic that swept over Fiji in 1806, brought by a few European sailors
who struggled ashore from the wreck of the ship Argo. Similar epidemics
marked the histories of Tonga, Hawaii, and other Pacific islands. I do not mean to imply, however, that the role of disease in history
was confined to paving the way for European expansion of Malaria, yellow
fever, and other diseases of tropical Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and
New Guinea furnished the most important obstacle to European colonization
of those tropical areas - How did Pizarro come to be at Cajamarca? Why
didn't Atahuallpa instead try to conquer Spain? Pizarro came to Cajamarca
by means of European maritime technology, which built the ships that took
him across the Atlantic from Spain to Panama, and then in the Pacific
from Panama to Peru. Lacking such technology, Atahuallpa did not expand
overseas out of South America. In addition to the ships themselves, Pizarro's presence depended on the
centralized political organization that enabled Spain to finance, build,
staff, and equip the ships. The Inca Empire also had a centralized political
organization, but that actually worked to its disadvantage, because Pizarro
seized the Inca chain of command intact by capturing Atahuallpa. Since
the Inca bureaucracy was so strongly identified with its godlike absolute
monarch, it disintegrated after Atahuallpa's death. Maritime technology
coupled with political organization was similarly essential for European
expansions to other continents, as well as for expansions of many other
peoples. A related factor bringing Spaniards to Peru was the existence of writing.
Spain possessed it, while the Inca Empire did not. Information could be
spread far more widely, more accurately, and in more detail by writing
than it could be transmitted by mouth. That information, coming back to
Spain from Columbus's voyages and from Cortés' conquest of Mexico,
sent Spaniards pouring into the New World. Letters and pamphlets sup-
plied both the motivation and the necessary detailed sailing directions.
The first published report of Pizarro's exploits, by his companion Captain
Cristóbal de Mena, was printed in Seville in April 1534, a mere
nine months after Atahuallpa's execution. It became a best-seller, was
rapidly translated into other European languages, and sent a further stream
of Spanish cob- fists to tighten Pizarro's grip on Peru. Why did Atahuallpa walk into the trap? In hindsight, we find it astonishing
that Atahuallpa marched into Pizarro's obvious trap at Cajamarca. The
Spaniards who captured him were equally surprised at their success. The
consequences of literacy are prominent in the ultimate explanation. The immediate explanation is that Atahuallpa had very little information
about the Spaniards, their military power, and their intent. He derived
that scant information by word of mouth, mainly from an envoy who had
visited Pizarro's force for two days while it was en route inland from
the coast. That envoy saw the Spaniards at their most disorganized, told
Atahuallpa that they were not fighting men, and that he could tie them
all up if given 200 Indians.-Understandably, it never occurred to Atahuallpa
that the Spaniards were formidable and would attack him without provocation. In the New World the ability to write was confined to small elites among
some peoples of modern Mexico and neighboring areas far to the north of
the Inca Empire. Although the Spanish conquest of Panama, a mere 600 miles
from the Incas' northern boundary, began already in 1510, no knowledge
even of the Spaniards' existence appears to have reached the Incas until
Pizarro's first banding on the Peruvian coast in 1527. Atahuallpa remained
entirely ignorant about Spain's conquests of Central America's most powerful
and populous Indian societies. As surprising to us today as Atahuallpa's behavior leading to his capture
is his behavior thereafter. He offered his famous ransom in the naive
belief that, once paid off, the Spaniards would release him and depart.
He had no way of understanding that Pizarro's men formed the spearhead
of a force bent on permanent conquest, rather than an isolated raid. Atahuallpa was not alone in these fatal miscalculations. Even after Atahuallpa
had been captured, Francisco Pizarro's brother Hernando Pizarro deceived
Atahuallpa's leading general, Chalcuchima, commanding a large army, into
delivering himself to the Spaniards. Chalcuchima's miscalculation marked
a turning point in the collapse of Inca resistance, a moment almost as
significant as the capture of Atahuallpa himself. The Aztec emperor Montezuma
miscalculated even more grossly when he took Cortes for a returning god
and admitted him and his tiny army into the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.
The result was that Cortés captured Montezuma, then went on to
conquer Tenochtitlán and the Aztec Empire. On a mundane level, the miscalculations by Atahuallpa, Chalcuchima, Montezuma,
and countless other Native American leaders deceived by Europeans were
due to the fact that no living inhabitants of the New World had been to
the Old World, so of course they could have had no specific information
about the Spaniards. Even so, we find it hard to avoid the conclusion
that Atahuallpa "should" have been more suspicious, if only
his society had experienced a broader range of human behavior. Pizarro
too arrived at Cajamarca with no information about the Incas other than
what he had learned by interrogating the Inca subjects he encountered
in1527 and 1531. However, while Pizarro himself happens to be illiterate,
he belonged to a literate tradition. From books, the Spaniards knew of
many contemporary civilizations remote from Europe, and about several
thousand years of European history. Pizarro explicitly modeled his ambush
of Atahuallpa on the successful strategy of Cortés. In short, literacy made the Spaniards heirs to a huge body of knowledge
about human behavior and history. By contrast, not only did Atahuallpa
have no conception of the Spaniards themselves, and no personal experience
of any other invaders from overseas, but he also had not even heard (or
read) of similar threats to anyone else, anywhere else, anytime previously
in history. That gulf of experience encouraged Pizarro to set his trap
and Atahuallpa to walk into it. THUS, PIZARRO'S CAPTURE of Atahuallpa illustrates the set of proximate
factors that resulted in Europeans' colonizing the New World instead of
Native Americans' colonizing Europe. Immediate reasons for Pizarro's success
included military technology based on guns, steel weapons, and horses;
infectious diseases endemic in Eurasia; European maritime technology;
the centralized political organization of European state and writing.
The title of this book will serve as shorthand for those proximate factors,
which also enabled modern Europeans to conquer peoples of other continents.
Long before anyone began manufacturing guns and steel, others of those
same factors had led to the expansions of some non-European peoples, as
we shall see in later chapters. But we are still left with the fundamental question why all those immediate
advantages came to lie more with Europe than with the New World. Why weren't
the Incas the ones to invent guns and steel swords, to be mounted on animals
as fearsome as horses, to bear diseases to which European lacked resistance,
to develop oceangoing ships and advanced political organization, and to
be able to draw on the experience of thousands of years of written history?
Those are no longer the questions of proximate causation that this chapter
has been discussing, but questions of ultimate causation that will take
up the next two parts of this book. Source.
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