I think the strangest thing is that the Spaniard Francisco Pizarro, at the age of 56, led a team of less than 200 people to conquer the Inca Empire of nearly 6 million people. This is really unbelievable. So how did Pizarro do it?
1. Conquest of the Incas
Pizarro landed in the Incas with 177 men and 62 horses, and the Inca king had an army of 40,000 men stationed in the city of Cajamarca. Pizarro then negotiated with the king, saying that the king could only lead 5,000 unarmed people to participate in the negotiations. And then the king actually agreed?!
Pizarro had been killing and searching for gold since the landings, and his approach could be said to be "the heart of Sima Zhao, known to all passers-by", but the king agreed to negotiate with him. And Pizarro was allowed to come to cajamarca city.
At that time, the Best Thing the Incas were good at fighting was ambush warfare, and if you combined the dense forests and complex terrain of South America, you could find a small road to completely destroy Pizarro's army. But the king made Pizarro come swinging.
Pizarro was naturally not a gentleman, he saw the 5,000 unarmed men led by the king, directly launched an attack, and then broke the other side in one fell swoop, and captured the other side's monarch.
Is it because Pizarro's weapons are too strong? However, it was only the 16th century, and the guns used were all arquebusiers, slow and unstable, and Pizarro's army had only 3 muskets and 20 crossbows. So Pizarro shouldn't have won anyway, but he just did.
2. Rule the Incas
The Inca kings were a national symbol of the unity of man and god, and when the king was captured, the entire empire fell with it. In order to gain his freedom, the king paid Pizarro a large amount of gold and silver, but in the end the king was executed by Pizarro.
Pizarro later achieved control over all of the Incas, and also installed a puppet Inca king and built a new capital, Lima.
This routine of killing people and supporting the new king was accomplished in one go, which shows that Pizarro is really an experienced colonist.
In the end, Pizarro's death was not in the rebellion of the Incas, but in the Spanish rebellion, which caused another rebellion and killed Pizarro.
3. Summary
Speaking of which, in the midst of colonial conquest, there are many strange things that make it impossible for you to think about it. For example, I still can't figure out how Pizarro won, is the gap between the two sides so big? For example, I can't figure out why the Qing army lost the battle in the Opium War and still lied to the emperor without changing its face.
Text: JAL Tongjian Map: From the Network and The Site, Invasion and Deletion