Guns, Germs, and Steel: Episode II

On November 15, 1532, 168 Spanish conquistadors attacked the Imperial Army of the Incas in Peru. They massacred 7,000 people and not a single Spanish life was lost. Professor Jared Diamond investigates why the balance of power was so uneven, suggesting geography played a crucial role in the success of European conquest.

Francisco Pizarro, a mercenary and adventurer, led the first Europeans into the Andes, reaching the edge of the mighty Inca Empire. The Incas had never seen white men and were unaware of the imminent threat. By the 1530s, the Inca Empire stretched 2,500 miles, while the Spanish Empire, recently unified, controlled a third of mainland Europe.

Jared Diamond argues that farming gave some cultures a head start. Productive crops and animals, originating in the Fertile Crescent and spreading to Europe, allowed for surplus food, supporting larger and more complex societies. European livestock provided meat, milk, wool, and muscle power for plows, significantly increasing agricultural productivity. In contrast, the New World lacked such animals, making farming less efficient for the Incas, despite their skill with potatoes and corn.

Horses provided Europeans with a massive advantage. Their use in Spain for 4,000 years meant superior horsemanship, as demonstrated by traditions like 'la jineta'. The Incas, having never seen horses, were terrified, especially by the speed and power of the conquistadors' cavalry, which could easily ride down and lance unmounted people.

News of the Spaniards reached Inca Emperor Atahuallpa, who was camped with 80,000 men. Believing the Spaniards to be inferior and seeking to trap them, Atahuallpa invited them to Cajamarca. His spies described the Europeans as subhuman, not realizing the advanced weaponry they carried.

Spain's long history of warfare led to advanced weapon technology. The arquebus, an early firearm, though crude, instilled terror with its sound and smoke. More significantly, Spanish steel-making, honed over centuries, produced deadly Toledo swords and rapiers. This sophisticated metalworking, inherited from the Fertile Crescent, gave Europeans a critical advantage over the Incas who used simpler bronze tools.

Pizarro's strategy was influenced by Hernan Cortes's conquest of the Aztecs, detailed in written accounts. This access to past military strategies was a huge advantage. Writing, developed first in the Fertile Crescent and spread through Eurasia, allowed for the rapid and accurate transmission of knowledge. The Incas, without a writing system, relied on oral tradition and lacked this cumulative historical knowledge.

The east-west axis of Eurasia facilitated the spread of crops, animals, ideas, and technologies due to shared latitudes and climates. In contrast, the north-south axis of the Americas, with its diverse climates and day lengths, hindered such diffusion. This geographic difference chronically isolated Andean societies, preventing the spread of innovations like writing from Mesoamerica to the Incas.

On November 16, 1532, Atahuallpa, expecting a celebration and planning to intimidate the Spaniards, entered Cajamarca with an unarmed entourage of thousands. The Spaniards, hidden, attacked. Pizarro's priest confronted Atahuallpa, presenting a Bible, which the Inca, unfamiliar with books, threw down. This act, perceived as defiance, triggered the Spanish attack. The Incas, unprepared for cavalry and steel weapons, panicked and were slaughtered.

Beyond weapons, the Spaniards carried a devastating, invisible weapon: infectious diseases. Smallpox, introduced to the Americas by a Spanish ship years earlier, decimated native populations. European exposure to domesticated animals for millennia led to the evolution of deadly diseases like smallpox, measles, and flu, against which Europeans had developed some immunity. The Incas, with no such history of contact with animals like llamas, had no natural immunity, making them highly susceptible.

After his capture, Atahuallpa became a cooperative prisoner, learning Spanish and chess. He was used to order his people to accept Spanish rule and to collect vast amounts of gold and silver for his ransom. Despite providing 20 tons of treasure, Pizarro reneged on his promise, and Atahuallpa was garroted to death. With the Inca leader gone, the conquistadors easily colonized Peru, driven by their 'Guns, Germs, and Steel'.

Jared Diamond concludes that the conquest was not due to European superiority in bravery or intelligence, but rather their accidental advantage from geography and history. They were the first to acquire 'Guns, Germs, and Steel,' which reshaped the world and led to the colonization of vast territories beyond the Americas by European powers.