Talk:Inca society
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Reading this article and the one on the Incas themselves, there is no mention of how was it that the Spaniards were able to so easily conquer the empire.
Clearly, on capturing Atahualpa, the Spaniards must have captured the key to the society, as it were—yet the article doesn't make this clear, nor does it really explain what happened.
Imagine, say, the Queen of England being taken hostage by Al-Qaeda—no way would Bin Laden rule over the United Kingdom. Yet that seems to be exactly what happened with the Incas. My question, to those who are knowledgeable, is why did this happen? Why did the Incas fal under the control of the Spaniards so easily? Was the Inca society so rigid that it could not survive its dictator being captured? Or were there some other causes?
An honest question. --TallulahBelle 18:12, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
In my trip to Peru in 2004, the story I heard was that the Spaniards used the Incas against themselves. They would deceive different leaders into fighting each other, so that the Incas were fighting the Incas. The Spaniards then came in and conquered after the cities were destroyed by the small civil wars. The Incas built their cities in the middle of the sides of mountains, not in the valleys like the Spaniards did, which made them easier to defend. After having hiked the Inca trail, I can attest how very difficult it would be to effectively attack an Inca city. The Spaniards also had (single-shot) guns and artillery (though I'm not certain if the artillery was used in the mountains). If anyone else can second this claim or find a cite, we should include it in the article. Halcyonhazard 17:34, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
