Inca army

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Inca army was the best organized of its time (15-16th centuries). It consisted of several battalions organized, often in large scale numbers. Warriors wore tunics, often with chessboard patterns which was the army's dress. They used several weapons such as:

  • Sling, used as distance weapon to kill enemies on distances. Special slinger units were assign to these hola
  • Clubs, used to break enemies arm as a main weapon.
  • Bronze knives, the Incas had not access to iron as Europeans nor obsidian as the Aztecs. They rarely used swords, just shorter weapons.
  • Scythes, medium lengthed weapons with blades at the tip the curved, forming a scythe.
  • The Incas used armours fairly, made of gold which made them not regular equipment nor effective. Mostly sub-officers used them.
  • Axes used to slash through enemies armour and to break weapons like spears.

Both Inca oral histories and Spanish written accounts estimate the Incas could field armies of 100,000 at a time.[1]

The Incas were very well organized in battle. In opposite to the Aztecs, which waged war mainly to take prisoners of war to execute in religious ceremonies, only taking tributes as gain from the defeated people, the Incas aim with war was to kill enemy soldiers and to directly conquer enemy lands, putting it under the rule of the Sapa Inca, who was the highest head of the army. The Incas were also very well organized in military logistics, using magazines owned by the state to supply mass contingents with food, and also white tents as camp, organized in symmetric patterns that imposed on the Europeans, who had neither this control nor order in their armies.

[edit] Reference

  1. ^ D;Altroy, Terence N. (2002). The Incas. Blackwell Publishing, 216. ISBN 0-631-17677-2.