In things like the battle of Cajamarca the Incan lost a battle against the Spanish with 8000 warriors against 150. All the 150 survived.

Disease was important but there was a large technological and cultural gap too (e.g. the Incan didn't fight at night!).

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tehnub 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I just read this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cajamarca

It seems like the Incans were overconfident and didn't expect a surprise attack (didn't have their weapons, only a small retinue around the rule in ceremonial garb instead of armor), and then the 8000 warriors were outside and didn't even attempt to fight the Spaniards because they were so demoralized.

	▲	riffraff 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Well, yeah, and if you keep reading about it, the whole rest of the campaign has the same tenure. Spain conquered and held the whole Incan empire with 168 men, also fomenting smaller factions and internal feuds etc. The scale of this is absolutely insane.

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avadodin 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> the Incan didn't fight at night!

To be fair to the Inca, I didn't expect the night–vision–equipped Spanish Inquisition, either.

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circlefavshape 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You're missing a zero. It was EIGHTY thousand, not 8000.

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riffraff 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I thought so too, but wikipedia says 8k

	▲	circlefavshape 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Ah weird - the text of the page says Atahualpa had 80k troops, but then the infobox describes the Inca forces as 3-8k in size. I guess not all the 80k were involved in the battle

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vasco 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Around the same time, 460 men in 6 ships destroyed 30000 men in 400 ships taking over Ormuz. Portugal and Spain were just incredibly OP during that time period. And the people in Ormuz were more advanced than the natives in US. And they still got absolutely destroyed.