Karuna Mukkamalla History 9 Block 6 Alex Brocchini 13 May 2024 Inca Essay- Comparison of Diamond and Mann Historians often debate the “true” reasons that the Spanish were able to conquer the Inca with remarkable ease despite disadvantages of unfamiliarity with the land and possession of a much smaller army. In their respective pieces of writing, Jared Diamond and Charles C. Mann make claims that indicate their perceptions and beliefs regarding these reasons. Although Diamond makes an effective point about the Inca’s lack of horses and polished weaponry leading to their weakness against the Spanish, I better align with Mann’s argument that other factors, including widespread fatal disease outbreaks within the Inca empire, contributed heavily…show more content… To those weapons, Atahuallpa’s troops, without animals on which to ride into battle, could oppose only stone, bronze, or wooden clubs, maces, and hand axes, plus slingshots and quilted armor. Such imbalances of equipment were decisive in innumerable other confrontations of Europeans with Native Americans and other peoples”. This statement illustrates the stark differences between the physical resources of the Inca and the Spanish and how they would come to impact Native groups as a whole during future disagreements and confrontations with Europeans. In essence, these statements are true as part of a broader, more complex topic; the Inca did have a disadvantage when it came to physical resources for battle. However, it is important to consider whether this should be regarded as the most important and significant facet of their downfall to the conquistadors. In contrast, Mann’s argument suggests that the most substantial contributors to the weakness and fall of the Inca were rather “disease and factionalism.” He draws on this in a statement from a chapter of his writing titled Virgin Soils, “To Dobyns, the moral of this story was
