Si Sheppard on Spain's conquest of the Aztecs and Incas
What happened
On October 1, military historian Si Sheppard described the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires on the Dwarkesh Patel podcast. He said Hernan Cortes led a few hundred conquistadors and conquered the Aztec empire, population 6 million, in two and a half years. A decade later, Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca empire, population about 10 million, the same way. Sheppard said the two often won against forces 100 or even 1,000 times their size, and that 99% of their fighting force was made up of conquered indigenous people.
Written by AI from the coverage · updated 1 hour ago
Coverage
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- Dwarkesh Patel podcastSi Sheppard – How did a few hundred Spanish soldiers topple two empires?
军事历史学家 Si Sheppard 在播客中讲述，Hernan Cortés 率数百名 Conquistadors 在两年半内征服了 600 万人口的阿兹特克帝国，十年后 Francisco Pizarro 又以同样方式征服约 1000 万人口的印加帝国。两人常在 100 倍甚至 1000 倍兵力劣势下取胜，且 99% 的作战力量由被征服的原住民组成。
Heat over time
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