Military Advantages
Conquistadors had overwhelming military advantages over the native peoples. They belonged to a more militarily advanced civilization with better techniques, tools, firearms, artillery, steel and domesticated animals. Horses and mules carried them, pigs fed them and dogs fought for them. The indigenous peoples had the advantage of established settlements, determination to remain independent and large numerical superiority. European diseases and divide and conquer tactics contributed to the defeat of the native populations.
In the Iberian peninsula, in a situation of constant conflict, warfare and daily life were strongly interlinked. Small, lightly equipped armies were maintained at all times. The state of war continued intermittently for centuries and created a very warlike culture in Iberia.
Read more about this topic: Spanish Conquistadors
Famous quotes containing the words military and/or advantages:
““My ancestors were all famous for military genius.”
My Lady smiled graciously. “It often runs in families,” she remarked: “just as a love for pastry does.””
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“For, the advantages which fashion values, are plants which thrive in very confined localities, in a few streets, namely. Out of this precinct, they go for nothing; are of no use in the farm, in the forest, in the market, in war, in the nuptial society, in the literary or scientific circle, at sea, in friendship, in the heaven of thought or virtue.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)