Chapter 4 Chapter 3 The Conflict in Cajamarca
The greatest demographic shift of modern times is the migration of Europeans to the New World, and the subsequent conquest of Native Americans (American Indians), the reduction or complete disappearance of Native Americans.As I said in Chapter 1, the earliest settlements to the New World occurred around 11,000 B.C. or earlier, via Alaska, the Bering Strait, and Siberia.Complex agricultural societies arose in the Americas far south of the immigration route, developing in complete isolation from the emerging complex societies of the Old World.After that initial migration from Asia, the only well-documented further contacts between the New World and Asia involved hunter-gatherers living on either side of the Bering Strait, and a supposed trans-Pacific voyage, And it was this voyage that introduced the sweet potato from South America to Polynesia.
As for contact between New World groups and Europeans, the only early contact is with the Norse, a small group of Norse who occupied Greenland from 986 AD to around 1500.But the arrival of these peoples did not have any visible impact on Native American society.Instead, the conflict between advanced Old World and New World societies actually began abruptly in AD 1492, as Christopher Columbus "discovered" the heavily populated Caribbean islands inhabited by Native Americans.
One of the most dramatic moments in ensuing European-Native American relations was the meeting between the Inca emperor Atahualpa and the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in the Peruvian highland city on November 16, 1532. First encounter in Cajamarca.Atahualpa was the absolute monarch of the largest and most advanced country in the New World, while Pizarro represented the monarch of the most powerful country in Europe, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (also known as King Charles I of Spain).Pizarro led a ragtag group of 168 Spanish soldiers to a strange place, ignorant of the local inhabitants, completely lost contact with the nearest Spaniards (in Panama, 1,000 miles to the north), and It is impossible to get timely reinforcements at all.Atahualpa was at the center of an empire of millions of subjects, guarded by his 80,000-strong army, which had recently won battles with other Indians.Nonetheless, Pizarro captured Atahualpa within minutes of the two leaders' meeting.Pizarro then held his captor for eight months while demanding the highest ransom in history in exchange for the promise of his release.The ransom was gold, enough to fill a room 22 feet long, 17 feet wide, and over 8 feet high.But after the ransom was paid, Pizarro broke his promise and executed Atahualpa.
Atahualpa's capture was decisive for the European conquest of the Inca Empire.The capture of Atahualpa made the Spanish conquest much quicker and infinitely easier, though the superior weaponry of the Spaniards would have ensured their eventual victory anyway.Atahuallpa was revered by the Incas as the sun god, exercising absolute authority over his subjects, and his militiamen obeyed his orders even in captivity.The months leading up to his death allowed Pizarro to take some expeditions undisturbed to other parts of the Inca Empire, and to send reinforcements from Panama.By the time the fighting between the Spaniards and the Incas finally began after Atahualpa's death, the Spanish army was already relatively difficult to deal with.
The capture of Atahualpa is therefore of particular interest to us because it marks a decisive turning point in the greatest conflict in modern history.But it is also a question of more general interest, since the factors that led to Pizarro's capture of Atahualpa are essentially the same factors that determine the outcome of many conflicts between immigrants and indigenous peoples elsewhere in the modern world.The capture of Atahualpa thus provides us with a broad window into world history.
The events that unfolded in Cajamarca that day are well known, as they are documented by the many Spaniards who took part in them.To add a little spice to these events, let us revisit the scene by weaving together excerpts from first-hand eyewitness accounts by six of Pizarro's entourage, including his Brothers Hernando and Pedro:
"We Spaniards are the invincible Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, our natural king and subjects of the sovereign. Our foresight, fortitude, discipline, hard work, stormy waves, and bloody battles make the pious people rejoice, For this reason, for the glory of God, and to proclaim the majesty of His Majesty the Catholic Emperor, I feel that it is appropriate to write the following account and present it to Your Majesty, so that all people in the world may know what is said here. Glory To God, for the Spaniards, under his divine guidance, subdued the great masses of the ungodly, and converted them to our holy Catholic faith. Glory to our Emperor, for by his great strength and good fortune, The above-mentioned events took place during his reign. It will rejoice the pious followers that the above-mentioned battles have been won, the above-mentioned provinces have been discovered and conquered, and the above-mentioned riches have been brought home to be shared by the king with them. ; and because the above-mentioned horror has been spread among the heathen, the above-mentioned admiration has been born among all mankind.
"Because, in order to subdue those aliens in the barren land, from ancient times to the present, when did such a great deed come from so few people against so many people, over such a vast area, over so many Whose deeds can equal those of Spain? We Spaniards were few in number, never more than two hundred or three hundred in total, sometimes only a hundred Even fewer people, yet have conquered vast territories unheard of in our time, greater than all the princes and princes who believed in God and did not have. Now, I will only write that in the conquest What happened, I will not write much in order to avoid verbosity.
"Governor Pizarro wanted information from the Indians from Cajamarca, so he ordered them to be tortured. They confessed that they had heard that Atahualpa was waiting for the Governor in Cajamarca. The Governor then ordered We went on. When we reached the entrance of Cajamarca, we saw the camp of Atahualpa on the side of a hill. The camp of the Indians looked like a very beautiful city. There were so many tents, Filled us all with great suspicion. We had never seen anything like it before in the West Indies. It frightened and bewildered all our Spaniards. But we could not show any sign of fear. even the Indians we brought as guides would kill us if these Indians sensed any sign of our cowardice. and, having observed the city and the tents carefully, descended the valley into Cajamarca.
"We spent a good deal of time deliberating. We were all filled with fear, because we were so few in number and so deep into a place that we could not expect reinforcements. We all went to the governor to discuss the course of action for the next day. That day We seldom fell asleep at night. We waited on the square in Cajamarca, watching the campfires of the Indian army. This sight was frightening. Most of the campfires were on the hillside, and they were very close to each other. At first glance it looked like dots in the sky. There was no distinction between great and small, or infantry and cavalry, that night. Every man stood guard in full armor. No exception, he ran around to cheer up his men. Hernando Pizarro, the brother of the Governor, estimated that there were 40,000 Indian soldiers there, but he lied only to reassure us, because There are actually more than 80,000 Indians.
"The next morning, a messenger from Atahualpa arrived, and the governor said to him, 'Please tell the sovereign of your country that he is welcome. Either way, I will receive him as a friend and a brother. I beg him to come, for I long to see him. He shall be harmed or insulted in no way.'
"The Governor ambushed his troops around the square of Cajamarca and divided the cavalry into two, one under the command of his brother Hernando Pizarro and the other under the command of Hernando de De Soto commanded. He also divided the infantry into two, with one part at his command and the other in the hands of his brother Juan Pizarro. At the same time he ordered Pedro de Candia and two or three The infantry went with trumpets to a small fort in the square, and garrisoned there with a small cannon. When all the Indians and Atahualpa with them entered the square, the governor issued a signal to Candia and his soldiers. At the same time the trumpet was to be blown, and the cavalry rushed out of the large yard where they were waiting in ambush.
"At noon, Atahualpa began to assemble his team and approached. Soon we saw that the whole plain was densely packed with Indians, stopping now and then to wait for the other soldiers who continued to file out from the camp behind them. Some Indians. In the afternoon, they were divided into small groups and continued to file out. The first few small groups were approaching our camp at this time, and more troops were still coming from the Indian camp. Departure. In front of Atahualpa were 2,000 Indians clearing the way, and behind them were warriors, half of whom marched in the fields on one side of him and the other half in the fields on the other.
"First came a group of Indians in colorful, checkerboard-like costumes. As they advanced, they picked up straw on the ground and cleaned the road. Next came three groups of Indians in different costumes, singing and dancing Then came a group of people, carrying armor, huge metal plates, and gold and silver crowns. Stunning. Among these is the figure of Atahualpa, seated in an ornate palanquin whose wooden supports are wrapped in silver at the ends, carried on the shoulders by 80 lords in bright blue livery Atahualpa himself was richly clothed, with a crown on his head and a large emerald collar around his neck. He sat on a small stool with ornate saddle cushions in a sedan chair surrounded by colorful parrot feathers, and decorated with gold and silver plates.
"Behind Atahualpa came two other palanquins and two hammocks, in which sat several high-ranking chiefs, and then several groups of Indians carrying crowns of gold and silver. These groups of Indians kept pace with loud singing began to enter the square, and they continued to come in and occupy every part of the square. During this time, all of us Spaniards were waiting in the yard, waiting in ambush, full of fear. Many of us simply because Terrified and unknowingly weeding his pants, Atahualpa reached the center of the square, still sitting high in his palanquin, while his troops continued to file in behind him.
"The Governor of Pizarro at this time sent Vicente de Valverde, a beggar friar, to speak to Atahualpa, and in the name of God and the King of Spain, demand that Atahualpa submit to the authority and allegiance of Jesus Christ His Majesty the King of Spain, the friar, holding the cross in one hand and the Bible in the other, stepped forward through the Indian troops, came to Atahualpa, and said to him: 'I am a servant sent by God , I taught the Gospel of God to Christians, and I am here to teach you the same. I am teaching what God has said to us in this book. Therefore, on behalf of God and Christians, I ask you to be their friend , for it is God's will, and for your good.'
"Atahuallpa asked for the book, and he wanted to read it. So the monk handed him the closed book. Atahualpa didn't know how to open the book, so the monk stretched out his hand to help. At this time, Ah In a fit of rage, Tahuallpa punched the monk on the arm, not wanting anyone else to help him, so he opened the book himself, and finding nothing surprising in the words and paper, he Throwing the book five or six steps away, my face flushed.
"The monk came back to Pizarro, shouting: 'Come out, come out, Christians! Rush to these dog enemies who reject the Gospel of God! That tyrant dared to throw my Bible on the ground: you Don't you see what just happened? Why should we be courteous to this overly haughty bastard when the plains are full of Indians? Rush at them, and I'll forgive your sins!'
"Then the Governor gave Candia the signal, and Candia began to fire. At the same moment the trumpet was sounded, and the heavily armed Spanish troops, both cavalry and infantry, crowded into the square from their ambush— A regiment of unarmed Indians charged forward, shouting the Spanish battle cry: 'Santiago!' We had strapped squawks to the horses to frighten the Indians. The gunshots, trumpets, and squawks sent the Indians into a panic The Spaniards attacked them, and cut them in pieces with their hands. The Indians trampled upon each other in terror, and formed a heap, each of which suffocated. Since they were unarmed, any Christian could have attacked them without danger. The cavalry galloped them down, killing those they killed, wounding those they wounded, and pursuing those who fled. The infantry launched a fierce attack on the remaining, and most of them quickly They all became ghosts under the knife.
"The Governor himself, with a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, rushed into the dense Indian crowd with a few Spaniards at his side, and very bravely came to Atahuallpa's litter. He boldly grabbed Atahuallpa's left hand but he could not pull Abehuallpa out of the litter, which was held so high. Although he killed some of the Indians who carried the litter, the others The Indians immediately came up and raised the sedan chair high, so it took us a long time to subdue and kill the Indians. At last, seven or eight Spanish cavalry rushed up on horseback, rushed towards the sedan chair from one side, and spent a lot of time on the sedan chair. The palanquin was pushed so hard that it fell on its side. Atahualpa was thus caught. The Governor took Atahuallpa to his residence. The Indians who carried the litter and those who guarded Atahualpa did not Abandon him: all die beside him.
"The panicked Indians who remained in the square, terrified by the fire of the guns and the horses--things they had never seen before-- managed to tear down a section of the fence, escape from the square, and ran out onto the plain Go up. Our cavalry leap from the gap in the wall, and rush into the plain, shouting: 'Pursue those in pied clothes! Let none of them escape, and spear them.' Atahuallpa brought The other Indians were all standing in battle a mile from Cajamarca, but not one moved a step, and while all this was going on, not one Indian took up arms against a Spaniard. When the bands of Indians on board saw other Indians yelling and running, most of them too panicked and fled. It was a marvelous spectacle, for the whole valley was within fifteen or twenty miles. Completely packed with Indians. Night had fallen, and our cavalry were still spearing Indians in the fields, when we heard the sound of trumpets calling us back to camp.
"If it hadn't been for nightfall, few of the 40,000-odd Indian troops would have survived. 6,000-7,000 Indians died, and many more Indians had their arms cut off or suffered injuries. Other injuries. Atahualpa himself admitted that we killed 7,000 of his subordinates in that battle. The man who was killed in a sedan chair was his minister—the lord of rescue, that A man in his favour. The Indians who picked up the palanquins for Atahualpa seemed to be some high-ranking chiefs and advisors. They were all killed, as well as the Indians who sat in other litters and hammocks People were also killed. The lords of Cajamarca and some others were also killed, but they were too many to count, because the people who came to wait on Atahualpa were all great lords. So powerful It is astonishing that a ruler, who came with such a mighty army, was taken prisoner in such a short time. Indeed, this was not done in our own strength, for our numbers were so It is the grace of God, and God is great.
"When the Spaniards dragged Atahuallpa out of the palanquin, his robes were torn from him. The Governor ordered clothes to be brought to him. After Atahuallpa had dressed, the Governor ordered him to sit in the at his side, admonishing him not to be angry and restless because of his rapid fall from his high position. The governor said to Atahualpa, 'Do not take it as an insult that you were defeated and captured, For these Christians under my command are few in number, but together with them I have conquered kingdoms stronger than you, defeated other kings stronger than you, and imposed the emperor's rule on them. I am a subject of the emperor, He is also the land of Spain and the whole world. By his command we have conquered this land, so that all may know God, and His holy Catholicism; and by our glorious mission, God— The Creator of all creation allowed this to happen so that you might know him and escape the savage and wicked life you lead. It is for this reason that we can conquer more with less. If you understand that you live In the midst of all falsehoods, you will understand the blessings that we have brought you here by the order of His Majesty the King of Spain. It is God's will that your pride be struck down, that no Indian should offend a Christian. '"
Let us now begin with a few immediate events and trace the chain of cause and effect in this extraordinary conflict.When Pizarro and Atahualpa met in Cajamarca, why did Pizarro capture Atahualpa and kill so many of his followers instead of Atahualpa's number The army captured and killed Pizarro?After all, Pizarro had only 62 cavalry and 106 infantry, while Atahualpa commanded an army of about 80,000.As for what preceded these events, how did Atahualpa come to Cajamarca?How did Pizarro come here to capture him instead of Atahualpa going to Spain to capture King Charles?Why did Atahualpa fall into a trap that is so obvious to our innate hindsight?Did the same factors that played a role in the encounter between Atahualpa and Pizarro also play some broader role between Old World and New World peoples and between other peoples?
Why Pizarro captured Atahualpa Pizarro's military advantage lay in the Spanish steel knives and other weapons, steel armor, guns and horses.Atahualpa's troops had no horses to charge into battle, and they had to use stones, bronze or wooden clubs, maces, hatchets, slingshots and muskets against Spanish weapons. pad.This disparity in equipment was decisive in countless other conflicts between Europeans and Indians and other peoples.The only Native Americans able to resist European conquest for many centuries were those tribes that had acquired and mastered horses and guns, thereby closing the gap in numbers.For the average white American, when the word "Indian" is mentioned, an image of a Great Plains Indian on a horse and brandishing a rifle immediately comes to mind, just like the famous Little Bighorn in 1876. The battle wiped out the Sioux Indian warriors of General George Custer's troops.It is easy to forget that Native Americans knew nothing about horses and rifles.They were brought in by the Europeans, who then began to transform the Indian societies that acquired them.Thanks to their mastery of horses and rifles, the Plains Indians of North America, the Araucan Indians of southern Chile, and the Argentine Prairie Indians all repelled invading whites for as long as any other Indian reached, only to be crushed by massive military campaigns by white governments in the 1870s and 1880s.
Today it is difficult for us to comprehend such a huge superiority in numbers that the military equipment of the Liberation Spaniards defeated.At the Battle of Cajamarca, detailed above, 168 Spaniards crushed a Native American army 500 times their number, killing thousands of natives without losing a single soldier of their own One pawn.Accounts of Pizarro's subsequent campaigns against the Incas, Cortez's conquest of the Aztecs, and other early European military campaigns against Native Americans repeatedly depict several dozen European cavalrymen On a killing spree, thousands of Indians were routed in battle.During Pizarro's march from Cajamarca to Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire after Atahualpa's death, there were four such battles, at Jauja, Vilcasuaman, Vilcaconga, and Cusco. sco.The Spanish cavalry participating in these four battles were only 80, 30, 110 and 40 respectively, and the enemies to be dealt with each time may be thousands or tens of thousands.
These Spanish victories cannot easily be attributed to the help of Native American allies alone, to the psychological effects of the novelty of Spanish weapons and horses, nor (as it has often been claimed) to The Incas mistook the Spaniards for the incarnation of their god Viracocha.The initial victories of Pizarro and Cortes did attract some native allies.However, the devastating early victories of the unaided Spaniards had convinced these native allies that resistance was futile and that they should side with the promising victors.Many of them would not have become allies if they had not.Undoubtedly, the novelty of horses, iron arms, and guns overwhelmed the Inca at Cajamarca, but the battles that followed Cajamarca encountered people who had already seen the Spaniards. Resolute resistance of the Inca troops with weapons and horses.Within six or seven years of the initial conquest, the Incas launched two desperate, massive, and well-prepared rebellions against the Spanish.All these efforts failed due to the far superior weaponry of the Spaniards.
By the beginning of the 18th century, guns had replaced swords as the primary weapon, helping invading Europeans gain an advantage over Native Americans and other indigenous groups.For example, in 1808, a British sailor named Charlie Savage, armed with a musket and perfect marksmanship, came to the Fiji Islands.The titular then single-handedly upset the balance of power in Fiji.Among his many daring deeds, he once paddled up a river in a canoe to a Fijian village called Kasavu, stopped within pistol range of the village fence, and opened fire on unsuspecting residents .Many people were killed by him, and those who were not killed piled up the dead bodies and hid behind them. The water in the small river beside the village was stained red with blood.There are countless examples of such indiscriminate use of guns over those who do not have them.
In the Spaniards' conquest of the Incas, guns played only a secondary role.The guns of the time (so-called arquebuses) were difficult to load and fire, and Pizarro had only a dozen of them.On those occasions where they were able to make do with launch, they did have a huge psychological effect.Much more important were the Spanish steel knives, spears, and daggers, powerful sharp weapons for slaughtering Indians with little protection.In contrast, the Indian's blunt clubs seldom killed Spaniards and their horses, though they also wounded them.Spaniards' iron or chain mail, and especially their steel helmets, were generally effective against club blows, while Indian padded bodyguards were of little protection against steel weapons.
The great advantage the Spaniards gained with their horses is vivid in eyewitness accounts.Cavalry could easily overtake Indian sentries before they could alert Indian troops behind them, and cavalry could also knock Indians down with their horses and let their hoofs trample them to death.The shock of a horse's charge, its mobility, the speed of attack it could have, and the commanding and protected fighting position it afforded made infantry in open ground almost defenseless.The usefulness of horses is not solely due to the sense of terror they produce in soldiers who encounter them for the first time.By the time of the Inca Rebellion in 1536, the Incas had learned how to ambush and eliminate Spanish cavalry in narrow passages, defending themselves most effectively against cavalry forces.But the Incas, like all other infantry, were never able to defeat cavalry troops in the open.After Atahualpa, Manco was the emperor of the Inca Empire, and Manco's best general was Guizo Yubochi. In 1536, when Guizot besieged the Spaniards in Lima and was about to storm the city, two squadrons of Spanish cavalry charged an Indian army much larger than themselves, and in the first charge they were Killed Guizot and all his commanders, thus crushing his army.A similar charge of 26 cavalrymen routed the best troops led by Emperor Manco himself, who was besieging the Spaniards at Cuzco.
Horses changed warfare starting with the domestication of horses in the steppes north of the Black Sea around 4000 BC.Horses allowed riders to cover far greater distances than on foot, to surprise and flee before the defenses could muster.The horse, for its role in Cajamarca, exemplifies a military weapon that was of great importance for 6,000 years until the early 20th century, and eventually found use on all continents.It was not until World War I that the military dominance of the cavalry finally came to an end.If we consider the superiority the Spaniards gained over unarmed infantry thanks to their horses, iron arms, and armor, there is nothing to wonder at that the Spaniards were always outnumbered.
Atahualpa and his army had come to Cajamarca because they had just won a decisive victory in a civil war that tore apart and devastated the Incas.Pizarro quickly sensed this split and took advantage of it.The cause of the civil war turned out to be a smallpox epidemic.Smallpox, brought to Panama and Colombia by Spanish settlers, spread overland to the Indians of South America, killing the Inca emperor Huayna Capac and most of his court around 1526, and soon after His designated heir Ninan Kuyucci.These fatalities led to a struggle for the throne between Atahualpa and his half-brother Huascar.Had it not been for the smallpox epidemic, Spain might have faced a united empire.
The presence of Atahualpa in Cajamarca thus highlights a key factor in world history: the transmission of disease by invading peoples with considerable immunity to peoples without immunity.Smallpox, measles, influenza, typhus, bubonic plague, and other contagious diseases that were endemic in Europe played a decisive role in European conquest by destroying many peoples on other continents.For example, a smallpox epidemic ravaged the Aztecs after the first Spanish attack failed in 1520 and killed Cuitlahuac, who had just succeeded Montezuma as Aztec emperor.Throughout the Americas, European-introduced diseases spread from tribe to tribe long before Europeans, killing an estimated 95 percent of pre-Columbian Native Americans.The most populous and highly organized indigenous societies in North America were the chieftain tribes of the Mississippi Valley, which disappeared in the same way between 1492 and the early 17th century, even longer than Europeans in the Mississippi Valley It was even earlier when the first colonies were established. A smallpox epidemic in 1713 was the most serious step in the destruction of the indigenous San people of South Africa by European settlers.Shortly after the British emigrated to Sydney in 1788, an epidemic that decimated Aboriginal Australians began.A well-documented example from the Pacific islands is the rapidly spreading epidemic in Fiji in 1806 brought by several European sailors as they struggled to get ashore after the wreck of the Argonaut.Similar epidemics have left their mark on the histories of Tonga, Hawaii, and other Pacific islands.
However, I do not mean to imply that historically the role of disease was limited to paving the way for European expansion.Malaria, yellow fever, and a number of other diseases in tropical Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and New Guinea were the greatest obstacles to European colonization of these tropical regions.
Why not Atahualpa to conquer Spain?Pizarro came to Cajamarca by the seamanship that built the ships that carried them across the Atlantic from Spain to Panama, and from Panama to Peru along the Pacific.Atahualpa did not have this technology and so could not expand beyond South America from the sea.
In addition to the ships themselves, the emergence of Pizarro also relied on a centralized and unified administrative organization.With this organization, Spain was able to finance, build, man and equip these ships.The Inca Empire also had a centralized and unified administrative organization, but this organization actually played a negative role in the empire, because Pizarro captured Atahualpa and captured the entire chain of command of the Inca Empire.Because the administrative system of the Inca Empire and the holy despot were exactly the same thing, once Atahualpa died, the empire fell apart.Seamanship, combined with administrative organization, was essential not only to the expansion of many other peoples but to that of Europeans as well.
A related factor that brought the Spaniards to Peru was writing.The Spaniards had writing, the Inca Empire did not.Using words to disseminate information is more extensive, accurate and detailed than oral dissemination.Messages back to Spain from the voyages of Columbus and the conquest of Mexico by Cortes led to a massive influx of Spanish into the New World.Letters and pamphlets stimulated interest as well as provided necessary and detailed navigational instructions.Pizarro's colleague, Captain Cristobal de Mena, wrote the first published report on Pizarro's deeds, in April 1534, just 9 years after Atahualpa's execution. Published in Seville.The report became a bestseller and was quickly translated into other European languages, thus sending another wave of Spanish settlers to strengthen Pizarro's hold on Peru.
In hindsight, we are amazed that Atahualpa would have walked into the apparent trap of Pizarro in Cajamarca.The Spaniards who captured Atahualpa were equally astonished at their success.The influence of a person's level of education occupies a prominent place in the ultimate explanation.
The straightforward explanation is that Ataval received little intelligence on the Spaniards, their strength and intentions.What little information he had was obtained by word of mouth, chiefly from an emissary who had visited Pizarro's army for two days as they marched inland from the coast.Seeing that the Spaniards were in disarray, the messenger told Atahualpa that they were not combatants, and that if he gave him 200 Indians, they would all be bound to his tent.It was understandable that Atahualpa never imagined that the Spaniards would be so difficult to deal with and would attack him for no reason.
In the New World, only a small elite of several peoples in modern-day Mexico and adjoining regions far north of the Inca Empire were able to write.Panama is only 600 miles from the northern border of the Inca Empire.虽然西班牙人对巴拿马的征服在1510年就已经开始，但在皮萨罗于1527年首次登上秘鲁海岸之前，似乎没有任何关于西班牙人出现的消息到达过印加帝国。对于西班牙征服了中美洲大多数强大而人口众多的印第安人社会，阿塔瓦尔帕始终是一无所知。
在我们今天看来，阿塔瓦尔帕被俘后的行为和导致他被俘的行为同样令人惊异。他交纳了他那笔著名的赎金，因为他天真地相信，只要付了赎金，西班牙人就会释放他并且远走高飞。他不可能了解皮萨罗的部下只是一支决心实现永久征服的军队的开路先锋，而不是单单为了一次孤立的袭击。
犯这种致命的判断错误的，并非只有阿塔瓦尔帕一人。甚至在阿塔瓦尔帕被俘后，弗兰西斯科·皮萨罗的兄弟埃尔南多·皮萨罗也哄骗得阿塔瓦尔帕的第一流将军、指挥着一支庞大军队的查尔库奇马自投罗网，落人西班牙人的手中。查尔库奇马的判断错误，标志着印加人抵抗失败的转折点，是几乎同阿塔瓦尔帕本人被俘一样的重大事件。当阿兹特克皇帝蒙特朱马把科尔特斯看作是神灵降世，并允许他和他的小小军队进人阿兹特克首都特诺奇蒂持兰时，他的判断错误甚至更加显而易见。结果是科尔特斯俘虏了蒙特朱马，然后又进一步征服了特诺奇蒂特兰和阿兹特克帝国。
从世俗的观点来看，阿塔瓦尔帕、查尔库奇马、蒙特朱马以及其他无数的被欧洲人欺骗的美洲土著领袖之所以判断错误，是由于当时新大陆没有任何居民去过旧大陆，因此他们当然不可能对西班牙人有任何具体的认识。即使如此，我们仍然觉得难以避免得出这样的结论：如果阿塔瓦尔帕的社会对人类的行为有更多的经验，他“本来”是会产生更大的怀疑的。皮萨罗在到达卡哈马卡时，除了对他在1527年和1531年碰到的几个印加臣民进行的审问中所了解到的情况外，他对印加人也是一无所知的。然而，虽然皮萨罗本人碰巧也是一个文盲，但他属于一个有文化修养的传统。西班牙人从书本上知道了同时代的许多与欧洲差别很大的文明国度，也知道了几千年的欧洲历史。皮萨罗伏击阿塔瓦尔帕显然是以科尔特斯的成功谋略为样板的。
总之，文化修养使西班牙人继承了关于人类行为和历史的大量知识。相形之下，阿塔瓦尔帕不但对西班牙人本身毫不了解，对来自海外的其他任何入侵者毫无个人经验，而且他甚至也没有听人说过（或在书本上读到过）在别的什么地方和在历史上以前什么时候对别的什么人的类似威胁。这种在经验方面的巨大差距，促使皮萨罗去设下圈套而阿塔瓦尔帕走进了圈套。
因此，皮萨罗俘虏阿塔瓦尔帕这件事，表明了导致欧洲人向新大陆移民而不是美洲土著向欧洲移民的那组近似的因素。皮萨罗成功的直接原因包括：以枪炮、钢铁武器和马匹为基础的军事技术；欧亚大陆的传染性流行病；欧洲的航海技术；欧洲国家集中统一的行政组织；和文字。本书的书名是这些近似因素的简略的表达，这些因素也使现代欧洲人能够去征服其他大陆的民族。在有人开始制造枪炮和钢铁之前很久，这些因素中的其他因素便已导致了某些非欧洲民族的扩张，这我们将会在以后的几章中看到。
但是，我们仍然有一个根本的问题没有解决，这就是：为什么这种直接优势总是在欧洲一边，而不是在新大陆一边。为什么不是印加人发明枪炮和钢刀，骑上像战马一样的令人生畏的牲口，携带对欧洲人来说没有抵抗力的疾病，修造远洋船只和建立先进的行政组织，并能从几千年有文字记载的历史吸取经验？这些不再是本章已经讨论过的那些关于近似因果关系的问题，而是将要占去本书下面两部分篇幅的关于终极因果关系的问题。
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