Si Sheppard – How did a few hundred Spanish soldiers topple two empires?
Dwarkesh Podcast

Si Sheppard – How did a few hundred Spanish soldiers topple two empires?

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 1, 20261 hr 37 min
  • Interview
  • History

New episode with military historian Si Sheppard. The conquests of the Aztec and Inca empires might be the most shocking events in human history. Hernan Cortés and some hundreds of Conquistadors landed on a new continent they knew basically nothing about, and within 2 and a half years, conquered the 6 million strong Aztec empire. Then, a decade later, Francisco Pizarro did the same thing to an Incan Empire of some 10 million inhabitants. In both cases, the Conquistadors consistently beat native armies while being literally 100x (or even in some cases 1000x) o...

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I want to talk to you about the conquest of the Aztec and the Inca empires because these are some

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B2 · Upper-intermediate

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0:00

Okay, today I'm chatting with professor and military historian, Cy Shepard. I want to talk to you about the conquest of the Aztec and the Inca empires because these are some of the most shocking events in human history, unparalleled among all the military and diplomatic achievements ever made. You have a few hundred conquistadors show up to a new continent they

0:19

know nothing about and within a matter of years they subjugate empires which have millions of of inhabitants in them. In the process of doing so, they are often winning battles where they are outnumbered 100x to 1, 1000x to 1,

0:35

and in many cases not even taking a single casualty. They're doing this while upwards of 99% of their fighting forces are made up of the very natives that they're going to subjugate.

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