The Spanish conquistadors succeeded in conquering the Inca Empire, which at the time had a population estimated between six and twelve million inhabitants and an army made up of thousands of warriors. The Conquistadors, led by Francisco Pizarro, benefited greatly from the weakening of the Inca Empire, which had recently suffered a civil war and suffered massive losses from smallpox, brought to America twelve years earlier on a ship Spanish. The superior weaponry, consisting of agile horses, swords and guns, also played a decisive role in the conquest of the Incas. The odds seemed greatly against the small group of Spanish conquistadors, but the significant advantages in weaponry and circumstances tipped the scales in favor of the conquistadors. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get the original essay The first appearance of smallpox in the Americas is believed to have occurred twelve years before the start of Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532. A slave carrying the disease arrived in America on a Spanish ship in what is now Mexico and is believed to have contributed significantly to the decline of the Inca Empire. Unlike Europeans who had been exposed to various infectious diseases, including the devastating bubonic plague, and had developed immune resistance over generations, people in the Americas had not been exposed to these diseases and had no immune resistance to these diseases. Smallpox would eventually devastate the indigenous population of the Americas. Infectious diseases, including smallpox, influenza, and measles, unintentionally introduced to the Americas by Europeans, are estimated to have killed 90% of Native Americans. One of the victims of smallpox in the Americas was Huayna Capac, the Inca emperor who succumbed to the disease in 1528. His successor would be either his older son Atahualpa or his younger son Huascar. It is unclear from historical records who his choice was, but after Huayna Capac's death, Huascar seized the throne and the two brothers engaged in a devastating civil war. Atahuallpa would eventually win the civil war and he ordered Huascar's death, which permanently paved the way for Atahuallpa to become the next Inca emperor. The civil war depleted the ranks of the Inca army and the lasting damage from the civil war made it the perfect opportunity for Pizarro and his men to conquer the Inca empire. The Inca Civil War ended in 1532, a year that will go down in history as the beginning of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, led by Pizarro. In addition to the depletion of the Inca Empire due to civil war, the Inca Empire was already exhausted due to its vast size which stretched for thousands of miles along the west coast of America South. The Inca Empire was made up of disparate groups of people from different cultures, who lived in isolation due to the mountain barriers of the Andes and the distance that separated the different areas of the Inca Empire. The Inca people's less than absolute loyalty to the emperor would be exploited by Pizarro after the dismissal of the Inca emperor Atahuallpa in 1532. Pizarro also had the advantage of learning from his compatriots Hernán Cortés, who had conquered the Aztec empire in 1521. Despite the circumstantial advantage the conquistadors had, many may still wonder how a band of 168 conquistadors was able to eliminate thousands of Inca warriors. To better understand this, we must go back to the Iberian Peninsula, where Pizarro and the Conquistadors grew up. The Spanish used horses to.