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One perspective on the Conquest sees the Spaniards' success resting on their superiority in technology and in tactics. It is true that the conquistadors did introduce many new things: technological innovations such as sailing ships, guns, crossbows, and steel swords and lances; animals such as horses and war dogs; and ideological concepts such as the militant Christianity of the Spanish reconquest, a European concept of appropriate social, political, and economic structure, and a Western notion of war and combat. However, the Spaniards also encountered alien technologies, plants, animals, and ideological and social concepts, and while the superiority of one set of ideological concepts over another is largely a matter of perspective, the superiority of Spanish technology was not immediately obvious.
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It is true that cannons, guns, crossbows, steel blades, horses, and war dogs were advances on the Aztecs' weaponry. But the advantage these gave a few hundred Spanish soldiers was not overwhelming. In any case, individual Aztec warriors were shown to be the equal of any Spanish soldier, and the Aztecs in general proved remarkably adaptable. Individual warriors are reported as having grabbed the horsemen's lances and thereby neutralized them.8 One conquistador recorded a case in which a warrior successfully defended himself against three or four Spanish horsemen. When they could not bring him down, one of the Spaniards threw his lance at the Indian, who caught it and fought for another hour before being shot by two archers and then stabbed.9 But no matter how effective the skill and valor of individuals are, it is the performance of armies that is decisive. |
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Accounts by conquistadors provide the best descriptions of Aztec tactics, but some of these tactics may not have been used previously, because the Aztecs had never faced the Spanish weapons and tactics. |
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Guns, especially cannons, proved so effective that they may not have been muzzleloaders but breechloaders which were normally found on ships during the sixteenth century. Such weapons, with multiple replaceable breech chambers, could sustain a very high rate of fire and would have proved daunting.10 With its penetrating power, gunfire was also more effective in breaking up organized advances than any indigenous weapons, and it was not a respecter of social |
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