Inca army

Inca army

The Incan army was the best organized of its time, in the 15th and 16th centuries. It consisted of several battalions organized, often in large scale numbers. Warriors wore tunics, often with chessboard patterns which was the army's dress. They used several weapons such as:-Sling, used as distance weapon to kill enemies on distances. Special slinger units were assign to these hola-Clubs, used to break an enemy's arm as a main weapon.-Bronze knives, the Incas had no access to iron as Europeans did, nor obsidian as the Aztecs. They rarely used swords, just shorter weapons.-Scythes, medium lengthed weapons with blades at the tip the curved, forming a scythe.-The Incas used some use of armour made of gold which made it neither regular equipment nor effective. Mostly sub-officers used it.-Axes used to slash through enemies armor and to break weapons like spears.

Both Inca oral histories and Spanish written accounts estimate the Incas could field armies of 100,000 at a time. [cite book | first = Terence N. | last = D;Altroy | publisher = Blackwell Publishing | title = The Incas | date = 2002 | pages=216 | id = ISBN 0-631-17677-2]

The Incas were very well organized in battle. In contrast to the Aztecs, who waged war mainly to take prisoners of war to execute in religious ceremonies and took tribute rather than land from the defeated people, the Incas' goals of war were to kill enemy soldiers and directly conquer enemy lands, putting them under the rule of the Sapa Inca, who was the highest head of the army. The Incas were also very well organized in military logistics, using magazines owned by the state to supply mass contingents with food, and also white tents in camp, organized in symmetric patterns that impressed the Europeans, who had neither this control nor order in their armies.

References


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