Quote:
Originally Posted by Targan
Unintended biological warfare helped with that a whole lot. The diseases the Conquistadors brought with them were killing the Incas in waves as outlying tribes spread both the news of their arrival and the pathogens they had brought. There were times as the Conquistadors moved inland where they would find villages with 95% of the population dead in their huts.
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True. And the Spaniards likely very little idea how it had happened and what role they played in it. Alien pathogens could be even deadier to human populations and they would most likely know how to cook up really nasty, selective ones too.
Also, I just want to point out that it wasn't just disease that allowed the Spaniards to demolish New World empires. At the "battle" of Cajamarca, a handful of Spaniards massacred thousands of Incans. Mounted troops, guns, and Toledo steel, although not as prolific killers as Old Word diseases, proved decisive weapons. The Inca had no answer for mounted attacks. Time and again 2-3 dozen mounted Spaniards were able to route 10-100 times their number of Inca infantry.
All in all- and I don't want to hijack this thread so I'll drop it after this- trans-stellar travellers would have technological and biotic advantages over humans to a much greater extent than Europeans had over Native Americans. How 100 or so humans armed with guns could evade and defeat extraterrestrial invaders just beggars belief.