00:00:17
one day in November 15:32
00:00:20
the new world and the old world collided
00:00:31
168 Spaniards attacked the Imperial Army
00:00:34
of the deepest in the highlands of Peru
00:00:38
before the day was out they had
00:00:40
massacred 7,000 people and taken control
00:00:44
of the Inca not a single Spanish life
00:00:48
was lost in the process
00:00:53
why was the balance of power so uneven
00:00:56
between old world and new and why in the
00:01:00
centuries that followed for europeans
00:01:03
the ones who conquered so much of the
00:01:05
globe these are questions that fascinate
00:01:10
professor Jared Diamond he is on a quest
00:01:13
to understand the roots of power
00:01:18
searching for clues in the most unlikely
00:01:20
places
00:01:28
he's developed a highly original theory
00:01:31
that what separates the winners from the
00:01:34
losers is the land itself geography
00:01:42
it was the shape of the continents their
00:01:45
crops and animals that allowed some
00:01:47
cultures to flourish while others were
00:01:50
left behind
00:01:53
but can this way of seeing the world
00:01:55
shed light on the events of 1532
00:02:03
how can geography explain the conquest
00:02:07
of the world by Guns Germs and Steel
00:02:57
for two years a band of Spanish
00:03:00
conquistadors has been traveling in
00:03:02
search of gold and glory
00:03:06
they're not professional soldiers but
00:03:09
mercenaries and adventurers led by a
00:03:12
retired Army captain Francisco bazaar
00:03:18
he's already made a fortune for himself
00:03:20
in the colonies of Central America now
00:03:23
he's taking his men south into unknown
00:03:26
territory
00:03:30
they are the first Europeans to have
00:03:32
climbed the Andes and ventured this far
00:03:36
into the continent of South America
00:03:46
as they travel they find evidence of a
00:03:50
large native civilization they've
00:03:54
reached the edge of the mighty Inca
00:03:57
Empire for Indians and Spaniards alike
00:04:07
any encounter is a clash of cultures
00:04:12
these Indians have never seen white men
00:04:15
before and have no idea of the threat
00:04:18
they represent they can't imagine that
00:04:24
within a few days these strangers will
00:04:27
turn their world upside down
00:04:38
by the 1530s the Inca Empire was
00:04:41
enormous it stretched along the length
00:04:44
of the Andes from modern-day Ecuador to
00:04:46
central Chile a distance of two and a
00:04:49
half thousand miles but just five
00:04:54
hundred miles to the north began the
00:04:56
colonies of Central America and the
00:04:58
Caribbean prized possessions of the
00:05:01
Spanish Empire at the time the Spanish
00:05:08
king controlled 1/3 of mainland Europe
00:05:11
but Spain itself had only recently
00:05:14
become a unified state having fought off
00:05:17
700 years of occupation by Islamic Moors
00:05:26
it was still a rural society most of the
00:05:30
conquistadors came from villages and
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small towns in the heart of the country
00:05:35
towns like Trujillo where Pizarro grew
00:05:38
up he spent much of his childhood here
00:05:41
working as a swineherd in the fields
00:05:44
nearby
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today he's remembered as a great warrior
00:05:53
this statue dominates the main square in
00:05:56
Tree Hill
00:06:00
this family home has been turned into a
00:06:02
museum
00:06:08
Jared Diamond has come here to explore
00:06:11
the world of the conquistadors and
00:06:15
understand the secret of their success
00:06:22
this is Francisco Pizarro a Spaniard who
00:06:26
conquered the most powerful state in the
00:06:28
new world the Inca Empire
00:06:30
why did Pizarro and his men conquer the
00:06:33
Incas instead of the other way around
00:06:36
seems like a simple question the answer
00:06:39
isn't immediately obvious after all
00:06:42
Pissarro started out as a rather
00:06:44
ordinary person and Trujillo here is a
00:06:47
rather ordinary town so what is it that
00:06:52
gay Pizarro and his men this enormous
00:06:55
power
00:07:02
why am i so interested in pasar rose
00:07:04
conquistadors because their story is
00:07:08
such a grimly successful example of
00:07:11
European conference
00:07:15
and for 30 years I've been exploring
00:07:17
patterns of conquest Jared Diamond is a
00:07:26
professor at UCLA in Los Angeles but
00:07:31
most of his fieldwork has been done in
00:07:33
Papua New Guinea
00:07:38
this time there inspired him to explore
00:07:41
the roots of inequality in the modern
00:07:43
world
00:07:46
to understand why some people have been
00:07:49
able to dominate and conquer others
00:07:58
looking back thousands of years he
00:08:01
argues that farming gave some cultures
00:08:03
an enormous head start and those who
00:08:07
were lucky enough to have the most
00:08:08
productive crops and animals became the
00:08:11
most productive farmers agriculture
00:08:17
first developed in a part of the Middle
00:08:19
East known as the Fertile Crescent over
00:08:23
time crops and animals from the Fertile
00:08:25
Crescent spread into North Africa and
00:08:28
Europe where they triggered an explosion
00:08:31
of civilization
00:08:57
by the 16th century European farms were
00:09:00
dominated by livestock animals that had
00:09:02
come from the Fertile Crescent none were
00:09:07
native to Europe they provided more than
00:09:14
just meat they were a source of milk and
00:09:17
a wool leather and manure and crucially
00:09:22
they provided muscle power harness to a
00:09:31
plow a horse or an ox could transform
00:09:34
the productivity of farmland European
00:09:41
farmers were able to grow more food to
00:09:43
feed more people who could then build
00:09:46
bigger and more complex societies in the
00:09:57
New World
00:09:57
there were no horses or cattle for
00:09:59
farming
00:10:00
all the work had to be done by hand the
00:10:06
only large domestic animal was the llama
00:10:08
but these docile creatures have never
00:10:11
been harnessed to a plow the Incas were
00:10:16
very skilled at growing potatoes and
00:10:18
corn but because of their geography they
00:10:21
could never be as productive as European
00:10:24
farmers
00:10:31
horses gave Europeans another massive
00:10:34
advantage they could be ridden
00:10:42
to the incas the site of Pizarro's
00:10:44
conquistadors passing through their land
00:10:46
is extraordinary
00:10:51
they've never seen people carried by
00:10:53
their animals before some think they are
00:10:57
gods a strange-looking men part human
00:11:01
part beasts
00:11:17
the horses that seemed so exotic that he
00:11:20
cos had already been used in Spain for
00:11:23
4000 years in an age before motorized
00:11:28
transport they allowed people to be
00:11:31
mobile and control their land
00:11:49
I can be I love Romano in donut Baretta
00:11:56
when Javier Martinez not hurting cattle
00:11:58
he gives displays of traditional Spanish
00:12:01
horsemanship Baraka Sevilla this style
00:12:07
of riding is known as Tonetta the
00:12:11
emphasis is on control and
00:12:12
maneuverability using bent knees to grip
00:12:16
the sides of the horse and only one hand
00:12:19
on the reins very different from the
00:12:23
more formal style of medieval knights by
00:12:30
the 16th century the unit the way of
00:12:32
riding had become a dominant style the
00:12:34
Spanish cavalry this is how the
00:12:39
conquistadors would have ridden their
00:12:41
horses
00:12:46
it's an amazing display of a big animal
00:12:50
being controlled by a person precise
00:12:53
control stopping and starting attorney
00:12:55
Javier told me that he has been riding
00:12:58
since he was 5 years old and when I
00:13:01
watched this I have a better
00:13:02
understanding of where the competes two
00:13:04
doors were coming from they were masters
00:13:06
of these techniques and they learned
00:13:08
these techniques for working with bulls
00:13:10
but the techniques were also good in a
00:13:13
military context as well and I can see
00:13:16
that this control would let you ride
00:13:18
down the people in the open people who
00:13:23
had never seen horses before would have
00:13:26
been absolutely terrified watching this
00:13:28
it would be strange and frightening and
00:13:31
that's even before one of these animals
00:13:34
is rushing towards you riding you down
00:13:36
about to Lance you and kill you news of
00:13:44
the godlike strangers on their
00:13:46
four-legged animals is taken by royal
00:13:48
messenger to the Emperor of the Incas
00:13:51
who's camped in the valley of cajamarca
00:13:54
in northern Peru guarded by an army of
00:13:57
80,000 men
00:14:05
atahuallpa is revered as a living God a
00:14:09
son of the Sun itself
00:14:16
he's in Cajamarca on a religious retreat
00:14:20
giving thanks for a series of recent
00:14:23
military triumphs when he hears about
00:14:34
the progress of the Spaniards he chooses
00:14:36
not to have them killed instead he sends
00:14:41
back a message oh you mean me tell you
00:14:43
what I've got that he invites them to
00:14:47
join him in Cajamarca as quickly as
00:14:50
possible
00:14:57
after all / wanted the spaniards to come
00:15:01
to the homonka and enter into a trap and
00:15:04
to be sure that they would do so he
00:15:07
played like a psychological game with
00:15:10
them sending presents asking him to come
00:15:16
at a while PI knew that the spaniards
00:15:19
were not gods the intelligence reports
00:15:25
speak of people wearing wool on their
00:15:28
faces like a llama like an alpaca that
00:15:31
is like an animal then they went from
00:15:34
one place to the other wearing on top of
00:15:37
their head a little pot that has never
00:15:39
been used for cooking you need to be
00:15:44
crazy to walk with a pot but you must be
00:15:48
beyond salvation if you arrive to a camp
00:15:51
and you don't use that pot to cook after
00:15:55
work I had an idea that these were
00:15:56
subhumans
00:16:00
what could a few horsemen and 100 and
00:16:03
soul experience due to the powerful inca
00:16:06
virtually nothing
00:16:12
but after whelp aspyn's don't realize
00:16:15
that the spanish are armed with some of
00:16:17
the best weapons in the world at the
00:16:29
time of the conquistadors spain had the
00:16:31
biggest army in europe orchestrated from
00:16:34
the imperial capital Toledo
00:16:39
for more than 700 years the Spaniards
00:16:42
had been at war fighting against the
00:16:45
Moors and other European armies
00:16:51
there was an arms race in Europe to
00:16:55
survive the Spaniards needed to keep up
00:16:57
with the latest in weapons technology by
00:17:06
the 1530s the HAR caboose was an
00:17:09
important part of the Spanish arsenal
00:17:12
gunpowder had originally come from China
00:17:15
but it's used as a weapon was pioneered
00:17:18
by the Arabs in European hands guns
00:17:23
became lighter and more portable and
00:17:25
were used for the first time by foot
00:17:27
soldiers on the battlefield the haka bus
00:17:36
was still a crude weapon but would go on
00:17:38
to change the face of warfare to us
00:17:42
moderns this gun doesn't seem useful for
00:17:46
anything it's like a joke it's a Mystere
00:17:49
about takes a long time to reload and
00:17:51
while the shooters reloading in a sort
00:17:53
and would come in and kill them but the
00:17:55
Incas hadn't even gotten this far even
00:17:57
this gun with its sound and with the
00:18:01
smell and with a smoke and with every
00:18:03
now and then a person that had manages
00:18:05
to kill would have been terrifying to
00:18:08
someone who had never seen this before
00:18:10
this would have been shocked in all
00:18:12
15:32 style
00:18:32
for all its bluster the technology of
00:18:35
gunpowder was still in its infancy the
00:18:39
real power of the conquistadors lay
00:18:41
elsewhere with the production of Steel
00:18:47
Toledo had some of the best sword smiths
00:18:49
in the world but why were people here
00:18:52
able to craft deadly steel weapons while
00:18:55
the Incas were still making simple
00:18:58
bronze tools there was nothing innate be
00:19:06
brilliant about Europeans themselves
00:19:08
that allowed them to be the ones to make
00:19:10
high-quality swords just as with guns
00:19:19
swords were the result of a long process
00:19:22
of trial and error that began outside
00:19:25
Europe people started working with metal
00:19:30
in the Fertile Crescent 7,000 years ago
00:19:32
and because Europe was geographically
00:19:35
close to a Fertile Crescent Europeans
00:19:38
inherited this metal technology
00:19:45
but they took this technology on to a
00:19:47
new level
00:19:49
European soldiers demanded stronger
00:19:52
longer sharper swings this is what a
00:19:58
Toledo sword looks like when it's
00:19:59
finished this particular one is modeled
00:20:02
on the sword that Pissarro carried it's
00:20:05
a fearsome weapon it's used for stabbing
00:20:08
and it's also used for slashing and I
00:20:11
can easily understand how the person
00:20:13
wielding the sword could kill dozens of
00:20:15
people within a short time swords like
00:20:20
this rapiers represented a high point in
00:20:23
a very sophisticated metalworking
00:20:25
technology you think about what the
00:20:29
qualities are that are needed in a sword
00:20:30
first of all it has to be harder if the
00:20:33
metal has to be hard enough to take a
00:20:35
sharp edge and that requires steel that
00:20:38
is iron infused with carbon and the more
00:20:41
carbon you put into the iron then the
00:20:43
harder the metal is but if you make it
00:20:46
too hard then it's brittle and that's no
00:20:49
good because as you hit somebody your
00:20:51
sword would break and so you also need
00:20:53
your sword to have a certain pliability
00:20:55
and ability to bend and spring back into
00:20:59
shape and it start by heating it to
00:21:03
certain temperatures plunging it into
00:21:05
cold water immense amount of
00:21:07
experimentation it took centuries to get
00:21:09
to the level of sophistication where you
00:21:11
could get something so long and elegant
00:21:13
and fine
00:21:15
and deadly as the rapier
00:21:24
the rape year with its extra-long blade
00:21:26
was developed as a dueling weapon but
00:21:29
became so fashionable in Renaissance
00:21:31
Europe it was the sword of choice for
00:21:34
any aspiring gentleman
00:21:39
the word rapier derives from the Spanish
00:21:42
term Espada para para
00:21:44
and that means dress sword and for the
00:21:48
first time in Spain we start to see
00:21:50
people wearing the sword with their
00:21:52
everyday clothing their civilian dress
00:21:54
going about their everyday business they
00:21:56
didn't do that in the Middle Ages this
00:21:58
is something new in the sixteenth
00:22:00
century and it's saying I have arrived I
00:22:03
am a gentleman
00:22:04
I am upwardly mobile and I claim
00:22:08
ancestry from the Knights of the Middle
00:22:10
Ages it was very much a symbol of the
00:22:15
conquistadors aspiring greed the thing
00:22:18
that drove them through all their
00:22:20
hardships the thing that made them go to
00:22:23
the Americas was their lust for gold
00:22:25
their lust for self advancement and the
00:22:29
rapier absolutely symbolized that
00:22:33
overbearing avarice
00:22:42
on November 15th 1532 Pizarro's band of
00:22:46
adventurers enters the valley of
00:22:48
Cajamarca
00:22:55
they've been told that Arthur ALPA is
00:22:57
waiting for them here but they're not
00:23:01
prepared for the sight that greets them
00:23:05
in the hills beyond the town of
00:23:08
cajamarca is the Imperial Inca army
00:23:11
80,000 men in full battle order
00:23:21
the conquistadors own journals bear
00:23:24
witness to their first impressions
00:23:29
their camp looked like a very beautiful
00:23:31
city with seen nothing like it in the
00:23:35
Indus until thing and it scared us
00:23:38
because we were so few and so deep in
00:23:41
this land
00:23:48
Pizarro sends a party of his best
00:23:50
horsemen into the heart of the Inca camp
00:23:56
they are led by Captain de Soto
00:24:04
they are gambling that alfalfa will
00:24:06
allow them to pass through the camp
00:24:08
unharmed and agree to meet them visit
00:24:18
that are very important psychological
00:24:21
purpose to intimidate the Inka in front
00:24:24
of his people challenging him with the
00:24:27
horse but first didn't react to Soto's
00:24:39
presence as if nobody had entered the
00:24:43
room
00:24:44
once the the horse comes I to I with the
00:24:49
Inca think I still come showing that the
00:24:54
horse has no impact on him calling
00:24:57
Soto's Bluff
00:25:00
the captain advanced so close that the
00:25:03
horses nostrils disturbed the fringe of
00:25:06
the Incas forehead but the Incan never
00:25:10
moved
00:25:16
and then after brief silence comes at a
00:25:20
well past explosion Hamas hike it is won
00:25:24
immunity data he was telling them the
00:25:31
time has come for you to pay I
00:25:34
understand this as the time has come for
00:25:37
you to pay with your lives but hiring me
00:25:41
it is one to Basha Manik it is one
00:25:51
so - I understand
00:25:53
was nervous enough to come back with
00:25:56
fear to the camp and as we know the
00:25:58
Spaniard spent the night before in
00:26:01
extreme fear
00:26:14
the conquistadors have made their camp
00:26:16
in the town of cajamarca many of them
00:26:22
are now convinced they are facing
00:26:24
oblivion a hundred and sixty-eight
00:26:26
soldiers a thousand miles from any other
00:26:29
Spaniard facing an army of 80,000 Incas
00:26:36
Theo Vasa slept that night we kept
00:26:39
walking the Square from where we could
00:26:42
see the campfires of the Indian army it
00:26:45
was a fearful sight like a brilliantly
00:26:48
star-studded night Pizarro and his most
00:26:57
trusted officers debate their options
00:26:59
for how to deal without the Hualapai
00:27:05
some advise caution but Pizarro insists
00:27:09
their best chance is to launch a
00:27:10
surprise attack the next day it's a
00:27:14
tactic that's worked successfully in the
00:27:16
past
00:27:21
twelve years before Pizarro went to Peru
00:27:24
another famous conquistador Hernan
00:27:26
Cortes had gone to Mexico and
00:27:29
encountered another formidable
00:27:30
civilization
00:27:31
the Aztecs he conquered the country by
00:27:37
kidnapping the Aztec leader and
00:27:39
exploiting the ensuing chaos
00:27:45
Cortez's story was later published and
00:27:48
became a best-seller a handbook for any
00:27:51
would-be conquistadora it can still be
00:27:54
found in the great library of Salamanca
00:27:57
University in northern Spain this
00:28:04
wonderful library here can be thought of
00:28:07
among other things as a repository of
00:28:10
dirty tricks because in these books are
00:28:12
the accounts of what generals had been
00:28:15
doing to other generals for thousands of
00:28:17
years in the past and across much of
00:28:19
Eurasia and here from this library we
00:28:23
have a famous account of the conquest of
00:28:26
Mexico with all the details of what
00:28:28
Cortes did to the Aztecs and what worked
00:28:31
that was a model for Pissarro to give
00:28:34
him ideas what exactly to try out on the
00:28:37
Incas whereas the Incas without writing
00:28:40
had only local knowledge transmitted by
00:28:43
oral memory and they were
00:28:45
unsophisticated and naive compared to
00:28:48
the Spaniards because of right
00:28:52
but if books were so useful why couldn't
00:28:56
the Incas read or write
00:29:03
to develop a new system of writing
00:29:06
independently is an extremely complex
00:29:08
process and has happened very rarely in
00:29:11
human history
00:29:13
it was first achieved by the Sumerian
00:29:16
people of the Fertile Crescent at least
00:29:18
5,000 years ago they pioneered an
00:29:22
elaborate system of symbols called
00:29:24
cuneiform possibly as a way of recording
00:29:27
farming transactions ever since almost
00:29:32
every other written language of Europe
00:29:35
and Asia has copied adapted or simply
00:29:38
been inspired by the basics of cuneiform
00:29:46
the spread of writing was helped
00:29:48
enormously by the invention of paper ink
00:29:51
and movable type
00:29:55
innovations that all came from outside
00:29:57
Europe but were seized upon by Europeans
00:30:01
in the Middle Ages to produce the
00:30:03
ultimate transmitter of knowledge a
00:30:08
printing press the written word could
00:30:18
now spread quickly and accurately across
00:30:21
Europe and Asia the modern world would
00:30:27
be impossible without the development of
00:30:30
writing
00:30:36
but there's another part of the world
00:30:38
where a new system of writing was
00:30:40
invented independently in southern
00:30:44
Mexico at least two and a half thousand
00:30:46
years ago native people developed a way
00:30:49
of working with symbols that evolved
00:30:51
into the Mayan script but if the Maya
00:30:56
had writing why didn't it spread south
00:30:59
to the Andes and help the Incas become
00:31:01
literate
00:31:08
for diamond the answer lies in the shape
00:31:11
of the continents here are Europe and
00:31:18
Asia forming the continent of Eurasia a
00:31:22
giant continent but it stretched out
00:31:25
from east to west and now from north to
00:31:27
south the American continent is long
00:31:30
from north to south now from east to
00:31:33
west very narrow at Panama where it
00:31:36
narrows down to less than a hundred
00:31:37
miles the two continents are of the same
00:31:41
length without 8,000 miles and maximum
00:31:44
dimensions but Eurasia is 8,000 miles
00:31:47
from east to west and the Americas are
00:31:49
8,000 miles from north to south it's as
00:31:52
if these continents were rotated 90
00:31:55
degrees of each other diamond has
00:32:00
already shown that crops and animals
00:32:02
could spread easily east and west across
00:32:05
Eurasia because places at the same
00:32:10
latitude automatically share the same
00:32:12
day length and a similar climate and
00:32:15
vegetation
00:32:18
but the American continents were the
00:32:20
opposite of Eurasia the journey from one
00:32:24
end of the Americas to the other is a
00:32:26
journey from north to south a journey
00:32:29
through different day lengths different
00:32:32
climate zones and dramatically different
00:32:34
vegetation these basic differences
00:32:43
hindered the spread of crops and animals
00:32:45
as well as people ideas and technologies
00:32:53
the people of the Andes were chronically
00:32:56
isolated without access to writing or
00:32:59
almost any other innovation from
00:33:01
elsewhere in the Americas by contrast
00:33:06
Pizarro and his men were geographically
00:33:09
blessed as Spaniards they enjoyed the
00:33:13
benefit of technologies and ideas that
00:33:16
had spread easily across Eurasia
00:33:23
the events 15:32 were clearly influenced
00:33:27
by deep causes over which no individual
00:33:30
Spaniard or Inca had any control the
00:33:36
shape of the continents the distribution
00:33:39
of plants and animals the spread of
00:33:41
Eurasian technology these were facts of
00:33:46
geography and almost every turn of the
00:33:50
drama geography was tilted in favor of
00:33:53
Europeans
00:34:42
if the morning of November 16th
00:34:45
15:32 Ottawa has agreed to meet the
00:34:51
Spaniards in the town of cajamarca and
00:34:53
since his entourage ahead of him but he
00:34:59
makes a fateful decision that his
00:35:03
soldiers should not carry weapons the
00:35:08
Indians of musicians and dancers they
00:35:11
were soldiers but unarmed why would a
00:35:15
Tulpa unarmed his own soldiers why
00:35:18
because he was in the festivity he was
00:35:20
celebrating he wasn't going to war he
00:35:25
was going for a celebration so that the
00:35:27
whole people could see how the alleged
00:35:29
gods would run away in fear the fact
00:35:40
that some people believed that the
00:35:42
Spanish were gods would play better in
00:35:45
the hands of attalos a purpose if I know
00:35:49
they are not gods and I've defeated the
00:35:51
god then of course everybody will be
00:35:53
with me but what if I defeat the God
00:35:57
with no show of force at all I am beyond
00:36:01
the gods
00:36:14
a lotta falta and his men enter
00:36:18
cajamarca the Spaniards are waiting
00:36:20
hidden from view there were five or six
00:36:26
thousand men and behind him the figure
00:36:28
of atahuallpa seated on a very fine
00:36:30
litter lined with feathers and
00:36:33
embellished with gold and silver many of
00:36:38
us pissed ourselves out of sheer terror
00:36:46
the square is filled with atahuallpa
00:36:50
people but there's there's not one
00:36:52
Spaniard outside atahuallpa asks where
00:36:59
are these dogs one of his right hands
00:37:04
answers they have run away because they
00:37:06
are afraid of the Magnificent Inca of
00:37:09
course the whole crowd listen to this
00:37:12
and believe that this was the case
00:37:16
representante vosotros in nombre de la
00:37:18
christian death bizarro sends out his
00:37:21
priests to confront camino de la verdad
00:37:25
the conquistadors are obliged to try and
00:37:28
convert native people before any resort
00:37:31
to violence in kassapa macaca connie in
00:37:38
destroying me no Concannon d-theta
00:37:42
touring man an opporunity to a poder
00:37:49
preceded mi c or sus palabras estan
00:37:53
excreta Sonesta libro
00:38:01
among KP after walpa has never seen a
00:38:07
book before he doesn't know what to do
00:38:10
with it you might do you
00:38:17
man I'm a pastor cake man angry Muskogee
00:38:21
KP can chew commodities in the apparel
00:38:27
Zalgiris panelists in students
00:38:30
Prospero's general hospital las casas
00:38:32
videos and that mom with the crowd
00:38:43
absolutely unprepared horses come was
00:38:49
massive ten
00:38:57
just imagine the scene in Cajamarca the
00:39:00
Incas hadn't seen horses before and
00:39:02
these aren't ordinary horses these are
00:39:04
Spanish horses fierce big fighting
00:39:07
horses they could get in amongst men
00:39:10
they were trampled men and they made the
00:39:12
most excellent platform from the horse
00:39:15
you could stab down to the left stab
00:39:17
down to the right you could cut you
00:39:19
could scythe hacking all about you
00:39:26
if only the Incas had known that what
00:39:28
you had to do against cavalry would
00:39:30
stand firm then they'd have been all
00:39:32
right they had superior numbers but they
00:39:33
didn't know that they fled they broke
00:39:36
ranks and then the horsemen could get in
00:39:38
amongst them and they cut
00:39:49
there was an Inca God called viticulture
00:39:52
and he was a white man and he was the
00:39:55
god of thunder and they thought these
00:39:57
men with their aqua verses were the very
00:39:59
incarnation of Viracocha
00:40:11
Inca force was in his litter helped by
00:40:15
his carriers as soon as they were able
00:40:19
to do it the spaniards went after the
00:40:21
litter and they started killing the
00:40:25
carriers one carrier would fall and
00:40:27
another one would replace
00:40:33
only at the very very very end of the
00:40:37
tragedy the little started to move
00:40:41
because there were no more carriers left
00:40:50
as the litter falls Pizarro himself
00:40:54
captures a father his plan has worked to
00:41:01
perfection
00:41:12
AAHA well pers taken to a makeshift
00:41:14
prison in the Royal quarters of
00:41:16
cajamarca he thought we were going to
00:41:21
kill him but we told him no Christians
00:41:24
only killed in the heat of the battle
00:41:39
outside thousands of Incas are dead the
00:41:44
rest of the army has retreated to the
00:41:46
hills in spite of a massive imbalance in
00:41:52
numbers Spanish horses swords and
00:41:55
strategy have proved decisive but the
00:42:03
Spaniards possessed another weapon they
00:42:05
didn't even know they had a weapon of
00:42:08
mass destruction that had marched
00:42:10
invisibly ahead of them
00:42:19
today the war against infectious disease
00:42:22
is waged at biological research centers
00:42:25
like Portland down in southern England
00:42:29
they produce vaccines here against the
00:42:32
world's deadliest viruses
00:42:38
in the 16th century there were no
00:42:41
vaccines and there was no protection
00:42:43
from the rampant spread of infectious
00:42:45
disease
00:42:53
twelve years before Pizarro arrived at
00:42:56
cajamarca a Spanish ship sailed to
00:42:58
Mexico
00:43:07
on board one of the slaves was suffering
00:43:09
from the first signs of a fever
00:43:17
he was the first person to bring a
00:43:19
deadly disease to the American mainland
00:43:22
the disease was smallpox
00:43:28
within weeks the smallpox virus would
00:43:31
spread from a single source to infect
00:43:33
thousands of Native Americans smallpox
00:43:38
gets into the body when you breathe in
00:43:39
the particles and they attached
00:43:41
themselves to the back of your throat
00:43:43
and the inside of your lungs about two
00:43:46
to three days into the illness then the
00:43:48
classic rash appears and in its worst
00:43:51
forms this takes over the whole of the
00:43:53
body with initially pimples and then
00:43:55
enormous blisters until a hole of the
00:43:57
skin starting with the hands and the
00:43:59
face and then spreading down to cover
00:44:01
the rest of the body is taken over by
00:44:03
the smallpox blisters
00:44:08
from that time on the patient is highly
00:44:11
infectious because of each of those
00:44:14
blisters is packed full of smallpox
00:44:16
particles then if you burst a blister
00:44:18
the fluid will come out and large
00:44:20
numbers of viruses will be spilled onto
00:44:22
whatever it touches
00:44:30
10 to 12 days later his friends would
00:44:33
begin to be taken ill and then tend to
00:44:35
all day after that their friends that
00:44:39
kind of rate means the disease spreads
00:44:40
exponentially its rate of increase gets
00:44:43
bigger and bigger and bigger than more
00:44:45
people infect it until eventually it
00:44:47
will cause tremendous devastation in the
00:44:49
population
00:44:54
the first smallpox epidemic of the new
00:44:57
world swept through Central America and
00:45:00
reached the Inca Empire wherever it went
00:45:06
the virus decimated native populations
00:45:09
making them easier prey for Spanish
00:45:12
conquest
00:45:17
but why were the germs so one-sided why
00:45:24
did the Spaniards pass their diseases on
00:45:26
to the Incas and not the other way
00:45:28
around this is the Sorrows secret weapon
00:45:36
pigs and cows sheep and goats domestic
00:45:40
animals
00:45:41
remember that Pissarro was a swineherd
00:45:43
he grew up in huts like this in intimate
00:45:47
contact with domestic animals breathing
00:45:49
in their germs drinking the germs in
00:45:51
their milk and was from the germs of
00:45:54
domestic animals that the killer
00:45:57
diseases of humans evolved for example
00:46:00
our flu evolved from a disease of pigs
00:46:03
transmitted by a chickens and ducks we
00:46:06
acquired measles from cattle we acquired
00:46:09
smallpox from domestic animals so that
00:46:12
these worst killers of human people were
00:46:15
a legacy of 10,000 years of contact with
00:46:17
our beloved domestic animals
00:46:25
during the Middle Ages infectious
00:46:28
diseases swept through Europe and
00:46:30
claimed millions of lives but
00:46:37
paradoxically repeated epidemics made
00:46:39
Europeans more resilient in each
00:46:46
outbreak there were always some people
00:46:48
who were genetically better able to
00:46:50
fight off the virus these people were
00:46:54
more likely to survive and have children
00:46:56
in the process
00:46:59
they'd pass on their genetic resistance
00:47:03
over centuries whole populations
00:47:06
acquired some degree of protection
00:47:08
against the spread of diseases like
00:47:10
smallpox a protection the Incas
00:47:14
never had
00:47:19
when smallpox has taken to the New World
00:47:22
nobody knew world had ever seen a
00:47:24
disease like this before so the number
00:47:25
of people who are susceptible was much
00:47:27
greater there was no natural immunity
00:47:28
and so therefore the number of people
00:47:31
who could both contract the disease and
00:47:32
then spread it and then I moved to
00:47:34
receive it once it had been spread was
00:47:35
much higher
00:47:39
more people would die and more people
00:47:40
would be susceptible to catch it in the
00:47:42
first place he would spread rapidly
00:47:44
throughout the population and the death
00:47:46
toll would be enormous
00:47:53
why had a Native Americans encountered
00:47:56
smallpox before and why didn't they have
00:48:01
any deadly diseases of their own to pass
00:48:03
on to the Spaniards it's simply because
00:48:08
they didn't have the same history of
00:48:10
contact with fallen animals
00:48:14
the Incas had llamas but llamas aren't
00:48:17
like European cows and sheep they're not
00:48:20
nope they're not kept in large herds and
00:48:22
they don't live in barns and huts
00:48:24
alongside humans
00:48:29
there was no significant exchange of
00:48:31
germs between llamas and people
00:48:37
the key to diamonds argument is the
00:48:40
distribution of farm animals around the
00:48:42
world aside from the llama all the large
00:48:47
farm animals were native to Eurasia and
00:48:49
North Africa none was ever domesticated
00:48:53
in North America sub-saharan Africa or
00:48:56
Australia as a result the worst epidemic
00:49:01
diseases were also native to Eurasia and
00:49:04
North Africa and were then spread around
00:49:07
the world with deadly effect
00:49:16
there's been a long debate about the
00:49:19
number of indigenous people who died in
00:49:21
the Spanish conquest of the new world
00:49:24
some scholars think there may have been
00:49:26
a population of 20 million Native
00:49:29
Americans and the vast majority perhaps
00:49:32
95% were killed by old-world diseases a
00:49:37
continent virtually emptied of its
00:49:40
people
00:49:54
after the initial shock of his capture
00:49:56
Ottawa became a cooperative prisoner he
00:50:01
learned to speak Spanish and play chess
00:50:03
with his captors
00:50:14
the spaniards realized he was more
00:50:16
useful to them alive than dead he was
00:50:20
allowed to reestablish his court in
00:50:22
prison as long as he ordered his people
00:50:25
to accept Spanish rule he also ordered
00:50:33
them to melt down a vast amount of
00:50:35
treasure
00:50:38
Bizzaro had promised a tough alpha his
00:50:40
freedom in return for the gold it proved
00:50:47
to be an empty promise
00:50:53
having handed over 20 tons of gold and
00:50:57
silver
00:50:57
Atif wampa was no longer useful to his
00:51:00
captors
00:51:11
he was garroted to death in the same
00:51:15
square where so many of his followers
00:51:17
had been slaughtered eight months
00:51:19
earlier
00:51:25
with Ottawa did the conquistadors went
00:51:28
on to colonize the rest of Peru the
00:51:32
lying on the power of their Guns Germs
00:51:35
and Steel gold from the Spanish colonies
00:51:47
was brought back to Seville in southern
00:51:49
Spain there's little activity on the
00:51:54
Guadalquivir River today but in the
00:51:56
sixteenth century this was among the
00:51:58
most important busiest ports in the
00:52:01
world
00:52:04
a steady flow of ships carrying treasure
00:52:06
from the Americas helped Spain become
00:52:09
one of the richest nations on earth the
00:52:14
conquistadors had changed forever the
00:52:16
relationship between old world and you I
00:52:21
came to Spain to answer a question why
00:52:25
did Pizarro and his men conquer the
00:52:27
Incas instead of the other way around
00:52:29
there's a whole mythology that that
00:52:32
conquest in the European expansion in
00:52:34
general resulted from Europeans
00:52:36
themselves being especially brave or
00:52:39
bold or inventive or smart but the
00:52:42
answers turn out to have nothing to do
00:52:43
with any personal qualities of Europeans
00:52:46
yeah the sorrow and his men were brave
00:52:48
but they were plenty of brave Incas
00:52:50
instead Europeans were accidental
00:52:53
conquerors by virtue of their geographic
00:52:56
location in history they were the first
00:52:59
people to acquire Guns Germs and Steel
00:53:07
by the end of the 19th century European
00:53:11
powers had ventured beyond the Americas
00:53:13
and colonized Africa Australia and much
00:53:16
of Asia the process that began at
00:53:23
cajamarca had reached its logical
00:53:26
conclusion European Guns Germs and Steel
00:53:34
were the shaping the world
00:54:31
you
