Inca Warfare and Weaponry

The Inca had some of the most advanced weaponry armor and strategic plans of all the Native American civilizations. The Inca where able to create special weapons that were bigger and stronger then any other Native-American civilization, their war tactics were superior and was there way of conquering the west coast of South America. The Inca was a great and strong civilization that fell to the ground when the Spanish conquers hit the shores of modern day Peru.

The Inca had 7 main types of weapons. These weapons included the bronze or bone-tipped spears, clubs, bows and arrows, dart throwers, two-handed wooden swords with serrated edges, wooden slings and stones, and stone or copper headed battleaxes. The Inca were not only able to make such fine weapons, but were also able to exploit there capabilities of the weapons with skilled hand-to-hand combat and precision accuracy. The Inca were able to find the most skilled and talented soldiers because every man was forced to do one year of work for the army. If they wanted they could sign up to join the army for the rest of their lives until there age stops them.

The Inca also had some very affective armor to protect their soldiers against spears arrows and darts. There armor consisted of cotton, animal skins, palm, wood, and metal. They would make round shields of palm and cotton. There head, chest, and shoulders were protected by metal plates, cotton jackets, and wood, cane, or animal skin helms.  The Inca did not use very much armor because it would slow them down and they needed to be able to reach throughout the empire very quickly. The armor was so efficient that the Spanish used them in their suits of armor after Francisco Pizarro had conquered the Inca.

When the Spanish came to the Inca Empire, they were able to record very detailed reports about the way the Inca would fight. The Inca actually never really wanted to fight the apposing army. Instead, they would first try to do things diploma98tically and when the enemy would resist the bloodless offer they were forced to fight. First the slingers would attack and when the armies got closer then the dart blowers and archers would attack. Lastly, the hand-to-hand combat came in and the clubbers swordsmen and pike men would attack. The Inca were so successful in conquering the Andes because their weapons, armor, strategy plans, and their numbers. When the Inca first started to conquer, their numbers equaled approximately 70,000. By the time of the Spanish conquest, in 1438, the Inca’s numbers equaled around 250,000 men.

• Wilson, David J., Kicza, John E., and Salomon, Frank. "Native Americans of Middle and South America." Microsoft® Student 2008 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2007.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2008. © 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserve.

• Nickel, Helmut. "Armor." Microsoft® Student 2008 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2007.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2008. © 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

·         Wikipedia. "Inca civilization." Inca. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 21 Jan. 2010.

     Web. 20 Jan. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_civilization>.