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Most of the time, Europeans fought one tribe at a time, rather than a large alliance of Native Americans. Then, in many cases, they made natives fight each oth
by 29athrowaway 5y ago
Most of the time, Europeans fought one tribe at a time, rather than a large alliance of Native Americans.
Then, in many cases, they made natives fight each other, and they recruited "auxiliary indians".
The siege of Tenochtitlan involved 200,000 Tlaxcalans fighting on the European side.
In other cases, such as the Battle of Cajamarca, they used their horse + armor advantage to kidnap the leader and ask everyone else to stand down.
If natives had fought together as an alliance since the beginning, they would have time to adapt and catch up. Like the Mapuche did (they won the Arauco war).
- sillyquiet 5y ago"They made" natives fight each other is a weird way of putting it. Warring tribes were more than happy to use the Europeans against their enemies. And many of those enmities long predated the arrival of Europeans.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- ProjectArcturis 5y agoYes, many of the Central American tribes had been oppressed by the Aztecs for a long time, and were happy to have an advanced ally to fight against them.
- toxik 5y agoThere’s something to learn here about calling on a bigger bully to stamp out the local bully…
- Brakenshire 5y agoThe Romano-British and the Anglo-Saxons a similar lesson!
- 29athrowaway 5y agoYes, that characterization is a bit more accurate.