Si Sheppard

Si Sheppard is an associate professor of political science and international relations at Long Island University and a military-history author. His books include works on the Spanish conquests of Tenochtitlan and Cuzco, and his research and writing cover military history, geopolitics, and strategy.

Indigenous Alliances, Not Spanish Numbers, Toppled the Aztec and Inca Empires

Military historian Si Sheppard argues that a few hundred Spaniards did not defeat the Aztec and Inca empires on their own: Indigenous allies supplied most of the fighters, often joining the Spanish to pursue their own political aims. Horses, steel and the capture of rulers helped turn those alliances into military leverage, but the conquests also depended on divisions within the empires and the vulnerability of centralized rule. Sheppard’s account treats the outcomes as contingent campaigns shaped by local choices, within a longer contest increasingly tilted by disease, sea power and accumulated European knowledge.

Dwarkesh PatelOct 1, 202623 min read