Ploughing up the battlefield; Inca warfare, conquest and resilience

Inca warfare has been the subject of scholarly interest since the period of the Spanish conquest. Not only were the land and its peoples exotically different from the Spanish interlopers but so were the many aspects of indigenous warfare. Though the indigenous population proved quick to adapt their methods and strategies to resist these foreign invaders, many of the underlying fundamentals took some time to adjust. This paper seeks to uncover both, some of the ideological framework which harnessed indigenous Andean strategies and tactics but also to present some of the more practical considerations with respect to territorial expansion, including how native strategy, tactics and beliefs first developed and then adapted to the Spanish presence in the first few decades of the conquest.