Yeah, Inca and Aztec were both apex predators, so to speak, in their respective worlds. Both were still on the rise too, showing no signs IMO of decay.
The thing about internal strife though is that it’s the default condition. The situation after the cold war, where the USA was the global hegemon, was notable precisely because of how unusual it was for there to be only one power—and even then, it’s not like the whole world was united behind the USA; instead, there were big parts of the world (China, for example) that were technically at peace and militarily inferior but would have been happy to see the USA taken down a peg. So yeah, the Incas had just finished up a civil war and the emperor had scores to settle with various rivals and insubordinates, and there were people willing to betray him, etc. but this seems like the standard state of human affairs to me. The Aztecs were as unified as they ever were when Cortez attacked.
Fair enough. But if Pizarro had arrived just a bit earlier, the civil war would have been still ongoing, and had he arrived a bit earlier than that, the Inca would be still trying to pacify the Quito empire and integrate it into their empire, and before that the situation would have been even more multipolar...
Yeah, Inca and Aztec were both apex predators, so to speak, in their respective worlds. Both were still on the rise too, showing no signs IMO of decay.
The thing about internal strife though is that it’s the default condition. The situation after the cold war, where the USA was the global hegemon, was notable precisely because of how unusual it was for there to be only one power—and even then, it’s not like the whole world was united behind the USA; instead, there were big parts of the world (China, for example) that were technically at peace and militarily inferior but would have been happy to see the USA taken down a peg. So yeah, the Incas had just finished up a civil war and the emperor had scores to settle with various rivals and insubordinates, and there were people willing to betray him, etc. but this seems like the standard state of human affairs to me. The Aztecs were as unified as they ever were when Cortez attacked.
I did get the sense that the Inca were more internal-strifey than normal at the time, but yeah. Even if true in their case, it’s not much consolation.
Fair enough. But if Pizarro had arrived just a bit earlier, the civil war would have been still ongoing, and had he arrived a bit earlier than that, the Inca would be still trying to pacify the Quito empire and integrate it into their empire, and before that the situation would have been even more multipolar...