Guns, Germs, and Steel

I have yet to find a really helpful research site, so I decided to blog about tonights reading.

Although it was a little confusing at times, there was a fact that stood out to me.

I found it very, very interesting that there were only 168 Spanish soldiers, and thousands of Indian soldiers, yet the Spanish army completely defeated the Indians simply because of better resources. Not only were the Spanish soldiers on "unfamiliar terrain and ignorant of the local inhabitants," but they also were more then 1,000 miles from any fellow Spaniards, that would be helpful in case of their need to reinforce the army. Also, they didn't only defeat them, they crushed them without losing a single Spanish Soldier. Although they out numbered the Spanish by nearly 500 times, that didnt matter because all they had for protection was quilted armor, and clubs, in which they were lucky to badly wound the Spaniards with. Plus, the Spanish had steel armor, which gave them plenty of protection against the Indians clubs.