The Spanish conquistadors managed to conquer the Inca empire, which at the time had an estimated population of between six and twelve million people and a strong army by thousands of warriors. The Conquistadores, led by Francisco Pizarro, benefited greatly from a diminished Inca empire that had recently toiled in a civil war and suffered mass casualties from smallpox, which had been imported to the Americas twelve years earlier on a Spanish ship. Superior weapons that included agile horses, swords, and guns also played a decisive role in the Inca conquest. The odds appeared to be very unfavorable to the small band of Spanish conquistadors, but significant advantages in weapons and circumstances shifted the odds significantly in the conquistadors' direction. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The first appearance of smallpox in the Americas is believed to have occurred twelve years before Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire began in 1532. A slave carrying the disease arrived in the Americas on a Spanish ship in present-day Mexico and this slave is believed to have contributed significantly to the decline of the Inca Empire. Unlike Europeans who had been exposed to various infectious diseases, including the devastating bubonic plague, and had developed immune resistance over generations, the inhabitants of the Americas had not been exposed to these diseases and had no immune resistance to these diseases . Smallpox would eventually devastate the native population of the Americas. Infectious diseases including smallpox, influenza, and measles brought unwittingly to the Americas by Europeans are estimated to have killed 90 percent of Native Americans. One of the victims of smallpox in the Americas was Huayna Capac, the Inca emperor who died of the disease in 1528. His successor would be his eldest son Atahuallpa or his youngest son Huascar. It is unclear from historical records who his choice was, but after Huayna Capac's death, Huascar took the throne and the two brothers engaged in a damaging civil war. Atahualpa ultimately won the civil war and ordered the death of Huascar, which finally paved the way for Atahualpa to become the next Inca emperor. The Civil War depleted the ranks of the Inca army and the permanent damage of the Civil War made it the perfect opportunity for Pizarro and his men to make their move to conquer the Inca Empire. The Inca civil war ended in 1532, a year that will go down in history as the beginning of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, led by Pizarro. In addition to the depletion of the Inca Empire due to the Civil War, the empire had already shrunk due to the vast size of the empire which stretched for thousands of miles along the western coast of South America. The Inca Empire was made up of disparate groups of people with different cultures, living in isolation due to the mountain barriers of the Andes and the sheer distance between the various areas of the Inca Empire. The less than unyielding loyalty that the Inca people had towards the emperor would be exploited by Pizarro after the dismissal of the Inca emperor Atahuallpa in 1532. Pizarro also had the advantage of learning from his compatriots Hernán Cortés, who had conquered the the Aztec empire in 1521. Despite the circumstantial advantage that the Conquistadores had, it may still be baffling to many how a band of 168 Conquistadors managed to eliminate thousands of Inca warriors. To understand it better we must return to the Iberian Peninsula, where Pizarro and the Conquistadors grew up. The Spaniards.