Since the Conquistador commanders sent back written reports, I doubt they were illiterate. And even if they were illiterate, they were trained by military people who were. And even if those were also illiterate, they were steeped in military traditions of discipline, organization, tactics, etc., that went back to the greeks.

The way they operated was clear evidence of military sophistication.

> And even if those were also illiterate, they were steeped in military traditions of discipline, organization, tactics, etc., that went back to the greeks.

And why couldn't, say, the Inca draw on the Wari, who could draw on the Moche, who could draw on the Chavin, who date back even before the Greeks?

The problem with claiming the utility of writing in developing military tactics is that Western Europe doesn't have a tradition of discussing military tactics in written texts until the Early Modern period. There's nothing like Sun Tzu's Art of War that keeps getting passed down and talked about; any transmission of tactics is going to happen via practical experience in a kind of apprenticeship--which is exactly the same method of transmission an illiterate society is going to do for military tactics.

Or you could do what the Aztecs did and send all of your boys (rich or poor) to school to learn how to become warriors, come to think of it.

The only reason we know how Pizarro conquered the Inca is because he wrote it down. The bulk of what we know about Inca life comes from the Spanish who wrote it down. Most of the rest comes from archaeology and guesswork.

If you've got evidence that the Inca military had organized tactics, like units, feinting maneuvers, flanking attacks, procedures for taking fortified positions, covering fire, strategic retreat, breastworks, defense in depth, etc., I'm interested.

We do know the Inca had no plan for when their leader was captured but not killed. But Pizarro knew about that one, and that's how he defeated an empire. Disrupting the enemy's command and control is a well-understood technique in Western military tradition.

No, you are wrong. The Western Europe inherited a lot of experience, tactics and fighting methods from the Roman empire.

And OFC from their enemies.

Here you go, Bernal Diaz del Castillo's account of the conquest of Mexico, written as a soldier in Cortez' company: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32474/32474-h/32474-h.htm

I strongly recommend reading this for anyone who's interested. It's a really interesting view of what Mexico looked like prior to Spanish colonization, told from a Spanish perspective of course.

It also became clear that the Spanish, despite their superior technology, were so outnumbered that they wouldn't have been successful if it weren't for their local allies. They were nearly all killed in a desperate escape from Tenochtitlan when things went downhill.