" They were as good and as strong as Rome. Historical fluke the Spanish ever managed to get the better of them.’

‘How did they?’ I said, wanting suddenly and badly to know.

‘Smallpox,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t strategy or anything like that. The Spanish brought smallpox with them when they landed in Mexico. It arrived in Peru before they did. And the Inca had built a wonderful, efficient road system for it to travel on. The royal family was obliterated in five years, the administration of the empire collapsed, and Pizarro took the whole thing with five thousand men. One of the most ridiculous confluences of bad luck in history. "

― Natasha Pulley