What can tip the tides in military strength? Adaptability is an important trait for an empire to be strong militarily. J.M. Coetzee in the novel, Waiting for the Barbarians, implements realistic scenarios with similar views of the Spaniards and Inca empire. The barbarians in the novel are presented similarly to Rachel O’Toole’s perspective on the Incan empire being the “ass-kickers” and Romans being the Spaniards. Both of these true and fictional stories use adaptability to win their battles and demonstrate strength. Militarily, the barbarians in the novel are shown to be similar to the Incan people. Both are strong and adaptive in battle. Throughout the novel the barbarians decimate the oppressing empire’s military. This is shown through various occasions in the novel in which the empire goes on multiple expeditions into foreign territory to hunt down the barbarians and return with more casualties than progress. The barbarians in these skirmishes, display their strength to the empire as they win their battles. The trait of being adaptive is specifically shown when the magistrate finally meets the barbarians and they are armed with empire firearms. Early in the novel, the barbarians are displayed and portrayed as people who are unwise, arrogant, inexperienced in battle, and are supposed to be the losing force. But as the fights continue, it is shown that the barbarians adapted to the point the fights become one sided victories in the barbarian’s favor. On the other hand, in Professor O’Toole’s lectures of the history between the Spanish and Inca conflicts, she explains the Inca people fought the Spanish with their own weapons such as swords and used the Andes environment to win their battles against the Spanish. Technologically the Inca empire were at a lost, but due to the Inca people being adaptive and strong in battle, they were able to fight on the same table. Presentation of both the barbarian force and the Inca force show similar outcomes in which both sides are first displayed being weak against their opponents, but their trait of being adaptive in battle can make them even stronger than an empire.
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