Laurent Binet’s Civilizations is a historical fiction novel that focuses on a different turn of events in the past. Specifically, the longest part of the book centers around the Aztec and Incan empires invading and slowly gaining control over Europe in the 1500’s after a group of survivors from the Incan Civil War go on an expedition in search of new land. Led by the Incan Emperor Atahualpa, the group begins to gain more supporters as Atahualpa realized that he could buy the support of people by dangling all the riches of gold and silver. Additionally, he was met with little opposition as he began conquering land. This was a plausible thing that stood out to me because during this time, Europe was struggling with poverty and the emergence of Protestant religions. There was a rise in poverty due the growing population and the increasing amounts of urban dwellers. In order to sustain the population, more food was needed. However, as the human population increased in Europe, so did wheat prices in certain areas like Germany. Therefore, Atahualpa’s means of gaining support were believable because people were more inclined to act in their individual interests and accept capital offers in order to survive and feed their families. Additionally, Atahualpa’s ability to conquer Europe was also plausible because in addition to capitalist motivation, King Charles V couldn’t unite forces to prevent Atahualpa from taking control since the effects of the Protestant Reformation weakened his empire since he faced complications of his religious rule. This was evident because people wanted a secular rule (Cantoni).
Citations
Davide Cantoni, Jeremiah Dittmar, Noam Yuchtman, Religious Competition and Reallocation: the Political Economy of Secularization in the Protestant Reformation, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 133, Issue 4, November 2018, Pages 2037–2096, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjy011
