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"Was impressed by how (iirc) the Spanish only had six horses, but that six mounted men were enough to turn the tide in much larger engagements."

You are not the only one impressed by that. At one of their meetings Montezuma noticed how few horses Cortez seemed to have -- at first they believed the horses were some type of large deer. What Montezuma could not know is how many horses Cortez had available to him or how easily these few could be replaced. To find out, he secretly instructed one of his warrior to kill a horse and make it seem to be a misunderstanding. The plan was to apologize and immediately offer Cortez compensation for the loss to see how dear the horse was to him. To his great credit, Cortez saw through the ruse at once and told Montezuma noting of great value was lost and he had no concern for the dead horse.

Cortez was an exceptionally clever man, at least through the Conquest, if not afterward where he did not fare as well. Putin would be a schoolchild beside him.

Both Cortez and Montezuema were world class Machiavellian politicians or “princes”.

Machiavelli was only writing down the existing knowledge.

I am sure that Putin is every bit as clever and calculating as Cortez. It is a credit to Putin that so many people underestimate him.

I believe that President Trump is also a student of Machiavelli.