Elite professional soldiers massacred irregulars after suffering disproportionate casualties

Evidence

The subsequent massacre was blamed on the Germans. There are many examples in the history of warfare of atrocities occurring when elite professionals such as these German tercios come up against determined resistance from irregulars. The professionals presumably take it as an affront to their pride. In an assault on one hill, of the 72 casualties on the Christian side, 33 were Germans. From then on no prisoners were taken, and 5,000 Muslims are said to have been killed. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 500

Categorization

• XREF: Similar dynamic to professional-soldier-vs-irregular patterns in other colonial conquests; a concrete instance of how elite pride + heavy casualties produce no-prisoners escalation.