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The Inca until the early 15th century were but one of a large number of tribes situated in the Andes and narrow coastal plain from Chile north to Colombia. The tribes shared many common cultural cahracteristoics. The Inca were possessed with a messianic creed which taught that they were destined to dominate the world. They proceeded to conquer and assimilate neighboring tribes in southern Peru around Lake Titicaca. at the beginning of the 15th entury the Inca was just one of large number of Andean and costal tribes. Then there was an amazing explosioin out of their mountain domain and within 100 years carved out an emense empire. Theh absorbed conquered peoples relatively beningly as long as thy accepted the Inca Sun God. The Inca had a genius for public administration, enineering, as well as military strategy. One of their mostal notable inovations was the construction of a road network allowing the rapid movement of armies. Runners operating rather like pony express riders moved messages with great rapidity from th most remote imperial outposts to the capital at Cuzco. Eventually this network streached the length of South America from cebtral Chile to southern Colombia--over 2,500 miles. Terraces were carved out of steep mountains, creating cultivateable land.
These teraces were notable engineering achievements. The Inca were master weavers. The nobility wore garments woven from vicuña. The common people wore garments wove from the more course llama wool. There was no written language, but records were kept by uipus--colored and knottd strings. The most important Inca ruler was Pachacuti (He Who Shakes the Earth) who regined from 1438-1471 and helped create the administrative structure needed for a great empire. The
Incan Empire was operate on a system of state socialism. The Empire's output was the property of the Emperor or Inca and he distribute the food and clothing that wa produced among his subjects as he saw fit. To the Inca, the gods resided in their native Andean mountains. The Inca placated the gods with offerings of corn, chica, meat, and occasionally human sacrifices. The Inca were conquered and systematically plundered by Spanish conquistadors. The gold and silver treasures were smelted down and thast bullion as well as the humble potato fundamentally changed European society.
The origins of the Inca are unknown. The Inca Empire was relastively short lived , lasting less than 100 years. The Inca until the early 15th century were but one of a large number of tribes situated in the Andes and narrow coastal plain from Chile north to Colombia. The tribes shared many common cultural cahracteristics. The Inca were possessed with a messianic creed which taught that they were destined to dominate the world. The Inca within 50 years conquered an empire carved out of modern Peru, Bolivia, northern Argentina, Chile, and Ecuador. Pachacuti and his descendents conquered and assimilate neighboring tribes in southern Peru around Lake Titicaca The Empire was founded by Pachacuti Inca who began conquering territory and negighboiring tribes in the southern highlands around Cuzco (1438). Then there was an amazing explosioin out of their mountain domain.
The Inca first targeted the other Aymara-speaking tribes along the shore of Lake Titicaca (the Colla and Lupaca). The Inca then moved against the Chanca to the west a war the Inca nearly loist when the Chanca attacked Cuzco. Other tribes offered less resistance. Tribes to the north were conquered as far as Quito (Ecuador). One tribe which did resist were the Chimú along the northern coast of modern Peru. Topa Inca followed his father's successes by moving south and coinquering much of northern Chile to the Maule River which proved to be the southernmost limit of the Empire. Topa's son Huayna Capac waged campasigns in the north, extending the Emire's borders to the , continued conquests in Ecuador to the Ancasmayo River which is the modern boundary between Ecuador and Colombia. Less than 100 years later after it was founded by Pachacuti, the Empire was shattered by the arrival of Francisco Pizarro and the Spanish Conquistadores (1532).
The Inca established what might todat be called a totalitarian state. The Inca state was larger than any European natioin in the 16th century. It was also the largest of all thev native American states. The tribal ruler and nobles dominated the largely rural population. The Inca absorbed conquered peoples relatively beningly as long as thy accepted the Inca Sun God. The Inca had a genius for public administration, enineering, as well as military strategy.
The Inca established their Empire in some of the most difficult and diverse teraine on the plannet. The Incas named their empire 'Land of the Four Quarters' or the Tahuantinsuyu Empire. It stretched north to south along the Andean cordillera about 2,500 miles from Colombia south to Chile. It encompased lands of astounding diversity from the Atacama Desert in the west, snowcapped peaks in the Cordillera, to the Amazonian rain forestn in the east.
Administering an expansive empire required sophisticated communuications. The Inca was especially noted for their sophistiucated system of roads. The construction of a road network allowing the rapid movement of armies and messages. Runners operating rather like pony express riders moved messages with great rapidity from the most remote imperial outposts to the capital at Cuzco. Eventually this network streached the length of South America from central Chile to southern Colombia--over 2,500 miles. The road system was in effect the Empire's nervous system. There were two principal north-south rodes. There was a high road running along the Cordillera. There was another north-south rode to the west running through the coastal plain. These two main routes were bisected by a series of must shorter east-west roasds running down from the sierra to the coast. Given the geography of the Andean Cordillera, Inca roads required extrodinary feats of engineering and architectural skill. The coastal roads were less difficult to build and were not paved. The Incas gave more attentioin to the their roads in the sierra. They were paved with flat stones. In some areas the roads even had stone wells to prevent falls. Archeolohists estimate thast the Inca maintained a road system extending more than 14,000 miles. The quality of engineering was such that some of these roads still survive today. The roads were built with facilities such as lodgings, storehouses with provisions, and temples to the sun at appropriate intervals. The surprising aspect of Inca roads is that despite the enormous effort devoted to road builkding, Inca engineers never invented the wheel. Thus travel was on foot. They had llamas to carry burdens, but they carried rather limited loads. .
Cusco was both the original center of the Inca people and the capital of the emense empire they created. Cuzco reflected the engineering skills of the Inca. There were advanced hydraulics, architecture, textiles, ceramics and ironworks all based on the wealth created by the Inca's productive agricultural economy.
Terraces were carved out of steep mountains, creating cultivateable land. These teraces were notable engineering achievements.
One of the high points of Andean civilization and technologu, if not the fnest achievements were textiles. This focus on textiles could even be seen in the 20th century. Quechua women in the Andes (Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia) while tending flocks, walking along the roads, are selling in the markets can often be seen always winding or spinning yarn out of raw wool. Individuals at home still produced shawls, ponchos, and blankets on hand looms. While the spiners are mostly women, the weavers can be any family members. The tradition they represent is some of the finest weaving in human history. European weaving until modern times was primarily flax and sheep wool suplemented with silk imported from China. Andean weavers used cotton and alpaca wool. The Inca aristocracy also had garments made from the fine wool of the vicuña, This was a rare animal that was never domesticated, but rather gather in round-ups. Textiles are very perhisable, but some have survived in the high Andes, but mostly in the dry coastal deserts. They compare favorably to the finest examples of Egyptian or Chinese weaving. The Inca textiles were made by the Chosen Women (Virgins of the Sun) in the convents associated with the Temples of the Sun. The wwomen were thoroughly trained in weaving skills.
The Inca were master weavers. The nobility wore garments woven from vicuña. The common people wore garments wove from the more course llama wool. We have very limited information at this time. The child sacrifical victims found in the High Andes has added some information.
The Inca were a Quechua-speaking people. They have traditionally been described as a people without a written language. This would make them an anomaly. No oter great civiization developed with out a written language. The Inca did have a record keeping system. Records were kept by quipu / khipu --colored and knottd strings. Most accounts of the kipus decribe them as accounting devices, rather like textile abacuses. It should be recalled that writing in Mesopotamia developed out of prelmiary efforts to keep track of marketable products. Some current Inca scholars are now revising this assessment, believing that they may have been much more.
Quipu ( khipu / kipu ) are sometimes called talking knots. Quipus consisted of thick primary cords from which thinner pendant cords hung. Usually there were about 100-200 pendant cords, but some quipus had much more up to about 2,000 pendant cords. Some pendant cords and pendant cords of their own. On these pendent cords knots of various size and tied in different ways encoded information. The threads involved were done in various colors and material (llama and alpaca wool and cotton). They have traditionally been described as accounting devices used by the Inca. Current scholarship are increasingly finding that the quipus were much more. If so they may be a raadically different form of writing than developed by all other great civilizations. Early Spanish accounts after the Conquest refer to the Spanish consulting Inca khipukamayuq (quipu readers) for information about Inca history and other matters. Spanish govenor Cristóbal Vaca de Castro (1542) had khipukamayuq consulted in an effort to prepare an Inca history (1542). The inference is that there was much more information on the quipus than numerical accounts. This is very difficult to assess becuse the Spanish finally decided that the quipus were works of the deveil and had all the ones they could find burned (1583). Quite a number survived, but no one knows how to read them. Some scholars are now attemting to dechipeer 800 or so surviving uipus.
Inca history agree on thirteen emperors or Incas. The Inca emperors were referred to in various ways, including "Sapa Inca," "Capac Apu," and "Intip Cori." Commonly modern historians refer to both the rulers and the peopke as simply the "inca". The first seven Incas are believed to be legendary or rulers at a time when the Inca were only a minor tribe. The most important Inca ruler was Viracocha's son Pachacuti (He Who Shakes the Earth) who regined from 1438-1471 and helped create the administrative structure needed for a great empire. Pachacuti was one of the great warrior chieftans of history--perhaps the greastes of all native Americans. Pachacuti in addition to his military skills is believed to have been a an important civic planner who according to legend worked out the city plan for Cuzco and founded many of the major temples and public buildings. Pachacuti's son Topa Inca added even more land to the Inca domains. Huayna Capac's sons Huascar and Atahuallpa fought a civil war which had finished just before Cotes arrived.
The Incan Empire was operate on a system of state socialism. The Empire's output was the property of the Emperor or Inca and he distribute the food and clothing that wa produced among his subjects as he saw fit.
To the Inca, the gods resided in their native Andean mountains. The Inca placated the gods with offerings of corn, chica, meat, and occasionally human sacrifices.
The feats of the Spanish Conquistadores are some of the most dramatic accounts in history. The conquest of Peru is one of
these epic feats. Here we can not begin to do justice to the story other than outline it for the casual reder. A great empire was destroyed by a handfull of Spanish adventurers led by an obscure, illiterate commander who grew up illigitimate and poor. Franciso Pizarro landed on the Pacific coast of South America with a force of only 167 soldiers. The Incas had constructed a great empire streaching from modern day Ecuador south to Chile. The Incas had not yet developed technologies common in the West such as metal tools, the wheel, and a written language, but they had developed a rich
culture and agriculture which in many ways was more productve than modern Peruvian agriculture. The Inca Empire fielded vast armies and constructed powerful fortifications. Pizarro knew relatively little about the Inca, but he considered Cortez's strategy in Mexico as had decided to persue a similar approch. Pizarro on arriving in the Inca Empire sent message to the Inca Emeror Atahualpa and like Cortez in
Mexico managedt take him prisoner and destroy a great empire. Pizarro was able to succeed with even a smaller force than Cortez. As in Mexico, the story is one of courage and audacity mingled with avarice, treachery, and cruelty and stands in sharp contrast to that of North America where colonization was largely based on
the desire for religious expression and land to farm. The gold and silver from Peru combined with that from Mexico turned Spain with its powerful army into a European super power. Ironically the most significant aspect of the Conquest may have been the introduction of the lowly potato to Europe.
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