Inca Empire
Inca
Empire, vast kingdom in the Andes Mountains of South America that was created by
the Quechua, a Native American people, in the 15th century ad. The Inca Empire
was conquered by the Spanish in the early 16th century. The Incas built a
wealthy and complex civilization that ruled more than 9 million people. The Inca
system of government was among the most complex political organizations of any
Native American people. Although the Incas lacked both a written language and
the concept of the wheel, they accomplished feats of engineering that were
unequaled elsewhere in the Americas. They built large stone structures without
mortar and constructed suspension bridges and roads that crossed the steep
mountain valleys of the Andes.
The Incas conquered a number of neighboring peoples as they expanded their
area of influence outward from their home in the Cuzco valley of highland Peru.
Inca lands eventually totaled about 906,500 sq km (about 350,000 sq mi). This
territory centered on the peaks of the Andes, but extended to the Pacific Coast
and the Amazon basin. The political center of the empire was in what is now
Peru, and its territory included parts of present-day Ecuador, Bolivia, northern
Chile, and northwest Argentina. The terrain included high grass plateaus,
low-lying jungles, deserts, and fertile river valleys.
Most of the major ideas
and institutions incorporated within Inca culture developed from a series of
earlier Native American civilizations in the Andes. According to legend, the
people later known as Incas began as a small group of warlike people and lived
near Lake Titicaca in southeastern Peru sometime before the 13th century.
According to Inca myth, the first Inca emperor, Manco Capac, and his three
brothers and four sisters emerged from caves in the earth. Around the year 1200,
Manco Capac led ten Inca ayllus, or clans, from Lake Titicaca north to
the fertile valley of Cuzco. The Incas conquered the people of the area and took
it over for themselves. They founded the city of Cuzco as their capital. Manco
Capac married one of his sisters to establish the royal Inca bloodline. He and
succeeding emperors increased their power through marriage alliances and the
conquest of neighboring groups. By the reign of Viracocha Inca, the eighth
emperor, the Incas dominated an area stretching about 40 km (about 25 mi) around
Cuzco. Recent archaeological evidence, however, shows that Inca culture was
developing in the Cuzco Valley for centruries.
The Incas dramatically expanded and unified their territory after the
conquest of the Chancas, under Viracocha's son, Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui.
Pachacuti (whose name means "earthquake" or "cataclysm") reorganized the Inca
social and political system. He and his son, Topa Inca Yupanqui, were brilliant
soldiers and statesmen who extended the empire from northern Ecuador to central
Chile. Under their leadership, the Incas united the diverse native peoples along
4800 km (3000 mi) of coast into a far-flung empire with a common Quechuan
language and way of life. These leaders brought Inca civilization to its peak:
They made the capital city of Cuzco into the center of Inca society and
government, developed a state religion, and set up an elaborate administrative
system to control their widely scattered subjects and territories.
Inca society was strictly
organized, from the emperor and royal family down to the peasants. The emperor
was thought to be descended from the sun god, Inti, and he therefore ruled with
divine authority. All power rested in his hands. Only the influence of custom
and the fear of revolt checked the emperor’s power. The emperor had one official
wife, but he had many royal concubines and his children by these wives often
numbered in the hundreds. The emperor chose his most important administrators
from among his sons.
Just below the emperor came the aristocracy, which included descendants and
relations of all the emperors. These pure-blooded Incas held the most important
government, religious, and military posts. The nobles of conquered peoples also
became part of the governing aristocracy and were considered Inca by adoption.
For administrative purposes the empire was divided into regions known as the
"four suyus (quarters) of the world," with Cuzco at its center. The Incas
called their empire Tahuantinsuyu, a Quechuan word meaning "Land of the
Four Quarters." One suyu, the Antisuyu, stretched to the east of Cuzco and
contained deep, forest-covered valleys that gradually descended into the jungles
of the Amazon basin. Indian groups in this region, many of whom were only
partially pacified, continued to launch attacks against the Incas. Cuntisuyu
included all the land west of Cuzco, including the coastal regions of Peru from
Chan Chan to Arequipa. Collasuyu was the largest of the quarters. Located south
of Cuzco, it took in Lake Titicaca and regions of Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.
Chincasuyu contained the remaining land to the north of Cuzco.
A blood relative of the emperor served as governor of each quarter. The Incas
further divided each quarter into progressively smaller units, with officials of
descending rank overseeing the activities of these units. Serving under each
governor were ten district governors, each of whom ruled over a district
containing about 10,000 peasants. Another official, ideally a leader of a large
village, ruled over a smaller area containing about 1000 peasants. At the level
below, ten foremen each supervised a total of 100 peasants. At the lowest
organizational level, an official oversaw a group of ten peasants. For every
10,000 people, there were 1331 officials.
Inca state affairs were complex and tightly controlled. Whole native
populations were at times uprooted and resettled in other communities. Often
groups were relocated to areas where they were needed for agricultural or mining
activities. Sometimes relocations were politically motivated. Placing
Quechua-speaking populations in newly conquered areas impaired the ability of
local groups to unite against the Incas. Furthermore, these relocations
facilitated the spread of Inca ideas and culture and promoted unity in the
empire.
In order to deal efficiently with such matters,
government officers kept strict accounts of all the people, gold, land, crops,
and projects of the empire. Since the Incas had no system of writing, they kept
records by means of a quipu—a series of short, knotted strings hung at
intervals from a long top string. By varying the colors and kinds of string used
and the spacing of the strings and knots, the Incas could record populations,
troops, and tribute, as well as information about their legends and
achievements. The quipu was a complex memory aid rather than a literal record,
and only a trained quipucamayo, or memory expert, could create or
interpret it. An oral comment accompanied each quipu and allowed the quipucamayo
to make sense of its meaning.
Inca Quipu
The Inca recorded numbers and perhaps other kinds of information on the
knotted strings of a quipu. Inca administrators used quipus to keep accounts of
items owned and in storage within their districts, such as agricultural products
and livestock. Unlike pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica such as the
Maya and Aztec, the Inca had no form of true writing.
Following the Spanish conquest and the introduction of records written in
Spanish, the Incas lost the ability to read quipus. Modern scholars still have
not deciphered the codes used in the creation of quipus.
The Incas’ public works were built through a labor tax known as mit’a. This
tax required most people incorporated into the Inca Empire to provide labor for
public works during certain portions of each year. This labor tax supported
large-scale public works that required the marshalling of large labor forces,
such as for the building of forts, roads, and bridges, or the mining of metals
and gems. It also allowed the emperor to raise large armies to undertake wars of
conquest.
Road building was important to establishing communication throughout the
huge, complex empire. The Inca emperors built a 16,000-km (10,000-mi) network of
stone roads. Trained runners carried official messages, working in relays to
cover up to 400 km (250 mi) per day. Government officials traveled on two main
north-south roads and lesser crossroads that ran to every village in the empire.
Local government officers managed tambos, or rest houses, which were
spaced a day's journey apart and stocked with food and equipment.
To span the deep river gorges separating cities, the Inca built suspension
bridges of rope that were marvels of engineering. Some of these rope bridges
were nearly 100 m (330 ft) in length. One of the Incas’ greatest engineering
feats was a bridge that crossed a dangerously steep gorge along the Apurímac.
Constructed in 1350, this bridge—made from ropes of twined plant fibers—survived
for more than 500 years, until it was abandoned in 1890.
To increase agricultural production, the government commissioned stone
terraces in the steep, narrow Andean valleys. Officials also oversaw the
construction of grain warehouses, which served as storage centers for a portion
of each year’s grain harvest. The government distributed this grain to the
people during times of scarcity and famine, and also as forms of payment for
labor.
Among the most impressive of the Incas’ building projects were their vast
temples, palaces, and fortresses. Massive stone buildings, such as the fortress
at Sacsahuaman near Cuzco, were skillfully erected with a minimum of engineering
equipment. The wall of Sacsahuaman was made of enormous stones, the largest of
which weighed 200 tons. Stones were transported with the help of wooden rollers,
and they fitted together so exactly that no mortar was necessary.
Cuzco itself was a marvel of Inca building and
metalwork. The great Temple of the Sun was almost entirely sheathed with gold
plate. In its courtyard, figures fashioned of gold depicted scenes from Inca
life. Gold corn appeared to grow out of clods of earth made of gold, and golden
llamas grazed on gold grass. Other cities included Machu Picchu, whose ruins
were discovered in 1911.
Machu Picchu, Peru
The ruins of Machu Picchu, near Cuzco, are
the remains of an ancient city of the Inca
Empire. The civilization, based in southern
Peru, dates to 1200. The Inca mastered
architecture, road building, and astronomy and
were noted for their code of laws and advanced
system of government.
The basis of Inca society was the ayllu, typically ayllus were families
living together and sharing land, animals, and crops. The ayllus varied in size,
from small farming villages to larger towns. Everyone belonged to an ayllu. An
individual was born into an ayllu and died within it. Even the choice of a mate
could be determined by the ayllu. If an Inca man did not marry by the age of 20,
the head of the ayllu selected a mate for him.
Most Incas were farmers who worked the land. The emperor owned all the land
in the empire. He administered its use through the ayllu, which divided land
into allotments large enough for a family to farm. Families planted and
harvested the land communally. Each autumn the ayllu adjusted land allotments to
match increases or decreases in the size of each family. Aside from producing
their own food, each ayllu worked additional fields to support the emperor and
the state religion.
The daily life of the people of the Inca Empire varied widely according to
social class. The emperor lived in a dazzling palace with gold and silver walls,
plates, and cups. He wore a gold fringe around his forehead as the emblem of his
office. His throne was merely a low stool, possibly of red wood, although
sometimes of gold. Although his blankets were made of soft vicuna wool, he slept
on the floor like his lowliest subjects.
Although the emperor and other nobles often had many wives, the emperor
traditionally married his sister as his principal wife. The next emperor would
be chosen from among the sons born of this union. Since both the emperor and his
sister were considered direct descendents of the god Inti, this union guaranteed
that the son who succeeded to the throne would also be a pure-blood descendant
of Inti. The heir was given strict training to make him able to outdo other boys
in strength and endurance. Royalty and nobility were exempt from taxation and
had such privileges as land, llamas, fine clothing, and litters, which were mats
upon which the royalty and nobility would sit and be carried around by people of
lesser social levels.
Inca farmers, in contrast, led a life of hard work. After breakfasting at
daybreak on chicha, a kind of thick beer made from fermented corn, the
entire family worked in the fields until midmorning. Then they ate the day’s
main meal, consisting of such foods as corn kernels boiled with chili peppers
and herbs; soup or stew of guinea-pig meat thickened with potato flour; or
cornmeal mixed with water and baked in hot ashes into a hard bread. Potatoes
were a staple, especially in the mountains. In addition to working in the
fields, women made chicha, ground corn and potatoes into flour, and produced
cloth by spinning and weaving cotton or wool. If an Inca man were not a noble,
he could have only one wife.
A typical Inca house was a one-room rectangular building of adobe brick or
stone with a thatched, gabled roof, and without windows or a chimney. At night
people slept on the floor around a crude stove, which was made of stone cemented
with mud. During the day, people spent most of their time outdoors. Upper-class
houses were often larger and partitioned into several rooms.
Although the quality of clothing varied, poor and rich and even the emperor
dressed in the same basic fashion. Men wore breechcloths, sleeveless knee-length
tunics, and cloaks or ponchos. Women wore long dresses and capes fastened with a
pin of copper, silver, or gold. All garments were of woven cotton or wool cloth.
The men fixed their hair in a distinctive style to signify the allyu to which
they belonged and wore decorative earplugs of shell or metal.
Although there was little social mobility, some Inca peasants escaped the
grinding labor and harsh life of their class. Specially gifted boys were trained
in crafts or in keeping records and used their skills to serve the emperor. Also
exempt from menial labor were the yanacona, unusually intelligent boys
who were trained and employed by the emperor as servants, pages, or temple
attendants. They were slaves, but they made important contacts and might rise
high in government service. Some Inca girls also received education and
distinction as "chosen women." The most beautiful 10-year-old girls of each
ayllu were selected. After studying religion and domestic arts, they were placed
in the households of the emperor and his nobles. Sometimes they were sacrificed
to the gods and buried atop Andean mountain peaks.
Agriculture was the basis
of the economy, producing almost all the foods in the Inca diet. Each ayllu had
its own self-supporting farm community. Ayllu members worked the land
cooperatively to produce food crops and cotton. All work was done by hand
because the Incas lacked wheeled tools and draft animals. Their simple
implements included a heavy wooden spade or foot plow called a taclla, a
stone-tipped club to break up clods, a bronze-bladed hoe, and a digging stick.
The inhabitants of the Andean region developed more than half the
agricultural products that the world eats today. Among these are more than 20
varieties of corn; 240 varieties of potato; as well as one or more varieties of
squash, beans, peppers, peanuts, and cassava (a starchy root); and quinoa, which
is made into a cereal. By far the most important of these was the potato. The
Incas planted the potato, which is able to withstand heavy frosts, as high as
4600 m (15,000 ft). At these heights the Incas could use the freezing night
temperatures and the heat of the day to alternately freeze and dry the potatoes
until all the moisture had been removed. The Incas then reduced the potato to a
light flour. They cultivated corn up to an altitude of 4100 m (13,500 ft) and
consumed it fresh, dried, and popped. They also made it into an alcoholic
beverage known as saraiaka or chicha.
The Incas faced difficult conditions for agriculture. Mountainous terrain
limited the land that could be used for agriculture, and water was sometimes
scarce. To compensate, the Incas adopted and improved upon the terracing methods
invented by pre-Inca civilizations. They built stone walls to create raised,
level fields. These fields formed steplike patterns along the sides of hills
that were too steep to irrigate or plough in their natural state. Terraces
created more arable land and kept the topsoil from washing away in heavy rains.
Although rain generally falls in the Andes between December and May, there
are often years of drought. The Incas constructed complex canals to bring water
to terraces and other patches of arable land. They also made use of natural
fertilizers. Guano, the nitrate-rich droppings of birds, was plentiful in
coastal areas. In the highlands, farmers used the remains of slaughtered llamas
as a fertilizer.
Camelids, such as llamas, alpacas, and vicuñas, were very important to the
economy. In addition to carrying burdens, llamas and alpacas were raised as a
source of coarse wool and of dung, which was used for fuel. The finest-quality
wool came from the wild vicuña, which was caught, sheared, and set free again.
The Inca also raised guinea pigs, ducks, and dogs, which were the main sources
of meat protein.
The Incas mined extensive deposits of gold and silver, but this wealth
ultimately brought disaster in the 16th century, when Spanish soldiers came
seeking riches for themselves and their king.
The supreme god of the
Incas was the creator god, Viracocha. The Incas also worshiped the sun god, Inti,
from whom the royal family was believed to be descended, and a number of other
nature gods that were vital to the success of their crops. The Incas also
believed that certain objects and places were sacred. They called these objects
and places huacas. A huaca might be a great temple built by humans; an
object found in nature, such as a hill, spring, stream, or rock; or a small
amulet, or charm. Every Inca family had a huaca, some object of worship that was
put in a niche in the home. Offerings were repeatedly given to the huacas to
maintain balance in nature and society.
The Incas also believed in an afterlife and worshiped the spirits of their
ancestors. The bodies and tombs of the dead were treated as huacas. The bodies
of dead rulers were among the holiest shrines in the empire. These rulers were
treated as if they were still alive, attended to by servants in their palaces
and consulted for advice on daily affairs. Rural people practiced simpler
rituals of ancestor worship. When a person died, the body was embalmed and
placed in a beehive-shaped tomb with vessels of food and chicha. The family of
the deceased held funeral ceremonies for eight days and wore black clothes for
as long as a year, and women in mourning cut their hair. The Incas also made
above ground tombs called chullpas. They would enter and reenter these tombs,
providing more food and precious goods and offerings to their mummified
ancestors.
The Inca state religion was highly formal, with a large number of priests to
conduct its many rituals and ceremonies. In many rites, live sacrifices were
offered to the gods. The sacrificial offerings were usually llamas or guinea
pigs, but on the most sacred occasions or in times of disaster, human children
or chosen women might be sacrificed. Priests prophesied the future and treated
the sick, since illness was thought to result from the ill will of a person or a
god. The chosen women served the gods, especially the sun god, and certain of
them, called virgins of the sun, took vows of chastity for life. See also
Pre-Columbian Religions: Inca Religion.
Although priests treated
most illness with healing ceremonies, the Incas were capable of amazing feats of
surgery, including amputations and perhaps even bone transplants. The patient
was first made unconscious by drugs, intoxicants, or possibly hypnotism. Many of
these surgeries were successful, and the patients lived for years after the
operations.
The Incas seem to have reckoned time by a lunar calendar. They had accurate
standards of measurement, including a fathom that equaled about 163 cm (64 in)
in length, and they used a balance beam for measuring weight.
The Incas were skilled in such crafts as textiles, pottery, and metalwork.
They wove wool and cotton into intricate geometric patterns. In addition to
painted pottery vessels, the Incas made small objects of clay that were
sometimes decorated with animal forms. They created a few standardized forms,
chiefly llamas and human figurines, in stone and metal. Goldsmithing was an Inca
specialty. Smiths who worked gold and silver lived in a special district and did
not have to pay taxes. The best examples of their art have not survived, because
the Spanish melted most Inca articles made of gold and shipped them to Spain.
Craftsmen made wide use of copper and bronze for tools and ornaments, while
fashioning gold and silver into jewelry and other items for use by the nobility
or the priests. See also Pre-Columbian Art and Architecture.
The Incas produced a rich body of music, of which only fragments survive.
Inca music often accompanied ritualized religious dancing. Musicians used
repetitive rhythms and dissonant tones to induce an almost hypnotic state in the
dancers. Inca instruments were made of wood, reeds, pottery, bone, shell, and
metal. The Incas played two basic kinds of instruments: wind and percussion.
Wind instruments, such as horns and flutes, produce a sound when a musician
blows into a tube or hollow chamber. Percussion instruments, such as bells or
drums, produce a sound when a musician strikes the instrument. Drums and flutes
were the most common instruments used by the Incas. Flutes came in many
varieties. The panpipe—a series of cane or pottery flutes tuned to different
notes and tied together in a row—are still common in the Andes today.
The Inca civilization was at its height around 1493, as Spaniards began
arriving in the Americas. In that year, the great ruler Topa Inca was succeeded
by Huayna Capac, who continued to expand the empire. In about 1525 the Inca
Empire survived an attack by a band of Chiriguano, Native American people from
nearby Paraguay. The attackers were accompanied by Portuguese explorer Aleixo
García, the first white man the Incas had ever seen. Then stories reached the
Incas of other white men exploring the Pacific coast.
About 1525 both Huayna Capac and his appointed heir died within a few days of
each other, probably from one of the European diseases that accompanied the
arrival of the Spaniards. Their deaths set off a struggle for power between two
of Huayna Capac’s remaining sons, Huáscar and Atahualpa. Civil war weakened the
empire until Atahualpa captured Huáscar and ordered his execution in 1532. That
same year, Spanish explorer Francisco Pizarro and 180 Spanish soldiers landed on
the coast of Peru. The Incas at first believed Pizarro to be their creator god
Viracocha, just as the Aztecs of Mexico had associated the Spanish explorer
Hernán Cortés with their god Quetzalcoatl.
Pizarro, however, launched a surprise attack on Atahualpa's followers and
seized the emperor. Atahualpa tried to buy his life by giving Pizarro enough
gold to fill a room. His efforts were not successful; in 1533 the Spaniards
executed Atahualpa by strangulation, and then they chopped off his head.
The Spaniards extended their control over Inca territory in the following
years. Pizarro tried at first to maintain the appearances of a continued Inca
state by placing Manco Capac II, a son of Huayna Capac, on the throne at Cuzco.
Disagreements soon broke out among the Spanish over how to divide the wealth
taken from the Incas. Manco Capac II took advantage of this situation. He
escaped from Cuzco in 1536 and launched a revolt against Spanish rule.
The Spanish quickly defeated an attack by four Inca armies at Lima, Peru,
which Pizarro had made his capital. After an unsuccessful three-month siege of
Cuzco by another Inca army, Manco Capac II and thousands of his followers took
refuge in the mountainous region of Vilcabamba to the northwest of Cuzco. There
he created a new Inca state, from which he led his warriors in attacks on the
Spanish.
The Inca kingdom at Vilcabamba survived for another 36 years, protected by
the difficult terrain of the region. In 1572 the Spanish made a determined
attempt to destroy the Inca stronghold. They overwhelmed the Inca forces and
captured the last emperor of the Incas, Tupac Amarú. The Spanish beheaded Tupac
Amarú in 1572, ending the Inca dynasty.
The conquerors then introduced the encomienda system, which put Native
Americans to work at forced labor on great agricultural estates. Thousands died
of European diseases, and many others fled the land of their ancestors, causing
the population to drop rapidly. Today about 8 million descendants of the Incas
inhabit the lands of the former empire, speaking the Quechuan language and
following many of the ancient Inca beliefs and customs.