Inca Empire

The Inca Empire, otherwise called Incan Empire and the Inka Empire, and at
the time known as the Realm of the Four Parts,[a] was the biggest domain in
pre-Columbian America.[4] The regulatory, political and military focus of the
realm was in the city of Cusco. The Inca human progress emerged from the
Peruvian good countries at some point in the mid thirteenth century. The
Spanish started the success of the Inca Empire in 1532 and its last fortress was
vanquished in 1572.

From 1438 to 1533, the Incas consolidated an enormous piece of western

South America, fixated on the Andean Mountains, utilizing victory and serene
digestion, among different techniques. At its biggest, the domain joined Peru,
western Ecuador, western and south focal Bolivia, northwest Argentina, an
enormous piece of what is today Chile, and the southwesternmost tip of
Colombia into a state practically identical to the recorded realms of Eurasia. Its
authority language was Quechua.[5] The Inca Empire was remarkable in that it
needed large numbers of the highlights related with human advancement in
the Old World. Anthropologist Gordon McEwan composed that the Incas had
the option to develop "one of the best royal states in mankind's set of
experiences" without the utilization of the wheel, draft creatures, information
on iron or steel, or even an arrangement of writing.[6] Notable highlights of
the Inca Empire incorporated its amazing engineering, particularly stonework,
broad street network arriving at all edges of the domain, finely-woven
materials, utilization of tied strings (quipu) for record keeping and
correspondence, horticultural advancements and creation in a troublesome
climate, and the association and the board encouraged or forced on its kin and
their work.

The Inca Empire worked to a great extent without cash and without business
sectors. All things being equal, trade of labor and products depended on
correspondence among people and among people, gatherings, and Inca rulers.
"Duties" comprised of a work commitment of an individual to the Empire. The
Inca rulers (who hypothetically possessed every one of the method for
creation) responded by conceding admittance to land and products and giving
food and drink in celebratory blowouts for their subjects.[7] Many nearby
types of love continued in the realm, a large
portion of them concerning neighborhood
consecrated Huacas, however the Inca
administration energized the sun love of Inti –
their sun god – and forced its sway above
different factions, for example, that of
Pachamama.[8] The Incas thought about their
lord, the Sapa Inca, to be the "child of the
sun."[9]

The Incan economy has been portrayed in

incongruous ways by researchers; Darrell E. La
Lone, in his work The Inca as a Nonmarket Economy, noticed that the Inca
economy has been portrayed as "primitive, slave, [and] communist", and
added "here one might pick either communist heaven or communist
tyranny."[10]
 HISTORY

Antecedents

The Inca Empire was the last part of millennia of Andean human advancements.
The Andean human progress is one of five civic establishments on the planet
considered by researchers to be "immaculate", that is native and not subordinate
from other civilizations.[13]

The Inca Empire was gone before by two enormous scope domains in the
Andes: the Tiwanaku (c. 300–1100 AD), based around Lake Titicaca and the
Wari or Huari (c. 600–1100 AD) focused close to the city of Ayacucho. The
Wari involved the Cuzco region for around 400 years. Consequently, a
considerable lot of the attributes of the Inca Empire got from before multi-
ethnic and sweeping Andean cultures.[14] To those previous developments
might be owed a portion of the achievements refered to for the Inca Empire: "a
huge number of miles of streets and many huge regulatory focuses with intricate
stone construction...terraced mountainsides and filled in valleys," and the
creation of "immense amounts of goods."[15]

Carl Troll has contended that the improvement of the Inca state in the focal
Andes was helped by conditions that consider the elaboration of the staple food
chuño. Chuño, which can be put away for significant stretches, is made of
potato dried at the frigid temperatures that are normal at evening time in the
southern Peruvian high countries. Such a connection between the Inca state and
chuño might be addressed, as different yields, for example, maize can likewise
be dried with just sunlight.[16] Troll additionally contended that llamas, the
Inca's pack creature, can be found in its biggest numbers in this exact same
region.[16] The most extreme degree of the Inca Empire generally concurred
with the appropriation of llamas and alpacas, the main enormous tamed
creatures in Pre-Hispanic America.[17] As a third point Troll brought up water
system innovation as profitable to the Inca state-building.[18] While Troll
conjectured ecological effects on the Inca Empire, he went against natural
determinism, contending that culture lay at the center of the Inca development
 ORIGIN
The Inca people were a pastoral tribe in the Cusco area around the 12th
century. Peruvian oral history tells an origin story of three caves. The center
cave at Tampu T'uqu (Tambo Tocco) was named Qhapaq T'uqu ("principal
niche", also spelled Capac Tocco). The other caves were Maras T'uqu (Maras
Tocco) and Sutiq T'uqu (Sutic Tocco).[19] Four brothers and four sisters stepped
out of the middle cave. They were: Ayar Manco, Ayar Cachi, Ayar Awqa (Ayar
Auca) and Ayar Uchu; and Mama Ocllo, Mama Raua, Mama Huaco and Mama
Qura (Mama Cora). Out of the side caves came the people who were to be the
ancestors of all the Inca clans.

Manco Cápac, First Inca, 1 of 14 Portraits of Inca Kings, Probably mid-18th

century. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum
Ayar Manco carried a magic staff made of the finest gold. Where this staff
landed, the people would live. They traveled for a long time. On the way, Ayar
Cachi boasted about his strength and power. His siblings tricked him into
returning to the cave to get a sacred llama. When he went into the cave, they
trapped him inside to get rid of him.
Ayar Uchu decided to stay on the top of the cave to look over the Inca people.
The minute he proclaimed that, he turned to stone. They built a shrine around
the stone and it became a sacred object. Ayar Auca grew tired of all this and
decided to travel alone. Only Ayar Manco and his four sisters remained.
Finally, they reached Cusco. The staff sank into the ground. Before they
arrived, Mama Ocllo had already borne Ayar Manco a child, Sinchi Roca. The
people who were already living in Cusco fought hard to keep their land, but
Mama Huaca was a good fighter. When the enemy attacked, she threw
her bolas (several stones tied together that spun through the air when thrown)
at a soldier (gualla) and killed him instantly. The other people became afraid
and ran away.
After that, Ayar Manco became known as Manco Cápac, the founder of the
Inca. It is said that he and his sisters built the first Inca homes in the valley with
their own hands. When the time came, Manco Cápac turned to stone like his
brothers before him. His son, Sinchi Roca, became the second emperor of the
Inca.[20]
 LANGUAGES
The empire was extremely linguistically diverse. Some of the most important
languages were Quechua, Aymara, Puquina and Mochica, respectively mainly
spoken in the Central Andes, the Altiplano or (Qullasuyu), the south Peruvian
coast (Kuntisuyu), and the area of the north Peruvian coast (Chinchaysuyu)
around Chan Chan, today Trujillo. Other languages included Quignam, Jaqaru,
Leco, Uru-Chipaya languages, Kunza, Humahuaca, Cacán, Mapudungun, Culle,
Chachapoya, Catacao languages, Manta, and Barbacoan languages, as well as
numerous Amazonian languages on the frontier regions. The exact linguistic
topography of the pre-Columbian and early colonial Andes remains
incompletely understood, owing to the extinction of several languages and the
loss of historical records.

In order to manage this diversity, the Inca lords promoted the usage of
Quechua, especially the variety of what is now Lima[37] as the Qhapaq
Runasimi ("great language of the people"), or the official language/lingua
franca. Defined by mutual intelligibility, Quechua is actually a family of
languages rather than one single language, parallel to the Romance or Slavic
languages in Europe. Most communities within the empire, even those
resistant to Inca rule, learned to speak a variety of Quechua (forming new
regional varieties with distinct phonetics) in order to communicate with the
Inca lords and mitma colonists, as well as the wider integrating society, but
largely retained their native languages as well. The Incas also had their own
ethnic language, referred to as Qhapaq simi ("royal language"), which is
thought to have been closely related to or a dialect of Puquina. The split
between Qhapaq simi and Qhapaq Runasimi exemplifies the larger split
between hatun and hunin (high and low) society in general.

There are several common misconceptions about the history of Quechua, as it

is frequently identified as the "Inca language". Quechua did not originate with
the Incas, had been a lingua franca in multiple areas before the Inca
expansions, was diverse before the rise of the Incas, and it was not the native
or original language of the Incas. However, the Incas left an impressive
linguistic legacy, in that they introduced Quechua to many areas where it is still
widely spoken today, including Ecuador, southern Bolivia, southern Colombia,
and parts of the Amazon basin. The Spanish conquerors continued the official
usage of Quechua during the early colonial period, and transformed it into a
literary language.[38]

The Incas were not known to develop a written form of language; however,
they visually recorded narratives through paintings on vases and cups (qirus).
[39] These paintings are usually accompanied by geometric patterns known as
toqapu, which are also found in textiles. Researchers have speculated that
toqapu patterns could have served as a form of written communication (e.g.:
heraldry, or glyphs), however this remains unclear.[40] The Incas also kept
records by using quipus.
 RELIGION
Inca legends were sent orally until early Spanish pilgrims recorded them; in any
case, a few researchers guarantee that they were recorded on quipus, Andean
hitched string records.[50]

The Inca put stock in reincarnation.[51] After death, the entry to the following
scene was laden with challenges. The soul of the dead, camaquen, would have
to follow a lengthy, difficult experience and during the outing the help of a
dark canine that could find in obscurity was required. Most Incas envisioned
the after world to resemble a natural heaven with bloom covered fields and
snow-covered mountains.

It was imperative to the Inca that they not pass on because of consuming or
that the body of the perished not be burned. Consuming would make their
fundamental power vanish and compromise their section to the after world.
The Inca honorability rehearsed cranial deformation.[52] They wrapped tight
fabric ties around the heads of babies to shape their delicate skulls into a more
conelike structure, subsequently recognizing the respectability from other
social classes.

The Incas made human penances. Upwards of 4,000 workers, court authorities,
top picks and mistresses were killed upon the demise of the Inca Huayna Capac
in 1527.[53] The Incas performed youngster penances around significant
occasions, like the passing of the Sapa Inca or during a starvation. These
penances were known as qhapaq hucha
 DIETIES
The Incas were polytheists who worshipped many
gods. These included:
 Viracocha (also Pachacamac) – Created all living
things
 Apu Illapu – Rain God, prayed to when they
need rain
 Ayar Cachi – Hot-tempered God, causes
earthquakes
 Illapa – Goddess of lightning and thunder (also Yakumama water
goddess)
 Inti – sun god and patron deity of the holy city of Cusco (home of the
sun)
 Kuychi – Rainbow God, connected with fertility
 Mama Killa – Wife of Inti, called Moon Mother
 Mama Occlo – Wisdom to civilize the people, taught women to weave
cloth and build houses
 Manco Cápac – known for his courage and sent to earth to become first
king of the Incas. Taught people how to grow plants, make weapons,
work together, share resources and worship the Gods
 Pachamama – The Goddess of earth and wife of Viracocha. People give
her offerings of coca leaves and beer and pray to her for major
agricultural occasions
 Quchamama – Goddess of the sea
 Sachamama – Means Mother Tree, goddess in the shape of a snake with
two heads
 Yakumama – Means mother Water. Represented as a snake. When she
came to earth she transformed into a great river (also Illapa).

 ECONOMY
The Inca Empire employed central planning. The Inca Empire traded with
outside regions, although they did not operate a substantial
internal market economy. While axe-monies were used along the
northern coast, presumably by the provincial mindaláe trading class,
[55]
most households in the empire lived in a traditional economy in
which households were required to pay taxes, usually in the form of
the mit'a corvée labor, and military obligations,[56] though barter
(or trueque) was present in some areas.[57] In return, the state provided
security, food in times of hardship through the supply of emergency
resources, agricultural projects (e.g. aqueducts and terraces) to increase
productivity and occasional feasts. While mit'a was used by the state to
obtain labor, individual villages had a pre-inca system of communal
work, known as mink'a. This system survives to the modern day, known
as mink'a or faena. The economy rested on the material foundations of
the vertical archipelago, a system of ecological complementarity in
accessing resources[58] and the cultural foundation of ayni, or reciprocal
exchange.[59][60]
 Organization of the empire
The Inca Empire was a federalist system consisting of a central
government with the Inca at its head and four-quarters,
or suyu: Chinchay Suyu (NW), Anti Suyu (NE), Kunti Suyu (SW)
and Qulla Suyu (SE). The four corners of these quarters met at
the center, Cusco. These suyu were likely created around 1460
during the reign of Pachacuti before the empire reached its
largest territorial extent. At the time the suyu were established
they were roughly of equal size and only later changed their
proportions as the empire expanded north and south along the
Andes.[65]
Cusco was likely not organized as a wamani, or province.
Rather, it was probably somewhat akin to a modern federal
district, like Washington, DC or Mexico City. The city sat at the
center of the four suyu and served as the preeminent center of
politics and religion. While Cusco was essentially governed by
the Sapa Inca, his relatives and the royal panaqa lineages,
each suyu was governed by an Apu, a term of esteem used for
men of high status and for venerated mountains. Both Cusco as
a district and the four suyu as administrative regions were
grouped into upper hanan and lower hurin divisions. As the
Inca did not have written records, it is impossible to
exhaustively list the constituent wamani. However, colonial
records allow us to reconstruct a partial list. There were likely
more than 86 wamani, with more than 48 in the highlands and
more than 38 on the coast.[66][67][68]
Suyu
The four suyus or quarters of the empire.
The most populous suyu was Chinchaysuyu, which
encompassed the former Chimu empire and much of the
northern Andes. At its largest extent, it extended through much
of modern Ecuador and into modern Colombia.
The largest suyu by area was Qullasuyu, named after
the Aymara-speaking Qulla people. It encompassed the
Bolivian Altiplano and much of the southern Andes, reaching
Argentina and as far south as the Maipo or Maule
river in Central Chile.[69] Historian José Bengoa singled
out Quillota as likely being the foremost Inca settlement in
Chile.[70]
The second smallest suyu, Antisuyu, was northwest of Cusco in
the high Andes. Its name is the root of the word "Andes."[71]
Kuntisuyu was the smallest suyu, located along the southern
coast of modern Peru, extending into the highlands towards
Cusco.[72]
Laws
The Inca state had no separate judiciary or codified laws.
Customs, expectations and traditional local power holders
governed behavior. The state had legal force, such as
through tokoyrikoq (lit. "he who sees all"), or inspectors. The
highest such inspector, typically a blood relative to the Sapa
 Inca, acted independently of the conventional hierarchy,
providing a point of view for the Sapa Inca free of bureaucratic
influence.[73]
The Inca had three moral precepts that governed their
behavior:
 Ama sua: Do not steal
 Ama llulla: Do not lie
 Ama quella: Do not be lazy
Administration
Colonial sources are not entirely clear or in agreement about
Inca government structure, such as exact duties and functions
of government positions. But the basic structure can be broadly
described. The top was the Sapa Inca. Below that may have
been the Willaq Umu, literally the "priest who recounts", the
High Priest of the Sun.[74] However, beneath the Sapa Inca also
sat the Inkap rantin, who was a confidant and assistant to
the Sapa Inca, perhaps similar to a Prime Minister.[75] Starting
with Topa Inca Yupanqui, a "Council of the Realm" was
composed of 16 nobles: 2 from hanan Cusco; 2
from hurin Cusco; 4 from Chinchaysuyu; 2 from Cuntisuyu; 4
from Collasuyu; and 2 from Antisuyu. This weighting of
representation balanced the hanan and hurin divisions of the
empire, both within Cusco and within the Quarters (hanan
suyukuna and hurin suyukuna).[76]
While provincial bureaucracy and government varied greatly,
the basic organization was decimal. Taxpayers – male heads of
household of a certain age range – were organized into corvée
labor units (often doubling as military units) that formed the
state's muscle as part of mit'a service. Each unit of more than
100 tax-payers were headed by a kuraka, while smaller units
were headed by a kamayuq, a lower, non-hereditary status.
However, while kuraka status was hereditary and typically
served for life, the position of a kuraka in the hierarchy was
subject to change based on the privileges of superiors in the
hierarchy; a pachaka kuraka could be appointed to the position
by a waranqa kuraka. Furthermore, one kuraka in each decimal
level could serve as the head of one of the nine groups at a
lower level, so that a pachaka kuraka might also be a waranqa
kuraka, in effect directly responsible for one unit of 100 tax-
payers and less directly responsible for nine other such units.[77]
[78][79]

0PO9
 Measures, calendrics and mathematics

hysical measures used by the Inca were based on human body parts.
Units included fingers, the distance from thumb to forefinger,
palms, cubits and wingspans. The most basic distance unit
was thatkiy or thatki, or one pace. The next largest unit was reported
by Cobo to be the topo or tupu, measuring 6,000 thatkiys, or about
7.7 km (4.8 mi); careful study has shown that a range of 4.0 to 6.3 km
(2.5 to 3.9 mi) is likely. Next was the wamani, composed of 30 topos
(roughly 232 km or 144 mi). To measure area, 25 by 50 wingspans
were used, reckoned in topos (roughly 3,280 km2 or 1,270 sq mi). It
seems likely that distance was often interpreted as one day's walk;
the distance between tambo way-stations varies widely in terms of
distance, but far less in terms of time to walk that distance.[82][83]
Inca calendars were strongly tied to astronomy. Inca astronomers
understood equinoxes, solstices and zenith passages, along with
the Venus cycle. They could not, however, predict eclipses. The Inca
calendar was essentially lunisolar, as two calendars were maintained
in parallel, one solar and one lunar. As 12 lunar months fall 11 days
short of a full 365-day solar year, those in charge of the calendar had
to adjust every winter solstice. Each lunar month was marked with
festivals and rituals.[84] Apparently, the days of the week were not
named and days were not grouped into weeks. Similarly, months
were not grouped into seasons. Time during a day was not measured
in hours or minutes, but in terms of how far the sun had travelled or
in how long it had taken to perform a task.[85]
The sophistication of Inca administration, calendrics and engineering
required facility with numbers. Numerical information was stored in
the knots of quipu strings, allowing for compact storage of large
numbers.[86][87] These numbers were stored in base-10 digits, the
same base used by the Quechua language[88] and in administrative
and military units.[78] These numbers, stored in quipu, could be
calculated on yupanas, grids with squares of positionally varying
mathematical values, perhaps functioning as an abacus.
[89]
Calculation was facilitated by moving piles of tokens, seeds or
pebbles between compartments of the yupana. It is likely that Inca
mathematics at least allowed division of integers into integers or
fractions and multiplication of integers and fractions.[90]
According to mid-17th-century Jesuit chronicler Bernabé Cobo, [91] the
Inca designated officials to perform accounting-related tasks. These
officials were called quipo camayos. Study of khipu sample VA 42527
(Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin)[92] revealed that the numbers
arranged in calendrically significant patterns were used for
agricultural purposes in the "farm account books" kept by the
khipukamayuq (accountant or warehouse keeper) to facilitate the
closing of accounting books.[93]
Tunics

Inca Tunic, 15th-16th Century

Tunics were created by skilled Incan textile-makers as a piece of
warm clothing, but they also symbolized cultural and political status
and power. Cumbi was the fine, tapestry-woven woolen cloth that
was produced and necessary for the creation of tunics. Cumbi was
produced by specially-appointed women and men. Generally, textile-
making was practiced by both men and women. As emphasized by
certain historians, only with European conquest was it deemed that
women would become the primary weavers in society, as opposed to
Incan society where specialty textiles were produced by men and
women equally.[46]
Complex patterns and designs were meant to convey information
about order in Andean society as well as the Universe. Tunics could
also symbolize one's relationship to ancient rulers or important
ancestors. These textiles were frequently designed to represent the
physical order of a society, for example, the flow of tribute within an
empire. Many tunics have a "checkerboard effect" which is known as
the collcapata. According to historians Kenneth Mills, William B.
Taylor, and Sandra Lauderdale Graham, the collcapata patterns
"seem to have expressed concepts of commonality, and, ultimately,
unity of all ranks of people, representing a careful kind of foundation
upon which the structure of Inkaic universalism was built." Rulers
wore various tunics throughout the year, switching them out for
different occasions and feasts.
The symbols present within the tunics suggest the importance of
"pictographic expression" within Inkan and other Andean societies
far before the iconographies of the Spanish Christians.[94]
Uncu
Uncu was a men's garment similar to a tunic. It was an upper-body
garment of knee-length; Royals wore it with a mantle cloth called
''yacolla.''[95][96]
 Weapons, armor and warfare

The Inca army was the most powerful at that time, because any
ordinary villager or farmer could be recruited as a soldier as part of
the mit'a system of mandatory public service. Every able bodied
male Inca of fighting age had to take part in war in some capacity at
least once and to prepare for warfare again when needed. By the
time the empire reached its largest size, every section of the empire
contributed in setting up an army for war.

The Incas had no iron or steel and their weapons were not much
more effective than those of their opponents so they often defeated
opponents by sheer force of numbers, or else by persuading them to
surrender beforehand by offering generous terms.[103] Inca
weaponry included "hardwood spears launched using throwers,
arrows, javelins, slings, the bolas, clubs, and maces with star-shaped
heads made of copper or bronze."[103][104] Rolling rocks downhill
onto the enemy was a common strategy, taking advantage of the
hilly terrain.[105] Fighting was sometimes accompanied by drums
and trumpets made of wood, shell or bone.[106][107] Armor
included:[103][108]

Helmets made of wood, cane, or animal skin, often lined with copper
or bronze; some were adorned with feathers
Round or square shields made from wood or hide
Cloth tunics padded with cotton and small wooden planks to protect
the spine
Ceremonial metal breastplates, of copper, silver, and gold, have been
found in burial sites, some of which may have also been used in
battle.[109][110]
Roads allowed quick movement (on foot) for the Inca army and
shelters called tambo and storage silos called qullqas were built one
day's travelling distance from each other, so that an army on
campaign could always be fed and rested. This can be seen in names
of ruins such as Ollantay Tambo, or My Lord's Storehouse. These
were set up so the Inca and his entourage would always have
supplies (and possibly shelter) ready as they traveled.