The Inca

In 1438, a tribal leader who called himself Pachacuti, which means “transformer” or “shaker” of the earth, began conquering the tribes living near what is now Cuzco, Peru. His military victories, followed by those of his son, combined the small tribes into a full-fledged state, the Incan Empire. It extended from present-day Ecuador in the north to Chile in the south. By 1493, Pachacuti’s grandson, Huayna Capac, ruled the empire. He focused on consolidating and managing the many lands conquered by his predecessors.

Government, Economy, and Society In order to rule the extensive territory efficiently, the Incan Empire was split into four provinces, each with its own governor and bureaucracy. Conquered leaders who demonstrated loyalty to the empire were rewarded. In contrast to the people living under the Aztecs, conquered people under the Inca did not have to pay tribute. Rather, they were subject to the mit’a system, mandatory public service. Men between the ages of 15 and 50 provided agricultural and other forms of labor, including the construction of roads.

Religion The name Inca means “people of the sun,” and Inti, the sun god, was the most important of the Incan gods. Inca rulers were considered to be Inti’s representative on the earth. As the center of two critical elements in Incan religion—honoring of the sun and royal ancestor veneration—the Temple of the Sun in Cuzco formed the core of Incan religion.

Royal ancestor veneration was a practice intended to extend the rule of a leader. Dead rulers were mummified and continued to “rule” as they had in life and were thought to retain ownership of their servants, possessions, and property. Thus, Incan rulers could not expect to inherit land or property upon assuming power. This practice was a partial motivator for the constant expansion of the empire.

Priests were consulted before important actions. To the Inca, the gods controlled all things, and priests could determine the gods’ will by studying the arrangement of coca leaves in a dish or by watching the movement of a spider. Priests diagnosed illnesses, predicted the outcome of battles, solved crimes, and determined what sacrifices should be made to which god. Serious events such as famines, plagues, and defeat in war called for human sacrifices— although scholars do not believe that human sacrifice was practiced with the same frequency as it probably was with the Aztecs.

Inca religion included some animism—the belief that elements of the physical world could have supernatural powers. Called huaca, they could be large geographical features such as a river or a mountain peak. Or, they could be very small objects such as a stone, a plant, or a built object, such as a bridge.

Achievements In mathematics, the Inca developed the quipu, a system of knotted strings used to record numerical information for trade and engineering and for recording messages to be carried throughout the empire. In agriculture, the Inca developed sophisticated terrace systems for the cultivation of crops such as potatoes and maize. The terraces utilized a technique called waru waru, raised beds with channels that captured and redirected rain to avoid erosion during floods and that stored water to be used during dry periods.

The Inca were especially good builders of bridges and roads. Using captive labor, they constructed a massive roadway system called the Carpa Nan, with some 25,000 miles of roads used mainly by the government and military. In a mountainous region, bridges were particularly important.

Decline Upon the arrival of Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1532, the Incan Empire was in the midst of a civil war of succession after the death of emperor Huayna Capac. Some scholars believe that the civil war weakened the Incan army, making it easier for Pizarro’s forces to prevail. Others believe that other factors such as diseases introduced by the Europeans led to the decline. In 1533, the Spanish conquered the core of the empire, although outposts held out until 1572. Today, the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu are one of the most-visited sites in the world.