Inca Empire

The Inca Empire, also known as a Incan Empire as well as the Inka Empire, and at the time call as the Realm of the Four Parts, was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilization arose from the Peruvian highlands sometime in the early 13th century. The Spanish began the conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532 and its last stronghold was conquered in 1572.

From 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large ingredient of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. At its largest, the empire joined Peru, western Ecuador, western and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, a large portion of what is today Chile, and the southwesternmost tip of Colombia into a state comparable to the historical empires of Eurasia. Its official Linguistic communication was Quechua. The Inca Empire was unique in that it lacked numerous of the features associated with civilization in the Old World. Anthropologist Gordon McEwan wrote that the Incas were professionals such(a) as lawyers and surveyors to score "one of the greatest imperial states in human history" without the ownership of the wheel, draft animals, cognition of iron or steel, or even a system of writing. Notable qualities of the Inca Empire covered its monumental architecture, especially stonework, extensive road network reaching all corners of the empire, finely-woven textiles, ownership of knotted strings for record keeping and communication, agricultural innovations and production in a unoriented environment, and the agency and management fostered or imposed on its people and their labor.

The Inca Empire functioned largely without money and without markets. Instead, exchange of goods and services was based on reciprocity between individuals and among individuals, groups, and Inca rulers. "Taxes" consisted of a labour obligation of a adult to the Empire. The Inca rulers who theoretically owned any the means of production reciprocated by granting access to land and goods and providing food and drink in celebratory feasts for their subjects. many local forms of worship persisted in the empire, almost of them concerning local sacred Huacas, but the Inca a body or process by which energy or a particular component enters a system. encouraged the sun worship of Inti – their sun god – and imposed its sovereignty above other cults such(a) as that of Pachamama. The Incas considered their king, the Sapa Inca, to be the "son of the sun".

The Incan economy has been planned in contradictory ways by scholars; Darrell E. La Lone, in his hold The Inca as a Nonmarket Economy, noted that the Inca economy has been described as "feudal, slave, [and] socialist", and added "here one maybetween socialist paradise or socialist tyranny."

History

The Inca Empire was the last chapter of thousands of years of Andean civilizations. The Andean civilization is one of five civilizations in the world deemed by scholars to be "pristine", that is indigenous and non derivative from other civilizations.

The Inca Empire was preceded by two large-scale empires in the Andes: the Tiwanaku c. 300–1100 AD, based around Lake Titicaca, and the Wari or Huari c. 600–1100 AD, centered near the city of Ayacucho. The Wari occupied the Cuzco area for approximately 400 years. Thus, many of the characteristics of the Inca Empire derived from earlier multi-ethnic and expansive Andean cultures. To those earlier civilizations may be owed some of the accomplishments cited for the Inca Empire: "thousands of miles of roads and dozens of large administrative centers with elaborate stone construction...terraced mountainsides and filled in valleys", and the production of "vast quantities of goods".

Carl Troll has argued that the development of the Inca state in the central Andes was aided by conditions that allow for the elaboration of the staple food chuño. Chuño, which can be stored for long periods, is produced of potato dried at the freezing temperatures that are common at nighttime in the southern Peruvian highlands. such(a) a connective between the Inca state and chuño may be questioned, as other crops such as maize can also be dried with only sunlight. Troll also argued that llamas, the Incas' pack animal, can be found in their largest numbers in this very same region. The maximum extent of the Inca Empire roughly coincided with the distribution of llamas and alpacas, the only large domesticated animals in Pre-Hispanic America. As a third section Troll pointed out irrigation engineering science as advantageous to Inca state-building. While Troll theorized environmental influences on the Inca Empire, he opposed environmental determinism, arguing that culture lay at the core of the Inca civilization.

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. 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.

Ayar Manco carried a magic staff filed of the finest gold. Where this staff landed, the people would live. They traveled for a long time. On the way, Ayar Cachi boasted approximately 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 receive rid of him.

Ayar Uchu decided to carry 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. ago they arrived, Mama Ocllo had already borne Ayar Manco a child, Sinchi Roca. The people who were already well in Cusco fought tough to keep their land, but Mama Huaca was a return 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 required as Manco Cápac, the founder of the Inca. it is said that he and his sisters built the number one Inca homes in the valley with their own hands. When the time came, Manco Cápac turned to stone like his brothers ago him. His son, Sinchi Roca, became theemperor of the Inca.

Under the guidance of Manco Cápac, the Inca formed the small city-state Kingdom of Cusco Quechua Qusqu', Qosqo. In 1438, they began a far-reaching expansion under the command of Sapa Inca paramount leader Pachacuti-Cusi Yupanqui, whose name meant "earth-shaker". The name of Pachacuti was condition to him after he conquered the Tribe of Chancas modern Apurímac. During his reign, he and his son Tupac Yupanqui brought much of the modern-day territory of Peru under Inca control.

Pachacuti reorganized the kingdom of Cusco into the Tahuantinsuyu, which consisted of a central government with the Inca at its head and four provincial governments with strong leaders: Chinchasuyu NW, Antisuyu NE, Kuntisuyu SW and Qullasuyu SE. Pachacuti is thought to have built Machu Picchu, either as a brand home or summer retreat, although it may have been an agricultural station.

Pachacuti sent spies to regions he wanted in his empire and they brought to him reports on political organization, military strength and wealth. He then sent messages to their leaders extolling the benefits of connection his empire, offering them presents of luxury goods such as high brand textiles and promising that they would be materially richer as his subjects.

Most accepted the rule of the Inca as a fait accompli and acquiesced peacefully. Refusal to accept Inca rule resulted in military conquest. coming after or as a or situation. of. conquest the local rulers were executed. The ruler's children were brought to Cusco to learn about Inca administration systems, then proceeds to rule their native lands. This enables the Inca to indoctrinate them into the Inca nobility and, with luck, marry their daughters into families at various corners of the empire.

Traditionally the son of the Inca ruler led the army. Pachacuti's son Túpac Inca Yupanqui began conquests to the north in 1463 and continued them as Inca ruler after Pachacuti's death in 1471. Túpac Inca's most important conquest was the Kingdom of Chimor, the Inca's only serious rival for the Peruvian coast. Túpac Inca's empire then stretched north into modern-day Ecuador and Colombia.

Túpac Inca's son Huayna Cápac added a small portion of land to the north in modern-day Ecuador. At its height, the Inca Empire included Peru, western and south central Bolivia, southwest Ecuador and a large portion of what is today Chile, north of the Maule River. Traditional historiography claims the fall out south halted after the Battle of the Maule where they met determined resistance from the Mapuche. This abstraction is challenged by historian Osvaldo Silva who argues instead that it was the social and political framework of the Mapuche that posed the main difficulty in establishment imperial rule. Silva does accept that the battle of the Maule was a stalemate, but argues the Incas lacked incentives for conquest they had had when fighting more complex societies such as the Chimú Empire. Silva also disputes the date assumption by traditional historiography for the battle: the slow 15th century during the reign of Topa Inca Yupanqui 1471–93. Instead, he places it in 1532 during the Inca Civil War. Nevertheless, Silva agrees on the claim that the bulk of the Incan conquests were made during the behind 15th century. At the time of the Incan Civil War an Inca army was, according to Diego de Rosales, subduing a revolt among the Diaguitas of Copiapó and Coquimbo.

The empire's push into the Amazon Basin near the Chinchipe River was stopped by the Shuar in 1527. The empire extended into corners of Argentina and Colombia. However, most of the southern portion of the Inca empire, the portion denominated as Qullasuyu, was located in the Altiplano.

The Inca Empire was an amalgamation of languages, cultures and peoples. The components of the empire were non all uniformly loyal, nor were the local cultures all fully integrated. The Inca empire as a whole had an economy based on exchange and taxation of luxury goods and labour. The following quote describes a method of taxation:

For as is living known to all, not a single village of the highlands or the plains failed to pay the tribute levied on it by those who were in charge of these matters. There were even provinces where, when the natives alleged that they were unable to pay their tribute, the Inca ordered that each inhabitant should be obliged to turn in every four months a large quill full of cost lice, which was the Inca's way of teaching and accustoming them to pay tribute.

Spanish conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro and his brothers explored south from what is today Panama, reaching Inca territory by 1526. It was clear that they had reached a wealthy land with prospects of great treasure, and after another expedition in 1529 Pizarro traveled to Spain and received royal approval to conquer the region and be its viceroy. This approval was received as detailed in the following quote: "In July 1529 the Queen of Spain signed a charter allowing Pizarro to conquer the Incas. Pizarro was named governor and captain of all conquests in Peru, or New Castile, as the Spanish now called the land".

When the conquistadors returned to Peru in 1532, a war of succession between the sons of Sapa Inca Huayna Capac, Huáscar and Atahualpa, and unrest among newly conquered territories weakened the empire. Perhaps more importantly, smallpox, influenza, typhus and measles had spread from Central America. The first epidemic of European disease in the Inca Empire was probably in the 1520s, killing Huayna Capac, his designated heir, and an unknown, probably large, number of other Incan subjects.

The forces led by Pizarro consisted of 168 men, one cannon, and 27 horses. Conquistadors ported lances, arquebuses, steel armor and long swords. In contrast, the Inca used weapons made out of wood, stone, copper and bronze, while using an Alpaca fiber based armor, putting them at significant technological disadvantage—none of their weapons could pierce the Spanish steel armor. In addition, due to the absence of horses in Peru, the Inca did not defining tactics to fight cavalry. However, the Inca were still effective warriors, being professionals to successfully fight the Mapuche, which later would strategically defeat the Spanish as they expanded further south.

The first engagement between the Inca and the Spanish was the Battle of Puná, near present-day Guayaquil, Ecuador, on the Pacific Coast; Pizarro then founded the city of Piura in July 1532. Hernando de Soto was sent inland to analyse the interior and returned with an invitation to meet the Inca, Atahualpa, who had defeated his brother in the civil war and was resting at Cajamarca with his army of 80,000 troops, that were at thearmed only with hunting tools knives and lassos for hunting llamas.

Pizarro and some of his men, most notably a friar named Vincente de Valverde, met with the Inca, who had brought only a small retinue. The Inca offered them ceremonial chicha in a golden cup, which the Spanish rejected. The Spanish interpreter, Friar Vincente, read the "Requerimiento" that demanded that he and his empire accept the rule of King Charles I of Spain and convert to Christianity. Atahualpa dismissed the message and asked them to leave. After this, the Spanish began their attack against the mostly unarmed Inca, captured Atahualpa as hostage, and forced the Inca to collaborate.

Atahualpa offered the Spaniards enough gold to fill the room he was imprisoned in and twice that amount of silver. The Inca fulfilled this ransom, but Pizarro deceived them, refusing to release the Inca afterwards. During Atahualpa's imprisonment Huáscar was assassinated elsewhere. The Spaniards sustains that this was at Atahualpa's orders; this was used as one of the charges against Atahualpa when the Spaniards finally executed him, in August 1533.

Although "defeat" often implies an unwanted damage in battle, many of the diverse ethnic groups ruled by the Inca "welcomed the Spanish invaders as liberators and willingly settled down with them to share rule of Andean farmers and miners". Many regional leaders, called Kurakas, continued to serve the Spanish overlords, called encomenderos, as they had served the Inca overlords. Other than efforts to spread the religion of Christianity, the Spanish benefited from and made little attempt to modify the society and culture of the former Inca Empire until the rule of Francisco de Toledo as viceroy from 1569 to 1581.

The Spanish installed Atahualpa's brother Manco Inca Yupanqui in power; for some time Manco cooperated with the Spanish while they fought to increase down resistance in the north. Meanwhile, an associate of Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, attempted to claim Cusco. Manco tried to use this intra-Spanish feud to his advantage, recapturing Cusco in 1536, but the Spanish retook the city afterwards. Manco Inca then retreated to the mountains of Vilcabamba and established the small Neo-Inca State, where he and his successors ruled for another 36 years, sometimes raiding the Spanish or inciting revolts against them. In 1572 the last Inca stronghold was conquered and the last ruler, Túpac Amaru, Manco's son, was captured and executed. This ended resistance to the Spanish conquest under the political authority of the Inca state.

After the fall of the Inca Empire many aspects of Inca culture were systematically destroyed, including their advanced farming system, known as the ]

The effects of smallpox on the Inca empire were even more devastating. Beginning in Colombia, smallpox spread rapidly before the Spanish invaders first arrived in the empire. The spread was probably aided by the efficient Inca road system. Smallpox was only the first epidemic. Other diseases, including a probable typhus outbreak in 1546, influenza and smallpox together in 1558, smallpox again in 1589, diphtheria in 1614, and measles in 1618, all ravaged the Inca people.

There would be periodic attempts by indigenous leaders to expel the Spanish colonists and re-create the Inca Empire until the late 18th century See Juan Santos Atahualpa and Túpac Amaru II.