The Incas started to develop around 1200 AD and extended from a small tribe into the largest empire known in the Americas. They rose as a small regional dynasty, like many others in the Andes, around the city of Cusco at 3,400 meters of altitude. Their beginning is lost in legend, with the first Inca, Manco Capac. After a few rulers governing a small territory around Cusco, their capital city, in the mid 1400s an explosive expansion of the empire took place under the ruling of Pachacutec.
The Inca empire stretched to most of Ecuador, Peru, Western Bolivia, Northern Chile and Northwest Argentina, accomplishing this impressive growth in less than 100 years. An estimated 30,000 kilometers of highways kept together the extensive territory. Abundant remains of their surprising highways, agricultural systems and advanced architecture still surprise and wonder today's visitors.
The Inca organization was planned around big administrative centers with large production of food, textiles and pottery. Each community had to meet production quotas and were required to perform community labor known as "minka". The empire (Tawantinsuyo) was composed of four provinces (Suyos), North, South, East and West of Cusco, their Capital.
Neither the Incas, nor the other pre-Columbian cultures had a writing system. However, they transmitted information and kept statistical records in several ways, using a knotted strings system and through music and dancing.
The Incas worshiped the Sun mainly but they also had secondary deities like the moon, the rainbow, thunder, lighting etc. However, they accepted a God Wiracocha, the overall creator of the universe. An impressive temple dedicated to Wiracocha was built at Raqchi, 100 kilometers from Cusco, which remains still stand there.
The agriculture was well developed with a sophisticated irrigation system and soil conservation. Many of these systems are still in use by the people in the highlands.
Some of the most exquisite examples of Incas architecture can still be admired in the Cusco, Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu area, made of huge close fit blocks of stone cut with an exquisite technique which still bewilders visitors.
The Inca Huayna Capac established a northern capital in Quito (today's Ecuador) in order to fight permanent rebels in that area. After Huayna Capacīs death, his son Huascar inherited power. However, his brother Atahualpa in Quito fought him in a devastating civil war between Cusco and Quito. Soon after Atahualpa had defeated his brother, came the Spanish invasion. In the fifteen century, less than a hundred years after their massive expansion throughout the Andes, the empire of the Incas - the Tawantinsuyo - fell in an abrupt manner with the Spanish conquest of Peru.
|
