Inca Empire
Social classes In te Inca Empire
The authorities occupied a high place in the social scale. At the top was the emperor
SAPA INCA descendant of the sun.
His family and the military were part of the imperial court. The great priests were part
of the imperial court as well. They had great wealth and influence.
At the service of all were the YANACONAS, who had been taken as slaves in the
wars.
The capital, Cuzco, became a magnificent city, full of temples and palaces, some of
them existing until today (although as part of Spanish buildings).
ROADS, BRIDGES AND TRIBUTES
One of the inheritances that the Incas owed to Wari Empire
was the system of roads through the Andes, which they
improved considerably.
To pass rivers and streams, they armed quickly hanging
bridges, made of ropes, which allowed the passage of their
armies, their chasquis and the tribute charges they
collected.
The chasquis were the messenger of the Inca who were
trained to walk long distances.
It is known that the total production of a community was
divided into three parts: one for the village, another for the
Sun and another for the Inca. It means that two-thirds of
the local production belonged to the Incas.
The Incas, however, did grain reserves that could be
distributed, in case from bad harvests, to other parts of the
empire.
THE INCA PACHACUTEC
Within the government of the ninth Inca, Pachacutec,
there was a first great expansion of the empire, from
Titicaca to Junín.
He improved the organization of the State, regulated the
taxes, the way to collect them and distribute them.
He also organized the chasquis, real messengers, and
also he trained them to travel to quickly run long
distances, with a system of postas, to carry news of the
Inca.
He used the quipus, an accounting system, and
possibly of writing, consisting of a bundle of wool
and cotton strings of different colors and knots,
which was only understood by specialists (the
quipucamayoc).
Pachacutec divided the empire into four regions or
suyos. That is to say, the empire of the four parts of
the world, the four cardinal points. Tahuantisuyo.
The word Tahuantisuyo is composed by two
Quechua words: tawa that means “four” and suyo
that means “states”
TUPAC YUPANQUI
He was the tenth Inca
He had already highlighted as a military during the
kingdom of his father. He expanded immensely the
empire.
After assuming the throne, he expanded the borders
towards the south until arriving at the river Biobio in
Chile.
He subdued some peoples of the Altiplano and from
the north Argentina.
After dominating the towns from the north of Peru, especially the Chimor, he
undertook the conquest of the Andean north.
Quipus
Suyos (Cardinal points)
- Antisuyo
- Contisuyo
- Collasuyo
- Chinchaysuyo
He subdued the Chachapoya towns (Peru), Huancabamba (Peru), Palta
(Loja, Ecuador) and Cañari (Cañar, Ecuador) around 1450.
He failed to defeat the Norandine Confederation (led by the Duchicela) that
joined people from Alausí to the north so he came back to Cuzco in 1460.
.Tupac Yupanqui improved the collection of taxes and appointed new visiting
governors (tucuy-ricuy).
HUAYNA CÁPAC
He was the XI Inca.
This immense empire had expanded along the coast of
South of Peru, Chile (Tacna), Argentina (Tucumán) and
Bolivia (Sucre).
He defeated the Chachapoyas (Peru), and annexed the
Gulf of Guayaquil region
In Azuay, he ordered the construction of Ingapirca's
palace on the fortress of Hatun Cañar, that belonged to
the defeated Cañaris civilization (1475).
In 1487, there was a confrontation with the Confederation Quito in Atuntaqui,
where Cacha Duchicela died and Huayna Cápac won. The corpses of the
fighters in the battle and the prisoners beheaded were thrown into the lake of
the capital Caranqui, called since then Yaguarcocha.
The bosses of the defeated army of Quito gathered in assembly, and they
named Paccha (daughter of the dead chief ) as a Shyri (queen).
Huayna Cápac, proposed a marriage alliance. Therefore, Paccha married the
Inca and became a Ñusta ( foreign princess of the Incario). They established
his residence in Quito.
In 1490, Huayna Cápac returned to the south and he reduced the uprisings
in Paita, Túmbez and the Huancavilcas from Puná Island, and returned to
Cuzco.
Years later, he returned to Quito and advanced on the current Ecuadorian
provinces of Manabi and Esmeraldas, and Colombians of Nariño, Cauca and
Valle.
Back in Quito, many members of his court and he himself became seriously
ill of smallpox. He died in 1525.
ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE
The emperor ruled the Tahuantinsuyo in a centralized and autocratic manner. The
empire was divided into four “SUYOS” or parts, each one was governed by a great
prince. There were “AYLLUS” (communities) that had a chief or curaca.
The Inca empire used the work of the communities so that the rulers accumulated
wealth. They used this system to improve crops, build irrigation systems and roads.
In this way, production and trade increased.
They constituted States. That is to say a political structure that ruled the society. The
state was managed in an authoritarian way by the warrior groups and priests, who
exercised strong and violent repression.
The Incas used the “MITMAJ”. It was a forced relocation system of entire
communities and/or families from one place to another place of the empire. The
purposes of relocation was to teach agricultural techniques or textiles to the locals,
to maintain security at the borders and/or to punish unruly people.
INCA CULTURE
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service of messengers or CHASQUIS.
They developed an immense network of roads throughout the empire with a quick
The Incas imposed the language "QUECHUA OR QUICHUA".
dedicated to the worship of the Gods.
They built temples and monasteries for women "VIRGINS OF THE SUN", who were
demanded the worship of their God “SUN”.
The Incas respected the religious forms of the conquered people, but they also
.
community protected its members, especially orphaned children
deliver contributions such as products or work to the imperial authorities. The
"MINGAS". Each AYLLU or community had to produce for self-consumption and
They worked together and helped each other in community work. What is now called
in the community led by their traditional boss who became part of the bureaucracy.
mandate could not disobey the Inca. The basis of production and organization was
(curacas) of each province (suyo) had some autonomy in local affairs, but his
board of nobles, and the priest that replaced the Inca in his absence. The bosses
Sun, the supreme deity. He had the control of the executive head of the State, the
The emperor was the highest authority of the empire and considered the son of the
advanced and implacable empire of the pre-Columbian America.
names used by the subjects, among other titles to call the sovereign of the largest,
Cácap Inca (“The powerful Inca”) and Sapac Inca (“the Inca, the only one”), were the
ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETY
Although not all the features or characteristics of life
indigenous can be repeated and there are aspects such as
authoritarianism that should not be imitated. There is much
to learn from the Incas and the aboriginal people in general.
For example, the proper use of the environment, the
promotion of community work, the habit of doing things in
common, a MINGA, the concern to find means of
communication. In short, we must understand a philosophy
of life, which is Good Living or Sumak Kausay.