Inca Empire: history and society

The political and administrative organization of the Incas can be considered the most developed of all South American and Mesoamerican societies, despite having no laws or a single currency.

Like other ancient civilizations it managed to build a great empire despite the challenges posed by the vast territory it occupied.

Outlining the Inca civilization in a few lines is certainly not possible. What we can do is give you a hint of the history, society, technological innovations and architectural wonders of these pre-Columbian people.

The characteristics of the Inca civilization

To date there is nothing written about the founding of the Inca empire, but oral tradition tells a story in which eight brothers, 4 males and 4 females, came out of a cave.

One of the brothers, Ayar Manco, carried with him a golden staff and said that wherever his staff touched the earth, people would settle.

Cusco is the place where his staff hit the ground.

The populations already present in that territory opposed it but, after one of Manco’s sisters killed one of the defenders of the land, the others fled and the inhabitants of Cusco surrendered.

A possible (and perhaps more concrete) beginning of the Inca civilization is that the founders of the empire were some refugees from the Wari people, who lived in the city, and the Tiwanaku shepherds.

This theory makes sense when we consider the remains of the Inca civilization, especially the magnificent structures they built.

Geography

At its peak, it included Peru and parts of Ecuador, as well as parts of Bolivia, Argentina, and most of Chile.

The seat of the empire, Cusco (or Cuzco), is located in southeastern Peru, high in the Andes, 34,000 meters above sea level.

Although they are not near a body of water – Lake Titicaca is several miles away – the Incas still managed to engineer ways to harness the water for irrigation and their homes.

They were also skilled strategists and were able to use their territory and knowledge of the Peruvian highlands to maximize their military strength when fighting against the Spanish conquistadors.

Also discover the geography of Mesopotamian civilizations!

Government

The Inca Empire followed a federal government model, made up of 4 regions, governed by an Apu, a man of high rank and status. Each Apu governed several districts within his territory. It is estimated that, at the height of Inca rule, there were more than 80 such districts.

We must keep in mind that there is no direct evidence of the Inca model of government. What we know comes from Spanish documents of the time which can often be unreliable.

At the top of the hierarchy was the chief general, along with a religious leader. Below was a figure similar to that of a prime minister, who oversaw a sort of Kingdom Council.

This council consisted of 16 nobles, with a fair representation of the empire’s highest and lowest classes, thus reflecting social stratification.

The Inca laws

The Incas left no codified laws; perhaps because they lived by a rigid moral code that had only three rules:

• Don’t steal (ama sua)
• Don’t lie (ama llulla)
• Don’t be lazy (ama quella)

To ensure enforcement, it was everyone’s civic duty to report violators.

This moral code was tied to the religious belief that good people deserved heaven: snow-capped mountains rising above a beautiful pasture.

Those who did not behave well, however, would spend eternity in the cold earth.

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Economy

Curiously, the Inca Empire did not use money or create markets. People exchanged goods and services through barter.

To pay their tribute to the state, individuals or groups of people worked for the good of the empire.

This work could include building roads or monuments, serving in the military, or being a runner.

The Incas, in fact, perfected a form of long-distance communication by stationing runners at intervals along more than 8,000 km of roads.

When a government official in Cusco needed to send a message to an official in a distant province, he assigned a runner to carry the message.

The delivery of the message turned into a relay race. The first runner would arrive at the first outpost, deliver the message, and the second runner would depart…and so on until the message was delivered.

Life in the Inca Empire

Even rulers were considered serfs because they had to serve the Inca ideal and could not accumulate wealth.

Social stratification

Kings or supreme leaders were at the top of the list. They were called Capacs and their position was often hereditary.

The nobility, called Inka, also inherited their social position. They were distinguished by their conical heads, due to the tight bandages when they were children.

Such head binding was considered a sign of distinction in many cultures!

The Curaca were bureaucrats and government officials and the Caciques were leaders of agricultural communities.

The Chasqui were runners and were at the last social level before the normal population.

Males could marry after the age of 20; females were about four years younger. No one could marry outside their social class.

The bride was expected to manage all aspects of the house and take care of the children when they arrived, work in the garden and look after the livestock.

The males were responsible for building houses, carrying firewood and going into combat when necessary.

The religion of the Incas

There was a ban on burning a body after death because this would threaten its passage into the afterlife. Thus, the Incas were mummified and preserved.

In addition to believing in reincarnation and following the moral code, the Inca worshiped a pantheon of gods:

• Viracocha (or Pachacamac): creator of all living beings
• Pachamama: wife of Viracocha; mother of the earth
• Inti: the sun god who smiles with a special favor on the city of Cusco
• he was the patron deity of the Inca people, meaning he was thought to reside in the city, making Cusco think of it as the City of the Sun.
• Mama Killa: wife of Inti, known as the goddess of the moon
• Illapa: goddess of lightning and thunder
• Ayar Cachi: A hot-tempered god whose tantrums caused earthquakes
• Mama Occlo: taught women to weave cloth and build houses

Manco Capac was considered a god as well as the father of the Incas. He taught them how to make weapons and plant crops.

It is difficult to determine whether Manco Capac was real or simply a legend.

Just like the Maya, the Inca offered human sacrifices to the gods to ask for their benevolence.

Inca technology

The use of agricultural terraces to capture and hold water is nothing short of brilliant.

Those aqueducts, in addition to irrigating the agricultural terraces, brought fresh water to the inhabited centers; they even built municipal toilets.

What is truly remarkable about the Inca waterways is that they were so precisely carved into solid rock rather than assembled, as Roman aqueducts were.

If you consider the fact that they had no metal tools, this makes the feat even more surprising.

Even today, thanks to their engineering skill and hard work, those agricultural terraces, called the Sacred Valley of the Incas, are one of the most fertile areas in Peru.

Since the empire stretched across the upper Andean range, it was necessary to create passages from one outpost to another for messengers or workers. For this reason the Incas built rope bridges.

The construction of a rope bridge involved having a team of workers on both sides of the gorge trying to cross.

One team would secure the bridge materials on their side of the gorge then shoot an arrow on the other side with the other end of the string attached.

The worker on the other end had to receive the arrow or rope, attach it to its end, and then begin the death-defying journey across it to ensure it was safe.

What remains of the Inca Empire today

Like the native Australian peoples, the Incas died from diseases brought by European invaders: smallpox, influenza, measles and typhus.

When the third wave of Spanish conquerors landed, they found the population severely decimated.

The last Inca bastion, a mountaintop village called Vilcabamba, was conquered in 1572. The last ruler was executed and everything that was left of the Inca way of life was destroyed.

However, the Inca civilization continues to live in the faces of the peoples of the Andes and in the fantastic architecture that we can still admire: Machu Picchu and other stone buildings and many mysteries yet to be understood.