The Inca town was the Rome of the old one America: a dominating town, forjador of an empire, with an administration perfectly organized, a state bureaucracy with conscience of classes, and that included skillful engineers and architects.
The Inca Empire, with their center in the plateaus of Peru, was formed at the same time that the Aztec, in the s. xiv, and subsisted until the Spanish conquerors arrived in 1530. In the north of South America, the archaeologists have found remainders of cultivations and works that - according to their calculations - 'they are mended toward the year 7000 a. of J.C. The Indian chibchas that inhabited in which today is Colombia they constituted a noticeable town. They were very skillful artisans and they manufactured objects of decoration, of gold leaf, that caused the legends of El Dorado (the country of the gold). With the time a state political unit was created, the kingdom Chimú, that reached welfare and power based on the cultivations in terrace, in the fishing, and in an administration centralized. Its influence extended above all the north of South America, but its duration was very short. The kingdom Chimú could not resist the attacks of the powerful Inca town.
IMPRESIVE ROAD SYSTEM
The Inca didn’t know the wheel but that as a toy. They could not use this invention, due to the rough thing of the land, that only podia to be traveled through on foot or on the back of flames. The Inca built a vast network of communications along the ravines of the mountains and they spreaded, on the precipices, drawbridges. The work that permitted the Inca territorial expansion and then the associate-economic organization went to doubt it not the vast network runner that understood bridges, inns and deposits. Few nations could be boasted in the century XVI to possess so fantastic road complex as that of the Tahuantinsuyo. The roads were not an Inca invention, they should exist a lot of time before to join with the diverse ethnic groups, to carry out pilgrimages to the main sanctuaries or pre-colombian tombs and to attend to the exchange among the dominions. Surely the hegemony wari had roads to all the terms where arrived their controls and they were indispensable to maintain their political organization. Likewise, the chimú whose controls covered an extensive zone of the north coast, they employed routes recognized at present by the archaeologists.
CUSCO
Cusco During the reign, all the roads of South America conducted to the Cusco (that in quechua language means 'navel of the world'), the most important pre-Colombian metropolis of South America, heir of a thousand-year-old cultural tradition. The Cusco is one of the largest archaeological events of the world history and even its simple roads are majestic. By its condition of metropolis preincaica, was named Archaeological Capital of South America. In the Cusco, over each Inca construction the Spanish architecture is used to adding themselves and meetings add centuries of civilization
INCA’S CITIES
In the high thing of the Andes the ruins of the primitive Inca cities are found. The city-fortress of Machu Picchu, to 2400 meters of height, was discovered in 1911 The Inca were teachers in the technique to work and to unite blocks of stone. Although they did not use mortars, they joined so well the blocks that they could’t cause to pass among them the leaf of a knife. A notable example is the stone of the 12 edges. They could work and unite blocks of stones. Although they did not use mortars, they joined so well the blocks that not themselves podia to cause to pass among them the leaf of a knife. A notable example is the stone of twelve edges".
ORGANIZATION
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The Inca Empire was constituted according to a stiff military system. The state was found divided into four districts. Its capital. Cusco, planned in squares form. The visitors of the different alone provinces could remain in the squares form pertaining to their district. To the head of the government was the Inca, with headquarters in the Cusco. All the administrative schools received their orders directly from top to bottom, and didn’t exist communication of lateral type. The Inca were a town of native, quechua speech, perhaps, of the forest and tropical region of the east of the Andes, of where they would have emigrated toward the 11th century, being established in the altiplanicie of the Cuzco.
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Their large aptitudes for the war and their organization, they extended their power to expenses of the neighboring tribes. The traditions of the Inca, of very relative historic value, they relate tediously the birth of the powerful empire. The first hero of the nation, they said, was the Invalid Inca Cápac, who, supported by his wife, Breast-Ocllo, he civilized and he educated to his town. His descendants governed for several generations and, thanks to his wise direction, the prestige he grew and the influence of the Cuzco. One of those notable rulers was Pachacutec, who he consolidated the Inca power and he gave to the empire his final organization. His son extended his controls in the south, conquering Chile, to the river Maule. His grandson, Huayna-Cápac, on the other hand, he oriented the conquests toward the north, and he submitted to the powerful kingdom of Quito. This Inca passed his last years in Quito, where there was himself married with a' local princess, that a called son he gave him Atahualpa. The death of Huayna-Cápac, happened in 1525, exactly when the Spaniards of Panama carried out the first attempts of expedition to Peru, was cause of a serious political schism. In fact, Huayna-Cápac left as the heir of its kingdom to Atahualpa, that was not of Inca blood, damaging, with it, to its first-born one Huáscar, born of an Inca princess of the Cuzco. Both brothers were done the war, and in her conquered Atahualpa. It returned this victorious to Quito, and was found in transit in Cajamarca (1531), when Pizarro disembarked in Fall, initiating the conquest of the empire.
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ADMINISTRATION AND POLITICAL
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In the zenith of their power, the Inca had developed an administrative and political system surpassed by no another native town of America. The Inca Empire was a theocracy based on the agriculture and in the system of ayllus, or groups of relationship, dominated by the Inca, that was worshipped as a living God. In the organization political Inca flame the attention the existence of a system to be able dual, where all the authorities appeared always matched: To level of the ayllus, the maximum authorities were the curacas; every ayllu had two curacas, one hanan and another hurin. |
Under the Inca, the families of the old Inca were found, which formed groups of relationship
Known as panacas ('noble family'), who they took charge of maintaining the memory of the Inca dead, of carrying out ceremonies in its name and of take care of its goods and done alliances in life.the panacas had great influence in the decision of the appointment of the successors to the charge of Inca. Under this sector the leaders of the towns conquered by the Inca were found, which, in case of be not rebels, they received an education of cuzco and a series of privileges. The following level of authority the curacas they constituted it, leaders of the ayllus.
RELIGION
The Incas had a heroe civilizing, Viracocha, to whom they were venerated him the attributes of creator and God sun. Viracocha was the creator and Mister of all the living things. Religion had a character of great formality. Other large deities were the God of the creation and of the life, Pachacamac, of the Sun, Inti (father of the Inca), and the goddesses of the Moon, Mamaquilla, of the Land, Mother Earth, and of the ray and the rain, Ilapa. The ceremonies and Inca rituals were numerous and often complex and they were basically related to agricultural questions and of health, particularly with the cultivation and the harvesting of the crop and with the healing of diverse illnesses. In the most important ceremonies alive animals were sacrificed and seldom the execution of human sacrifices was required like tribute to the God.
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