Ancient Incas. Origin and history of the Inca tribe Name of the Inca tribe
The fall of the Inca Empire, a civilization that inherited the achievements of the more ancient peoples of South America.
The fall of the Inca Empire, a civilization that inherited the achievements of the more ancient peoples of South America.
National motto: Ama llulla, ama suwa, ama qilla (Don't lie, don't steal, don't be lazy) Inca Empire, Tawantinsuyu (Tawantin Suyu, Tawantinsuyu)
Chronology
Even before the Incas achieved their power, several other cultures flourished in the vast Andean region. The first hunters and fishermen appeared here at least 12,000 years ago, and by 3000 BC. e. fishing villages dotted this entire waterless coastline. Small rural communities arose in the fertile valleys at the foot of the Andes and green oases in the desert.
Millennia later, larger social groups of people penetrated into the interior of the territory. After overcoming the high mountain peaks, they began to settle on the eastern slopes of the range, using the same irrigation techniques they had developed on the coast to irrigate their fields and harvest their crops. Settlements sprang up around temple complexes, and artisans produced increasingly complex pottery and textiles.
Archaeologists classify the products of Andean artisans according to the time and geographical period of their distribution. For this purpose, the term “horizons” is used to identify the main stages of stylistic uniformity, broken by certain features, from the point of view of aesthetics and technology.
Early colonial period: 1532 - 1572 AD
Early horizon: 1400 - 400 BC.
Named after the temple center at Chavin de Huantar, located in a small northern valley on the eastern slopes of the Andes, the Chavin style, strongly associated with a powerful emerging new religion, arose around 1400 BC. e. and reached its peak of development and influence by 400 BC. e.
This religion, which is believed to be based on the leading role of an oracle, supposedly able to foresee the future, overcome diseases and make requests to the gods, gradually spread to the south. By 1000 B.C. it reached the area of modern Lima, and by 500 BC. - Ayacucho, located two hundred miles inland. From Chavín de Huantar, priests apparently went to other communities to achieve there the worship of such deities as this god with a rod, so named because he holds a scepter (a symbol of power) in his hands.
The Chavin people achieved significant technological progress and even made several discoveries that were cutting-edge for those times. The Chavins invented the loom and experimented with various metallurgical techniques, such as welding, soldering, and making gold-silver alloys. Among the products they produced are large metal sculptures, as well as yarn-dyed fabrics depicting such images of the Chavin cult as a god with a grinning jaguar and other animals living in the Amazon Valley.
Early Intermediate Period: 400 BC - 550 AD
Various indigenous styles began to emerge along the southern coast of Peru. Two of the most characteristic features of the so-called Paracas culture, named after the Paracas Peninsula, were beautiful textiles and bottle-shaped tombs - each room of such a crypt could accommodate up to 40 bodies.
Another people - the Nazca - processed land in the valleys located 200 miles south of the modern capital of Peru, Lima. By 370 B.C. The Nazca style dominated the southwest coast, leaving its most visible mark on pottery. The Nazcas are famous for their mysterious, puzzling Nazca Lines, enormous land patterns. To do this, they removed all the stones and gravel in a certain area, exposing soils that were more faded in color, after which they scattered the collected stones and gravel in heaps along its edges. Such “lines” probably had some meaning for the religion of the Nazca people.
On the northern coast of Peru around 100 BC. A militant Moche culture arose. She extended her control over an area of up to 150 miles along the coast. The Moche Indians developed an entire metallurgical complex, created monumental buildings from sun-dried raw brick (adoba), and they developed their own original style, which was most reflected in vessels with realistic portraits.
Middle horizon: 550 - 900 years AD
The chulpas burial towers, still preserved in their original form, rise on one of the mountain slopes near Lake Titicaca. The practice of burials on the territory of the empire varied greatly from one region to another, differing also on social grounds. These tombs, belonging to local nobility, are built on mortarless stone slabs of the highest quality. they were built in the middle of the second millennium AD. and suffered greatly from earthquakes.
The era of big cities has arrived. On the shores of Lake Titicaca at an altitude of 12,500 feet, pyramids and rock mounds appeared, decorated with beautiful stone carvings, as seen in the image of the god (right), believed to be a new interpretation of the old Chavín god with a staff. The people who built all these structures settled in this region around 100 BC. and began to build around 100 AD. city of Tiahuanaco.
By 500 AD e. The Tiahuanacans already dominated the territory of the Southern Andes, and after five hundred years they disappeared completely. During their hegemony, they created distant colonies, claimed the lands adjacent to the shores of Lake Titicaca as their own, and sent trading caravans of llamas along the entire coast.
Meanwhile, the small village of Wari, located 600 miles to the north, was gradually developing into a city. During its heyday, it was home to between 35,000 and 70,000 residents, with water supplied to their homes through an underground plumbing system.
Weaving was one of the most common occupations. The Wari people disappeared around 900 AD, but they left behind an important legacy - the concept of a centralized state and recommendations for its creation.
Late Intermediate (Coastal): 900 - 1476 AD
The collapse of empires one after another marked the onset of a period of internecine wars, during which small nations, spurred on by the examples of the Wari people, tried to create their own metropolises.
Launching an offensive from the center of what had once belonged to the Moche lands on the northern coast of Peru, the Chimu tribe gradually united more than 600 miles of coastline in their new state. From the well-supplied irrigation system of the hot desert capital of Chan Chan, with a population of 36,000, the Chimu lords ruled a strictly classed society in which skilled craftsmen were held in special esteem.
The Chimu Empire grew stronger thanks to the complex irrigation system they created, as well as the conquest of neighboring cultures such as Chancay, Ika-Chinka and Sikan. The Sikan culture can be judged by the knife used for ritual ceremonies. When their culture reached its peak, the Chimu knew how to decorate clothes and household utensils with gold patterns that required complex processing, and created fabrics of amazing beauty.
And so they had to enter into a power struggle with their rivals, the Incas.
Late Intermediate Period (mountainous regions): 900 - 1476 AD
‘Huaca’ – sacred sites of the Incas.
"Quenco" is one of the largest "huaca" in the Cusco area. A semicircular wall of smooth large stones laid in a row only emphasizes the natural monolithic limestone rock, this is the main center for religious worship in “Kenko”. In the cave adjacent to the wall there is an altar carved into the rock.
Descendants of a people who settled in the Cusco Valley, located at an altitude of over 11,000 feet above sea level, the Incas did not begin to develop their culture until after 1200 AD, as evidenced by the jar (right). Although the capital city of Cusco grew steadily, their power remained fairly limited. Then in 1438 Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui seized the throne. Calling himself the “Earth Shaker,” he and his troops made a campaign throughout the Andes, conquering some states, negotiating with others, trying to unite several neighboring countries into a single powerful empire. Pachacuti rebuilt Cusco, turning the capital into a city with beautiful stone palaces and temples. Its provinces were governed by a large, disciplined, well-functioning bureaucracy that defended the interests of the state. His successor, the son of Topa Inca, who came to power in 1471, dealt such a crushing blow to the Chima that he secured complete control over the entire vast region, stretching from Ecuador to the heart of Chile.
Late Horizon: 1476 - 1532 AD
Having strengthened their power, the Incas achieved an unprecedented rise in culture. Armies marched along the extensive road network and trade took place. The art of gold forging, ceramics and weaving has reached incredible beauty and perfection. Stone processors created massive buildings from huge stone blocks precisely and tightly fitted to each other. The Incan nobility, depicted in the figurine on the right, ruled the Andes until the death of Emperor Huayn Capac, who died of smallpox between 1525 and 1527. His successor soon died, leaving the question of succession to the throne open, which led to the outbreak of a civil war. It ended in 1532, when one of Huayna Capac's two rival sons, Atahualpa, emerged victorious and Huascar imprisoned.
By this time, a Spaniard named Francisco Pizarro had made his exploratory tour along the coast of the Inca Empire. Having only two hundred fighters at his disposal, he took advantage of civil strife, a smallpox epidemic and attacked the Inca troops, captured Atahualpa himself and executed him.
Early colonial period: 1532 - 1572 AD
Pizarro and his band of adventurers approached Cuzco in 1533 and were simply amazed by the unprecedented beauty of this city. The Spaniards placed Atahualpa's half-brother Manco Inca on the throne to rule the Incan Empire through him.
However, Manco Inca did not become a puppet in the hands of the conquerors and soon led a popular revolt. He was eventually forced to flee Cuzco, where Pizarro himself now ruled until he was assassinated in 1541 by supporters of his main rival. A year later, the viceroy arrived in Lima to govern the Andean territories as Spanish provinces.
In 1545, the Spaniards captured Manco Inca, who was still emperor for several thousand Incas, who took refuge with him in the dense jungle, where they built the city of Vilcabamba. Manco Inca was killed. His son Tupac Amaru, the last Inca emperor, tried to resist the Spanish, but it was broken when the Spanish captured his main base at Vilcabamba in 1572.
Fall of the Inca Empire.
Conquistadors were always attracted by the sound of gold. William H. Powell, photograph by the Architect of the Capitol.
Francisco Pissarro arrived in America in 1502 in search of fortune. He served in the district for seven years Caribbean Sea, participating in military campaigns against the Indians.
In 1524, Pissaro, together with Diego de Almagro and the priest Hernando de Luque, organized an expedition through the undiscovered territories of South America. But its participants fail to find anything interesting.
In 1526, a second expedition took place, during which Pissaro exchanged gold from local residents. During this expedition, three Incas were captured by the Spaniards in order to make them translators. This expedition turned out to be very difficult; they suffered from illness and hunger.
In 1527, Pissaro arrived in the Inca city of Tumbes. From the locals he learns about the large amounts of gold and silver decorating the gardens and temples in the depths of their lands. Realizing that military forces are needed to obtain these riches, Pissarro travels to Spain and turns to Charles V for help. He talks about the countless treasures of the Incas, which can be quite easily obtained. Charles V gives Pissaro the title of governor and captain of governor in all the lands that he can conquer and control.
Even before the Spanish conquest began, the Incas suffered from the arrival of Europeans on their continent. Black smallpox wiped out entire families of natives who had no immunity to it.
Around this time, Huayna Capaca (Sapa Inca) dies. The highest government position should go to one of the sons from the main wife. The son who, in the opinion of the monarch, could cope better with his responsibilities was chosen. In Cusco, the capital of the Incas, the nobility proclaims the new Sapa Inca - Huascara, which means "sweet hummingbird."
The problem was that last years The previous Sapa Inca spent his life in Quito. As a result, most of the court lived in Quito. The city became a second capital, dividing the tribal leaders into two rival factions. The army stationed in Quito gave preference to Huayna Capac's other son, Atahualpa, which means "wild turkey." He spent most of his life next to his father on the battlefields. He was a man of keen intelligence. Later, the Spaniards were surprised at the speed with which he mastered the game of chess. At the same time, he was merciless, evidence of which could be the fear of the courtiers to incur his wrath.
Atahualpa showed loyalty to the new Sapa Inca. But he refused to come to his brother’s court, perhaps fearing that Huascar saw him as a dangerous rival. Eventually, Sapa Inca demanded his brother's presence at his side at court. Refusing the invitation, Atahualpa sent ambassadors with expensive gifts in his place. Huascar, perhaps influenced by courtiers hostile to his brother, tortured his brother's men. Having killed them, he sent his army to Quito, ordering Atahualpa to be taken by force to Cuzco. Atahualpa called his loyal warriors to arms.
At first, the Cuzco army even managed to capture the rebellious brother. But he managed to escape and join his own. In battle, Atahualpa defeated those who captured him. Huascar urgently gathers a second army and sends it to his brother. The poorly trained recruits were no match for Atahualpa's veterans, and were defeated in a two-day battle.
As a result, Atahualpa captures Huascar and triumphantly enters Cuzco, after which a brutal massacre was carried out against the wives, friends and advisers of the unlucky brother.
In 1532, Pissaro and Almagro returned to Tumbes along with 160 well-armed adventurers. In place of the once flourishing city, they found only ruins. It suffered greatly from the epidemic, and then from the civil war. For five months, Pissaro moved along the coast, plundering imperial warehouses along the way.
As a result, Pissaro goes to the court of Atahualpa. Nine of his men, frightened by the prospect of being stranded in mountainous Inca territory, turned back.
The Spaniards were surprised by the Inca roads, paved with stone slabs, with trees planted along the edges creating shade, as well as canals lined with stone.
Having learned about the movement of white people within his country, Atahualpa invites them to visit him. From the words of the ambassador, he realized that the Spaniards looked and were friendly. During the meeting with the ambassador, Pissarro made gifts to the monarch and spoke a lot about peace.
Pissaro placed his men in an open space in the main square of the city of Cajamarca. He sent Hernando de Soto to pay his respects to Atahualpa, so that he would try to seduce him with his offer to meet in person.
Atahualpa reproached the Spaniards for plundering his warehouses and for neglecting some of the Indians on the coast. To which the Spaniards began to praise their military art and offered to use their services. Atahualpa agrees to pay a visit to Pissaro in Cajamarca.
During this meeting, Hernando de Soto wanted to scare Atahualpa and almost ran over him on his horse, stopping in close proximity to him, so that drops of the horse’s saliva fell on the Inca’s clothes. But Atahualpa did not flinch. He later ordered the execution of those courtiers who showed fear.
Pissaro, following the example of Cortes, who conquered the powerful Aztec empire by kidnapping the emperor, began preparing his ambush.
At night, Atahualpa sent 5,000 warriors to block the road north of Cajamarca. According to the plan he developed, as he later admitted to the Spaniards, he wanted to capture Pissaro and all his warriors alive in order to sacrifice Inti to the Sun God, and leave their horses for breeding.
At dawn, Pissaro placed his men in the buildings around the square. The wait was agonizing for the Spaniards, since the tenfold numerical superiority of the Incas was frightening and overwhelming. Later, as one of the eyewitnesses admitted, “many Spaniards unconsciously urinated in their pants because of the horror that shackled them.”
Capture of Atahualpa
Duflos, Pierre, 1742-1816, engraver.
At sunset, the imperial procession approached the square. Atahualpa was carried by 80 servants on a wooden stretcher inlaid with gold and decorated on all sides with parrot feathers. The monarch, dressed in clothes with gold threads and all decorated, sat holding in his hands a golden shield with a heraldic image of the Sun. There were also dancers and musicians accompanying them. His retinue numbered more than 5,000 warriors (the main forces, about 80,000 warriors, were outside the city). They all came without weapons.
In the square they saw only one Dominican monk in a cassock with a cross in one hand and a Bible in the other hand. The Royal Council in Spain decided that pagans should be given the opportunity to convert to Christianity voluntarily, without bloodshed, and the conquistadors decided not to break the letter of the law. The monk explained the meaning of the Christian faith to the Inca ruler, and the translator explained to him that he was being asked to accept the religion of foreigners. “You say that your God accepted death,” Atahualpa responded to this, “but mine still lives,” he emphasized, pointing to the Sun creeping beyond the horizon.
Atahualpa took the prayer book handed to him. As far as he understood, the Spaniards valued this thing as much as the Huaca Indians, a talisman in which the spirit of the gods was found. But this object seemed like a toy to him compared to their huge stone “huaca”, which the Incas worshiped, so he threw it to the ground. According to eyewitnesses, after this the monk turned to Pissaro and told him and his men: “You can attack them after this. I forgive you all your sins in advance.”
Musician with a flute. This product demonstrates to us the high art of chimu in the field of metal processing using technical techniques. Such figurines were forged in parts, which were then soldered together. The musician holds his flute in his tattooed hands.
Pissaro gave the signal to attack. Two cannons fired into the crowd of Indians. Spanish horsemen rode out of the buildings in full armor and attacked the unarmed Inca warriors. They were followed by infantrymen with the sound of trumpets with the battle cry - “Santiago!” (the name of the saint who, according to the Spaniards, helps to defeat the enemy).
It was a brutal massacre of unarmed Indians. Pissaro had difficulty pulling Atahualpa out of her. Within a few hours, 6,000 Inca warriors died in and around Cajamarca, but not a single Spaniard was killed. Among the few wounded was Pissaro himself, who was wounded by his own soldier when he tried to break through to the royal enemy in order to capture him alive.
Many researchers tried to understand why Atahualpa made such a fatal mistake by approaching the Spaniards with unarmed warriors. Perhaps the leader did not even consider this scenario, when such a small detachment would try to attack his huge army. Or he believed in the Spaniards' speeches about peace.
In captivity, Atahualpa was allowed to retain all royal privileges. All his wives and servants were near him. The nobles came to him and carried out his orders. In less than a month, he learned to speak Spanish and even write a little.
Realizing that white people were attracted to gold, he decided to pay off, offering to fill the rooms he was in with gold for his freedom, and also “stuff the Indian hut with silver twice.” Instead of releasing Atahualpa, he signed his death sentence with such a proposal. By ordering all the gold in Cuzco to be plucked and delivering it to the Spaniards, he only inflamed their passion for the precious metal. At the same time, fearing that his brother might offer even more gold for his freedom, he ordered his execution. The Incas did not perceive gold and silver as something valuable. To them it was just beautiful metal. They called gold “the sweat of the Sun,” and silver “the tears of the Moon.” Fabrics were valuable to them because they took a lot of time to make.
Knife for ritual ceremonies. Ritual Tumi knife with a gold handle and a silver blade and decorated with turquoise. God Naimlap is depicted with a semicircular headdress and a pair of wings.
The Spaniards began to suspect that Atahualpa was plotting against them. This created panicky fear in their ranks. For a long time, Pissarro opposed the attitude of his compatriots. But in the end, panic broke his decisive spirit.
Atahualpa began to realize the inevitability of his death. His religion guaranteed him eternal life when the ritual is performed correctly.
At a meeting of the council, headed by Pissaro himself, it was decided to burn Atahualpa. When the Spaniards informed the leader of their decision, he burst into tears. Destruction of the body meant deprivation of immortality.
Before his death, the monk once again tried to convert the pagan to the Christian faith. Realizing that if he converted to Christianity, he would not be burned, but strangled with a garrote (a hoop with a screw to slowly strangle the victim), he agreed to undergo the initiation rite, assuming that the body would be handed over to the people for mummification. But the Spaniards deceived him here too. After the leader was strangled, they burned his clothes and part of his body at the stake. They buried the rest.
Pissaro understood the benefits that a local ruler under Spanish control would offer him. He chose Huayna Capac's son, Manco Inca. When the Spaniards arrived in Cusco, they were greeted as well-wishers who had restored the legitimate ruling branch of the Incas, although all the mummies were safely hidden before their appearance.
The conquistadors were not distinguished by their generosity and humiliated Manco in every possible way, showing a disregard for the customs of the Incas. The worst happened when Pissaro went to the ocean coast to found the new capital of Lima. He left his brothers Gonzalo and Juan in charge. Gonzalo treated Manco with undisguised contempt. Having kidnapped his beloved wife, he abused her.
The atrocities committed by the Spaniards led to Manco flatly refusing to cooperate and attempting to leave Cusco. The Spaniards returned him to the capital in chains. In conclusion, they were subjected to various kinds of humiliation.
As a result, Manco persuades one of Francisco's brothers, Hernando, who had recently arrived in Cusco from Spain, to release him temporarily from prison so that he could pray in the sanctuary, for which he promised to give him a golden statue depicting his father. As soon as Manco got out of Cuzco, he called his people to revolt. The matter ended with the siege of Cuzco, which lasted almost a whole year. During this siege, there were traitors among the Indians, both in Cuzco and beyond, who secretly carried food to the invaders. Among them were even relatives of Manco himself, who were afraid of reprisals for their previous support of the Europeans from the new ruler. The hopelessness of the siege became clear when reinforcements arrived from Spain. Some of Manco's supporters even broke away from him, realizing that the good moment had been missed.
After the failure of the siege of Cuzco, Manco took 20,000 of his compatriots with him into the dense jungle. There they are for short term erected new town Vilcabamba. It covered an area of about two square miles and contained about three hundred houses and sixty monumental structures. There were convenient roads and canals.
From this city the Incas sometimes launched raids against the conquerors, attacking outposts. In 1572, the Spaniards decided to put an end to this last stronghold, as evidence of the former power of the natives. Having reached Vilcabamba, they found only deserted ruins on the site of the city. The defenders burned it down before leaving the city. The Spaniards continued the chase, penetrating further and further into the jungle. As a result, they captured the last Inca leader Tupac Amaru. He was brought to Cusco and beheaded in the city square. This is how the dynasty of Inca rulers ended.
The result of the fifty-year stay of the Spaniards was a reduction in the indigenous population by three-quarters. Many died from diseases brought from the Old World, and many from hard labor.
Huge amounts of gold and silver were exported to Spain. Objects of art were usually melted down before export. The most beautiful products were delivered to the court of Charles V, then they were exhibited for public viewing in Seville. When Charles began to lack funds for his military campaigns, these outstanding works of Inca art were ordered to be melted down.
Literature:
A. Varkin, L. Zdanovich, “Secrets of disappeared civilizations”, M. 2000.
Incas: lords of gold and heirs of glory, translation from English by L. Kanevsky, M., Terra, 1997.
It is believed that The Incas came to the Cusco valley, where they founded the capital of the empire, around 1200. The American archaeologist J. H. Rowe, who conducted excavations in the Cusco area, suggested that until the first half of the 15th century. the Inca state owned only a few mountain valleys, and the imperial period began in 1438 - the date when the ruler of the Inca state, Pachacuti Yupanqui, defeated the warlike Chanca Indians and annexed the “western part of the world” to his state. However, the Inca civilization probably expanded even before the defeat of the Chanca, but it was directed mainly to the south of Cuzco.
In 1470, the Inca armies approached the capital. After a long siege, the Chimu Empire fell. The winners relocated many skilled artisans to their capital, Cusco. Soon the Incas conquered other states, including them in their new empire: Chincha in the south of Peru, Cuismanca, which united the coastal valleys of the central part of the country, including the temple city of Pachacamac, and the small states of Cajamarca and Sican in the north.
But the legacy of the Chimu Empire was not lost. The Inca Empire did not destroy the capital of Chan-Chan and kept roads, canals, and terraced fields intact, making these lands one of the most prosperous provinces. The centuries-old culture of the Indians of Peru became the basis of ancient civilization.
From amazing wonders and treasures Inca Empire Almost nothing has survived to this day. Having captured the Inca ruler Ataualita, the Spaniards demanded - and received - 7 tons of gold and about 14 tons of silver items as ransom for his life, which were immediately melted down into ingots. After the conquistadors executed Ataualita, the Incas collected and hid the gold remaining in the temples and palaces.
The search for the missing gold continues to this day. If someday archaeologists are lucky enough to find this legendary treasury, we will undoubtedly learn about civilization " children of the sun" a lot of new. Now the number of products of Inca craftsmen can be counted on one hand - these are gold and silver figurines of people and lamas, magnificent gold vessels and breast disks, as well as traditional crescent-shaped tumi knives. By combining their own technologies with the traditions of Chimu jewelers, Incan metallurgists achieved perfection in the processing of precious metals. Spanish chroniclers recorded the story of golden gardens adorning temples dedicated to the Sun. Two of them are reliably known - in the coastal city of Tumbes in the north of the empire and in the main sanctuary of Cusco, the Coricancha Temple. The trees, bushes and herbs in the gardens were made of pure gold. Golden shepherds grazed golden llamas on golden lawns, and golden corn ripened in the fields.
Architecture
Architecture can rightfully be considered the second highest achievement of the Incas. The level of stone processing during the Incas surpasses the best examples of the craftsmanship of the stonemasons of Chavin and Tiahuanaco. Simple, “standard” buildings were built from small stones held together with clay-lime mortar - pirka. For palaces and temples, giant monoliths were used, not fastened together with any mortar. The stones in such structures are held in place by numerous protrusions that cling to each other. An example is the famous dodecagonal stone in a wall in Cusco, so tightly fitted to neighboring blocks that even a razor blade cannot be inserted between them.
Inca architectural style stern and ascetic; the buildings are overwhelming with their power. However, many buildings were once decorated with gold and silver plates, giving them a completely different look.
The Incas used planned development in their cities. The main element of the city was the kancha - a quarter consisting of residential buildings and warehouses located around a courtyard. In every large center there was a palace, barracks for soldiers, a temple of the Sun and a “monastery” for the Aklya virgins dedicated to the Sun.
Great Inca Roads
All the cities of the empire were connected to each other by a network excellent roads. Two main highways, to which smaller roads adjoined, connected the extreme points in the north and south of the country. One of the roads ran along the coast from the Gulf of Guayaquil in Ecuador to the Maule River, south of modern Santiago. The mountain road, called Capac-can (Royal Road), began in the gorges north of Quito, passing through Cusco, turned to Lake Titicaca and ended in the territory of modern Argentina. Both of these arteries, together with the secondary roads adjacent to them, stretched for more than 20 thousand km. In damp places roads were paved or filled with a waterproof mixture of maize leaves, pebbles and clay. On the arid coast, they tried to lay roads along areas where hard rocks were exposed. Stone dams equipped with drainage pipes were erected in the swamps. Posts were installed along the roads indicating the distance to settlements. At regular intervals there were inns - tambo. The width of the road surface on the plains reached 7 m, and in mountain gorges it was reduced to 1 m. Roads were laid in a straight line, even if this meant digging a tunnel or cutting down part of a mountain. The Incas built wonderful bridges, the most famous of which were suspension bridges, designed to cross mountain streams. On each side of the gorge, stone pylons were erected, thick ropes were attached to them - two served as railings, and three supported the canvas of branches. The bridges were so strong that they could withstand Spanish conquistadors fully armed and on horseback. Local residents were required to change the ropes once a year, as well as repair the bridge if necessary. Largest bridge of a similar design across the Apurimac River was 75 m long and hung 40 m above the water.
Roads became the basis of the empire, stretching over a vast area from Ecuador in the north to Chile in the south and from the Pacific coast in the west to the eastern slopes of the Andes. The very name of the state claims world domination. This word in the Quechua language means “four interconnected countries of the world.” Administrative divisions also took place according to the countries of the world: in the north was the province of Chinchasuyu, in the south - Collasuyu, in the west - Kontisuyu and in the east - Antisuyu.
During the reign of the most famous emperors - Tupac Yupanqui, who took the throne in 1463, and Vaino Capac (1493-1525), the state finally acquired the features of a centralized empire.
Society
At the head of the state was the emperor - Sapa Inca, the Only Inca. A census of the empire's population was carried out and a decimal administrative system was introduced, with the help of which taxes were collected and an accurate count of subjects was carried out. During the reform, all hereditary leaders were replaced by appointed governors - kuraks.
The entire population of the country carried out labor duties: processing state fields of maize and sweet potatoes (potatoes), maintaining state herds of llamas, military service and work on the construction of cities, roads and mines. In addition, subjects were required to pay a tax in kind - in textiles and livestock.
The practice of mass resettlement in conquered territories became widespread. The Quechua language spoken by the Incas was declared the official language of the empire. Residents of the provinces were not prohibited from using their native language. Compulsory knowledge of Quechua was required only from officials.
Writing
It is believed that the Incas did not create their own writing. To transmit information, they had a knotted letter “kipu”, perfectly adapted for the needs of management and economics. According to one legend, the Incas once had writing, even books, but they were all destroyed by the reformer ruler Pachacuti, who “rewrote history.” An exception was made only for one, kept in the main sanctuary of the Coricancha empire. Those who robbed the capital ancient Inca civilization The Spaniards discovered in Coricancha canvases covered with incomprehensible signs, inserted into golden frames. The frames, of course, were melted down and the canvases burned. Thus perished the only written history of the Inca Empire.
Several civilizations are known to have existed in South America, but the most significant is the Inca civilization. In the fifteenth century, its population was at least six million people living over a vast territory. At the head of the Empire was the son of the Sun, Inca - the divine ruler. The economy was based on agriculture. All subjects were required to work for one month of the year. community service, building government facilities: fortresses, canals, bridges, roads. The state regulated all aspects of the life of citizens, including personal life. The Incas created legends, myths, religious hymns, epic poems and even dramatic works. This civilization did not have real writing, so little has been preserved from its cultural heritage. The Inca Empire fell with the arrival of conquerors from Europe in the mid-sixteenth century.
The Inca Empire (Quechua Tawantin Suyu, Tawantinsuyu, Tawantinsuyu, Tawantinsuyu, Tawantinsuyu) is the largest Indian early class state in terms of area and population in South America in the 11th-16th centuries. It occupied the territory from what is now Pasto in Colombia to the Maule River in Chile. The empire included the entire territory of present-day Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador (with the exception of part of the flat eastern regions covered with impenetrable jungle), partially Chile, Argentina and Colombia. The first European to penetrate the Inca Empire was the Portuguese Alejo Garcia in 1525. In 1533, the Spanish conquistadors established control over most of the empire, and in 1572 the Inca state ceased to exist. There is a hypothesis that the last independent refuge of the Incas is the undiscovered city (country) of Paititi (until the middle or end of the 18th century).
Archaeological research shows that a large number of achievements were inherited by the Incas from previous civilizations, as well as from the neighboring peoples they subjugated. By the time the Incas appeared on the historical scene in South America, there were a number of civilizations: Moche (Mochica culture, famous for colored ceramics and irrigation systems), Huari (this state was the prototype of the Inca Empire, although the population apparently spoke a different language - Aymara), Chimu (center - the city of Chan-Chan, characteristic ceramics and architecture), Nazca (known for creating the so-called the Nazca line, as well as their underground water supply systems, ceramics), Puquina (the civilization of the city of Tiahuanaco with a population of about 40 thousand people, located east of Lake Titicaca), Chachapoyas (“Warriors of the Clouds”, known for their formidable fortress Kuelap, which is also called “ Machu Picchu of the North").
The Quechua name of the country, Tawantinsuyu, can be translated as the four united provinces (Tawantin - "group of four" (tawa "four" with the suffix -ntin meaning "aggregate"); suyu - "country", "region" or "province" "). As Quechuan linguist Demetrio Tupac Yupanqui points out: “-ntin - “all integrated,” “all that make up one whole.” The previous parts disappear to give way to one distinct integration - one whole. It creates what we whimsically call a “legal entity,” the subject and the responsible being distinguished by their constituent parts. It is as if there were one enterprise in which the legal entity assumes responsibility, thereby releasing the constituent parts.”
This name is due to the fact that the country was divided into four provinces: Kuntinsuyu (Kunti Suyu), Qulla Suyu, Anti Suyu and Chinchay suyu. In addition, four roads left Cuzco (Quechua Qusqu) in four directions, and each of them was named after the part of the empire to which it led.
In the Andean region and the adjacent coast in the 1st millennium BC. e. - 1st thousand AD e. developed agricultural civilizations of Chavin, Paracas, Nazca, Mochica, Tiahuanaco, etc. arose. In the 12th century, a people appeared on the shores of Lake Titicaca, led by the Inca, the supreme ruler. He moved to the new capital, Cusco, and spread his influence over a vast territory, covering by the 15th-16th centuries. most of modern Ecuador, Peru, a significant part of Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, as well as a small area of Colombia.
The creation of the state is attributed to the legendary Inca Manco Capac, who also founded the capital - the city of Cusco, at an altitude of 3416 meters above sea level, in a deep valley between two mountain ranges.
After its creation, the country's territory constantly expanded. Especially after the Inca Yahuar Huacac created a regular army in the empire. Great conquests were carried out by Inca Pachacuti. He created a real empire, because before this the Incas were just one of the many Indian tribes, and Cusco was an ordinary town. Most of the Inca-controlled lands were conquered by Pachacuti and his son Tupac Inca Yupanqui. A small part of the territory was annexed by the eleventh Inca, Huayna Capac. The rulers Huascar and Atahualpa were sons of Huayna Capac. After his death, they began a grueling internecine war. When the Spaniards arrived, Atahualpa became the winner of the war.
When conquering neighboring tribes, the Incas, on the one hand, used their strong and numerous army, and on the other hand, attracted the elite of the conquered regions. Before taking military action, the Incas three times invited the rulers of the conquered region to voluntarily join the empire. They forced the conquered tribes to learn the Quechua language, imposed their customs and introduced their own laws. The local nobility and the priesthood of the conquered peoples retained their position, and the practice of local religions was not prohibited, subject to the obligatory worship of the imperial sun god Inti. The Incas attached great importance to the preservation of local folk crafts and costume, so that by the dress of any resident of Tawantinsuyu it would be easy to determine his origin and social status.
The Incas were characterized by the division of power and society into: warriors and non-warriors. The main generals and military leaders were either the rulers of the Empire or people appointed by them from the ruling ethnic group - the Incas. At the same time, it seems that there was still some kind of dual power - a full-fledged duumvirate: when economic activity The ruler (governor) of the city of Cusco was in charge of supplying and supporting the troops, as historian Juan de Betanzos repeatedly mentions.
At the peak of its existence, the Inca Empire was one of the largest states on Earth. The number of subjects of the empire reached, according to various sources, from 5-6 to 12 million people.
In 1521, Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs. This conquest inspired Francisco Pizarro. According to the report of Juan de Samano, secretary of Charles V, Peru first became known reliably in 1525 in connection with the completion of the first Southern Expedition of Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro. The expedition left Panama on November 14, 1524, but was forced to return in 1525. After this, two more trips were carried out. In 1532, Pizarro arrived on the coast of modern Peru with 200 foot soldiers and only 27 horses. However, on the way, his army is replenished by those dissatisfied with the rule of the Incas. The Incas fiercely fight the conquerors, but the empire is weakened by internal turmoil and internecine war, in addition, a large number of Inca warriors die from smallpox and measles brought by the Spaniards.
By deception, Pizarro was able to capture and execute the Great Inca Atahualpa, after which the resistance was led by the military leader Rumiñavi for 2 years. The Inca capital, Cusco, was conquered by the Spaniards in 1536. Inca Manco Inca Yupanqui with a small number of followers hides in the mountainous region of Vilcabamba, where the Inca rule continues for about 30 years. In 1572, the last Inca ruler, Tupac Amaru, was beheaded. This marked the end of the Tawantinsuyu empire. The state was plundered, the Inca culture was destroyed.
In the book “Chronicle of Peru,” Cieza de Leon was the first European to ask the question of the reason for such an easy conquest of the Inca Empire:
Thus, although I have depicted Peru as three deserted and inhabited Cordilleras, out of them, as I related, by the will of God, there emerge valleys and rivers, beyond which people could in no way survive: this is the reason why local residents were so easily conquered and why do they serve without rebelling, because if they did that, they would all die from hunger and cold. Because (as I said), with the exception of the land they inhabited, most of it is uninhabited, these are continuous snow-capped mountains and amazingly high peaks.
- Cieza de Leon, Pedro. Chronicle of Peru. Part one. Chapter XXXVI.
The conquered Incas became part of the Quechua people. The result of the Spanish conquest was clearly noted by the same chronicler Cieza de Leon:
I do not approve of the overthrow of power in any way, but I still mourn the extortion and ill-treatment inflicted by the Spaniards on the Indians, enslaved by cruelty, regardless of their nobility and the high dignity of their people. Because of this, all these valleys are now almost deserted, but in the past they were densely populated, as many people know.
- Cieza de Leon, Pedro. Chronicle of Peru. Part one. Chapter LXI.
The empire was divided into 4 parts: Chinchaisuyu - red color corresponded to it, Kolyasuyu - Blue colour, Antisuyu - green, and Kuntisuyu - yellow, in turn, each such part consisted of provinces:
north of Cusco were: Vilcas, Xauxa, Bombon, Cajamarca, Guancabamba, Tomebamba, Latacunga, Quito, Carangue ;
on the other side of Cusco, to the South: Atuncana, Atuncolla, Ayavire, Chuquiabo, Chucuito, Paria and others, stretching to Chile.
Each province had its own capital, where taxes were collected, where there was a temple of the Sun, foundries and jewelry workshops, a garrison, large inns, warehouses, as well as a representative of the Court - the governor.
Separately in administrative division, as the capital, the city of Cusco stood out. It was indicated in yellow. Each village, which was the capital of the province, had its own number. For example, to indicate that “Manco Capac, the first Inca ruler, conquered the first capital of the province, one large knot was introduced into the thread, two large knots were introduced into the second, and so on with all the others. It is known that Cuzco, the capital of the Empire, had three or four nodes, one above the other." It is also known that the distance of a province from the capital of the empire, Cuzco, was often made dependent on ordinal numbers: for example, the closer the province, the closer it or its curaca representative was to the Inca ruler in services, campaigns, rituals, and ceremonies.
To identify the provinces of the Tawantinsuyu Empire in the quipu writing, each province had its own mixture of colored threads. On the thread, in turn, a red thread could be placed (inserted) to indicate those killed in one’s army “from/in such and such a province.” Also, the use of thread color for the provinces of the Empire was found in kipus related to the statistics and taxation of such provinces. The same system applied to reports on the geographical and economic description of the Empire.
Pedro de Cieza de Leon, in his Chronicle of Peru, reported on the unprecedented accuracy of accounting with the help of quipus: “In each capital of the province there were accountants called quipucamayocs, and with the help of these nodes they calculated and recorded the necessary taxes paid by the inhabitants of that area, starting from silver, gold, clothing and livestock, and ending with firewood and other much more insignificant things; and with the help of these same quipus, after one year, or ten, or twenty, they notified the one who was entrusted with collecting the reports; and it was done so well that even a couple of alpargata could not be hidden.”
Cieza de Leon provided information about the number of positions of Quipucamayoc in a single territorial unit: “and in every valley this accounting is still available today, and always in the inns there are as many accountants as there are managers in it [the valley], and every four months they submit their reports in the above-mentioned manner." For the provinces, the deadline for submitting reports was set at 1 year, since “at the end of the year, each province ordered that all people, both those who died there that year and, accordingly, those who were born, be included in the pile according to the number of its nodes. And at the beginning of the year they were entering, they came to Cusco with piles, from which it became clear how many were born that year and how many died.”
In the vicinity of the village of Cotapachi in Cochabamba, there were 2076 collcas (rounded storage facilities), which is 22.09% of warehouse buildings out of the currently known 9395 units in the Inca Empire, that is, it was one of the strategic areas of the empire where the procurement and storage of provisions took place. The average diameter of the storage facilities in Cotapachi was 3.5 m, and the approximate height was 2 m, therefore, the volume of round storage facilities in the Cochabambe Valley could be 45,000 m3 (almost the entire volume was filled with provisions), which was a very significant figure even in relation to other provincial centers Inca Empire. In modern terms, this is comparable to 1,360 TEU (20-foot containers) that could fit on a Handymax Class container ship (1,000-1,700 TEU). In general, the scale of the Incas' warehouse economy was so large that it is quite comparable with our modern ones.
The absence of a distinguished layer of free artisans and the associated weak development of private exchange, the absence of trade and any kind of commercial intermediaries is a feature of Inca society, in contrast to the Aztecs. It is explained by the fact that in Peru the early despotic state appropriated the labor of the community members, leaving them with little surplus for exchange.
Coins
In general, coins were not used in domestic trade, but in foreign trade they circulated mulu shells, coca leaves, clothing, and copper hatchets. The Indians of the Chonos culture (Ecuador) back in the 15th-16th centuries smelted copper with a content of 99.5% and used it as a coin in the form of hatchets 2 cm on the sides and 0.5 cm thick. This coin was circulated throughout west coast South America, including in the Inca state in the province of Chincha, where 6,000 traders lived.
The Incas are a small South American tribe that managed to rise to the very pinnacle of power and create a powerful empire that conquered many peoples and changed the face of the Andes.
They managed to transform themselves from a small, unknown tribe from the Cuzco Valley into the rulers of the Andes. And create the great Inca Empire, built on the most accurate accounting of food and which amazed the newcomers from Europe with grandiose structures.
The Inca Empire became the largest state in terms of area and population in South America in the 11th-16th centuries. The territory of their empire stretched from present-day Pasto in Colombia to the Maule River in Chile and included the territories of present-day Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and parts of Chile, Argentina and Colombia.
The Incas called their empire Tawantinsuyu (four connected cardinal directions). This name came from the fact that four roads left the Cuzco valley in different directions, and each, regardless of its length, bore the name of the part of the empire to which it led.
The ruler of these vast territories was the Inca, as the Indians called their ruler. Literally, “Inca” means “ruler”, “overlord”, “king”. And the word “Inca” itself was an integral part of the name of the leader of the empire. Over time, “Inca” began to be called not only the ruler of the empire, but also other representatives of the ruling class. And with the advent of the conquerors, the concept of “Inca” or “Inca” spread to the entire tribe of Indians that inhabited the Tawantinsuyu empire.
Formation of the Great Inca Empire.
For a long time it was believed that the great Inca Empire was created by a single genius. The brilliant Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui, the first ruler of the Incas, a sort of local Alexander the Great, was supposed to have transformed a handful of adobe huts into a powerful empire in the span of a single generation in the early 15th century.
But University of Chicago archaeologist Brian Bauer is confident that the roots of the Inca dynasty go back deeper than the 15th century. Arriving in Peru in 1980, together with his colleague R. Alan Covey, now an archaeologist at the University of Dallas, and a team of Peruvian assistants, he combed the steep mountain slopes up and down for four field seasons - and eventually discovered thousands of unknown monuments Inca culture. It became obvious: the Inca state arose between 1200 and 1300. And what gave them power was... climate change. The stronger neighboring tribes gradually lost their power by the beginning of the 12th century. This was partly due to drought, which raged in the Andes for more than a hundred years and led to famine and unrest.
In all corners of the Peruvian Highlands, skirmishes took place over meager supplies of water and food. Crowds of refugees rushed to the mountains because... only on the cold, windswept peaks of the Andes was it possible to hide from raids.
But the Incas in the fertile valley of Cusco had no shortage of sources of water - and the farmers from the Inca tribe did not move. While less fortunate neighbors exterminated each other, the prosperous Inca villages united into a small state capable of protecting itself from enemy raids. And between 1150 and 1300, when the climate in the Andes warmed significantly, the Incas from Cusco were able to take advantage of this warming.
As temperatures rose, they gradually climbed the mountain slopes by 250–300 meters, constructing multi-tiered agricultural terraces to protect soils from erosion, irrigating fields using canals indicating high level engineering and harvesting record corn harvests. The surplus of harvests allowed the Incas to “free up large numbers of people for other activities, such as building roads or maintaining a large army.” And then the day came when the Inca was able to call up more warriors and provide weapons and food for a larger army than any other of the neighboring leaders.
Having created a regular army, the Inca rulers began to look at other people's lands and wealth. They began to enter into dynastic alliances with the leaders of neighboring tribes and lavish gifts on new allies. When conquering neighboring tribes, the Incas, on the one hand, used their strong and numerous army, and on the other hand, attracted the elite of the conquered regions. Before taking military action, the Incas three times invited the rulers of the conquered region to voluntarily join their empire. If the neighbors were not persuaded by diplomacy, they were pacified by force. And gradually a powerful state with a capital was formed - holy city Cusco is located at an altitude of 3416 meters above sea level, in a deep valley between two mountain ranges.
Inspired by the success of their conquests, the Inca rulers turned their gaze further - to the rich lands in the southeast, where at an altitude of 3840 m there was a vast plateau with Lake Titicaca. In the 15th century, one of the greatest Inca rulers, Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui, planned a military campaign to the south.
The arrogant rulers of the lakeside states had almost 400 thousand subjects. Their abundant land beckoned. The mountain slopes were riddled with veins of gold and silver, and herds of alpacas and llamas grazed in the lush green meadows. Military successes in the Andes largely depended on them: the llama, the only animal on the entire continent, could carry a load weighing 30 kilograms on its back. In addition, llamas, as well as alpacas, provide meat, leather and wool. Military rations, uniforms, army movement - everything depended on the availability of lamas. And if the Inca ruler had not managed to conquer the rulers who owned these herds, he would have had to wait with trepidation for the day when he himself would have to surrender to the mercy of the winner.
Pachacutec subjugated one southern ruler after another, increasingly expanding the borders of his empire, which at the peak of its existence became one of the largest states on Earth. The number of subjects of the Inca Empire reached, according to various sources, from 5-6 to 12 million people.
However, military victories were only the first step on the path to greatness. If the empire of Alexander the Great collapsed immediately after his death, the legacy of the Inca ruler Pachacutec-Inca-Yupanqui turned out to be much more tenacious. Because here, after the soldiers, officials and builders got down to business.
Wise rule of the Incas.
When an uprising broke out in any of the provinces, the Inca rulers organized a resettlement of peoples: they diluted the local population with loyal subjects, and took the rebellious ones closer to the capital. Residents of remote villages surrounded by high walls were relocated to new cities, which were located along roads built by the Incas - the roads ensured the rapid movement of troops. The Inca governors ordered the construction of roadside warehouses for these troops, and their subjects had to fill the warehouses with provisions and other necessary supplies. Everything was foreseen, and the chances of an uprising became negligible. The Incas were organizational geniuses.
The Andean civilization reached its peak. Engineers turned disparate groups of roads into a single system that connected all corners of the empire. The peasants created irrigation canals, laid out high-mountain agricultural terraces, where they grew about seven dozen different crops, and stocked enough food in storage facilities to last from three to seven years. Officials have mastered inventory to perfection. They knew the contents of all the vaults across the vast empire, keeping records using an Andean form of computer code - bundles of multi-colored threads with a combination of knots called quipus. Stonemasons erected masterpieces of architecture.
Huayna Capac, dead ruler of the Incas.
Around 1493, a new Inca ruler, Huayna Capac, ascended the throne. At that time, it seemed that the Inca dynasty could control everything in the world. During the construction of the new capital in Ecuador, workers who did not know wheels dragged stone blocks from the Cusco Valley to a distance of 1.6 thousand kilometers along a mountain road. For these works, Huayna Capac rounded up more than 4.5 thousand rebellious subjects.
And a small army of men and women changed nature in a way that was amazing at that time. When creating the royal residence of Huayna Capaca (an area the size of seven football fields), workers moved the bed of the Urubamba River to southern part valleys, leveled hills and drained swamps to plant corn, cotton, peanuts and chili peppers. In the center of the “new land”, Huayna Capac’s country palace, Quispiguanca, was built from stones and bricks.
In spacious palaces, surrounded by parks, cultivated fields and gardens, Huayna-Capac received guests and played games of chance with those close to him. Sometimes he went hunting. To do this, there was no need to travel outside the estate: the ruler had at his disposal a secluded hunting lodge and a forest, where deer and other wild animals were found in abundance.
Around 1527, Huayna Capac died in Ecuador from some mysterious illness - but did not lose his power. Those close to him mummified his body, transported it back to Cuzco, and members of the royal family often visited the deceased monarch, asking him for advice on important issues and listening to the answers that were uttered by the oracle sitting next to him. And after his death, Huayna Capac remained the owner of Quispiguanca and the estate: the entire harvest from the local fields was to be used to maintain his mummy, servants, wives and descendants in luxury for all eternity.
Since the traditions of inheritance were so strange that all the palaces remained the property of the rulers even after their death, it is not surprising that each Inca, upon ascending the throne, built a new city palace and a new country residence for himself and his descendants. To date, archaeologists and historians have discovered the ruins of a dozen royal residences built by at least six rulers.
Conquest of the Incas by the Spaniards.
In 1532, foreign conquerors led by Francisco Pizarro landed on the coast of modern Peru. Who arrived with 200 foot soldiers, clad in steel armor and armed with deadly firearms and only 27 horses. However, on the way, his army is replenished by those dissatisfied with the rule of the Incas. The Incas fiercely fight the conquerors, but the empire is weakened by internal turmoil and internecine war, in addition, a large number of Inca warriors die from smallpox and measles brought by the Spaniards.
The Spaniards reached Cajamarca northern city Incas, where they captured the ruler Atahualpa. Eight months later they executed their royal captive, and their leader, Francisco Pizarro, installed a puppet on the throne - the young prince of Manco Inca Yupanqui.
The Inca capital, Cusco, was conquered by the Spaniards in 1536. Over the next few months, the Spanish conquerors appropriated Cuzco's palaces and vast country estates and took girls from the royal family as wives and mistresses. The angry Manco-Inca-Yupanqui rebelled and in 1536 tried to drive out the foreigners from his lands. When his army was defeated, he and a small number of followers fled to the mountainous region of Vilcabamba, where Incan rule continued for about 30 years.
In 1572, the last Inca ruler, Tupac Amaru, was beheaded. This marked the end of the Tawantinsuyu empire. The state was plundered, the Inca culture was destroyed. The vast network of Incan roads, vaults, temples and palaces gradually fell into disrepair.
The Incas, or more precisely, the Inca, are an Indian tribe belonging to the Quechua language family. The tribe appeared in the 11th century, gaining a foothold in the territory of modern Peru. In the 15th century The Incas created the state of Tawantinsuyu and began to occupy a dominant position in it. This is how one of the ancient civilizations of South America arose. The Inca civilization was one of the most highly developed; Their household items and decorations amaze with their unsurpassed beauty, and the people themselves – with their hard work, talent, courage and energy.
The Inca's possessions covered more than 4000 km 2. The empire stretched across the Andean mountains, and its central part was located on the second highest (after the Himalayas) mountain peak of the Andes. The territories of modern Ecuador and Peru, Northwestern Argentina and part of Bolivia at that distant time were part of one of the great empires of the world - the Inca Empire. The number of peoples inhabiting Tawantinsuyu reached 10 million people - that's almost 100 ethnic groups.
From archaeological research it is known that on the Pacific coast of modern Peru, and in the mountainous areas (from Ecuador to Lake Titicaca in South America), various cultures appeared, developed and died out. The Incas themselves were originally a pastoral tribe that wandered, moving from Lake Titicaca to the north. On their way (not far from the northern borders of Bolivia) they found monumental structures and a small group of impoverished people.
Some archaeological finds indicate that before the 6th century. n. e. A new culture appeared in Tiahuanaco, which reached its peak in the 7th century. Apparently, the coastal cultures of Peru also contributed to its development. For about 3 centuries, the culture of Tiawanaku was the most highly developed of all that existed at that time on the American continent. But then its decline occurred, the reasons for which are still not clear. Various hypotheses have been put forward regarding this: a strong earthquake, an epidemic, the expansion of other tribes, etc.
The Incas adopted much of Tiahuanaco's cultural heritage, particularly its magnificent architecture. So, about 20 km north of Lake Titicaca there is a high cliff, and under it is a monumental semblance of a pyramid. In addition, ancient sculptors recreated almost the entire animal world Andes and Amazon Valley. Archaeologists have found a sculptural figure of a shaman holding in his hand the severed head of a wild beast; statues of jaguars and fantastic beasts, such as a lizard with the head of a puma.
Birth of an Empire
Stopping in the Cusco Valley, the Incas founded a settlement here, which later became the capital of their empire. The settlement was founded by the Inca leader Manco Capac. He also became the first ruler. His title was called "Sapa Inca", and all the inhabitants of this territory began to call themselves Incas.
According to the beliefs of the Incas, the sun god Inti destined for them, his children, the great mission of turning representatives of semi-wild tribes into cultural (for their time) people. The ruler of Pachacuti especially succeeded in this. He was a fairly ambitious man, and luck was with him. Pachacuti, in addition to annexing many tribes to the empire, also spread the Inca religion and culture among them.
An ancient Indian legend tells that on two islands - Copti and Titicaca - the son of the sun, Inca Manca Capac, and the daughter of the moon, his sister Mama Oklo, were born. Their christening took place, and at it the sun god gave the brother and sister each a golden staff and sent them to the north. Having reached the first valley, the Inca tried the ground with his staff, but came across a stone. He went further and continued to stick the staff into the soil until it went deep into it. This happened in the Cusco Valley. Then the Inca called to him shepherds from the northern environs, and his sister went south and brought the rest. Together they built main city empire, and in its very center a temple of the Sun was erected.
The next ruler, Tona Inca Yupanca, continued the work begun by Pachacuti, and as a result, one of the great civilizations appeared - the Inca Empire. Each of its new rulers adhered to a well-thought-out and effective system of government. When new lands were annexed to the empire, rulers left the conquered peoples with their leaders, local languages, and the ability to worship their gods. There was only one single requirement: it was necessary to know official language Quechua, spoken only in Cusco. The Inca Empire was, perhaps, the only one in which relations between the peoples who inhabited it were built not on fear and violence, but on trust and cooperation.
At the peak of power
When the Inca Empire reached its height and power, the population of its main city of Cusco numbered about 20,000 people. The sacred place of Cusco was the main square, or rather its center. The Incas brought soil from all over the empire, symbolically mixed it and placed it in the center of the square. This act confirmed the equality and unity of all inhabitants of the vast empire. The highest achievement of both Incan architecture and fine art was the Temple of the Sun. Built of stone, it had gilded walls and a roof covered with gold slabs, and a spacious courtyard into which five main chapels opened. The first was the chapel of the sun god. Its front side was decorated with a huge golden disk, personifying the supreme deity and his governors on earth - the rulers of the Incas. The ceiling and walls were lined with pure gold. The nearby chapel was dedicated to the moon; accordingly, all its decoration was made of silver. The chapel intended for the worship of the stars was also made of silver, only metal was supplemented here precious stones. And finally, the fourth and fifth chapels were dedicated to the rainbow and lightning and were decorated with corresponding symbols.
The Incas were very skilled builders. Until now, the technology of their masons remains a sealed secret. In the same temple of the Sun, for example, slabs, not fastened with lime and laid one on top of the other, form high sloping walls. In the courtyard of the temple, a stone was found with very smooth walls and cylindrical holes drilled in it with a diameter of about 6 cm. This is all the more surprising considering that the Incas were not familiar with either steel or iron, i.e. those metals without which life is impossible. the profession of a modern mason.
There are practically no gaps between the stones from which the temples are built. Neither a needle nor the thinnest piece of paper can pass between them. The ability of the Incas to give stones complex geometric shapes is also amazing. Thus, individual stones (their front part) formed polygons with twelve sides.
Other buildings in Cusco were just as perfect as the Temple of the Sun. However, there is a version, supported by archaeological research, that the Incas borrowed construction skills from their predecessors. For example, ritual and public buildings in the city of Tiahuanaco, erected (as chemical analysis showed) in the 1st century. n. e., are distinguished by monolithic masonry. Even though the individual blocks weighed about 100 tons, they were cut and fitted with amazing precision.
One of the legends tells that Tiahuanaco was built either by gods or giants. The most impressive is the Gate of the Sun, made from a single stone block. The lintel of the gate is decorated with the figure of an unknown deity (which, however, can be found in other areas of the Andes) with large round and bulging eyes and a halo of snakes and cat heads. The deity holds staffs in his hands, on the top of one of them is the head of a condor.
In addition to the stonemasons of Tiawanaku, the builders who lived in the territory of Huari were unsurpassed masters of their craft. Perhaps they were the closest predecessors of the Incas in terms of urban planning. Having in their arsenal only cobblestones and a bronze crowbar, they erected buildings that have survived to this day, having withstood earthquakes more than once.
At Wari, stones were made of the same size, but their upper and lower surfaces were different. So, the upper surface was slightly concave, and the lower, on the contrary, convex. And when the stones were stacked on top of each other, they held very firmly due to the fact that the upper stone entered the cavity of the lower one with its convex back surface. Thus, by order of Pachacuti, palaces and temples were built in Cuzco. They were erected on the site of the demolished huts of the previous settlement.
Social structure
The social structure of the Inca Empire was based on the principle of hierarchy. Each new ruler declared that he reigned by divine right, since he was a descendant of the sun god. The power of the Incas was hereditary. The Inca ruler, or emperor, had a harem of about a hundred concubines, but the empress - the coya - was chosen from among the ruler's sisters. In turn, the emperor chose his heir from the children and grandchildren of the Koyas.
In a number of cases, problems arose with inheritance. So, Pachacuti’s grandson, Huayna Capac, died of smallpox, without even officially becoming an heir. His own heir, Ninan Kuyuchi, also could not survive the epidemic. The survivors of Huascar and Atahualpa plunged the country into the abyss of civil war, which marked the beginning of the decline of the empire. As for the transfer of inheritance in everyday life, a man inherited from his father, and a woman inherited from her mother. Interestingly, succession to the throne did not automatically include inheritance of wealth. In this regard, the new emperor almost immediately set out on a campaign to conquer new lands and gain wealth.
For greater efficiency in government, all families in the Inca Empire were divided into groups consisting of ten families. Each of them chose a head, who reported to the heads of the groups, which already consisted of fifty families. Thus, groups appeared that included one hundred, five hundred or more families (their number could reach ten thousand). This system made it possible to effectively collect taxes, and in kind. These included food, various tools, weapons, clothing and shoes, and much more. All this was sent to warehouses (kamkas), and every day widows, orphans, sick and disabled citizens received everything they needed. Such an exchange (not only of knowledge and culture, but also of resources) allowed residents to feel protected and not afraid natural Disasters.
A service of special inspectors was created to oversee the actions of local officials. No one knew where and when they would appear (these were people from among the noble Incas) to check the work of the local authorities. They were called tokoy-rikok, which translated means “those who see everything.”
Inca writing
The Incas did not have a written language; instead they used a quipu (literally “knot”) - a system of multi-colored laces with knots. All the necessary information was recorded in the bundles: the number of inhabitants of the empire (able-bodied and elderly), the amount of food (down to each grain barn) and much more. Woolen laces of different colors expressed different concepts. For example, red meant war or a warrior, white meant peace or silver, green meant corn, and yellow meant gold. One knot represented the number ten, two knots next to it represented twenty. The profession of the creators of the quipu (these people were called quipucamayocs) was very important in the Inca Empire, because the reliability of the entire state machine depended on the correctness of the recording. Kipukamajoki combined the qualities of an artist, a logistician and an accountant. How important the preservation and interpretation of statistical data was for the Incas is evidenced by the fact that the creators of the quipu enjoyed privileges, in particular they did not pay taxes, but at the same time they had a huge responsibility, since a mistake they made would lead to failure in work and provided for the death penalty as punishment.
Researchers have proven that gradually colored nodules developed into complex system three-dimensional writing that resembled Braille for the blind. It turned out that the pile contains more than one and a half thousand individual characters. This is twice as much as the Egyptians and Mayans, and slightly more than the Sumerian-Babylonian writing. Mathematical research has shown that the quipu uses a binary system, reminiscent of the basis of a computer language.
Inca engineering art
The Incas created a whole network of roads with a total length of more than 240,000 km, which connected the most remote or inaccessible areas of the country. The mountain road through the Andes from Cusco to the current capital of Ecuador, Quito, is especially impressive. On wide highways, stations (tambo) were located at certain distances so that courier runners (chaski) could rest and refresh themselves. Hardy people were chosen for this in their youth. They had to be able to run quickly in the thin air of the highlands. The constant attributes of the couriers were headdresses with flowing feathers and a twisted sea shell. Chaska, approaching the place where the next courier was waiting for him, blew into the conch and ran for a while next to his replacement, who memorized the contents of the message. This is how this kind of relay race took place.
Agricultural production of the Incas
The Incas showed themselves to be unsurpassed masters in creating a system of irrigation canals. It had no equal in terms of length and efficiency. The Incan irrigation structures survived centuries. It should be noted that the Incas adopted the principles of field irrigation from the Chimuor people they conquered.
The city of Chan Chan, the capital of the kingdom of Chimuor, was one of the most beautiful in South America. It was home to more than 36,000 inhabitants. Chimuora artisans made gold items that can be recognized as genuine works of art. When the Incas annexed Chimuor to their empire, they adopted to a large extent the skill and talent of this people and, to a certain extent, became disciples of their subjects.
The Inca fields were terrace-like systems, which were fortified on the mountain slopes with stone bastions. The earth belonged to the Sun, the people and the emperor. A family Inca could claim a personal plot (tupa). A plot that belonged to the sun god could be allocated to a resident of the empire if he had an addition to his family. The land could not be sold; it was bequeathed only to children. The inhabitants of the empire cultivated the fields together. First of all, the lands of the sun god were subject to cultivation, then the lands of the poor, disabled, widows and orphans, then their own, and last but not least, the princely and royal allotments. In the same sequence, the harvest was collected and poured into public barns, which were divided into common ones and those belonging to the sun god. From the latter, bread was distributed to the army, officials and people performing public works. The part of the harvest that belonged to the sun god was associated with the costs of priestesses and priests. If the year was poor, the reserves of the sun god were used.
The common people did not have livestock; this was the privilege of the king and God. The Incas used llamas and alpacas as pack animals. The state itself took care of the animals. Thus, the Inca royal dynasty, like that of the ancient Egyptians and Chinese, was closely associated with agriculture.
Medicine
The Incas were good doctors. They achieved especially great success in surgery, in particular in such a field as neurosurgery. During archaeological excavations in Peru, surgical instruments were found that were intended for trephination, that is, for opening the skull.
Life of the Incas
In order for the inhabitants of the empire to feel protected from natural disasters, famine and other extreme situations, the rulers ordered them to lead a regulated lifestyle. This primarily meant that no one spent time in idleness, everyone worked for the good of the empire. Only elderly people over 50 years of age were exempt from taxation and labor service. Nevertheless, they also participated in public works to the best of their ability. For example, they looked after children, cooked food, prepared firewood, or did some other simple work.
The Incas were extremely clean people. This trait was manifested in everything, from the cleanliness of the cities themselves to the housing of every inhabitant of the empire.
The Incas had a special inspection that checked whether the owner of the house complied with the established standard of cleanliness. On a certain day an inspection was scheduled, and at that time the reed mat over the front door had to be raised. The inspector watched the woman prepare food, clean the house, do laundry and do any other work. The mistress of the house, who failed (in the opinion of the inspector) with her duties, was punished. In front of everyone watching, she had to eat all the dirt swept out of the house, and the owner had to drink the dirty water left after bathing all family members.
The Incas did not have divorces; all marriages they entered into were considered lifelong. This applied to both the nobility and the common people. The Incas did not have prisons, since any crime (violence, theft, robbery and other serious deviation from social norms) was immediately punishable by death.
The aristocratic part of society wore tunics: for women they were to the toes, for men they were to the knees. The tunic was tied at the waist with a belt with a heraldic sign. Sometimes the belt was replaced by a robe attached with pins. One of the main decorations of the Incas were large silver or gold disks that were worn in the earlobes. Their considerable weight pulled down the ears significantly.
Education
The Incas had a school in which not only the sons of the nobility studied, but also the young children of the rulers of the conquered kingdoms. She was in Cusco. Students learned oratory, military affairs, religion, and some sciences (for example, history, geometry). The training ended with exams, in which sixteen-year-old young people were subjected to quite difficult tests, demonstrating their knowledge, strength, dexterity and courage.
The exams lasted about thirty days. They took place in open areas, and everyone could watch their progress. The test involved a six-day fast (those fasting were allowed to consume only water and herbs), followed by a 7.2 km race. The next test consisted of the ability to stand motionless while the fencer inflicted thrusts and cuts on the subjects. In addition, there was a more severe test of strength, when strong blows were inflicted on their arms and legs with whips made of vines. These actions tested the graduates' ability to withstand any pain. Anyone who could not stand it, showing signs of suffering through facial expressions or gestures, was immediately expelled. There were often cases of serious injury and even death during the exams.
The culmination of the tests was the knighting of former students. The Inca ruler personally pierced the earlobes of the young men who knelt before him with a golden needle. Having received gold discs as signs of caste, young people (both the sons of the Incas and the sons of vassals - curacs) became representatives of the ruling class.
Girls were trained separately, this happened in monasteries. Special people ensured that the number of such girls in the empire reached a certain figure - no less than 15,000. Agents traveled to all regions of the country and, paying attention to the girl’s origin, her abilities and beauty, selected those suitable for training. Elderly mentors (mamakona) taught the pupils. Particular attention in the learning process was paid to the ability to dye fabrics and weave, since it was the girls who made thin fabrics (cumbi) from alpaca wool. These fabrics were used to make clothes for the emperor and his khoya.
Education at the monastery lasted 3 years, after which the emperor himself chose wives for himself and his nobles from among the pupils. Those of the girls who were not chosen became priestesses. They lived like noble ladies in houses in the main square near the Coraxanga temple in Cuzco and were respected by everyone.
Holidays
The Incas attached great importance to holidays. First of all, during these days the connection between the people and the emperor was strengthened. In addition, during such events, people got rid of accumulated emotions, and finally the holiday was presented to the people as a gift for their hard work and loyalty to the emperor.
The ruler himself presided over the holiday. Firstly, his responsibilities included providing all participants with food and drinks; secondly, the program included musical performances, dances, exhibition fights, religious events - all this took place under his patronage.
One of the indispensable components of the holiday was the reading of poems in different genres. These were religious poetry, love ballads (usually about unrequited love), and heroic tales (about exploits). All this was passed on from mouth to mouth, supplemented by vivid descriptions of the valleys, mountain peaks and gorges. No less interesting was the musical performance, which consisted of dances (usually of a ritual nature), which were accompanied by mournful monotonous chants.
According to some sources, the Incas had about forty different dances. One of the most spectacular was the so-called jumping dance. It was performed by masked men, holding animal skins in their hands.
Inca music stood out primarily for its rhythmic diversity and richness. Hence they have a considerable number of different percussion instruments. These are large and small drums, as well as many flutes, representing a group of wind instruments. Flutes were made from animal bones or reeds, some were made from clay or condor feathers.
Particularly popular was the quena flute, carved from reeds and having eight finger holes. The musician alternately opened and closed them during the performance. In addition, the Incas often played flutes tied together.
In addition to flutes, the favorite instrument of the Incas was trumpets. There were even more of them than flutes, and they were made from wood, hollowed out gourds and sea shells.
Every month the Incas held three festivals. The most important of them took place in December - the first month of the rainy season. It was called kopak raymi, i.e. “big holiday”. During it (it was celebrated in Cusco), a rite of passage took place to initiate young men into men. The holiday was so seriously and strictly revered that only the Incas remained in Cuzco, and everyone else (not the Incas) left the capital at this time. At the end of the ceremony, they returned to the city again and confirmed their loyalty to the throne through the rite of communion.
To appease the gods, the Incas made human sacrifices. As a rule, these were children. The victim was then mummified; researchers managed to find more than four hundred similar ritual burials.
In 1995, archaeologists discovered a well-preserved ritual sacrifice, its historical age was about 500 years. It was a girl of 12–14 years old. Anthropologists conducted a lot of research on her, as a result of which they were able to find out the state of health, the diet of the Incas and a number of other details. These findings were obtained for the first time because the victim was frozen, with internal organs preserved, and not a dried-out mummy, as previous findings were. Interestingly, ritual figurines and several bright feathers were located on the top of the Nevada-Sabancay volcano near Cabanaconde (Peruvian village), and the body itself was in the crater of the volcano. Another intriguing fact was that before setting off on a difficult expedition, the American scientist Johan Reinhard and his guide Miguel Zarata offered corn beer to the spirits of the mountains. The ancient ritual worked and brought good luck to the anthropologist.
The Incas mummified the deceased rulers and their khoya. The composition that they used for embalming has not yet been clarified. After mummification (wrapping in fabrics made from the highest quality cotton, impregnated with the appropriate composition), the mummies were dressed in elegant clothes.
There were special servants who looked after the mummies, fed and watered them. The mummies even “went” to visit each other (servants carried them on stretchers) and to the emperor, attended holidays and were the first to “make” toasts. Caring for mummies was carried out at the expense of the state and was quite ruinous. Gradually this custom ceased to exist.
Decline of the Empire
Scientific research has proven that there was no gold in the Andes, therefore, the Incas must have received it from other areas of the empire. And one of these provinces was the Amazon. Even before the arrival of the Incas, local tribesmen paved trails in the Amazonian lowland. The Incas connected them by building a network of roads that connected isolated and inaccessible areas.
A special feature of the Inca transport network was the presence of suspension bridges. They were made from ropes and woven mats and hung across rivers, gorges and chasms, some of which were up to 30 m wide. Some roads built by the Incas are still in use today. They are being restored and completed.
In addition to the various goods (tropical fruits, honey, colorful parrot feathers, etc.) that caravans consisting of numerous llamas brought to the Incan capital, the main product was gold. It was this that was the main reason why the main person in the Spanish conquest, Francisco Pizarro, decided to personally undertake an expedition to South America to verify its existence.
Francisco Pizarro was a semi-literate military man. He participated in suppressing the rebellion of the Taino Indian tribe on the island of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic) and in Haiti. His first two attempts to enter the Incan lands ended in failure. But in 1527 he reached the city of Tulebes. Seeing temples decorated with precious metals, luxurious gardens with fresh flowers and their copies made of gold, Pizarro realized that the “golden land” was not fiction, but reality. He returned to Spain and told Charles V about the richest land, the simplicity and friendliness of its inhabitants. The king gave him the title of governor and captain-general of all the lands he would conquer in the future.
Pizarro recruited about 160 conquistadors. Charles V supplied them with muskets, crossbows, spears and cannons. In 1532, Pizarro and his team again arrived in the land of the Incas. Just at this time it flared up Civil War between Huascar and Atahualpa for holding the position of sapa inca (translated as “the only, unique Inca”). The Spaniards, even with such a small number, managed to defeat the Incas, weakened by civil strife and a smallpox epidemic.
Back in 1493, Columbus wrote about the cordiality and friendliness of the inhabitants of the New World: “They refuse nothing that you ask of them; on the contrary, they willingly share with everyone and treat everyone so kindly that they would be ready to give their hearts.” What a contrast with these lines about the character traits of the Incas are the intentions of the Spaniards as stated in the Requisition of 1509: “We will wage war against you with all the ways and means that we have; we will subject you to the church and its officials and force you to obedience; we will take you, your wives and children captive and enslave you!”
When Pizarro and a handful of adventurers first saw the thirty thousand Inca army, the Spaniards realized that they could not defeat them in open battle. Therefore, the conquistadors resorted to cunning. An agreement was reached that Atahualpa would greet the Spaniards as friends. But when the Great Inca, dressed in luxurious clothes sparkling with gold, accompanied by his military leaders, advisers and priests, came out to meet Pizarro, then, at a signal from the monk Valverde, the conquistadors jumped out of ambush, killed Atahualpa’s entire entourage, and captured the Inca himself.
In this terrible massacre, which Pizarro organized, 3,000 Incas were killed, and the rest fled in panic, because they saw that the one who was both king and god for them was taken prisoner. The Spaniards took advantage of the fact that Atahualpa’s retinue had no weapons, because a ceremonial meeting was being prepared.
Pizarro's team, meanwhile, did not lose a single soldier. The captive Atahualpa was kept in royal conditions, and in a short time he learned to speak Spanish. The smart Inca realized that gold was perhaps his only way to stay alive. He offered an unimaginable ransom for his life and freedom - a room measuring 7 by 6 m, which would be filled with gold just above the head of an adult.
The Incas were indifferent to gold in the sense that, unlike fabrics, it never had any material exchange value for them. They called gold “the sweat of the sun,” from which they made beautiful things, real works of art.
The Spaniards were amazed at such untold wealth. But with this proposal, Atahualpa signed his own death sentence: the Spaniards again broke their word, and as soon as the ransom was received, Pizarro sentenced the Inca to death - he was to be burned. Subsequently, the Spaniard replaced burning with death by hanging.
The Spaniards melted down the ransom for Atahualpa, eventually receiving over 6,000 kg of gold and almost 12,000 kg of silver. In the same way, by order of Charles V, all products made of precious metals made by Inca craftsmen were melted down. The Spaniards destroyed temples and palaces, and forced the inhabitants to work in mines and mines, lifting heavy objects high into the mountains. As a result, the country's population fell from 7 million to 500,000.
The surviving Incas, under the leadership of one of the last kings - Manco - went into the jungle and built the city of Vilcabamba there.
It consisted of three hundred relatively small residential buildings and sixty majestic structures made of stone; roads and canals were built in the city. Periodically, the Incas attacked their enslavers, striking their outposts. This continued until 1572. When the conquerors decided to deal with the surviving Incas and came to Vilcabamba, they saw only ashes instead of the city. Manco's three sons, who took turns ruling the city after their father's death, burned it down before leaving. The last Inca leader, Tupac Amaru, was captured by the Spaniards as they carried out their punitive expeditions, going deeper and deeper into the jungle. Tupac Amaru was beheaded in the main square in Cusco. So the Inca Empire ceased to exist.
On the ruins of former greatness
The descendants of the once great Inca Empire currently live in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. Their number is about 18 million people. Most of The inhabitants of these countries speak Quechua. Peruvians, Bolivians and Ecuadorians believe in recovery former glory and the power of the Incas. Schoolchildren in Peru know by heart all the rulers of the Inca Empire. Peruvians also believe that one of the sons of the sun, beheaded by the Spaniards Inkarr, according to legend, will return to them and restore their former civilization. Even foods that were once part of the Incan diet are now becoming more and more popular. These are amaranth, araksa, nynyas, oka, cherimoya, etc.
Tawantinsuya (“the land of four quarters,” as the Incas themselves called their domains) demonstrated the will and intelligence of its people, who in less than a century created highly developed civilization. And this despite the fact that the Incas did not know wheeled vehicles or writing. The birth, development, flourishing and fall of the Inca Empire were like an explosion, the echo of which has survived to this day.