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The Inca Empire

In folklore there are many different interpretations of how the Inca Empire began but all traditionalists agree that the creator God Viracocha rose from Lake Titicaca and traveled through Peru arriving at the site of Cusco where he plunged his golden staff into the ground and established the Inca capital.

Scholars agree however that the Inca Empire started around the 12th century A.D. with the creation of the small city-state of Cusco which had only a modest population for 2 centuries, far from the huge pre-Columbian empire that it later became. It was not until 1438 A.D. that the Inca emperor Pachacuti threw weight and numbers behind the empire and greatly expanded the Inca state, conquering an area about the side of the original thirteen colonies of the United States. He called his new empire Tahuantinsuyo, which means “four parts together” in Quechua, the language of the Incas. This empire comprised of Chinchasuyu in the northwest, Antisuyu in the northeast, Kontisuyu in the southwest and Qullasuyu in the southeast, all of which met in the city of Cusco. Pachacuti is also attributed with building the now famous Machu Picchu as a family home and retreat. Machu Picchu developed steadily to become a small city, located at a height of 8,000 feet above sea level and later became a religious sanctuary for the Incas with its existence being kept a secret from many others in the Empire.

Pachacuti’s son Túpac Yupanqui was the head of the army, in true Inca tradition, and led a number of armed conquests between 1463 and 1493, even after the death of Pachacuti in 1471. Túpac Yupanqui was able to conquer the region that encompassed almost all of the mountain range of the Andes, stretching from what is today known as Colombia, through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and northern Argentina.

The Kingdom of Chimor was one of the Inca Emperor´s most important conquests and was required in order for the Inca Empire to secure 1000 km of Peruvian coastline which was being controlled by the highly organized and skilled Chimu people, from their coastal capital Chan Chan. Túpac Inca has been credited with conquering about 70 percent of the territory ever ruled by the Incas.

The Inca Empire itself was not very uniform in terms of its peoples, culture, languages and ease of conquest and / or assimilation. One region known as the Chachapoya was located in the high Amazonian region of present-day Peru was actually very hostile to the Inca rulers while others such as the Chimu were willing to carry on trading using money in contrast with the rest of Inca Empire who based their economy on the exchange, taxation and labor. In the main currency was not used and the exchanges were based on reciprocity.

Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire between 1197 and 1533, with Vilcabamba serving as the last capital between 1533 and 1572. The subsequent collapse of the Inca Empire was not so much due to the attacks by the Spanish as it was to civil wars. Before the arrival of the Spanish conquistador Pizarro and his soldiers in 1532, a war for succession as head of the Empire raged between Huascar and Atahualpa, the sons of the Emperor Huayna Capac, which brought great unrest to some of the Incan territories and along with an outbreak of smallpox served to further weaken the empire. Atahualpa won the Inca civil war and ruled over the Inca Empire until his death in 1533 at the hands of the Spanish in modern day Cajamarca.

When Pizarro landed in South America, he was invited to meet with Atahualpa and was determined to convert him to Christianity. Atahualpa was given a bible which he threw to the floor. The Spanish felt that this was an adequate reason for war and immediately took up fighting against Atahualpa and his army of 30,000 troops. Although Pizarro had only 180 men, they had horses and better weapons than the barefoot, unarmored Incas and Pizarro was easily able to defeat them, capturing and imprisoning Atahualpa. Many Incas were trampled to death while attempting to flee the Spanish horses. Atahualpa promised to fill the room he was imprisoned in with gold and 2 more with silver in order to secure his release. He kept his promise but the Spaniards didn’t, putting him to death anyway!

Manco Inca Yupanqui was then installed as ruler of the Empire and was willing to co-operate with the Spanish. However, when a skirmish broke out over the city of Cusco in 1536, Manco Inca left Cusco and fled to the region of the Vilcabamba where for 36 years he and his sons were able to rule the Empire. The Incas were finally brought to a grinding halt in 1672 when the last Inca stronghold was discovered and the last ruler captured and executed.

The legacy of the Incas is there for all to see today when visiting Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. The wealth and depth of treasures in Peru in particular is impressive and well preserved, the old Inca capital of Cusco is particularly fine with its layers of pre-Inca, Inca and colonial civilizations.