Incas

=The Incas =
 * By Elizabeth Clarke and Yasoob Rasheed **

**Introduction **
==== The Incas were a very distinct civilization. Their diverse geography, brutal military, amazing culture, complex political systems, and vast economics brought them to power with an iron fist. Their fields of astrology, science, and mathematics also brought a new outlook on many different theories created by modern scientists. The Incas succeeded in many conquests and battles that led them to the top of everything in the South America area, ====

The Inca empire is located on the western coast of South America. This amazing empire covered many South American countries including Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and the tip of Columbia. Because of its location, the Incan empire had three main regions including mountains, coastal desert, and Amazon rainforest. (Somervill 115) Some of the human characteristics that make the empire unique are the people who inhabited it. The Incas had copper colored and thick black hair. The men were about five feet and three inches and the women were a little less than five feet. (9) Each person had two sets of clothes that were woven from cotton or wool. The first set was for every day work and the second set was for special events. The men’s clothing consisted of a loincloth and sleeveless over shirt with a woven cloak for cold weather. (10) The women’s clothing included a tunic that ended at their ankles and a woven belt to tie it off with. The women also had cloak or shawl for cold weather. The men and women both wore either sandals or went barefoot. (Mckissack 11) The language spoken by the Incas was Quecha. Pachacuti declared that all Incas must learn to speak the language. This rule connected all of the Incas and allowed them all to communicate freely despite background or ranking. (Somervill 36) The Incas farmed and had two staple foods; potatoes and corn. (Wood 20) Movement throughout the region was common because of the thousands of roads and traveling routes. Rest houses that were located on main roads at regular intervals made movement easy. Through a system of relay messaging news, people, and goods moved quickly over the vast Incan empire. (Morris 36)

Military
**Armies** The Inca armies were always very prepared in war. Each of the soldiers would get a sufficient sleep the night before the actual war. Soldiers would each be somehow related or good friends of each other so their communications between them would be strong. The discipline of the warriors changed the feelings and weaknesses of each of them making them stronger and more loyal towards the Sapa-Inca (child of the sun). Each of the generals was sent out into battle in order of the rank. To begin the king is sent out on a chariot carried by servants leading all the soldiers. Then the chief, or king’s relative would lead 5,000 soldiers attacking almost immediately the enemy. A captain was responsible for all the rest of the warriors, about 2,500 and the war was brutally dealt with bloodshed (Kendall 50).

**Weapons**
The Inca weapons designed were always designed only by distance from target. As the enemies began the war, rushing towards the Incan warriors, long bows fired arrows and darts that would be usually a one hit kill, piercing through the armor and through the body or flesh. Slings, or rocks tied to the end of ropes were deadly and knocked of armor and broke bones of enemy targets relatively close usually knocking them out. Finally the enemy troops charge in too fast killing off the slingers and archers, it was now left for the last band of troops, the hand-to-hand soldiers. These soldiers were a last resort but, used in almost every battle. They used axes,spears, and star-headed maces to vanquish the loose scraps of the enemy army (51).

**Armor**
The Inca's armor was weak against metal and a good advantage was that weapons of the warring civilizations around South America were made of little amounts of metal. They wore short, heavy, quilted cotton tunics tunics, with vests made of chonta wood. The vests were made to protect against enemy spears and axes but maces were a big worry to the armies. Helmets were made of wood or cane (woven reeds) they helped protect against head injuries. They carried shields made of wood or stretched animal skins. Good close combat armor was a wrapping of think shawls of coarse llama wool around arms as protection against the jabbing of knives and spears (Calvert 71).

**Decline**
The decline of the Incas was full of brutal killing and abundant enslavement. Atahuallpa was in his kingdom, named the new Sapa-Inca of the entire empire. A messenger came to tell him that Huascar, his brother, was going to bring siege upon his army because his father chose him to be the new leader and execute him along the other warriors if he didn't surrender. That brought war upon the whole empire. The two brothers were killing each other until; Atahuallpa won and held Huascar still (Kendall 53). Soon thereafter the Spaniards arrived on the coastline of the Inca empire. Francisco Pizzaro, the leader of the Spaniards, came forth and forced the Incas to give up their land or certain death but the Incas were amused. This brought a new war upon the Incas and for the first time the Incas was unprepared for battle. The warrior’s moral was down, they were weak and untested, and the Spaniards brought forth a plague from Europe that killed off almost everyone. The battle raged forward, soldiers crashed and battled but the Spaniards metal swords, rapiers, and maces completely wiped out the army. Atahuallpa was bound and gagged until Pizzaro found a proposition between him and the king. Atahuallpa had to bring a room filled with gold and two rooms filled with silver to be released and so he did. Atahuallpa had Huascar beheaded and soon the Spaniards hunted him down and hanged him. The Spaniards killed all of the Incas and none were left but legend told the Spaniards that there was a secret place hidden in the midst of the majestic Andes Mountains that left culture and heritage behind, this made the Spaniards furious and they looked everywhere for it but failed. This place was called Machu Picchu (54).
 * Culture**

**Religion**
The Inca religion involved much tribute, worship, and belief. Their sun god, Inti, was worshiped by all of the Incas. The Sapa-Inca represents the sun and the Coya represents the moon. Pacha Mama was the god who created the earth (Mother Nature). Mama Cocha was named the lady of the lakes. The stars were the children of the sun and moon. Mama Quilla was the mother of the moon. Illapa is the god of rain, thunder, and lightning. And lastly Viracocha was the god of all creation of humankind (Kendall 14). The Inca civilians would pray at their favorite temple, it was called a coricancha. To pay even more tribute the Incas built huge stone blocks that were carved into shapes called intihuatanas. The rituals of the Incas all had something to do with sacrificing. They would sacrifice animals such as guinea pigs, and llamas. Also they would sacrifice food such as chicha and cocoa leaves. If crops were very abundant that year the Incas would sacrifice a portion of the crops but if the crop weren't abundant they would sacrifice poor children (George 40).

The education of the Inca people depended on the rank their parents were. The peasant’s son would usually learn how to farm and work around the house. The peasant’s daughter would learn how to cook and prepare two meals everyday. She would also spin wool and weave the wool into clothes (Jordan 35). The noble or warrior's son would attend school for four years, then be chosen as a new noble or warrior. The daughters of nobility would be chosen to weave and make bread taught by nuns. They could also be chosen, varying from beauty, to become the Lord Inca's wife (36). Inca architecture was very unique and rarely designed. The Incas always built with stone. The stone was never used with mortar that’s what surprised many people. They carved the stone so precisely that the stone fit together perfectly with no space in the middle. The blocks really showed their power and strength when in 1950 A.D. an earthquake of high magnitude struck one of the coricanchas but it was still standing after the devastation (Chrisp 24). The Incas were well-known as extremely good stonemasons. The tools that they used were stone hammers (for cutting and shaping), and wet sand (for polishing). The cities were mostly hidden away in the mountains suspended on giant mountains with flat land for a city placement (Calvo 1). Cities began to build in 1,200 B.C. on the land that was known as Urubamba (Kendall 12). The Inca's quarries were very hard to work at. An amazing 4,000 men worked in the quarries to gather stone, 6,000 people dragged the rock to the ground where they built, 10,000 people built ramps to lift the rocks, and 20,000 people deisgned and fit together all the rock pieces (Chrisp 24). Machu Picchu was a hidden city in the Andes mountains. More than 150 houses, temples, baths, storage rooms, and palaces were built there. Stones that were used to build the palaces weighed up to 50 tons (100,000 pounds).Spanish invaders were aggravated hearing about this hidden city so they tried to find it but they couldn't. This secret hidden group of palaces in the Andes was the last chance for the Incas to keep their heritage for centuries (Somervill 107).
 * Education**
 * Architecture**

Arts
Incan art was very practical. They admired production, not original. "There were fields of corn with silver stalks and golden ears, on which the leaves, grains and even the corn silk were shown. In addition, there were all kinds of gold and silver animals in these gardens such as rabbits, mice, lizards, snakes, butterflies, foxes, and wild cats; there were birds set in the trees, and others bent over he flowers, breathing in their nectar."(Somervill 93) Incas were very skilled weavers. Both men and women were weavers. They were called expert textile artisans and were valued for their talents. Textiles being made for nobles used the colors yellow, red, brown, and gold. They were woven into intricate, geometric patterns. Woolen cloth came from llamas, alpacas, and vicunas. Cotton was preferred in hotter and coastal regions. (93) Most weavers included repetitive, geometric patterns and common animals in their cloth. (94) Incan people made pottery. The pottery was decorated but easy to mass produce. Pre-fired slips of clay mixed with ground mineral pigments colored the pottery. (96) A reflective surface was achieved by polishing. The shapes and ideas included in the pottery were borrowed from earlier cultures. (97) The Incas had many types of music in their culture. They had pipers, flutes, rattles, and drums. The pipers made their own instruments from bamboo. The thin reeds called chillis or icas created higher pitched notes while the wider reeds called toyos created lower pitched notes. Pipers often created music circles and played together. Flutes were called quenas by the Incas. They could be made from bamboo or the leg bones of animals. Just like the pipes, the smaller the flute, the higher the note. The Incan flutes sounded a lot like recorders. Special flutes called tarkas were wooden and used for religious rites. They sounded like oboes. Incans made rattles to add rhythm to the music. chac-chas were many goat or llama hooves attacked to a string that made clicking noises. Chaucha were natural rattles made from dried seed pods with beans inside. They sounded a lot like Mexican maracas. The last kind of rattle is a palo de lluvia or rain stick. This is a bamboo reed with holes and capped ends. Each hole has a thin stick in it and the tube is half full of beans. When the tube is turned upside down, the beans rattle the sticks and sound like rain. (98) The Incas made drums. They stretched animal skins over hallow sections of wood. Military drums were made from the skin of fallen enemies. To beat the drums they used sticks, bones, and their hands. The last form of music used by the Incas is trumpet like conch shells. They used them for military, religious, and civil purposes. The conch shell started battles for the military. They called people to plaza or temples for religious things. They also alerted postal runners that the next runner has arrived. (99) The Incas had over 700 different dances. Each dance expressed emotions, told stories, or commemorated a life event. The dances usually had many dancers some with just men, some with only women, and some with both men and women.

Herbs were the base of Incan medicine. Most important people to the Incan medicine were old women with lots of herbal knowledge and doctors that treated bleeding, illness, and amputated limbs. The Incas preformed bloodletting and trepanning. the women cared for the sick while people made sacrifices like burning cloth or coco leaves to persuade the gods to help heal the sickly person.(100) Tuberculosis, intestinal worms, stomach worms, tapeworms, pinworms, lice, Malaria, Syphilis, Smallpox, Measles, flu, and Leprosy existed in the Incan Empire. Earth quakes, volcanic eruptions, droughts, blizzards and other geological events were thought to be caused by angry gods. (103) astrology didn’t fully interest the Incas, but they observed movements of things in space. They observed the movements of the sun, moon, and Venus. The Incas also saw shift in the suns path due to the summer and winter solstice. (104)
 * Science **


 * Political Systems**

**Rulers**
The Political systems of the Inca started with one ruler always at the top of the kingdom watching over every thing that he owned. Everyone claimed him to be a child of the sun god Inti. When a Sapa-Inca died it was a sorrowful event, there was slow dancing and a party. From then on the dead Sapa-Inca would be held still on a throne on the top of a temple. He would be attended and treated with the proper alms to stay untouched by flies and bugs. There would be the brushing of his teeth and the swatting of flies near his face. The king would get food sacrificed to him and only once a year on their special holiday the Sapa-Inca would get carried out (Chrisp 10). The rulers of the Inca empire were: Manco Capac, Sinchi Roca, Lloque Yupanqui, Mayta Capac, Inca Roca, Yuhuar Huacae, Viracocha Inca, Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, Topa Inca Yupanqui, Huayna Capac, Huascar, and Atahuallpa. Atahuallpa was the last Sapa-Inca to rule for more than two years and after the Spanish conquest the Sapa-Incas had no power (Kendall 12).

**Government**
The Government of the Inca was very unique. The different respects that would be given would be by the rank. It started with the Sapa-Inca ruler of all the land. Then the nobles would be respected after that. The local rulers were after that they were known as curacas. And lastly a district head-man called camayoc was respected (Kendall 16). The Laws of the Inca were also fairly distinct because they were almost entirely base on land, tribute, and labor. The most well-known book of Inca laws was called the Cieza de Leon. The peasants and rank officials would be charged with the foul behavior of, lying, being drunk, and murdering an Inca citizen. Punishments for misbehaving fluctuated from the rank that the person was for example a noble would be punished less for murder than a peasant murdered another citizen. Punishments could be brutal, painful, and even fatal. Whipping was the basic punishment for being drunk or lying to an official. The Sapa-Inca once let a murderer go from the court alive and then there was a string of deaths after that. So from then on the person that murdered was no issue for the government so the government killed that one person (17). The Sapa Inca divided the Kingdom into four quarters, north, north-west, south, and south-west. Each of these quarters was led by an apu. The apu would check with the king every month and tell him a progress report of his or her quarter. Inside the quarter an aylluses or communities would be formed. After every year a tucutricoc would come and take the census of the empire (George 15).

The Incas had social classes to sort out each and every person. The leading Inca family was the most popular. Even though they are called foreigners people from other tribes could become nobles. As the Empire expands every thing grows bigger and the nobles become more important to set problems straight. The judges would come next followed by the architects and lastly at the bottom of the food chain the peasants are respected (Kendall 16).
 * Social Classes**

**Taxes**
The taxes of the Inca ermpire were very simple because taxes were only given to judges and architects. All the people that were interested in becoming a part of the Inca had to work every day to live because if they did they would get clothing, shelter, and food. Nobles, officials, women, and other important people never had to pay taxes for a life time. Even if someone had to pay taxes he would always do so. As long as the Inca empire lasted they never had gone bankrupt or lost track of the amount of money going in and out.

Occupations
Common occupations for the Incas are farming, herding, craftsmen, weavers, and sorcerers. A very common job for the Incas was farming. The two farming seasons were dry season and wet season. The wet season lasted from October to May. The dry season lasted from June to September. Some of the crops they grew and ate were peppers, avocadoes, tomatoes, chocolate, coca, quinoa, guavas, and cactus. (Wood 21) The Incas that lived in the mountains terraced the slopes and added retaining walls so they could farm on them. The Incas used irrigation to water their crops. The irrigation channels connected rivers and streams to the fields. The Incas also bored through rock for springs to water crops. (Morris 38)  Another job was herding. Llamas and alpacas were commonly herded by the Incas for their wool and meat. The children drove off foxes and other predators that tried to harm the herds. The waste produced by the animals was collected by herders and used as fuel during the winter. Incan people could also be craftsmen. Craftsmen made necklaces with gold and pearls. Craftsmen created functional weapons that had intricate decorations. They also made pottery by hand without a wheel and religious items. They made many more things including statues, knives, pins, and tools. Craftsmen worked with many different materials like bronze, tin, and copper. The people that lived in the Inca Empire were skilled weavers. Both men and women could be weavers. They made blankets, ropes, clothing, baskets, and cables for suspending bridges. They Incas wove geometric patterns into their cloth. Some skilled weavers wove feathers into the cloth they made. One of the last Incan occupations was being a sorcerer. Sorcerers were local people with special abilities. Sorcerers could cast spells, read omens, and help or hinder goals. (MrDonn.org) The Incas had thousands of miles of roads that spread across the empire. The main routes spread out from the capital city, Cuzco. The main routes were 50 ft. across. They were also paved. Main roads had rest houses at regular intervals to make traveling easier. Smaller routes were simple paths about 6 ft. across. All of these roads formed a well maintained network for the use of "all those on official business." The roads had many uses like moving goods, transporting conquered subjects, sending troops anywhere in the empire, to connect the Incan ruler to his empire, and more. These roads served as a communication network that used relay messaging. (Morris 36) The Incas used huaros, uruyas, and torabitus for transportation. They all looked like modern day cable cars. Incans used thick willow branches woven into gondola like baskets that were suspended o hemp ropes. The ropes were attached to trees or boulders at each end and could support one to two people. Each person had t pay a toll to pass and each cable car was patrolled by an Inca. These bridges were very durable and super strong. (Somervill 106) the last form of Incan transportation is water transport. They used tightly bound reeds found at the shorelines. They made the reeds into tight bundles and curved each bundle into the boats shape. Heavy duty balsa wood rafts carried heavier cargo and army supplies. (Morris 37) Everything was traded in the Inca Empire due to the lack of a money system. All Incan trade was mostly state controlled especially the trade of precious metals. Ordinary people could trade food or textiles at fairs. People from the mountains traded freeze dried foods for lowland produce like maize, cotton, beans and salt. People also exchanged things like animals or pottery. (Morris 37)
 * Transportation **
 * Trade **

Conclusion The Inca empire was successful in achieving its goal as a good, functioning civilization. It has used all of these main topics shown to win power over any of its enemies and show the world what they are made of. Everyone in the past probably has used one of the Inca's developed creations and that has proven there that the Inca empire is one of the greatest empires that has ever lived. Thus as every civilization the Incas rose with a mighty, iron fist but was overthrown by a greater threat.

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