In the 15th century, the entire Andean region came under the rule of the powerful rulers of Cuzco. The Children of the Sun imposed their law through their fearsome army, their vast network of roads, and the forced labor of their subjects.
In ancient times, this entire region of land you see was vast mountains and scrubland, and the people of those times lived like beasts and brutes, without religion or policing, without town or home, without cultivating or sowing the land, without clothing or covering their bodies [...]. Our Father the Sun, seeing men as I have told you, took pity on them and sent from heaven to earth a son and a daughter of his own to instruct them in the knowledge of Our Father the Sun [...] and to give them precepts and laws by which they would live as men in reason and civility.
This is how Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, at the end of the 16th century, recalled what an uncle had told him in his childhood about the origins of the Inca people. The protagonists of the story were a pair of siblings, Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, born on the shores of Lake Titicaca, in the heart of the Andes mountain range. They, by order of the Sun, embarked on a journey to found a new city: Cuzco.
From these two founding heroes sprang the dynasty of the thirteen Incas. There is no truly historical data regarding the first of these sovereigns, the so-called legendary Incas. In any case, their dominions did not extend beyond the area of Cuzco.
It was in the 15th century, under Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, the ninth Inca, that the expansion of the Empire began with the defeat of the ferocious Chancas and the conquest of Cajamarca and the Titicaca region. His son, Tupac Inca Yupanqui, expanded the borders once again, defeating the quarrelsome Chachapoyas and seizing Chimu territory. During his reign, the Incas annexed the territories of what are now Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.
This vast territory, which at the beginning of the 16th century encompassed 12 million inhabitants, was under the supreme authority of the emperor: the Inca, the Son of the Sun. He resided with his family in Cuzco, in a palace that each ruler rebuilt, surrounded by his wives and children, the other royal families, and his ministers and priests. Succession ran from father to son, and although the principle of primogeniture did not apply, the heir had to be one of the princes or auquis born to the principal wife, the coya (or colla).
When the emperor reached the age of majority, he was initiated into the tasks of state. Logically, the fact that there were several candidates for the throne fostered intrigue and power struggles, especially because each prince formed his own lineage, or panaca, that supported his interests. It is well known that these dynastic dissensions led to Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532, who took advantage of the civil war between the brothers Huáscar and Atahualpa to impose himself.
The main religious and administrative positions were held by members of the various panacas. The Spanish called them "orejones" (big ears) because their enormous earrings exaggeratedly distended their earlobes. This royal elite was organized through complex kinship norms and was also linked to the provincial leaders—the curacas—and the administrative corps.
All of them enjoyed numerous privileges, such as traveling in litters, wearing fine fabrics, protecting themselves with parasols, and having concubines and servants, the yanaconas. Below them was the great mass of the population, the hatunrunao (common people).
They were the ones who maintained the Empire with their labor, which the Inca appropriated through an institution that would survive under Spanish rule: the mita, a provision of labor or services by the community.
The Inca Empire, also known as the Inca Empire, was a military state. It had a powerful and well-trained army, which was supported by the mita. This allowed for the recruitment of a very high number of soldiers of the prime age for combat. The youngest marched to the front, and the rest were dedicated to toolmaking and supply work. Soldiers were renewed through mandatory shifts, and the army was always "rested."
Furthermore, the road system facilitated communication between different parts of the Empire and allowed for the rapid movement of troops. They could supply themselves or rest in the tambos (batteries) or warehouses that dotted the roads, where food and weapons were stored. Military campaigns could be long-term and were sometimes led by the Inca or one of his generals, although those ultimately responsible were, in practice, skilled soldiers.
The conquests of the Inca army gave rise to great celebrations. Pachacuti, for example, upon returning from a successful four-year campaign, was greeted by the excited people of Cuzco, dazzled by a retinue never before seen, made up of allied leaders, war booty, and prisoners. These were sacrificed in the plaza of Aucaypata, and their skulls turned into vessels or keros (cups) for their toast to the Sun.
After the conquest of a territory, the Incaization of its inhabitants took place through the imposition of the official religion, the worship of the Sun, and the Quechua language. The gods and curacas of the defeated people were brought to Cuzco. The captured deities were placed in a temple that one Spanish chronicler compared to "the Roman Pantheon [...] and with this, it seemed to them that they had secured the conquered provinces, holding their gods as hostages."
The curacas, for their part, learned Quechua, an essential requirement for holding an official position, and then returned to their places of origin accompanied by teachers who taught the new language to the population, while their firstborn remained in Cuzco as hostages for indoctrination and to prevent possible betrayal by their parents. If this was not enough to ensure loyalty to the Empire, the system of mitimaes, or forced relocations of entire populations, was implemented and deported to distant lands. This uprooting broke the internal ties of the subjugated peoples, effectively eradicating any hint of rebellion.
The conquered territories were held together by a sophisticated administrative system. The Empire was divided into four regions, or suya, to facilitate its administration; in fact, the name the Incas gave their domains, Tahuantinsuyu, means "the four regions."
Each suya or region was governed by a suyayocapu, a representative of the sovereign, usually a brother or uncle. The four suyayocapu formed a governing council that advised the Inca. Each suya was divided into territories of 40,000 inhabitants, governed by curacas (chiefs) who enjoyed a degree of political independence.
However, the freedom of action of these curacas was limited by the fact that their sons resided in Cuzco as proof of their loyalty and because they also had two direct representatives of the Inca at their side: the apunchic, or military governor, and the tucuiricuc, a type of inspector (their name in Quechua means "those who see everything") who were primarily responsible for recruiting the necessary troops for the army and the men who would work in the fields and infrastructure of Tahuantinsuyu.
To establish the Empire, the Incas had to overcome enormous geographical obstacles. To connect lands separated by towering mountains and countless ravines and gorges, tunnels and stairways carved into the rock, or suspension bridges, were built at an altitude of over 5,000 meters. These bridges were made of fibers that evoked "a certain fear when viewed, as they seemed so weak and fragile," as the Jesuit Acosta put it.
They operated a service of small totora (reed) rafts and larger ones called oroyas, which, like ferries, transported people and goods. An extensive road network and an efficient relay system based on chasquis, or messengers, were created, capable of carrying a message from Quito to Cuzco in six days, with relays every six kilometers.
In the Inca Empire, the State controlled everything. All productive assets—primarily land, but also livestock—belonged to the Inca, although in practice the resources were divided according to a system that specialists call "tripartition."
In any town, no matter how small, one-third of the assets were reserved for the Inca, another third was used for sun worship, and the remaining third remained in the hands of the community; this proportion, however, could vary depending on the wealth of each area. Private ownership existed only for the Inca's possessions, which he could transfer to members of his royal lineage, or panaca, and had his yanaconas, or servants, work them. Of the total production, the State allocated a portion to the local community, another portion to the provincial warehouse, and the third portion was sent to Cuzco, where it was distributed among the curacas and orejones.
The hatunruna, the "common people," sustained the Inca empire with their efforts. The basis of social organization was the ayllu, a broad community made up of families descended from a single ancestor, generally identified with their own tutelary deity. The ayllu constituted the labor force and were controlled through a meticulous accounting method based on quipus, records that recorded harvests, births, deaths, and marriages, as well as the number of army personnel and the number of those working in the fields and on public works.
The hatunruna were required to work for the Inca practically from the time they could walk, according to a division of labor by age and gender, based on physical ability. Young boys delivered feathers, and girls delivered flowers used as dyes; they also ran errands or performed domestic chores. The elderly cared for the animals, and the women wove and took care of the family and the house.
But those who had the greatest responsibilities were married men, or purej, aged 25 to 50. They were subject to the mita, a temporary or shift-based job (in Quechua, mita means "shift") for the benefit of the Inca, the corps of priests, or the curacas of their community. The work was performed at their place of residence or at other places designated by the State, and could be very diverse: in the countryside, in the city, in pottery, textiles, metallurgy, public works, etc. They were also recruited in shifts to serve in the army.
The State organized the entire life of the hatunruna from birth. It not only appropriated their labor power, but also determined their place of residence and even controlled their marital life. Marriage was obligatory and had to take place within each ayllu.
To prevent the bride and groom from being direct relatives—only the Inca could marry his sister—the ayllu was divided into hanan (above) and hurin (below), and it was established that those at the top could marry those at the bottom and vice versa. Polygamy was permitted, but only for nobles and curacas.
Marriages took place in mass state ceremonies, in which young men of 20 years old and 16 years old were to be paired off. If love didn't strike during the celebration, the curaca would create forced couples who would live together for six months. This period was known as sirvinacuy, and if love didn't blossom during that time, they could separate. To formalize the engagement, according to Acosta, the bridegroom had to place "an otoja on the young woman's foot. 'Otoja' is the name given to the footwear they wear there, which is like an espadrille or open shoe worn by Franciscan friars. If the bride was a virgin, the otoja was made of wool; if not, it was made of esparto grass.
Once married, the state provided the young couple with a home with a plot or tupu and a supply of clothing. Each year, the grants were reviewed, and if the couple had children, they received more land: one tupu for a son and half for a daughter. The total size of the ayllu thus depended on the number of plots owned by their male children.
Each couple also received a pair of llamas, whose wool was to be given to the state, although the offspring could be used at will. The ayllu, based on kinship, fostered solidarity among its members and provided protection for the weakest: the disabled, widows, and the elderly.
Each man cultivated his plot individually; but if a son died, the rest of the community worked the deceased's plot altruistically to support his family. Likewise, the men who remained in the ayllu had to cultivate the lands of those who were drafted into the army.
Thanks to this organizational system, Andean agriculture reached a remarkable level of development. To guarantee the water supply, canals were built to transport water from the mountains to the coast, irrigating the terraces that the Hatunruna had worked so hard to build on the slopes. These terraces, situated at different altitudes, allowed for the production of a wide variety of crops. In addition to agriculture, the Incas kept herds of llamas, which were naturally distributed by the State according to the same rules that applied to the land.
For the common people, their obligations did not end with the Inca. They also had to honor the gods of the extensive Inca pantheon by participating in multitudinous and complex ceremonies that included music and dance, and by performing rites and offerings in which animals, primarily llamas, and also human beings, were sacrificed.
As an agricultural people, the Inca deities were closely associated with the forces of nature. Thus, Illapa was the god of thunder and lightning who controlled the rain; Mamaquilla was the moon, sister and wife of the sun; Mamacocha was the goddess of the waters, and Pachamama was the goddess of the earth, and their calendar of celebrations was linked to the main events of the countryside.
But the principal god was Inti, or the Sun, whose rays provided life and sustenance to all beings. Over time, the nobility made him the state god and the father of the Inca. As the supreme deity, he had a stone temple to honor him throughout the Empire. The most exceptional was the Coricancha, built in Cuzco, the imperial capital.
Its walls were covered in gold, and an enormous image of the Sun, also made of gold and inlaid with precious stones, presided over the main hall. The sun illuminated it every morning, multiplying its rays on the golden walls. The Spanish squandered this great work; According to Acosta, a soldier took "that beautiful gold plate from the sun, and as the game dragged on, he lost it one night while gambling."
The chapels were covered in precious metals, like that of the Moon, which was lined with silver; the tableware, utensils, and pipes were made of gold and silver; and in the garden surrounding the temple, the Chimú had sculpted life-size trees, fruits, men, and animals in gold.
The ritual became very elaborate, and a priestly hierarchy grew around it, whose functions also included predicting the future. They sought the answer in the entrails of the flames, usually white, or in the careful observation of the fire in a sacred brazier, even in the movement of captive spiders.
Huayna Capac himself needed these services to designate his successor, as he was undecided between his sons Huáscar and Ninan Cuyochi. To settle the matter, the Callpa ceremony was held, in which the priests interpreted the entrails of a llama. But this time they received no words of comfort for the Inca, as the omens were dire for both candidates.
Practically all the needs generated by the religious institution were met by the acllacunas, "the chosen ones." They were responsible for assisting the priests in ceremonies and preparing food, drink, and clothing. They were beautiful girls "of good stature and disposition," selected throughout the Empire to enter the acllahuasi, or houses of the chosen ones.
