AIS 120: INDIANS OF THE AMERICAS

CASE STUDY: SOUTH AMERICA: INCA (QUECHUA)

Origins

The Inca were a Late Period culture in the Andes of South America that only rose to power around AD 1200 and developed an empire that expanded from their capitol, Cuzco, in Peru. The Inca were a small group of people that spoke a language called Quechua. They inherited a complex and rich culture that had developed from Early Period cultures like the Chavin in the Central Andes and the Paracas in the Southern Andes around 3- 4,000 years ago to 2,000 years ago. Around 500 BC- AD 1000  during the Intermediate Period other cultures like the Mochica, Wari, Chimu and Nazca developed classical kingdoms that rose to power at various times. The people of the Andes exploited three ecosystems: the Coast,  Highlands and Altiplano (Puna). The coast provided fish and shellfish. The highlands was the primary area for CBS, quinoa, tomato, melons, cotton, and coca. The high altiplano (12,000 feet) was not very conducive to agriculture, but the peanut, potato and oca were developed to survive on garden terraces. When the Inca rose to power they perceived their beginnings based on an emergence myth of four brothers and four sisters who originated from the sun god Inti and emerged from a cave, Pacaritambo and traveled to Cuzco. One brother, Manco Capac was to establish a Temple of the Sun and sink a golden staff, 'tapac-yauri, to honor their celestial father. There are numerous variations to the story but Cuzco became the capitol and their empire stretched the four quarters of the realm and Manco Capac became Sapa Inca. They colonized the area with their language (Quechua) and a system of roads. In 1438 Inca Pachacuti expanded the empire to the south and with his son Tupac Inca to the north to Columbia and south to Chile  by 1463. The Incan Empire would eventually stretch 4,000 miles along the western slope of the Andes with over 8,000 miles of roads. Along the roads were stone way stations with food and equipment to feed and resupply the armies traveling up and down the territory. The Inca used llamas as transport on the roads. Llamas were one of three domestic and one wild camelids of the Andes.

Llama/domestic/food, trans, wool Alpaca/domestic/ wool Vicuna/domestic feral/ royal wool Guanaco/wild

 

Traditional Culture

Spanish explorations probed into South America in the 1520s and diseases began to take a toll before the physical arrival of Pizarro and his expeditions. By the time Pizzaro came to Peru the Inca were embroiled in civil war. The fluorescence of the Inca civilization would be in the late 1400's to the early 1500s. We do have chronicles written by Incan nobles after conquest (similar to the Aztecs), so we have better information on the nature of this civilization.

Inca             <1520
Language Andean-Equatorial Quechua
Settlement Centered in Peru;capitol Cuzco (11,207');

Empire Ecuador to Chile

Coastal desert 100-6,500' above sea level

Highland forest 6,550-13,000'

Puna 13,000-16,000

Economics CBS, terraced farming, llama, alpaca, and vicuna, guinea pigs; root crops, quinoa

Interconnecting roads in all three zones: way stations

llamas provided fertilizer (taqui) and dried meat (charqui) 200 varieties of potato (some freeze dried:chuno)

Record keeping: Quipu (mnemonic device of knotted cords for mathematical/record keeping)

Coastal desert: coca, cotton

Highland forest: CBS, tomato, quinoa, sweet potato, manioc

Puna: potato, oca, peanut

Social Organization ayllu: communal lineage clan unit sharing land, crops, animals/

 mit'a service/goods tax

chiefdom

Tawantin-suyu: empire/state; four quarters

Nobility (Royal): Inca; Council of advisors, governors of the four quarters, priests, military leaders,

Nobility (Privileged):chosen women, appointment for outstanding service

Commoners: Farmers, artisans, merchants

Slaves (Yanas)

World View Myth: Emergence

Beliefs: Viracocha creator; servant gods including Inti (Sun)

               Nature gods; huaca-holy object or spirit

                 Pachamama: earth goddess

               moral precept: Ama sua, ama llula, ama chella/ Do not steal, do not lie,

              do not be lazy

Ritual: State ritual and decentralized cults throughout the empire

Practitioners: Noble priests; local curers

The Temple of the Sun (Curi-cancha) in Cuzco was the center of state ritual with gilded gold doors and gardens with all gold and silver plants , shepards, animals, etc.
Expressed Form weaving, gold work, pottery granite stone work, architecture, pottery Machu Picchu built at 10,000' as a summer palace built by Sapa Inca Pachcuti

Incan society has been portrayed as an example of Native American socialism. However, it is more accurate to see the Incan social system more as a theocracy with a well enforced system of tithing. Similarly, as with all empires and colonization is the nature of the regions that have been conquered. Sapa Inca Pachacuti in AD 1438 began expansion and made Quechua the official language of the entire Incan Empire. In fact the Inca moved in Quechua colonists (mit'akona) which include military, political and economic officials. Inca Tupac (Pachacuti's son) continued to expand the empire and its full range was achieved with the conquest of the Chimu Kingdom on the south coast of Peru. The actual stability and success of this empire is not well understood, since the influence of Spanish disease and eventual conquest began in the early 1500s.

CONTACT

The first expedition to western South America was led by Pascual de Andagoya in 1522. He was told by Columbian Indians of a great empire with gold in a territory along a river called Piru (later Peru). As Andagoya returned ill to Panama he told of these lands that might be the legendary El Dorado. Another conquistador, Francisco Pizzaro, who had come to Hispaniola in 1502 and  later accompanied Vasco Nunez de Balboa across the Isthmus of Panama to see the Pacific Ocean in 1513. Pizzaro betrayed Balboa to gain favor of the new Governor Davila of Panama, who would in turn support expeditions to South America. Pizarro had heard of Hernando Cortes' success and was determined to find riches to the south. Pizarro led two unsuccessful expeditions in 1524 and 1526 reaching the jungles of Columbia. After considerable personnel and logistical problems Pizarro with a small group (13) made it to the Peruvian northwest Tumbes Region in 1528. They saw enough gold in local villages in residences of the leadership (they also saw llamas. 'little camels') to decide to return to mount a full scale expedition. Many scholars are convinced that these early expeditions planted the seeds of epidemics that spread ahead of the Spanish.

 

 Domain

 Period/date

 Ruler

 Dynasty

 Important related information

 Kingdom of Cuzco

 approx. 1200 - 1400  Manco Cápac I.  Hurín  
 approx. 1230s  Sinchi Roca  
 approx. 1260s  Lloque Yupanqui  
 approx. 1290s  Mayta Cápac  
 approx. 1320s  Cápac Yupanqui  
 approx. 1350s  Inca Roca  Hanán  
 approx. 1380s  Yahuár Huacác  
 approx. 1410 - 1438  Viracocha Inca  

 Inca Empire

 (Tahuantinsuyo)

 approx. 1438 - 1471  Pachacuti (Pachacútec)  Said to have constructed Machu Picchu.

 approx. 1471 - 1493

 Túpac Inca Yupanqui (Tópa Inca)

The son of Emperor Pachacuti, the supposed constructor of Choquequirao, also known as the "Sacred Sister of Machu Picchu".

 approx. 1493 - 1525/'27    Huayná Cápac

He was the last Inca Emperor who ruled before the Arrival of the Spaniards.

 approx. 1525 - 1532  Huascár*

Huascár ruled the Southern parts of the Inca Empire, following his father's death. He rivaled his brother Atahualpa.

 approx. 1525 - 1533  Atahualpa*

Ruled the northern parts of the Empire and in the succession fight with his brother, he naively accepted Spanish help. Atahualpa murdered his own brother Huascár and took over the control of the whole Empire.

 Vilcabamba Kingdom

 (or State)

 approx. 1533  Tópa Huallpa

Founder of the Vilcabamba Kingdom/State, in a valley beyond the Cordillera Vilcabamba, northwest of the Urubamba Valley.

 approx. 1533 - 1544  Manco Inca Yupanqui (Manco Cápac II.)

He was crowned as the new Inca ruler by Francisco Pizarro in 1534. Because he was used by the Spaniards and was abused of, he rebelled against them, uniting many Incas. Manco Cápac II. was one of the most powerful Inca rulers, he was the strongest opponent of the Spaniards. Manco Cápac II. was the one who escaped from Cuzco and founded the fortress of Vilcabamba, where he took refuge and periodically fought the powerful armoured Spanish forces. He was successful in several attempts to resist the Spaniards, including the reclaiming of Cuzco for several days. In the end, he was murdered in 1544 by Diego de Almagro.

 approx. 1545 - 1560  Sayri Túpac

Successor of Manco Cápac II., put in place by Diego de Almagro.

 approx. 1560 - 1570  Titu Cusi Yupanqui  
 approx. 1571 - 1572  Túpac Amaru

The last Inca ruler, he was killed in 1572, when the Spaniards managed to conquer the Vilcabamba and finally gained full control over the Inca lands.

 

 

Inca Huayna Capac came into power in 1493 and died in 1527, but two of his most powerful sons Huascar in Cusco and Atahualpa in Ecuador contested succession of the incaship. After five years of civil war, Atahualpa was victorious in 1532, two weeks before Francisco Pizarro returned to Peru on May 13. Atahualpa was resting in a provincial capital, Cajamarca, and waiting with 40,000 + soldiers to march into Cusco for his investiture.

As with most events of contact the details have been heavily mangled by mostly Spanish chroniclers. Somehow, after Pizarro marched to Cajamarca, he and his men lured Atahualpa into a peace conference and slaughtered his nobles, capturing Atahualpa alive. The Spanish demanded a ransom of two rooms filled to the brim with silver and one room filled with gold. The Inca complied but false charges were brought against Atahualpa and he was sentenced to death in a rather rigged trial. On Aug. 29, 1533 Atahualpa was executed. The Spanish moved on to Cusco and took the capital on Nov 15, 1533. The amounts of gold and silver at the Temple of the Sun, Curi-cancha was unbelievable to the Spanish. All but a few statues lost in the garden were melted down. Pizarro became embroiled in disputes over the wealth and was finally murdered in 1541.

Since the Inca Empire was so huge Pizzaro established a puppet 'Neo-Inca State by putting Atahualpa's brother, Manco Inca Yupanqui (Manco Capac II), on the throne in 1544. Manco Capac II escaped Cusco and went into the mountains to a small splinter state at Vilcabamba and reclaimed Cusco with rebel forces. Three other puppet Inca rulers were put in place by the Spanish, ending with Tupac Amaruwho was executed in 1572 when the Spanish had control of Incan territory. In spite of the Spanish destruction of the nobility they maintained Incan local leaders (called curacas). Incan men were enslaved in the many mines and Spanish men married or took Incan women who maintained many elements of the culture including the language Quechua and the related Aymara. For years the urban areas like Lima and Cusco had been more Hispanisized. Festivals were a Indian/Catholic mixture of traditions. However, the mining and farming estates of the rich caused great suffering in forced labor. In 1742 mixed blood named Juan Santos Atahualpa led an uprising for twenty years. In southern Peru and Bolivian area of Potosi with it's huge silver mines, a local leader, Jose' Condorcanqui, who claimed descent from last murdered Incan ruler, Tupac Amaru,  led an insurrection in 1780 against the Spanish with rebel army of 80,000. However, many local peasants were not able to make the sacrifice or take the risk...Condorcanqui was arrested and his family was executed in front of him. After torturing him the Spanish quartered him, distributing his limbs to the  "Four Quarters of the Empire". Because of Condorcanqui's claim to Incan nobility, the Spanish hunted down and murdered all known relatives. However, creoles, Spaniards born in America, also became disenfranchised with the Spanish crown and being treated as second class citizens. Creole leaders like Jose' de San Martin and Simon Bolivar helped win independence for Peru and  Bolivia by 1824. The victors supported the local estates, but not communal Native American lands and put Native American peasants into the concertaje system where they owned no land and owed land owners for life under a corrupt system of creative payment and interest charges to be able to farm their own land.

One of the great mysteries of the Incan Empire has always been the 'Lost City" of Vilcabamba. It was thought to be up the Urubamba River on the Eastern slopes of the Andes. In 1911 Hiram Bingham of Yale University found Machu Picchu and other 'lost' cities.Bingham thought Machu Picchu was Vilcabamba, but he was wrong. Many still portray Machu Picchu as an Inca hide out for the last emperors. In the 1970s researchers finally found Vilcabamba at a site called Espiritu Pampa.

In the 20th century Peru went through a variety of civil and military leaders that ruthlessly suppressed peasant movements by mestizo and indios people. Various democratic vs socialist movements, especially from influences of the Cuban Revolution stimulated various guerilla movements that have continued into the 1990s. Shining Path/Sendero Luminoso (SL) and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) have involved outside interests including drug trafficking with minimal solutions to indigenous issues like agrarian reform, cultural integrity and health care. Recently the corruption reached the boiling point with earlier decrees that overturned laws that protected indigenous (Native American) communal lands from being sold. The breach of these laws that promoted private investment in indigenous territory were initiated by free trade agreements signed with the United States. In August 2008 Prime Minister Jorge del Castillo declared a state of emergency in three of Peru's provinces due to indigenous protests opposed to the sale of their community lands.

The Quechua language is spoken today by about 10-11 million people in South America and it is an official language of Peru and Bolivia.

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