The Impressive World of the Incas
LEAVING the city of Lima, our plane rapidly gained height in the direction of the Andes mountains. Soon we landed at Cuzco, the heart of the ancient world of the Incas!
The Inca Empire grew quickly from a tiny spot to an area the size of Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Italy combined. Then, faster than its spectacular rise came a sudden fall at the hands of but a few Spanish adventurers.
Who were the Incas? What kind of life did they lead? What brought about their fall and disappearance?
Dawn of an Empire
Our Peruvian guide explained that the first Inca, Manco Capac, is said to have founded the city of Cuzco on a spot indicated by the sun-god. Historically, however, Inca history begins about 1200 C.E. At the time, the Incas were nothing but lords of Cuzco and one of the numerous Andean tribes. More specifically, “Inca” was the emperor’s title. In modern usage the people of the empire are understood by the term Incas as well, although they probably called themselves capac-cuna, that is, “glorious ones.”
The Inca war machine started slowly. In time, they met head on with the powerful Chanca tribe. But the Chancas were by no means willing to surrender. In fact, they made a surprise attack on Cuzco and invaded the city. Viracocha Inca escaped. But his son, Pachacutec, stood his ground. He organized the defense and routed the Chancas. Now the stage was set for the rise of Tahuantinsuyu (“the Four Quarters of the World”), the Inca Empire.
After his father’s death, Pachacutec (meaning “earth shaker”) was made Inca in 1438. Under him and the son who succeeded him the borders of the empire were pushed out until they embraced some 380,000 square miles (984,195 km2), largely in what is now known as Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile. Most of this expansion was accomplished in the space of a mere 30 years, between 1463 and 1493, and in some of the most rugged terrain on earth.
A Welfare State
Pachacutec excelled not only as a warrior but also as a civic planner and administrator. Commenting on the civic organization, our guide caused astonishment as he described the Inca Empire as a welfare state. No one went hungry, he explained, but on the other hand, no laziness was tolerated.
Every person belonged to an ayllu, a clan of families living in their assigned area. They shared land, crops and animals. The land was owned by the ayllu and was simply on loan to its members. Every year in the fall the land was reapportioned. According to the size of the family the land was either increased or decreased.
The mainstay of their culture was agriculture. The people had to plant for all: for the state, for the priesthood and for themselves. The crops from state lands were stored for use by the nobility, public servants and the army, as well as the people in times of crop failure.
As for taxes, these were exacted in the form of service on public works. Additionally, every able-bodied tax-paying Indian male was subject to do military service at any time.
What else was expected of the people? A notable Inca requirement was that every man should marry at the age of 20. And if he hesitated, the chieftain would select a wife for him.
While we pondered this form of regimentation, the guide touched on another aspect of it. Every 10 tax-paying workers were directed by a conka-kamayoc. Ten such groupings had a foreman over them. Ten foremen came under the jurisdiction of a superior, such as a village headman. A district governor was over 10,000 people. Ten districts fell under an apo, a governor of a quarter. The state itself had four quarters, divided naturally by the four roads that went out from Cuzco, the capital. The entire setup required 1,331 officials for every 10,000 people and provided control down to the last man in the state.
The “Divine” Inca
At the heart of Inca civilization was the emperor himself, who enjoyed maximum privileges as a “descendant of the Sun.” Usually a council of advisers chose as successor the most capable of the legitimate sons of the Inca’s coya, or principal wife. Although he had a harem of concubines, the coya was his real wife, and in most cases also his own sister.
The Inca was political ruler, head of the state religion and “divine” to the people. His rule was absolute and shrewd. How so?
The Inca’s many descendants occupied positions of trust as key administrators. For example, the governors of the four quarters were all blood relatives. And the Inca at the time of the Spanish conquest, Huayna Capac, is said to have had 500 male descendants.
Newly conquered populations were absorbed into the mainstream system of work service. However, suspicious sections of the subdued population were transplanted and loyal Quechua-speaking people called mitakona took their place and introduced Inca culture.
The Inca organization and integration was so well thought out that down to this very day it is in evidence. Some five million still speak Quechua, including the man who was acting as our guide. He compared the modern comunidades to the old ayllus. Agricultural practices, the character of the people, their music, all reflect the old Inca way of life.
Efficient Communication System
How was it possible to hold the vast empire together? Our guide pointed to the amazing network of roads and bridges and a courier system.
Mountain terrain making impractical the use of the wheel, the Incas never used it. So all roads were built for walking and llama transport. The 24-foot (7-m)-wide coastal road from Tumbes in the north to Purumuaca in Chile was 2,520 miles (4,056 km) long. The narrower Andean road was 3,250 miles (5,230 km) long, with 100 or more bridges.
Consider the efficiency of these highways. There was a system of distance markers every four and a half miles (7.2 km), and every 12 to 18 miles (19 to 29 km) there were rest stations. Additional smaller stations served the couriers or relay runners. Each runner, dressed in a distinctive checkered tunic, covered a mile and a half (2.4 km). In this way they could get a message over a 1,250-mile (2,012-km) stretch in five days!
Art and Architecture
In a local museum we discovered that Inca art was on the austere side. Their highly developed technique of weaving vicuña wool produced exquisite quality, but lacked imagination.
However, they excelled in the goldsmith trade. So highly prized was their art that goldsmiths and silversmiths lived in a separate district and were exempt from paying taxes. The Spaniards were thrilled with what they saw.
According to the way our guide described Cuzco, there was gold everywhere. On some of the buildings, there was gold plate. Strands of gold were woven into grass-thatched temple roofs. The Temple of the Sun and its enclosure were replete with golden objects everywhere.
But whatever other contribution the Incas made to culture, it paled beside their architecture and city planning. Their work with monumental rock masses remains unmatched in the Western world. The size and number of buildings are stupendous.
Sacsahuaman, the fortress for the protection of Cuzco, is claimed to be one of man’s greatest engineering feats. This structure is 1,800 feet (549 m) long. Three massive rows of stone walls, one above the other, reach up to a height of 60 feet (18 m). Some of the gigantic foundation stones weigh between 100 and 150 tons! The entire fortress is made up of some 300,000 stones.
Eagerly, we tested to see if we could insert a blade of a penknife between the rocks, but no! What system of polishing did they use to accomplish this? No one knows. What is more, these stones are locked in such a superb way that they have survived scores of earthquakes. And no one has been able to pry them out for other construction purposes!
Gods and Sacred Objects
What about the Inca concept of life and religion? State and religion went hand in hand. The Incas believed in the existence of a creator, Viracocha. At his side was said to be an army of lesser gods. Inti, the sun-god, was foremost. In fact, the sun-god became the symbol of Inca culture, and the worship of the sun the state religion.
There was a large priesthood as well as many temples. In regular, pompous ceremonies, the priests made divinations and offered sacrifices. But the people in general had their own brand of religion, less sophisticated, connected with sacred places and objects, which they called huaca. Anything could be huaca—for example, a temple, a mountain, a river, animals, stones, mummies of ancestors, stars. Agriculture was holy and everything related to it became huaca. The sun was the greatest of holy objects. The people lived to remain in the huacas’ good graces.
End of Inca Rule
At the height of Inca splendor and power, Huayna Capac died in 1527. Five years of civil war followed because of a struggle for power. But two weeks after Atahualpa’s victory over his half-brother Huascar, the Spaniard Pizarro arrived on the scene. He had set out from Tumbes in the direction of Cajamarca with a mere 180 men, 67 of whom were knights on horseback. Atahualpa knew of their approach.
Was he curious? Was he overconfident? Or did he believe some superstition about those bearded white foreigners? No one knows. One thing is sure, if he had felt them to be a threat, he could have wiped them out as they climbed through the hundreds of narrow mountain passages. But Atahualpa sat and waited.
Eventually the Spaniards arrived and occupied vacated Cajamarca. Now, to crown his audacity, Pizarro invited Atahualpa to visit him in the city—but unarmed! Would Atahualpa accept? The setting of an ambush was nothing new to Inca military strategy. Nevertheless, on the evening of November 16, 1532, Atahualpa marched into the square of Cajamarca. He came in full regal dress, with attendants, but all unarmed. Had he reason to trust the strangers? Or was it a gesture of saving face, not wanting to appear a coward? We do not know.
A Roman Catholic priest came forward to greet the Inca. Author Hammond Innes describes what happened next: “It seems likely that the friar did hand Atahualpa the Bible, as the authority upon which the Christian faith was based, and that the Inca did throw it to the ground. However difficult he may have found it to follow the Dominican’s theological argument, he can have been under no illusion as to the intention: this miserable stranger, with his tonsured head and his cross, was urging him to renounce his own divinity in favour of a god who had been stupidly killed by his own people, and at the same time to acknowledge, in the Emperor Charles, a king greater than himself. He was to forfeit, in other words, all that he had just fought so hard to attain. His anger at this effrontery was immediate, his rejection of the Book inevitable. The proud gesture as he pointed to the sun, and the words, ‘My God still lives’, are probably correctly reported.”
All of a sudden, there was a cannon shot and then the Spanish cavalry attacked, rushing out of the small entranceways around the square. In 30 minutes the Indians were overwhelmed and 6,000 were killed. The only Spaniard wounded was Pizarro, by a sword cut while defending Atahualpa, whom he wanted alive. Atahualpa was a prisoner!
Atahualpa was promised his life if he filled, as he had offered to do, the large room that served as his prison, once with gold and twice with silver. Objects came in from every corner of the realm. But the Spaniards were not satisfied. Their gold lust demanded more. Eventually, they amassed an incredible hoard.
But Atahualpa was alive, and he was not being released. Not that his side of the bargain had not been kept, but he was in their way. So among other things, they accused him of masterminding an uprising. More than that, they accused him of “crimes against the Spanish state” in his own country! He was tried and “found guilty.” Pleading for a form of execution other than burning, which was against the Inca’s religious belief of afterlife, he was garroted or strangled, but only after he had agreed to be baptized as a Roman Catholic. It was August 29, 1533.
The Inca people put up little resistance to the Spanish advance over the great highway to Cuzco. The capital fell on November 15, 1533. It spelled the end of Inca rule.
Neither the installation of a puppet Inca nor quarrels between the Spanish conquistadores, Inca revolts or the murder of Pizarro restored Inca power. A Neo-Inca state was short-lived, lasting only 36 years. To all intents and purposes, Tupac Amaru was the very last of the Incas. He was beheaded in the square of Cuzco. With him, the Inca clock of history finally stopped.
Toward Today and the Future
The Spaniards admired Inca administration, and many institutions were retained or adapted. But as a people, the Indians never really accepted the Spanish ways. They keep alive many of the old customs, mixing these with Roman Catholic ceremonies.
The mountaintop city of Machu Picchu illustrates the Spanish failure to quash the Inca spirit. As late as 1911, American explorer Hiram Bingham discovered it. Between two Andes peaks, 8,000 feet (2,440 m) high and 2,000 feet (610 m) above the Urubamba River, it was never found by the Spanish invaders. Was it built as a military garrison? Or was it a secret refuge for the Virgins of the Sun? The puzzle has never been solved.
However sad the end of the Incas as a people, today there are descendants of these people in Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador. Jehovah’s Witnesses have been preaching the good news of God’s kingdom among these people. In and around the “sacred valley” of the Incas, the Urubamba Valley, the Indians have willingly accepted Bible literature. In Cuzco, there are three happy Christian congregations. Some of their number claim descendancy from the Incas.
Also, in Bolivia, around Lake Titicaca, there are a number of Christian congregations. These are composed mostly of Aymara Indians, but many Quechua Indians in Bolivia have likewise embraced true Christianity.
Whether they can individually trace their ancestry to the Incas or not, they are looking forward to the time when, in the very near future, God’s kingdom will unite persons of all tribes and tongues. Even those long dead will return, to an opportunity for eternal life on earth. (Acts 24:15) Will representatives of the ancient world of the Incas be among that happy throng? There is no doubt about it.—Contributed.
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“All human beings have a common ancestry,” says “The World Book Encyclopedia.” “But many groups of people have lived apart for long periods of time and have come to differ from one another in various ways.” That variety can add much to a person’s enjoyment of life.