The Inca empire started as a small tribe who lived in the
village of Cuzco, high in the Andes Mountains of South
America. One day, another tribe tried to conquer them.
Thanks to Pachacuti , the king's son, the Incas won! That
was the beginning of the Inca empire.
Over the next 100 years, the Inca conquered tribe after tribe
until their empire stretched nearly the entire length of
western South America. It was one of the largest empires in
the world. At it's height, it was over 2,500 miles long and
about 500 miles wide, tucked high in the Andes Mountains.
They had a strong central government. There was almost no
crime as punishment was harsh. They had a strong army.
They had roads and bridges and aqueducts. The
government cared for the sick and old. They invented
terrace farming to make farming easier on the sharp
mountain slopes. They had stores of food they distributed
to all people in times of drought. Most people were
farmers, but the Inca also had specialized professions like
weavers who made fabulous textiles, and musicians who
created new instruments like the pan pipe. The
Inca invented many things. They believed in many gods.
About 100 years after they had grown into an empire that
stretched the length of South America,
the Spanish conquered the Incan civilization.
Today, in South America, in the modern county of Peru,
you can still find ancestors of the incredible Incas.
The Inca Empire developed in a long strip that reached
pretty much north to south along the western side of South
America. The geography was rugged - Andes mountains,
the coastline deserts, and the Amazon jungle. The clever
Inca found solutions for their geographic problems.
The Andes Mountains ran north to south. The Inca made
their home high in the mountains. To move about, 11,000
feet above sea level, the Inca built bridges between
mountain peaks and over deep gorges. These bridges were
made of sturdy vines. The Inca never invented the wheel,
and the commoners were not allowed on the roads, so the
only travel over these bridges were the animals that hauled
food, warriors, the road runners (who carried messages
using a relay system), the nobles, and government officials.
To stop invasion in any section of their empire, all they had
to do was burn two bridge, one on each side of a deep
gorge, which effectively captured their enemy in the
middle. They did not even have to kill them. They could
walk away and let the captured people freeze to death.
On one side of the Andes Mountains is the Amazon jungle.
On the other side is the desert coastline. These both acted
as natural barriers. The Inca did not try to establish cities in
either the jungle or the desert, although they probably
entered to harvest fruit and wood and seafood.
Most people in the Inca Empire were commoners or
peasants. There were many laws that governed what
common people could do. Commoners, for example, could
not travel on the roads. If they were caught breaking this
law, whoever found them was suppose to immediately toss
them off the mountain to die, and that's exactly what they
did. That law kept most people home, doing their job raising food for the Inca people. Life was hard, but no one
in the Inca Empire went hungry.
The Royals - royalty and nobility - lived a life of luxury.
Their daily life was quite different from the daily life of the
common people.
All people were under the rule of the Sapa Inca, who
owned everything.
Nobody went hungry in the Inca empire. The commoners
ate little meat, but all people ate well.
The Inca were the first to grow potatoes. There were many
crops. The big three were corn, potatoes, and quinoa, which
is a seed used to make flour and soups.
The three staple crops were corn, potatoes, and quinoa quinoa seeds were used to make cereal, flour, and soups.
They planted grew tomatoes, avocados, peppers,
strawberries, peanuts, squash, sweet potatoes, beans,
pineapple, bananas, spices, and coco leaves to make
chocolate. They kept honeybees.
The Inca grew more food than they needed. Stored food
was dried and kept in special buildings. Because they lived
high in the Andes, where it was often cold, it was easy to
dry food. First, they left it out to freeze. Then they stamped
on it until most of the water was out. They left it out in the
sun to finish drying. And presto - dried food.
The Inca invented terrace farming. They lived in the
mountains. Flatlands were rare. So, they simply created flat
land by building steps of land for agriculture down the
mountainside. This was great for irrigation. Instead of
rainwater running down the mountainside, the Inca
channeled it through each step. They also built aqueducts to
carry water where it was needed.
They were great farmers, with clever solutions to their
farming problems.
About 100 years ago, archaeologists made an incredible
find, high in the Andes Mountains. They found an entire
city that had not been destroyed by the Spanish invaders.
This forgotten city is named Machu Picchu. It is a huge
tourist attraction in Peru today.
Archaeologists found ruins of temples, palaces, fortresses,
pottery, statues, and all kinds of artifacts. It was incredible!
This find told archaeologists and scientists a great deal
about the ancient Inca civilization.
One of the most exciting finds was the first thing explorers
found as they entered the forgotten city. It was an
Intihuatana. An Intihuatana was pyramid built so the Inca
could speak to their gods. Priests used the flat top of the
pyramid to conduct ceremonies. Archaeologists noted that
palace balconies faced the flat rock at the top of the
pyramid. They suspect this was done so that nobles could
watch ceremonies from the comfort of a seat on their own
balcony.
The Inca people believed in a great many gods and
goddesses. The Inca believed that these gods would protect
them. But the Inca had been losing battles in war. The had
lost a great many warriors. The Sapa Inca believed that the
gods were angry with the Inca. The Sapa Inca decided to
sacrifice a great many people so that the gods would be
happy again.
Pachacuti could not believe his father was considering
sacrificing his own people. Pachacuti was a good son. He
had always done what his father had told him to do. But
this was wrong. He could not allow this to happen.
Pachacuti gathered the warriors who were left, and led
them into battle. He convinced the warriors that the gods
had told him that this time they would be victorious. And
they were.
After the battle was over, Pachacuti returned to the capital
city. By the time he returned, the gossips had been busy
telling everyone that his father had planned to sacrifice a
great many people, mostly nobles, including children. The
sacrifice had to be a good one, otherwise what good would
it do? Pachacuti told his father that it was time his father
retired. Pachacuti crowned himself the new Sapa Inca. All
the nobles and all the people were glad. They called him
the Hero Pachacuti.
That was the beginning of the Inca Empire.
Because they counted everything a conquered tribe owned,
they needed a way to remember everything they had
counted. They invented the quipus. The quipus had colored
strings tied to a main string. The color of the strings and the
distance between the knots tied in each string told a story how many of this, and what was going on. You had to have
special training to be a quipus reader.
The Inca invented a calendar they called time makers or
time watchers. This calendar was tower. Time was
important to the Inca for religious purposes.
They also invented a flute, a drum, the famous Inca panpipe
(a collection of hollow tubes of various lengths stuck
together), terrace farming, freeze dried foods, aqueducts,
strange and scary art, a central government, a unified
language, woven colorful textiles, gold and silver jewelry
and statues, specialized professions, a system of
communication (the roadrunners) and much more. They
were very clever people.
The Incas were wonderful builders. They designed their
cities to blend with the landscape around them. They built
to last. The cities were safe. Rather than build walls around
their cities, each city had a fortress built beside it. In times
of trouble, people ran to the fortress for protection. The rest
of the time, the fortress housed the military. The military
kept an eye on the people, and on anyone entering or
leaving the city.
Cities were built around a central plaza, as they so often
were in ancient times. The plaza was surrounded by
temples and government offices and homes for the priests
and nobles. The Incas loved shiny things. The nobles
decorated their doors with gold and silver and anything
shiny. Homes had slanted roofs and funny doorways, to
strengthen them.
The Inca road were very well built. They were paved. They
belonged to the government. Although the roads were built
by the common people, once they were built, the common
people were not allowed to use them unless they had
special permission from the government to do so. If a
commoner used the roads without permission, they were
tossed off a mountain.
The Inca never invented the wheel, but they had over
14,000 miles of road. Roads connected every piece of the
entire.
There were many bridges built over the gorges and ravines
in the mountains, and bridges that connected mountains.
They built suspension bridges over vast spaces, pontoon
bridges over streams and creeks, and pulley baskets over
especially different terrain.
Although the common people could not use the roads, they
were used by the nobles and the military. There were rest
inns and storehouses along the roadways. There were road
signs along the road every couple of miles, so people
always knew where they were.
The Inca Mailmen
The roadrunners were the mailmen of the Inca empire.
They were allowed to run on the roads. They worked by a
relay system. One roadrunner would carry a message about
a mile down the road and tell it to the next roadrunner.
Most messages were oral. Some were sent by quimpus, the
knotted language of the Inca.
Accuracy was important. If you messed up a message, you
were killed. Speed also was important. As a runner
approached the next runner, he would blow on a conch
shell to let the runner know he was coming.
Runners carried no weapons. If they were attacked by a
wild animal, they fought by hand, or ran away, or died. It
was a dangerous job. But runners did not have to work in
the fields.
The Inca built thousands of well-paved roads, but they
never invented the wheel. They lived high in the snow
capped Andes Mountains of South America. It was difficult
to grow food, but the clever Inca found a way.
Welcome to the Inca Empire!
Fall of the Inca Empire
Around the same time that people were settling in Colonial
America, in what would someday be the United States,
down in South America, high in the Andes Mountains, an
Inca ruler died without first choosing a son to take his
place. Two sons both wanted to be the Sapa Inca. One
crowned himself. The other objected. Civil war broke out
in the Inca empire.
The war lasted five years. One brother finally won the war,
but the people were exhausted. The army had been
weakened by many deaths. New warriors had not yet been
trained in enough numbers to replace them.
That's when the Spanish arrived. It was luck. If they had
arrived a few years earlier, they probably would have been
immediately sacrificed. But the new Sapa Inca was flush
with victory. He wanted to have some fun. He let Francisco
Pizarro and his band of 167 soldiers arrive in the capital
city, unharmed. The new Sapa Inca greeted them warmly.
Pizarro knew they were in trouble the minute he entered
their fabulous capital city. There was gold everywhere.
There were people everywhere. There were temples and
beautiful art. This was a civilization, and an organized one.
Pizarro and his men planned all night how to escape. They
knew they had very little chance of success.
The next morning, the Sapa Inca visited the Spanish. He
brought about 2000 attendants and priests with him, which
for the Sapa Inca, was normal. None of the 2000 attendants
were armed. None were warriors. That was not how things
were done.
The Spanish grabbed the Sapa Inca, holding him tightly by
the throat. The 2000 attendants and priests did not know
what to do. Nobody touched the Sapa Inca without his
permission. The Spanish quickly killed nearly all the 2000
attendants, while they stood frozen in shock.
The Sapa Inca was startled, but he was also a quick thinker.
From listening to the men, he learned that all they wanted
was gold and silver. He offered them a ransom for his
release, a room full of gold and silver. The Spanish could
take it and safely leave. The Sapa Inca kept his word,
because that's what Sapa Inca's did. The Spanish took all
the gold they could carry, killed the Sapa Inca, and fled. No
one stopped them, not even the military. They were not
ordered to stop them. People in the Inca empire did what
they were told.
When the Spanish returned, they brought an army with
them. This time, the Incas were ready. But it did not save
them.