Inca Empire

Inca Empire
Tawantinsuyu (Quechua)
1438–1533/1572
The Inca Empire at its greatest extent c. 1525
The Inca Empire at its greatest extent c. 1525
CapitalCusco
Official languagesQuechua (lingua franca), Puquina possibly spoken by elite
Common languagesAymara, Mochica, Barbacoan and scores of smaller languages.
Religion
Inca religion
GovernmentDivine, absolute monarchy
semi-diarchy
Sapa Inca 
• 1438–1471
Pachacuti
• 1471–1493
Tupac Yupanqui
• 1493–1525
Huayna Capac
• 1525–1532
Huáscar
• 1532–1533
Atahualpa
Historical eraPre-Columbian era
• Pachacuti created the Tawantinsuyu
1438
• Civil war between Huáscar and Atahualpa
1529–1532
1533/1572
• End of the last Inca resistance
1572
Area
1527[1][2]2,000,000 km2 (770,000 sq mi)
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Kingdom of Chimor
Kingdom of Cusco
Aymara kingdoms
New Castile
New Toledo
New Andalusia
Neo-Inca State

The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called Tawantinsuyu by its subjects (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts"[a]), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America.[4] The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilization rose from the Peruvian highlands sometime in the early 13th century. The Spanish began the conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532 and by 1572, the last Inca state was fully conquered.

From 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. At its largest, the empire joined modern-day Peru, what are now western Ecuador, western and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, the southwesternmost tip of Colombia and a large portion of modern-day Chile into a state comparable to the historical empires of Eurasia. Its official language was Quechua.[5]

The Inca Empire was unique in that it lacked many of the features associated with civilization in the Old World. Anthropologist Gordon McEwan wrote that the Incas were able to construct "one of the greatest imperial states in human history" without the use of the wheel, draft animals, knowledge of iron or steel, or even a system of writing.[6] Notable features of the Inca Empire included its monumental architecture, especially stonework, extensive road network reaching all corners of the empire, finely-woven textiles, use of knotted strings (quipu) for record keeping and communication, agricultural innovations and production in a difficult environment, and the organization and management fostered or imposed on its people and their labor.

The Inca Empire functioned largely without money and without markets. Instead, exchange of goods and services was based on reciprocity between individuals and among individuals, groups, and Inca rulers. "Taxes" consisted of a labour obligation of a person to the Empire. The Inca rulers (who theoretically owned all the means of production) reciprocated by granting access to land and goods and providing food and drink in celebratory feasts for their subjects.[7]

Many local forms of worship persisted in the empire, most of them concerning local sacred Huacas, but the Inca leadership encouraged the sun worship of Inti – their sun god – and imposed its sovereignty above other religious groups, such as that of Pachamama.[8] The Incas considered their king, the Sapa Inca, to be the "son of the sun".[9]

The Inca economy is a subject of scholarly debate. Darrell E. La Lone, in his work The Inca as a Nonmarket Economy, noted that scholars have described it as "feudal, slave, [or] socialist," as well as "a system based on reciprocity and redistribution; a system with markets and commerce; or an Asiatic mode of production."[10]

  1. ^ Turchin, Peter; Adams, Jonathan M.; Hall, Thomas D (December 2006). "East-West Orientation of Historical Empires". Journal of World-Systems Research. 12 (2): 222. ISSN 1076-156X. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  2. ^ Rein Taagepera (September 1997). "Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia". International Studies Quarterly. 41 (3): 497. doi:10.1111/0020-8833.00053. JSTOR 2600793. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  3. ^ McEwan 2008, p. 221.
  4. ^ Schwartz, Glenn M.; Nichols, John J. (2010). After Collapse: The Regeneration of Complex Societies. University of Arizona Press. ISBN 978-0-8165-2936-0.
  5. ^ "Quechua, the Language of the Incas". 11 November 2013.
  6. ^ McEwan, Gordon F. (2006). The Incas: New Perspectives. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. p. 5.
  7. ^ Morris, Craig and von Hagen, Adrianna (2011), The Incas, London: Thames & Hudson, pp. 48–58
  8. ^ "The Inca - All Empires". www.allempires.com.
  9. ^ "The Inca". The National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland. 29 May 2007. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  10. ^ La Lone, Darrell E. (1982). "The Inca as a Nonmarket Economy: Supply on Command versus Supply and Demand". Contexts for Prehistoric Exchange: 292. Retrieved 10 August 2017.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).


© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search