The Inca Create a Mountain Empire

1
The Inca Create a Mountain Empire

• Chapter 16
• section 4

2
Key Terms

• Pachacuti
• Ayllu
• Mita
• Quipu

3
Inca Beginning

• Lived in high plateaus in the Andes
• Valley of Cuzco 1200s
• Rulers were descended from the sun god Inti
• Bring prosperity and greatness
• Men from one of eleven families could serve
• Believed to be descendants of the sun god

4
Pachacuti Builds an Empire

• 1438 Pachacuti took the throne
• Inca conquered all of Peru
• 1500 Inca empire stretched 2,500 miles on western
  coast of South America
• Land of Four Quarters 80 provinces 16 million
  people

5
Pachacuti Builds an Empire

• Used diplomacy and conquest
• Before attacking offered an honorable surrender
• Keep customs and rulers in exchange for loyalty
• Many states gave up without resistance
• Once defeated Inca tried to gain loylaty

6
Incan Government Creates Unity

• Extensive road system
• Rulers divided their territory
• Quechau- official language
• Founded schools to teach the Incan ways
• Groups identified by certain patterns of clothing

7
Incan Cities Show Government Presence

• Built many cities in conquered areas
• Architecture was the same throughout the empire
• All roads led to the capitol
• Cuzco-stone homes, stones fit together without
  mortar

8
Incan Government

• Total control over economic and social life
• Regulated production and distribution of goods
• Inca allowed little private commerce
• Allyu- communinty cooperation

9
Incan Government

• Ayllu-extended family, undertook tasks not too
  big for one family
• Irrigation canals
• Cutting agricultural terraces
• Stored food to distribute during hard times
• Families divided into groups of 10, 100, 1000,
  10,000

10
Incan Government

• A chief led each group
• Chain of command stretched all the way to Cuzco
• Inca ruler and council of state held court
• If a group resisted Inca control the were
  relocated

11
Incan Government

• Main demand was for tribute (usually labor)
• Mita- was the labor tribute
• Have to work for the state a certain number of
  days
• Incan system more like socialism or modern
  welfare state

12
Incan Government

• Aged and disabled taken care of by the state
• State fed people
• Freeze-dried potatoes (chunos)
• Stored in warehouse for food shortages

13
Public Work Projects

• 14,000 mile road program
• Paved to simple paths
• Built guest houses and shelters along the road
• Chasquis- traveled the road as a postal service
• Easy way to move troops

14
Government Record-Keeping

• Inca never developed a writing system
• History and literature done through oral
  tradition
• Quipa- series of knots used as an accounting
  system

15
Government Record Keeping

• Position of knots and colors meant different
  things
• Res strings- warriors
• Yellow strings-gold
• Inca had two different calendars
• Gods ruled the day and the time

16
Religion Supports the State

• Worshipped fewer gods
• Key nature spirits
• Moon
• Stars, thunder
• Viracocha- the creator
• Sun worship amounted to worshipping the king

17
Great Cities

• Temple of the sun , Cuzco most sacred
• Decorated in gold
• Gardens of plants and animals made out of gold
  and silver
• Walls of several buildings covered in gold

18
Great Cities

• Hiram Bingham in 1912 found Machu Picchu
• Isolated and mysterious
• Religious center
• Retreat for rulers of Pachacuti

19
Discord in the Empire

• 1500s Huayan Cupac ruler
• Incas at their peak
• Received a gift in Ecuador
• Filled with butterflies and moths (bad omen)
• Few weeks later died of small pox

20
Discord in the Empire

• Empire split by his sons
• Atahualpa received Ecuador (1/5 of empire)
• Huascar received the rest
• Soon Atahulpa claimed the whole empire
• Fought each other
• Tore empire apart