|
The
Incas
With the
Inca
Empire (1200–1532) came the culmination of the
city-building
phase and the beginnings of a kind of
Peruvian
unity, with the Incas, although originally no more than a tribe of
around forty thousand, gradually taking over each of the separate
coastal empires. One of the last to go – almost bloodlessly, and just
sixty years before the Spanish Conquest – were the Chimu, who for much
of this "Imperial Period" were a powerful rival.
Based in the valleys around Cuzco, the Incas were for the first two centuries of their existence
much like any other of the larger mountain tribes. Fiercely protective
of their independence, they maintained a somewhat feudal
society, tightly controlled by rigid
religious tenets, though often disrupted by inter-tribal conflict.
The founder of the dynasty – around 1200 – was Manco
Capac, who passed into Inca mythology as a cultural hero.
Historically, however, little definite is known about Inca developments
or achievements until the accession in 1438 of Inca
Pachacuti, and the onset of their great era of expansion.
Pachacuti, most innovative of all the Inca emperors,
was the first to expand their traditional tribal territory. The
beginnings of this were in fact not of his making but the response to a
threatened invasion by the powerful, neighbouring Chanca Indians during
the reign of his father, Inca Viracocha.
Within three decades Pachacuti had
consolidated his power over the entire sierra
region from Cajamarca to Lake Titicaca, defeating in the process all
main imperial rivals except for the Chimu. At the same time the capital
at Cuzco was spectacularly
developed, with the evacuation and destruction of all villages within a
ten-kilometre radius, a massive programme of agricultural terracing (watched
over by a skyline of agro-calendrical towers), and the construction of
unrivalled palaces and temples.
Inca territory expanded north into Ecuador, almost reaching Quito, under
the next emperor – Topac Yupanqui – who also took his troops down the coast,
overwhelming the Chimu and capturing the holy shrine of Pachacamac. Not
surprisingly the coastal cultures influenced the Incas perhaps as much
as the Incas influenced them, particularly in the sphere of craft
industries. With Pachacuti before him, Topac Yupanqui was nevertheless
an outstandingly imaginative and able ruler. During the 22 years of his
reign (1471–93) he pushed Inca control southwards as far as the Río
Maule in Chile; instigated the first proper census of the empire and set
up the decimal-based administrative system; introduced the division of
labour and land between the state, the gods and the local allyus;
invented the concept of Chosen Women (Mamaconas); and inaugurated a new
class of respected individuals (the Yanaconas). An empire had been
unified not just physically but also administratively and ideologically.
At the end of the fifteenth century the Inca Empire was thriving, vital
as any civilisation before or since. Its politico-religious authority
was finely tuned, extracting
what it needed from its millions of subjects and giving what was
necessary to maintain the status
quo – be it brute force, protection or food. The only obvious
problem inherent in the Inca system of unification and domination was
one of over-extension.
When Inca Huayna
Capac continued Topac Yupanqui's expansion to the north he created a new Inca city at Quito (today
the capital of Ecuador), one which he personally preferred to Cuzco and
which laid the seed for a division
of loyalties within Inca society. At this point in history, the Inca
Empire was probably the largest in
the world even though it had neither horse nor wheel technology. The
empire was over 5500 km long, stretching from southern Colombia right
down to northern Chile, with Inca highways covering distances of around
30,000 km in all.
Almost as a natural progression from overextending the empire in this
way, the divisions in Inca society came to a head even before Huayna
Capac's death. Ruling the empire from Quito, along with his favourite
son Atahualpa, Huayna Capac
installed another son, Huascar,
at Cuzco. In the last year of his life he tried to formalise the
division – ensuring an inheritance at Quito for Atahualpa – but this
was totally resisted by Huascar, legitimate heir to the title of Lord
Inca and the empire, and by many of the influential Cuzco priests and
nobles.
In 1527, when Huayna Capac died of the white man's disease smallpox,
which had swept down overland from Mexico in the previous seven years
killing over thirty percent of the indigenous population, civil
war broke out. Atahualpa, backed by his father's army, was by far
the stronger and immediately won a major victory at the Río Bamba – a
battle that, it was said, left the plain littered with human bones for
over a hundred years. A still bloodier battle, however, took place along
the Río Apurimac at Cotabamba in 1532. This was the decisive
victory for Atahualpa, and with his army he retired to relax at the
hot baths near Cajamarca. Here, informed of a strange-looking, alien
band, successors of the bearded adventurers whose presence had been
noted during the reign of Huayna Capac, they waited.
Europe and
Spain before the Conquest
At the time of the Spanish conquest of what is now
Peru, the empire that the Incas had built up was the largest and most
sophisticated to be found in the New World. Before Pizarro's capture of
the Inca emperor, Atahualpa, there had been little
contact between the new and old worlds of Europe and the Andean
region. However, once the contact was made there was no stopping the
destruction that quickly followed. In the footsteps of Hernán Cortez,
Francisco Pizarro and the men who followed him managed to bring about
the overthrow of an entire civilisation in just seven short years.
In order to better understand the impact the Spaniards had on the Inca
civilisation, one must first see both civilisations as separate
entities. To understand their backgrounds is to better realise the full
effect such an encounter had. European society in the fifteenth and
early sixteenth centuries can give some background into what sort of mentality
the Spaniards were exposed to. Spain itself had been through many
problems in the past century or so, not the least of which was
chronic famine especially in the kingdoms of Andalusia and Castille.
Most of the men that followed Pizarro on his conquest were from
Andalusia and the neighbouring province of Estremadura
Europe experienced death on a
daily basis. Disease was rampant all over Europe and people died
everyday. In Catalonia, a province of Spain, they experienced four
attacks of the plague in the fourteenth century and six again in the
fifteenth century. Its population of some 430,000 in 1365 had shrunk to
less than 278,000 by 1497. On top of the bubonic and pulmonary plagues,
there was also leprosy, scurvy, chorea, smallpox, measles, diphtheria,
typhus, tuberculosis, and influenza, every one of which was not just
debilitating but potentially deadly.
The nobility of Spain were an extremely privileged class. Even the
lowest of nobles, the hidalgos, who enjoyed little more than local
prestige and no taxes, was a difficult position to obtain, for there was
little room for societal advancement. Other than the nobility, Spain was
mostly a rural society. Their food depended on the labour of those who
worked the land, the “campesinos.” And though they enjoyed
comfortable lives, they were not rich by any means. Among the men that
accompanied Pizarro to the New World, there were many who had been
associated with the land. Some others were notaries, accountants,
merchants, artisans, and others of that nature. The clergy was also
important, for Spanish Catholicism
was extremely powerful among the people. They were a class all their own
and enjoyed many of the privileges of the nobility.
The Inquisition was also
something that had an effect on the Spaniards, and it also tells us of
the influence that the Church had with the monarchs as well as with the
peoples of the country. The Catholic Monarchs wanted religious unity in
their kingdoms and therefore authorised the Church to conduct an
inquisition to weed out any of the unwanted religions from Spain.
Together, the Church and the Spanish monarchs formed a kingdom that was
extremely Catholic and not very tolerant of other religions.
All of the situations in Europe and especially in Spain help us to
realise what the Spaniards that conquered the Incas may have been
thinking, where they came from, and the kinds of things that influenced
them such as famine, disease, the Church, and lack of social mobility
that they faced in their homeland.
The Inca
People
The Incas were the most civilised empire in what is now South America at
the time of the Spanish conquest and lived a life very different
from that of the Spanish. Their empire was extensive, covering the
southern part of modern Ecuador, all of Peru, all of Bolivia, and the
northern half of what is today Chile, and it spread out eastward as well.
Cuzco was the centre of their kingdom, the name meaning navel. Their
language was Quechua although since they had conquered many surrounding
nations, it was not the only language spoken in the empire.
At the head of their vast empire was the Inca, a direct
descendant of the Sun. It was their belief that the Sun had sent two
of his children, Manco Capac and Mama Oello
Huaco "to gather the natives into communities, and teach them
the arts of civilised life". The two were brother and sister but
also husband and wife, a custom that assured the purity of the noble
blood. The role of Inca was passed down from father to the eldest son of
the Inca queen, not the Incas concubines, who herself had been selected
from the best of the Inca's sisters. In preparation for the role of
Inca, the son was educated in general knowledge, religion, and military
tactics.
The government was a despotism with the Inca at the head of the it. He
was also the head of the priesthood, commanded the armies and was in
charge of all taxes and laws. In effect, the Inca was the source from
which everything flowed. The
Inca nobility were also descendants of the Sun. And although the nations
that the Incas conquered were incorporated into society, even the
highest of their nobility could never become one of the Inca nobility.
The highest stations, such as the courts, military officials, and the
priesthood, were also held by these descendants of the Sun Also, one of
the things that aided in holding together their tight knit society was
the “ayllu” which were kinship groups, and made up the basic social structure of the Inca
society.
Such was the structure of the Inca civilisation, but around the time
just before the Spaniards arrived, there was an upset the otherwise
stable empire. The Inca Huayana Capac wanted to split his empire in two,
giving both of his sons an equal share to rule. But neither brother
wanted to share, and thus the empire broke out into civil war between
the brothers Atahualpa and Huáscar. Atahualpa came out the winner,
overthrowing Huáscar, and taking control of his empire. Thus was the
situation upon the arrival of the Spaniards in Peru.
The Inca emperors
Manco Capac (cultural hero, ca. 1200)
Sinchi Roca
Lloque Yupanqui
Mayta Capac
Capac Yupanqui
Inca Roca
Yahuar Huaca
Viracocha Inca
Pachacuti (1438–71)
Topac Yupanqui (1471–93)
Huayna Capac (1493–1525)
Huáscar (1525–32)
Atahualpa (1532–33)
|