Ancient Incas. The history of the ancient civilization - the Inca Empire in brief Briefly about the Inca civilization

The Indians called the Inca only the emperor, and the conquistadors used this word to refer to the entire tribe, which in the pre-Columbian era, apparently, used the self-name "capac-kuna" ("great", "illustrious").

The landscapes and natural conditions of the former Inca Empire were very diverse. In the mountains between 2150 and 3000 m a.s.l. temperate climatic zones are located, favorable for intensive agriculture. In the southeast, a huge mountain range is divided into two ranges, between which, at an altitude of 3840 m, there is a vast plateau with Lake Titicaca. This and other high plateaus extending south and east of Bolivia all the way to northwestern Argentina are called altiplanos. These treeless grassy plains are in the continental climate zone with hot sunny days and cool nights. Many Andean tribes lived on the altiplano. To the southeast of Bolivia, the mountains break off and give way to the boundless expanse of the Argentine pampa.

The Pacific coastline of Peru, starting from 3°S. and up to the Maule River in Chile, is a continuous zone of deserts and semi-deserts. The reason for this is the cold Antarctic Humboldt Current, which cools the air currents coming from the sea to the mainland and prevents them from condensing. However, coastal waters are very rich in plankton and, accordingly, fish, and fish attract seabirds, whose droppings (guano), covering the deserted coastal islands, are extremely valuable fertilizer. Coastal plains, stretching from north to south for 3200 km, do not exceed 80 km in width. Approximately every 50 km they are crossed by rivers flowing into the ocean. Ancient cultures flourished in the river valleys, based on irrigated agriculture.

The Incas managed to connect two different zones of Peru, the so-called. Sierra (mountainous) and Costa (coastal), into a single social, economic and cultural space.

The eastern spurs of the Andes are dotted with deep wooded valleys and turbulent rivers. Further to the east stretch the jungle - the Amazonian selva. The Incas called "yungas" the hot, humid foothills and their inhabitants. The local Indians offered fierce resistance to the Incas, who were never able to subdue them.

STORY

pre-Inca period.

The culture of the Incas was formed relatively late. Long before the appearance of the Incas on the historical scene, back in the 3rd millennium BC, settled tribes lived on the coast, who were engaged in the manufacture of cotton fabrics and grew maize, pumpkins and beans. The oldest of the great Andean cultures is the Chavin culture (12th-8th centuries BC - 4th century AD). Its center, the city of Chavin de Huantar, located in the Central Andes, retained its importance even in the Inca era. Later, other cultures developed along the north coast, among which the early class state of Mochica (ca. 1st century BC - 8th century AD) stands out, creating magnificent works of architecture, ceramics and weaving.

The enigmatic Paracas culture (c. 4th century BC - 4th century AD) flourished on the south coast, famous for its textiles, undeniably the finest in pre-Columbian America. Paracas influenced the early Nazca culture, which developed further south in five oasis valleys. In the basin of Lake Titicaca, approx. 8th c. the great Tiahuanaco culture was formed. The capital and ceremonial center of Tiahuanaco, located on the southeastern tip of the lake, are built from hewn stone slabs fastened with bronze spikes. The famous Gate of the Sun is carved from a huge stone monolith. In the upper part there is a wide bas-relief belt with images of the Sun God, who weeps in the form of condors and mythological creatures. The motif of the weeping deity can be traced in many Andean and coastal cultures, in particular in the Huari culture, which developed near the present Ayacucho. Apparently, it was from Huari that religious and military expansion took place down the Pisco valley towards the coast. Judging by the spread of the weeping god motif, from the 10th to the 13th centuries. the state of Tiahuanaco subjugated most of the peoples of the Costa. After the collapse of the empire, local tribal associations, freed from external oppression, created their own state formations. The most significant of them was the state of Chimu-Chimor (14th century - 1463), which fought with the Incas, with its capital Chan Chan (near the present port of Trujillo). This city with huge stepped pyramids, irrigated gardens and stone-lined pools covered an area of 20.7 square meters. km. One of the centers of ceramic production and weaving has developed here. The state of Chimu, which extended its power along the 900-kilometer line of the Peruvian coast, had an extensive network of roads.

Thus, having an ancient and high cultural tradition in the past, the Incas were rather heirs than founders of Peruvian culture.

First Inca.

The legendary first Inca Manco Capac founded Cuzco around the beginning of the 12th century. The city lies at an altitude of 3416 m above sea level. in a deep valley running from north to south between two steep ridges of the Andes. According to legend, Manco Capac, at the head of his tribe, came to this valley from the south. At the direction of the sun god, his father, he threw a golden rod at his feet and, when it was swallowed up by the earth (a good sign of its fertility), he founded a city in this place. Historical sources, partially confirmed by archeological data, indicate that the history of the rise of the Incas, one of the countless Andean tribes, begins in the 12th century, and their ruling dynasty has 13 names - from Manco Capac to Atahualpa, who was killed by the Spaniards in 1533.

Conquests.

The Incas began to expand their possessions from the territories immediately adjacent to the Cusco Valley. By 1350, during the reign of Inca Rocky, they conquered all the lands near Lake Titicaca in the south, and the nearby valleys in the east. Soon they moved north and further east and subjugated the territories in the upper reaches of the Urubamba River, after which they directed their expansion to the west. Here they faced fierce resistance from the Sora and Rukan tribes, but emerged victorious from the confrontation. Around 1350, the Incas built a suspension bridge across the deep canyon of the Apurimac River. Previously, it was crossed by three bridges in the southwest, but now the Incas made a direct route from Cuzco to Andahuaylas. This bridge, the longest in the empire (45 m), was called by the Incas "huacachaca", the sacred bridge. A conflict with the powerful militant tribe of the Chanca, who controlled the Apurimac Pass, became inevitable. At the end of the reign of Viracocha (d. 1437), the Chanca made a sudden raid on the lands of the Incas and laid siege to Cusco. Viracocha fled to the Urubamba valley, leaving his son Pachacutec (lit. "earth shaker") to defend the capital. The heir brilliantly coped with the task assigned to him and utterly defeated the enemies.

During the reign of Pachacutec (1438-1463), the Incas expanded their possessions to the north to Lake Junin, and in the south they conquered the entire basin of Lake Titicaca. Pachacutec's son Tupac Inca Yupanqui (1471–1493) extended the power of the Incas to what is now Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, and Ecuador. In 1463 the troops of Tupac Inca Yupanqui conquered the state of Chima, and its rulers were taken to Cusco as hostages.

The last conquests were made by Emperor Huayna Capac, who came to power in 1493, a year after Columbus reached the New World. He annexed the Chachapoyas empire in northern Peru, on the right bank of the Marañon River in its upper reaches, subjugated the warlike tribes of the island of Puna near Ecuador and the adjacent coast in the area of \u200b\u200bpresent Guayaquil, and in 1525 the northern border of the empire reached the Ancasmayo River, where the border between Ecuador now lies. and Colombia.

INCA EMPIRE AND CULTURE

Language.

Quechua, the language of the Incas, has a very distant relationship with the Aymara language, which was spoken by the Indians who lived near Lake Titicaca. It is not known what language the Incas spoke before Pachacutec elevated Quechua to the rank of the state language in 1438. Through a policy of conquest and migration, Quechua spread throughout the empire and is still spoken by most Peruvian Indians to this day.

Agriculture.

Initially, the population of the Inca state consisted for the most part of farmers who, if necessary, took up arms. Their daily life was subject to the agricultural cycle, and under the guidance of connoisseurs, they turned the empire into an important center for the cultivation of plants. More than half of all food consumed in the world today comes from the Andes. Among them are over 20 varieties of corn and 240 varieties of potatoes, "camote" (sweet potatoes), zucchini and pumpkin, various varieties of beans, cassava (from which flour was made), peppers, peanuts and quinoa (wild buckwheat). The most important agricultural crop of the Incas was the potato, which can withstand severe cold and grow at altitudes up to 4600 m above sea level. Alternately freezing and thawing potatoes, the Incas dehydrated them to such an extent that they turned them into a dry powder called "chuno" . Corn (sara) was grown at altitudes up to 4100 m above sea level. and was consumed in various forms: cheese on the cob (choklo), dried and lightly fried (kolyo), in the form of hominy (mote) and turned into an alcoholic drink (saraiyaka, or chicha). To make the latter, women chewed corn kernels and spat the pulp into a vat, where the resulting mass, under the influence of saliva enzymes, fermented and released alcohol.

In that era, all Peruvian tribes were at approximately the same technological level. The work was carried out jointly. The main tool of the farmer's labor was the taklya. , a primitive digging stick - a wooden stake with a point burned for strength.

Arable land was available, but by no means in abundance. Rains in the Andes usually fall from December to May, but dry years are not uncommon. Therefore, the Incas irrigated the land using canals, many of which testify to a high level of engineering. To protect soils from erosion, terraced agriculture was used by pre-Inca tribes, and the Incas improved this technology.

The Andean peoples practiced predominantly sedentary agriculture and rarely resorted to slash-and-burn agriculture, adopted by the Indians of Mexico and Central America, in which areas cleared of forests were sown for 1–2 years and left as soon as the soil was depleted. This is explained by the fact that the Central American Indians did not have natural fertilizers, with the exception of rotten fish and human excrement, while in Peru the farmers of the coast had huge reserves of guano, and in the mountains llama (taki) manure was used for fertilizer.

Lamas.

These camelids are descended from wild guanacos that were domesticated thousands of years before the arrival of the Incas. Lamas endure alpine cold and desert heat; they serve as pack animals capable of carrying up to 40 kg of cargo; they give wool for making clothes and meat - it is sometimes dried in the sun, calling it "charki". Llamas, like camels, tend to defecate in one place, so that their dung is easy to collect to fertilize the fields. Lamas played an important role in the formation of the settled agricultural cultures of Peru.

social organization.

Islew.

At the base of the social pyramid of the Inca Empire was a kind of community - Ailyu. It was formed from family clans who lived together in the territory allotted to them, jointly owned land and livestock, and shared crops among themselves. Almost everyone belonged to one or another community, was born and died in it. Communities were small and large - up to the whole city. The Incas did not know individual land ownership: the land could only belong to the Ailu or, later, to the emperor and, as it were, rented out to a member of the community. Every autumn there was a redistribution of land - plots increased or decreased depending on the size of the family. All agricultural work in Islew were made together.

At the age of 20, men were supposed to marry. If the young man himself could not find a mate, a wife was chosen for him. In the lower social strata, the strictest monogamy was maintained, while the representatives of the ruling class practiced polygamy.

Some women had the opportunity to leave the ailya and improve their situation. We are talking about the "chosen ones" who, for their beauty or special talents, could be taken to Cusco or to the provincial center, where they were taught the art of cooking, weaving or religious rituals. Dignitaries often married the “chosen ones” they liked, and some became the concubines of the Inca himself.

State of Tahuantinsuyu.

The name of the Inca empire - Tahuantinsuyu - literally means "four connected cardinal points". Four roads ran out of Cuzco in different directions, and each, regardless of its length, bore the name of the part of the empire where it led. Antisuyu included all the lands east of Cusco - the Eastern Cordillera and the Amazonian selva. From here, the Incas were threatened with raids by tribes that they had not pacified. Continsuyu united the western lands, including the conquered cities of the Costa - from Chan Chan in the north to Rimak in Central Peru (the location of the current Lima) and Arequipa in the south. Collasuyu, the most extensive part of the empire, extended south from Cuzco, covering Bolivia with Lake Titicaca and parts of modern Chile and Argentina. Chinchasuyu ran north to Rumichaki. Each of these parts of the empire was ruled by an apo, related by blood to the Inca and answerable only to him.

Decimal administrative system.

The social and, accordingly, the economic organization of Inca society was based, with some regional differences, on a decimal administrative-hierarchical system. The accounting unit was purik - an adult capable man who has a household and is able to pay taxes. Ten households had their own, so to speak, "foreman" (the Incas called him pacha-kamayok), a hundred households were headed by a pacha-kuraka, a thousand - by a fry (usually managing a large village), ten thousand - by the provincial governor (omo-kuraka), and ten The provinces made up a "quarter" of the empire and were ruled by the apo mentioned above. Thus, for every 10,000 households, there were 1,331 officials of various ranks.

Inca.

The new emperor was usually elected by a council of members of the royal family. Direct succession to the throne was not always respected. As a rule, the emperor was chosen from the sons of the lawful wife (koya) of the deceased ruler. The Inca had one official wife with countless concubines. So, according to some estimates, Huayna Capac had about five hundred sons alone, who happened to live already under Spanish rule. His offspring, who constituted a special royal ailya, the Inca appointed to the most honorable positions. The Inca Empire was a true theocracy, since the emperor was not only the supreme ruler and priest, but also, in the eyes of the common people, a demigod. In this totalitarian state, the emperor had absolute power, limited only by customs and fear of rebellion.

Taxes.

Each purik was obliged to partially work for the state. This compulsory labor service was called "mita". Only state dignitaries and priests were exempted from it. Each aylyu, in addition to its own land allotment, jointly cultivated the field of the Sun and the field of the Inca, giving the crops from these fields to the priesthood and the state, respectively. Another type of labor service extended to public works - mining and construction of roads, bridges, temples, fortresses, royal residences. All these works were carried out under the supervision of experts-professionals. With the help of the kipu knot letter, an accurate record was kept of the fulfillment of duties by each aylyu. In addition to labor duties, each purik was a member of the detachments of rural law enforcement officers and could be called to war at any moment. If he went to war, the community members cultivated his plot of land.

Colonization.

In order to subjugate and assimilate the conquered peoples, the Incas involved them in a system of labor duties. As soon as the Incas conquered a new territory, they expelled all unreliable people from there and installed Quechua speakers. The latter were called "mita-kona" (in the Spanish vowel "mitamaes"). The remaining local residents were not forbidden to observe their customs, wear traditional clothes and speak their native language, but all officials were required to know Quechua. The mita-kona was entrusted with military tasks (protection of border fortresses), managerial and economic ones, and in addition, the colonists had to introduce the conquered peoples to the Inca culture. If the road under construction ran through a completely deserted area, these areas were settled by mita-kona, who were obliged to oversee the road and bridges and thereby spread the power of the emperor everywhere. The colonists received significant social and economic privileges, similar to the Roman legionaries who served in outlying provinces. The integration of the conquered peoples into a single cultural and economic space was so deep that 7 million people still speak Quechua, the Ailyu tradition is preserved among the Indians, and the influence of the Inca culture in folklore, agricultural practice, and psychology is still tangible over a vast territory.

Roads, bridges and couriers.

Excellent roads with a well-functioning courier service made it possible to keep a vast territory under unified control. The Incas used the roads laid by their predecessors and built ca. 16,000 km of new roads designed for all weather conditions. Since the pre-Columbian civilizations did not know the wheel, the Inca roads were intended for pedestrians and caravans of llamas. The road along the ocean coast, stretching for 4055 km from Tumbes in the north to the Maule River in Chile, had a standard width of 7.3 m. The Andean mountain road was somewhat narrower (from 4.6 to 7.3 m), but longer (5230 km). At least a hundred bridges were built on it - wooden, stone or cable; four bridges crossed the gorges of the Apurimac River. Every 7.2 km there were distance signs, and every 19–29 km there were stations for travelers to rest. In addition, courier stations were located every 2.5 km. Couriers (chasks) transmitted news and orders by relay, and in this way information was transmitted over 2000 km in 5 days.

Saving information.

Historical events and legends were kept in memory by specially trained storytellers. The Incas invented a mnemonic for storing information called quipu (lit. knot). It was a rope or stick, from which colored laces with knots hung. The information contained in the kipu was orally explained by a specialist in knot writing, kipu-kamayok, otherwise it would have remained incomprehensible. Each ruler of the province kept a lot of kipu-kamayok with him. , who kept a meticulous record of the population, warriors, taxes. The Incas used the decimal system, they even had a zero symbol (skipping the knot). The Spanish conquistadors left rave reviews about the system quipu .

The courtiers of the quipu-kamayok performed the duties of historiographers, compiling lists of the deeds of the Inca. Through their efforts, an official version of the history of the state was created, excluding mention of the achievements of the conquered peoples and asserting the absolute priority of the Incas in the formation of the Andean civilization.

Religion.

The religion of the Incas was closely connected with state administration. The demiurge god Viracocha was considered the ruler of all things, he was assisted by deities of a lower rank, among which the sun god Inti was most revered. The veneration of the sun god, who became a symbol of Inca culture, was of an official nature. The Inca religion included numerous decentralized cults of gods who personified natural realities. In addition, the veneration of magical and sacred objects (waka) was practiced, which could be a river, lake, mountain, temple, stones collected from the fields.

Religion was practical and permeated the life of the Incas. Agriculture was revered as a sacred occupation, and everything connected with it became huaca. The Incas believed in the immortality of the soul. It was believed that an aristocrat, regardless of his behavior in earthly life, after death falls into the abode of the Sun, where it is always warm and abundance reigns; as for commoners, only virtuous people got there after death, and sinners went to a kind of hell (oko-paka), where they suffered from cold and hunger. Thus, religion and customs influenced the behavior of people. The ethics and morality of the Incas were reduced to one principle: "Ama sua, ama lyulya, ama chelya" – "Don't steal, don't lie, don't be lazy."

Art.

Inca art gravitated towards rigor and beauty. Weaving from llama wool was distinguished by a high artistic level, although it was inferior in richness of decor to the fabrics of the peoples of the Costa. Widely practiced carving of semi-precious stones and shells, which the Incas received from the coastal peoples.

However, the main art of the Incas was casting from precious metals. Almost all now known Peruvian gold deposits were developed by the Incas. Goldsmiths and silversmiths lived in separate city blocks and were exempt from taxes. The best works of Inca jewelers perished during the conquest. According to the testimony of the Spaniards, who first saw Cusco, the city blinded with a golden sheen. Some buildings were covered with gold plates imitating masonry. The thatched roofs of the temples had golden inclusions imitating straws, so that the rays of the setting sun lit them with brilliance, giving the impression that the entire roof was made of gold. In the legendary Coricancha, the Temple of the Sun in Cusco, there was a garden with a golden fountain, around which life-sized stalks of maize made of gold, with leaves and cobs, "grew" from golden "earth" and "grazed" on golden grass twenty llamas of gold - again - life-size.

Architecture.

In the field of material culture, the Incas achieved the most impressive accomplishments in architecture. Although Inca architecture is inferior to Mayan in richness of decoration and Aztec in emotional impact, it has no equal in that era either in the New or Old World in terms of boldness of engineering solutions, grandiose scales of urban planning, skillful arrangement of volumes. Inca monuments, even in ruins, are amazing in their number and size. An idea of the high level of Inca urban planning is given by the Machu Picchu fortress, built at an altitude of 3000 m in a saddle between two peaks of the Andes. Inca architecture is characterized by extraordinary plasticity. The Incas erected buildings on the processed surfaces of rocks, fitting stone blocks together without lime mortar, so that the building was perceived as a natural element of the natural environment. In the absence of rocks, bricks baked in the sun were used. Inca craftsmen were able to cut stones according to given patterns and work with huge stone blocks. The fortress (pucara) of Sascahuaman, which protected Cusco, is undoubtedly one of the greatest creations of fortification art. 460 m long, the fortress consists of three tiers of stone walls with a total height of 18 m. The walls have 46 ledges, corners and buttresses. In the cyclopean masonry of the foundation, there are stones weighing more than 30 tons with beveled edges. It took at least 300,000 stone blocks to build the fortress. All the stones are irregularly shaped, but fitted together so tightly that the walls have withstood countless earthquakes and deliberate attempts at destruction. The fortress has towers, underground passages, living quarters and an internal water supply system. The Incas began building in 1438 and finished 70 years later, in 1508. According to some estimates, 30 thousand people were involved in the construction.

THE FALL OF THE INCA EMPIRE

It is still difficult to understand how a pitiful handful of Spaniards could conquer a powerful empire, although many considerations are put forward on this score. By that time, the Aztec empire had already been conquered by Hernán Cortés (1519–1521), but the Incas did not know about this, since they did not have any direct contact with the Aztecs and the Maya. The Incas first heard of white people in 1523 or 1525, when a certain Alejo Garcia, at the head of the Chiriguano Indians, attacked an empire outpost in the Gran Chaco, an arid lowland on the southeastern frontier of the empire. In 1527, Francisco Pizarro landed briefly at Tumbes on the northwestern Peruvian coast and soon sailed away, leaving two of his men behind. After that, Ecuador was devastated by an epidemic of smallpox, which was introduced by one of these Spaniards.

Emperor Huayna Capac died in 1527. According to legend, he was aware that the empire was too big to rule it from one center in Cusco. Immediately after his death, a dispute broke out for the throne between two of his five hundred sons - Huascar from Cuzco, the offspring of his legal wife, and Atahualpa from Ecuador. The feud between the blood brothers erupted into a five-year devastating civil war in which Atahualpa won a decisive victory just two weeks before Pizarro's second appearance in Peru. The winner and his 40,000th army rested in the provincial center of Cajamarca in the north-west of the country, from where Atahualpa was going to go to Cusco, where the official ceremony of his elevation to the imperial rank was to take place.

Pizarro arrived in Tumbes on May 13, 1532 and moved to Cajamarca with 110 foot and 67 horse soldiers. Atahualpa was aware of this from intelligence reports, on the one hand, accurate, on the other, biased in the interpretation of facts. So, the scouts assured that horses do not see in the dark, that a man and a horse are a single creature that, when falling, is no longer able to fight, that arquebuses emit only thunders, and even then only twice, that Spanish long steel swords are completely unsuitable for battle. A detachment of conquistadors on its way could be destroyed in any of the gorges of the Andes.

Having occupied Cajamarca, protected by walls on three sides, the Spaniards conveyed to the emperor an invitation to come to the city to meet with them. To this day no one can explain why Atahualpa let himself be drawn into a trap. He was well aware of the strength of the foreigners, and the favorite tactic of the Incas themselves was precisely the ambush. Perhaps the emperor was driven by some special motives beyond the understanding of the Spaniards. On the evening of November 16, 1532, Atahualpa appeared on Cajamarca Square in all the splendor of imperial regalia and accompanied by a large retinue - however, unarmed, as Pizarro demanded. After a short slurred conversation between the Inca demigod and the Christian priest, the Spaniards attacked the Indians and killed almost all of them in half an hour. During the massacre of the Spaniards, only Pizarro suffered, accidentally wounded in the arm by his own soldier, when he blocked Atahualpa, whom he wanted to capture alive and unharmed.

After that, with the exception of a few fierce skirmishes in different places, the Incas did not actually offer serious resistance to the conquerors until 1536. The captive Atahualpa agreed to buy his freedom by filling the room where he was kept twice with silver and once with gold. However, this did not save the emperor. The Spaniards accused him of conspiracy and "crimes against the Spanish state" and, after a short formal trial on August 29, 1533, strangled him with a garrote.

All these events plunged the Incas into a state of strange apathy. The Spaniards, almost without resistance, reached Cuzco along the great road and on November 15, 1533 took the city.

New Ink State.

Manco II.

Having made the former Inca capital of Cuzco the center of Spanish rule, Pizarro decided to give the new government a semblance of legitimacy and for this he appointed Huayn Capac's grandson Manco II as the emperor's successor. The new Inca had no real power and was subjected to constant humiliation by the Spaniards, but, nurturing plans for an uprising, showed patience.

In 1536, when part of the conquistadors, led by Diego Almagro, set off on an aggressive expedition to Chile, Manco, under the pretext of searching for imperial treasures, slipped out of the supervision of the Spaniards and raised an uprising. The moment for this was chosen favorable. Almagro and Pizarro, at the head of their supporters, started a dispute over the division of military spoils, which soon developed into an open war. By that time, the Indians had already felt the yoke of the new power and realized that they could only get rid of it by force.

Having destroyed all the Spaniards in the vicinity of Cuzco, four armies attacked the capital on April 18, 1536. The defense of the city was led by an experienced soldier Hernando Pizarro, brother of Francisco Pizarro. He had only 130 Spanish soldiers and 2000 Indian allies at his disposal, but he showed extraordinary military skill and withstood the siege. Simultaneously, the Incas attacked Lima, founded by Pizarro in 1535 and declared the new capital of Peru. Since the city was surrounded by flat terrain, the Spaniards successfully used cavalry and quickly defeated the Indians. Pizarro sent four detachments of conquistadors to help his brother, but they could not break through to the besieged Cusco. The three-month siege of Cusco was lifted due to the fact that many soldiers left the Inca army in connection with the start of agricultural work; besides, the army of Almagro, returning from Chile, was approaching the city.

Manco II and thousands of people loyal to him retreated to previously prepared positions in the Vilcabamba mountain range northeast of Cuzco. The Indians took with them the preserved mummies of the former Inca rulers. Here Manco II created the so-called. New Ink State. In order to protect the southern road from the military attacks of the Indians, Pizarro set up a military camp in Ayacucho. Meanwhile, a civil war continued between Pizarro's warriors and the "Chileans" of Almagro. In 1538 Almagro was captured and executed, and three years later his supporters killed Pizarro. The warring parties of the conquistadors were led by new leaders. In the battle of Chupas near Ayacucho (1542), Inca Manco helped the "Chileans", and when they were defeated, he sheltered six Spanish fugitives in his possessions. The Spaniards taught the Indians horseback riding, firearms, and blacksmithing. Arranging ambushes on the imperial road, the Indians obtained weapons, armor, money and were able to equip a small army.

During one of these raids, a copy of the "New Laws" adopted in 1544 fell into the hands of the Indians, with the help of which the king of Spain tried to limit the abuses of the conquistadors. After reviewing this document, Manco II sent one of his Spaniards, Gomez Perez, to negotiate with Viceroy Blasco Nunez Vela. Since the strife between the conquistadors continued, the viceroy was interested in a compromise. Soon after, the renegade Spaniards, who settled in the New Inca state, quarreled with Manco II, killed him and were executed.

Sayri Tupac and Titu Cusi Yupanqui.

The head of the New Inca state was the son of Manco II - Sayri Tupac. During his reign, the borders of the state expanded to the upper reaches of the Amazon, and the population increased to 80 thousand people. In addition to large herds of llamas and alpacas, the Indians raised a fair number of sheep, pigs, and cattle.

In 1555 Sayri Tupac launched military operations against the Spaniards. He moved his residence to the warmer climate of the Yucai Valley. Here he was poisoned by those close to him. Power was succeeded by his brother Titu Cusi Yupanqui, who resumed the war. All attempts by the conquistadors to subdue the independent Indians were in vain. In 1565, Fray Diego Rodriguez visited the Inca stronghold of Vilcabamba in order to lure the ruler out of hiding, but his mission was not successful. His reports on the morals of the royal court, the number and combat readiness of the soldiers give an idea of the strength of the New Inca state. The following year, another missionary repeated the same attempt, but during the course of the negotiations, Titu Cusi fell ill and died. A monk was blamed for his death and was executed. Subsequently, the Indians killed several more Spanish ambassadors.

Tupac Amaru, the last Supreme Inca.

After the death of Titu Cusi, another of the sons of Manco II came to power. The Spaniards decided to put an end to the citadel in Vilcabamba, made gaps in the walls and, after a fierce battle, took the fortress. Tupac Amaru and his commanders, chained with collars, were taken to Cusco. Here, in 1572, on the main city square, with a confluence of a large number of people, they were beheaded.

Spanish dominance.

The colonial authorities of Peru retained some of the administrative forms of the Inca empire, adapting them to their own needs. The colonial administration and the latifundists ruled the Indians through intermediaries - community elders "kuraka" – and did not interfere in the daily life of householders. The Spanish authorities, like the Incas, practiced mass migrations of communities and a system of labor duties, and also formed a special class of servants and artisans from the Indians. Corrupt colonial authorities and greedy latifundists created intolerable conditions for the Indians and provoked numerous uprisings that took place throughout the colonial period.

Literature:

Bashilov V. Ancient Civilizations of Peru and Bolivia. M., 1972
Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. History of the Inca state. L., 1974
Zubritsky Yu. Inca Quechua. M., 1975
Culture of Peru. M., 1975
Berezkin Yu. Mochica. L., 1983
Berezkin Yu. The Incas. The historical experience of the empire. L., 1991

When we hear the concepts of "Inca", "Maya" or "Aztec", we are mentally transported across the ocean, to the mountains and jungles of the American continent. It was there that these tribes of Indians, little known to mankind - the creators of the civilization of the Incas, Aztecs and Mayans, lived, briefly about which we will talk further. From history we only know that they were skilled craftsmen. The Incas built large cities, connected by such roads as if cars were racing along them. The pyramids were built like the Egyptian ones, but according to local religious beliefs. Irrigation channels made it possible to feed the people with their own agricultural products.

The Incas created calendars, chronology and writing, had an observatory and were well guided by the stars. And suddenly, overnight, all civilizations disappeared. Many scientists are working on the solution to the causes of a rather strange, even from the standpoint of modern science, socio-demographic phenomenon. Let us first present the Inca civilization in a brief description.

ancient incas

If we consider the geographical map of the South American continent, then its vertical division by the Andes mountains will be striking. To the east of the mountains lies the Pacific Ocean. This area, closer to the north, in the 11th - 15th centuries was chosen by the most ancient Indian tribe of the Incas - in their language it is pronounced as "Quechua". In such a short period, in terms of a known scale, it is difficult to create a unique and one of the early class civilizations of Mesoamerica. The Incas succeeded in this, perhaps with some outside help.

It stretched for five thousand kilometers from north to south - this is exactly half the length of the Russian Federation. It included the territories, in whole or in part, of eight modern Latin American countries. These regions were inhabited by about twenty million people.

Archaeologists say that the Quechua culture did not start from scratch. It is proved that a significant part either came to the Quechua from outside, or they settled in a foreign territory and appropriated the achievements of previous civilizations.

The Incas were good warriors and did not disdain the capture of new territories. From the culture of Mochica and the state of Kari, they could adopt the technology of making colored ceramics, laying canals in the fields, from Nazca - the construction of underground water pipes. The list goes on.

What the Quechua themselves have succeeded in is in stone-cutting. Blocks for buildings were hewn so finely that no bonding material was required when laying them. The pinnacle of architecture is a group of temples under the common name of the Golden Court with a temple of the sun god. The supreme rulers of Quechua simply adored gold, they covered the palaces of the emperor from floor to ceiling. All this luxury was melted down by the Spanish conquistadors and transported home in ingots. Only the majestic pyramids on the lifeless earth remind of the former greatness.

ancient maya

The Mayan tribe had everything that characterized the ancient civilizations, except for the wheel and metal tools. Tools were made of high quality from strong stone, even for sawing wood.

The Maya skillfully erected buildings using arched ceilings that were rare for those times, and knowledge of geometry helped to correctly lay irrigation canals. They were the first to know how to get cement. Their surgeons performed operations with a scalpel made of frozen glass.

Like the Incas (Quechua), the Maya had great knowledge of the cosmos and the stars. But it is unlikely that any of them could own spacecraft. But then why did they need a domed observatory tower that has survived to this day? The building stands so that it is better to navigate the orbit of the brightest planet. Just to create a calendar aimed at this planet? Obviously, there were other plans. No wonder there are mysterious images of flying people on the rocks.

There is also such a version of the origin of the Maya: perhaps they sailed to America on ships from another continent. Like the Incas, the Maya used the experience of a more advanced civilization - the Olmecs, who appeared from nowhere on the American continent. For example, their experience of making drinks from a substance similar to chocolate, and in religion adopted deities in the form of animals.

The Maya disappeared in the 10th century AD. And the Incas, and the Maya, and the Olmecs suffered the same fate - their civilizations ceased to exist in their prime. Running two versions of the death of the Maya - ecology and conquest. Artifacts of other tribes in the territory where the Maya lived testify in favor of the second.

ancient aztecs

Up to a dozen tribes lived on the fertile lands of the Mexican Valley for centuries. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Tepanek tribe appeared there. Warlike, impossibly cruel, it conquered all other tribes. Their allies in the seizure of territories were a small tribe of tenochki.

These were the Aztecs. This name was given to them by neighboring tribes. The Aztecs are driven out by other tribes to a deserted island. And from here the power of the Aztecs went to the entire valley of Mexico, where up to ten million people already lived. They traded with everyone who accepted them. Thousands of people lived in cities. The state has grown to unprecedented proportions.

Lake Titicaca is located in the Central Andes at an altitude of 3810 meters above sea level. This is the largest lake in South America. Its area is 8300 square kilometers, and it ranks 18th in size among the largest lakes in the world. The depth of the waters is more than a hundred meters, and in some places reaches 300 meters.

It was here, on the banks of a huge and deep reservoir, that in the days of fabulous antiquity there was one of the centers of highly developed civilizations of mankind.

Around it, habitable lands were bounded to the east by the impenetrable jungles of the Amazon Basin, and to the west by the boundless waters of the Pacific Ocean. Ancient people densely populated the narrow western strip of the continent, which began at the borders of modern Ecuador and ended in the central regions of Chile.

In the first millennium BC, civilizations such as Chavin, San Augustin and Paracas existed here. The latter has chosen for itself the coastal region of the Andes (the southern coast of modern Peru) and the Paracas Peninsula (sandy rain).

The main attraction of this people, which has come down to our times, are the necropolises. They consist of spacious burial chambers; they contain many mummies. The deceased, wrapped in several layers of fabric, decorated with rich ornaments, are in a sitting position. The knees rest on the chins, the arms are crossed on the chest.

What is of particular interest is that some of the mummies have deformed, egg-shaped skulls and show signs of trepanation. It's hard to believe, but the facts are a stubborn thing: once, more than two thousand years ago, the ancient Aesculapius successfully performed operations on the brain. This is confirmed by the partial replacement of the bones of the cranium with gold plates.

Paracas civilization sunk into obscurity in the second century BC. Its traces have been lost in the endless stream of time, but there are a number of testimonies that cast a faint light on the fate of this mysterious people. These testimonies indicate that the descendants of those ancient Aesculapius did not disappear from the earth, but continue to live, skillfully applying invaluable medical knowledge in practice.

But before considering this interesting question, it is necessary to get acquainted with the historical events that took place in the period from the 13th to the 16th centuries in the western lands of South America.

History of the Inca Empire

Nine hundred years ago, the Sun God Inti, who oversaw the above-mentioned territory, took care of the poor living conditions of people. To cheer up mere mortals, to instill confidence in them and make them feel the joy of life, he sent his son Manco Capaca and his beloved daughter Mama Oklew to them.

The master's instructions were short and to the point. He gave the children a staff of pure gold and ordered them to settle on those lands where this expensive product would enter the soil.

Divine offspring exactly fulfilled the will of their father. They roamed the mountainous terrain for a long time, testing it for strength. The stony earth did not want to accept the precious metal, and the children were already beginning to despair. But here they were in the Cuzco Valley, near the village of Pacara-Tambo, at the foot of the Wanakauri hill. And here a miracle happened: the staff easily entered the hard, like granite, soil. The son and daughter looked at each other happily and founded a settlement on this place, which they called Cusco.

The Inca people who lived in the nearby territory praised Manco Capac and Mama Oklu, recognized them as their rulers and began to call their country Tahuantinsuyu (the land of four parts).

Years passed. Cusco gradually turned into a large and beautiful city. It was located at an altitude of 3416 meters above sea level and was surrounded by two mountain ranges.

Inca Wars

In parallel with the construction of their capital, the people, who received the support of the gods, waged aggressive wars. At first, he fought for a long time with the Sora and Rukan tribes, who lived in the western lands adjacent to the Cuzco valley. Having conquered these tribes, the conquerors significantly expanded their borders and began to prepare for further military expansions.

A very strong and brave people of Chunk turned out to be a serious opponent. The war with him was long, difficult and cruel. Only by the middle of the 15th century did the Incas succeed in defeating their main enemy. At this time, their ruler was Pachacutec, the son of the legendary Manco Capacu.

At the beginning of the second half of the 15th century, the descendants of divine offspring subjugate all the tribes living in the basin of Lake Titicaca. These conquests are not limited. Military expansion continues, and by the end of the 15th century, the conquered territory expands to enormous proportions. This is already an empire, whose possessions stretch from the southern border of modern Colombia to the central regions of Chile and Argentina.

Government of the Inca Empire

A large state needs competent administrative management. The conquerors divided all the conquered lands into four provinces: Kuntisuyu, Kolyasuyu, Antisuyu and Chinchasuyu. In the center of Cusco was Huakapata Square. From it, in different directions, four roads leading to these administrative formations of the empire diverged.

Civilization of the ancient Incas

At the turn of the XIV-XV centuries. on the Pacific coast and in the northern regions of the South American continent, the first empires arose. The most significant of them was the state of the Incas. During its heyday, from 8 million to 15 million people lived here.

The term "Inca" denoted the title of the ruler of several tribes in the foothills of the Andes; this name was also worn by the tribes of the Aymara, Huallacan, Keuar, and others who lived in the Cusco Valley and spoke the Quechua language.

The Inca Empire covered an area of 1 million square meters. km, its length from north to south exceeded 5 thousand km. The Inca state, divided into four provinces around the city of Cusco and located in the vicinity of Lake Titicaca, included the territory of modern Bolivia, northern Chile, part of present-day Argentina, the northern part of the modern Republic of Peru and present-day Ecuador.

The supreme power in the state belonged entirely to Sapa Inca - that was the official name of the emperor. Each Sapa Inca built his own palace, richly decorated according to his taste. The best artisan jewelers made for him a new golden throne, richly adorned with precious stones, mostly emeralds. Gold in the Inca Empire was widely used in jewelry, but was not a means of payment. The Incas did without money, since one of the main principles of their life was the principle of self-sufficiency. The whole empire was a huge subsistence economy.

Religion occupied an important place in the life of the Incas. Each population group, each region had its own beliefs and cults. The most common form of religious representations was totemism - the worship of a totem - an animal, plant, stone, water, etc. with whom believers considered themselves to be related. The lands of the communities were named after deified animals. In addition, the cult of ancestors was widespread. The dead ancestors, according to the ideas of the Incas, should have contributed to the ripening of the crop, the fertility of animals and the well-being of people. Believing that the spirits of their ancestors live in caves, the Incas erected stone mounds near the caves, which, with their outlines, resembled the figures of people. The custom of mummification of the corpses of the dead is associated with the cult of ancestors. Mummies in elegant clothes, with decorations, utensils, food were buried in tombs carved into the rocks. The mummies of rulers and priests were buried especially magnificently.

The Incas erected their buildings from various types of stone - limestone, basalt, diorite and raw brick. The houses of the common people had light roofs of thatch and bundles of reeds; there were no stoves in the houses, and the smoke of the hearth came out right through the thatched roof. Temples and palaces were built especially carefully. The stones from which the walls were built were so tightly fitted to each other that no binders were required during the construction of buildings. In addition, the Incas built fortresses with numerous watchtowers on the mountain slopes. The most famous of them rose above the city of Cuzco and consisted of three rows of walls 18 m high.

In their temples, the Incas worshiped a whole pantheon of gods who had strict subordination. The highest of the gods was considered Kon Tiksi Viracocha - the creator of the world and the creator of all other gods. Among those gods whom Viracocha created were: the god Inti (golden Sun) - the legendary ancestor of the ruling dynasty; the god Ilyapa - the god of weather, thunder and lightning, to whom people turned with requests for rain, for Ilyapa could make the waters of the Heavenly River flow to the earth; Inti's wife is the goddess of the moon - Mama Kilya. The Morning Star (Venus) and many other stars and constellations were also revered. In the religious ideas of the ancient Aztecs, a special position was occupied by the extremely ancient cults of the mother earth - Mama Pacha and the mother sea - Mama Kochi.

The Incas had many religious and ritual festivities associated with the agricultural calendar and the life of the ruling family. All holidays were held on the main square of Cusco - Huakapata (Sacred Terrace). Roads radiated from it, connecting the capital with the four provinces of the state. By the time the Spaniards arrived, there were three palaces in Huacapata Square. Two of them have been turned into shrines. When an Inca ruler died, his body was embalmed and the mummy left in his palace. From that time on, the palace became a sanctuary, and the new ruler built another palace for himself.

The highest achievement of Inca architecture is the ensemble of temples Koricancha (Golden Court). The main building of the ensemble was the temple of the sun god - Inti, where there was a golden image of the god, decorated with large emeralds. This image was placed in the western part, and it was illuminated by the first rays of the rising sun. The walls of the temple were completely upholstered with sheet gold. The ceiling was covered with wood carvings, the floor was covered with carpets stitched with gold threads. Windows and doors were studded with precious stones. Several chapels adjoined the temple of the Sun - in honor of thunder and lightning, rainbows, the planet Venus, and the main one - in honor of the Moon (Mother Chilia). The image of the Moon in the Inca Empire is associated with the idea of a woman, a goddess. Therefore, the chapel of Mama Chilya was intended for the koim - the wife of the Inca ruler, only she had access to this chapel. Here were the mummies of the dead wives of the rulers. In the chapel of the moon, all the decoration was made of silver.

Various crafts among the Incas reached their peak. The Incas mastered mining quite early and mined copper and tin ores in mines to make bronze, from which axes, sickles, knives and other household utensils were cast. The Incas could smelt metal, knew the technique of casting, forging, chasing, soldering and riveting, and also made products using the cloisonné enamel technique. The chroniclers reported that the Inca masters made a golden cob of corn, in which the grains were golden, and the fibers surrounding the cob were made of the finest silver threads. The pinnacle of Inca jewelry was the image of the Sun God in the Sun Temple in Cusco in the form of a huge golden solar disk with a skillfully chiseled human face.

The golden wealth of the Incas reached its apogee during the reign of Huayn Capac. He orders! line the walls and roofs of their palaces and temples with sheet gold; in the royal palace there were many golden sculptures of animals. During the ceremonies 50 thousand. warriors were armed with golden weapons. A huge portable golden throne with a cape of precious feathers was placed in front of the residence palace.

All this was plundered by conquistadors from the expedition of Francisco Pissaro. The pieces of jewelry were melted down into ingots and sent to Spain. But much remains in hiding and has not yet been discovered.

According to researchers of the Inca culture, their empire died largely because of religion. First, the rite was approved by religion, in which the ruler chose a successor from among his sons. This led to an internecine war between the brothers Huascar and Atahualpa, which significantly weakened the country before the invasion of the Spanish conquistadors led by Pizarro. Secondly, there was a legend among the Incas that in the future new, unfamiliar people would rule the country, who would conquer the empire and become its sole rulers. This explains the fear and indecision of the Incas before the Spanish conquistadors.

Sociology

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Inca civilization

INCA CIVILIZATION formed in the 16th century. in the regions of South America adjacent to the Pacific coast (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, part of Argentina and Chile).
Initially, the word "Inca" meant the Indians who lived in the capital of Cuzco and spoke the Quechua language. The Spaniards called so all the peoples that were part of the state of the Incas. It was called Tawantinsuyu ("four cardinal directions") and consisted of 4 parts: Chinchasuyu (northwest), Kolyasuyu (south), Kuntisuyu (west) and Antisuyu (east). Parts were divided into provinces, and those - into districts. Each section was headed by a governor. The country was connected by a network of roads.

Inca civilization. Golden mask. 13 - beg. 14th c.

The history of the Incas is divided into 2 periods: legendary (12th c.

Inca Empire

1438) and the period of the empire (1438-1533). Their official history is largely legendary and closely intertwined with myths. In the legendary era, 7 rulers changed: Manco Capac, Sinchi Roca, Lloque Yupanqui, Mayta Capac, Capac Yupanqui, Inca Roca and Yahuar Huakak. The 8th ruler was Viracocha. His reign is a transitional period from legendary to historical history. Pachacutec, who ruled after Viracocha (from about 1438), subjugated neighboring communities and laid the foundation of a great empire.

Traditional Inca costume

The supreme power was inherited. The Sapa Inca was the supreme ruler. The closest relatives, Incas by blood, were a serious political force. The community members in Tahuantinsuyu united in tribal groups - the foundation of the political system of the empire. Temple and palace servants, settlers-colonists, artisans (coppers, tanners, jewelers, potters, priests - interpreters of the quipu knot letter) were excluded from the community system.
The basis of the economy was agriculture. Cattle breeding was developed in the highlands: llamas, alpacas, vicunas and guanacos were bred. These animals were used as pack animals (for transporting goods), their meat was used as food, and fabrics were made from wool. Root crops were grown a little lower. Maize (corn) was sown in the fertile valleys. Due to the lack of fertile land in the valleys, terraced agriculture was carried out on the slopes of the mountains.

Craftsmen mastered the cold processing of meteoric iron, made products from gold, lead, copper, and tin. Jewelry, figurines of people and animals were made from precious metals. Fabrics were considered the most valuable products; the Incas reached great heights in their production. Taxes were collected in kind. A third went to the Sapa-Inca (state), the gods and the producers themselves. Education depended on social status. Children of the nobility in special institutions studied theology, history, mathematics, geography, engineering, and economics. The children of the community members learned from their parents and the elderly.

In the era of the empire, 3 gods of the sky were considered the main ones: the god-creator of the Universe (he had many incarnations of Viracocha, etc.), the god of the Sun Inti and the god of thunder Ilyapa. The main female deity (Mama Kilya - the wife of the Sun god) was associated with the Moon. The ruling Inca was considered the incarnation of the Sun, and his wife was considered the incarnation of the Moon. Ancestors were revered (the Incas worshiped their mummies, which were kept in special rooms).
In 1532, the Spaniards, led by F. Pizarro, invaded the territory of the Incas, in 1533 they occupied Cusco and soon, using the discontent of the Indian tribes conquered by the Incas, took possession of the entire empire. The Incas conquered by the Spaniards later joined the Quechua.

Inca civilization

Inca culture

Through a policy of conquest and migration, Quechua spread throughout the empire and is still spoken by most Peruvian Indians to this day.

Agriculture.

Initially, the population of the Inca state consisted for the most part of farmers who, if necessary, took up arms. Their daily life was subject to the agricultural cycle, and under the guidance of connoisseurs, they turned the empire into an important center for the cultivation of plants. More than half of all food consumed in the world today comes from the Andes. Among them are over 20 varieties of corn and 240 varieties of potatoes, “camote” (sweet potatoes), squash and pumpkin, various varieties of beans, cassava (from which flour was made), peppers, peanuts and quinoa (wild buckwheat). The most important agricultural crop of the Incas was the potato, which can withstand severe cold and grow at altitudes up to 4600 m above sea level. Alternately freezing and thawing potatoes, the Incas dehydrated them to such an extent that they turned them into a dry powder called “chuno” . Corn (sara) was grown at altitudes up to 4100 m above sea level. and was consumed in various forms: cheese on the cob (choklo), dried and lightly fried (kolyo), in the form of hominy (mote) and turned into an alcoholic drink (saraiyaka, or chicha). To make the latter, women chewed corn kernels and spat the pulp into a vat, where the resulting mass, under the influence of saliva enzymes, fermented and released alcohol.

These camelids are descended from wild guanacos that were domesticated thousands of years before the arrival of the Incas. Lamas endure alpine cold and desert heat; they serve as pack animals capable of carrying up to 40 kg of cargo; they give wool for making clothes and meat - it is sometimes dried in the sun, calling it “charki”. Llamas, like camels, tend to defecate in one place, so that their dung is easy to collect to fertilize the fields. Lamas played an important role in the formation of the settled agricultural cultures of Peru.

social organization. Islew. At the base of the social pyramid of the Inca Empire was a kind of community - Ailyu. It was formed from family clans who lived together in the territory allotted to them, jointly owned land and livestock, and shared crops among themselves. Almost everyone belonged to one or another community, was born and died in it. Communities were small and large - up to the whole city. The Incas did not know individual landownership: the land could only belong to the Ailly or, later, the emperor and, as it were, was rented out to a member of the community. Every autumn there was a redistribution of land - plots increased or decreased depending on the size of the family. All agricultural work in the Isle was carried out jointly.

Some women had the opportunity to leave the ailya and improve their situation. We are talking about the “chosen ones” who, for their beauty or special talents, could be taken to Cuzco or to the provincial center, where they were taught the art of cooking, weaving or religious rituals. Dignitaries often married the “chosen ones” they liked, and some became the concubines of the Inca himself.

State of Tahuantinsuyu. The name of the Inca empire - Tahuantinsuyu - literally means "four connected cardinal points". Four roads ran out of Cuzco in different directions, and each, regardless of its length, bore the name of the part of the empire where it led. Antisuyu included all the lands east of Cusco - the Eastern Cordillera and the Amazonian selva. From here, the Incas were threatened with raids by tribes that they had not pacified. Continsuyu united the western lands, including the conquered cities of the Costa - from Chan Chan in the north to Rimak in Central Peru (the location of the current Lima) and Arequipa in the south. Collasuyu, the most extensive part of the empire, extended south from Cuzco, covering Bolivia with Lake Titicaca and parts of modern Chile and Argentina. Chinchasuyu ran north to Rumichaki. Each of these parts of the empire was ruled by an apo, related by blood to the Inca and answerable only to him.

Decimal administrative system. The social and, accordingly, the economic organization of Inca society was based, with some regional differences, on a decimal administrative-hierarchical system. The accounting unit was purik - an adult capable man who has a household and is able to pay taxes. Ten households had their own, so to speak, “brigadier” (the Incas called him pacha-kamayok), a hundred households were headed by a pacha-kuraka, a thousand by a fry (usually managing a large village), ten thousand by a provincial governor (omo-kuraka), and ten The provinces constituted a "quarter" of the empire and were ruled by the apo mentioned above. Thus, for every 10,000 households, there were 1,331 officials of various ranks.

Inca. The new emperor was usually elected by a council of members of the royal family. Direct succession to the throne was not always respected. As a rule, the emperor was chosen from the sons of the lawful wife (koya) of the deceased ruler. The Inca had one official wife with countless concubines. So, according to some estimates, Huayna Capac had about five hundred sons alone, who happened to live already under Spanish rule. His offspring, who constituted a special royal ailya, the Inca appointed to the most honorable positions. The Inca Empire was a true theocracy, since the emperor was not only the supreme ruler and priest, but also, in the eyes of the common people, a demigod. In this totalitarian state, the emperor had absolute power, limited only by customs and fear of rebellion.

5 Art of American Civilizations

Report: Inca Empire

Another great state of pre-Columbian America was the Inca Empire, or, as the Incas themselves called their country, Tahuantinsuyu or "Land of the Four Parts". The last name is due to the fact that the country was divided into four provinces: Kuntinsuyu, Colyasuyu, Antisuyu and Chinchasuyu with the capital in the city of Cusco. The foundation of the country is attributed to the legendary Inca Manco Capac. The very word "Inca" never referred to the name of the tribe, it denoted only the ruler of the state. Under his successors, the territory of the state was constantly expanding, especially when a regular army was created under Yaruar Huakak.

Conquering any state or city, the Incas resettled other tribes on their territory, due to which the national element that could lead to a liberation war disappeared. In the conquered territories, the state language of the Incas, Quechuan, was introduced on a mandatory basis, which also contributed to the unity of the vast country. The symbol of the power of the country was the city of Cusco, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, on the territory of which hundreds of palaces and temples were located. The main square in the city was Wakapata (sacred terrace), from which roads branched off to the four main provinces of the country. Palaces towered there, one of which had an area of 30 by 160 meters. The wealth of the Inca rulers can be judged at least by the fact that when the old Inca emperor died, his body was embalmed and placed in the palace, which from now on became a sanctuary. His successor was to build a new palace for himself. No European ruler could afford such a luxury. But most of all, the temple complex of Cusco Coricancha (golden courtyard) amazed with its splendor. Its main building was the temple of the sun god Inti, in which there were a huge number of tons of gold alone. Golden windows, doors, walls, roofs, floors, ceilings, religious objects amazed people. The center of the temple was a multi-meter disc of pure gold, symbolizing the Sun God. Near the temple there was an Intipampa courtyard (a golden field), on which there were trees made of gold, plants and herbs, deer, butterflies, shepherds, etc. Moreover, all this was done in full size and everything moved (!) With the help of the most skillful mechanisms . It was truly a miracle without equal in the world. No less pride of the empire were its roads, which are not inferior to modern highways. One of these roads was 5250 kilometers long - the longest highway in the world until the beginning of the 20th century. The roads were up to 7.5 meters wide, and in some places were located at an altitude of 5160 meters above sea level. At a certain distance from each other, inns with warehouses were built on the roads.

Stone statues of Easter Island. Chile

The Incas also had a state post office, which, you see, looks almost fantastic. Despite these magnificent achievements, the Incas did not know either the wheel or the written language. However, they had writing, but in the form of a “knot letter”: the threads in this knot denoted either gold - a yellow rope, or a soldier - red, etc. The numbers were indicated by knitting a certain number of knots. However, this did not interfere with the development of science and poetry. The life of the Incas was unthinkable without religious rites, which, like those of the Aztecs, were distinguished by incredible cruelty. The "caste" of professional priests, headed by the high priest, was responsible for the performance of the rites. The gods of the Incas were Inti - the God of the sun, Mama Kilya - the Goddess of the moon, Mama Pacha - the Goddess of the earth, Mama Kochi - the Goddess of the sea, and others. inordinate amount.

Relief on the Gate of the Sun at Tiahuanaco.

The Incas. Reconstruction

During each of them, thousands of people were thrown onto the altar, whose blood flowed in rivers from the altars of the insatiable gods. Moral values were also trampled, reduced, in the end, to zero. Religious fanaticism and cruelty, combined with depravity, corroded from the inside, like rust, an outwardly brilliant empire. On November 15, 1532, a detachment of Spaniards-conquistadors, led by Pizarro, crossed the Andes and entered the land of the Incas. The history of the collapse of the Aztec state was completely repeated. Taking advantage of the strife that began among the Incas in the struggle for the throne, Pizarro with a small handful of people defeated the greatest empire, which soon turned into a Spanish colony.

Inca rulers:

1. Manco Capac (1150)

2. Sinchi Roca

3. Loque Yupanki

5. Capac Yupanqui

21. General characteristics of the culture of the Incas.

Inca Roca

7. Yaruar Huakak

8. Viracocha Inca

9. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui (1438-1471)

10. Tupac Inca Yupanqui (1471-1493)

11. Huayna Capac (1493-1527)

12. Huascar (1527-1530)

13. Atahualpa (1530-1532)

Like the idol on clay feet from the book of the prophet Daniel, the Inca empire looked menacing and majestic, but if we take a closer look, we will see that its foundation was, like that of the idol, clay. Built on false religion, cruelty and depravity, the Inca empire collapsed, leaving behind miserable degraded tribes of unfortunate people who do not know how to sew clothes, or shoot from a bow, or build on their own.

Truly, without God there is no future, no life itself!

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The Inca Empire existed for a relatively short time from the beginning of the 15th century. until 1532ᴦ., when the country was captured by the Spanish conquerors. The writing of the Incas is not fully deciphered. The capital was the city of Cusco, famous for its Golden Garden (perhaps the masters who created it were from the Chimu people).

The architecture is simple and unadorned. Temples, dwellings, fortresses are made of huge boulders (up to 350 tons in weight) very precisely fitted to each other, but not fastened with binding solutions (Saxahuaman fortress).

The houses had powerful stone walls and cramped interior spaces. Most of the houses have no windows and are lit through the doors. According to the descriptions of travelers, the buildings were originally decorated with wide belts of thick gold plates. The use of precious metals not as money, but as a decorative material is typical of the Incas. For example, in the Temple of the Sun in the city of Cuzco, several rooms are decorated with images of the Sun, Moon, rainbow and stars made of gold, silver and precious stones. Unlike Central America, the Incas built pyramids up to 40m high. not for temples, but for burials. Trapezoidal entrances and niches are characteristic features of Inca architecture.

Stone sculpture almost did not develop among the Incas.

The art of making and painting ceramics has been developed. It is conditionally divided into several periods. In the first period, scenes of battle, fishing, mythological scenes are depicted on the vessels. In the second period, the paintings practically disappear, but the vessels themselves turn into real sculpture. Most often, the vessels were made in the shape of a human head, sometimes conveying individual features.

Later vessels appear in the form of animals, fruits and plants.

The main food of the Incas is potatoes (including canned ones), corn, and pumpkins. The Incas cultivated coca, a narcotic plant. In the empire, there was a clear division of the population into the elite and the bulk of the inhabitants. By law, the Inca (ruler of the empire) married his sister, who became his legal wife and, as a rule, the mother of the heir. In addition to the main wife, he had a harem and could live with any of the nuns of the monasteries, as he was the incarnation of the sun god on Earth. The heir was appointed during the life of the ruler by the rite of public hair cutting. The future heir helped his father and learned management. There were 10 age groups of the population, each of which had certain rights and obligations. Group 1: infants. Group 2: children under 2 years old. Group 3: children playing. Group 4: children 9-12 years old. Group 5: teenagers 12-18 years old. Group 6: 18-25 years old - serving in the army. Group 7: 25-50 years old - married and running a household.

Group 8: 50-80 years old - old people. Group 9: 80 years and older - deaf old people. 10 group: sick.

There were no uprisings in the state. This social system provided provision for old age. In this regard, it is sometimes called ʼʼIndian socialismʼʼ. There was no money in the empire, only barter in the market. Gold is used as decoration. The army is well trained and equipped (maces with stone or metal ends). There were excellent roads and a post office. The messengers ran from parking to parking for about two kilometers, as a result of the relay race, 2000 km were overcome in 3 days. The Incas composed poems that were later written down by the Jesuits.

Inca culture

Quipu knot writing is widespread, on which you can count up to 1,000,000. Nobles studied at universities for 4 years, where she studied the Quechua language, solar religion, quipu knot writing, history and military affairs. The Incas wove dense fabrics with a density of 80x45 threads/cm (modern parachute fabric has a density of 60x30 threads/cm). Οʜᴎ did operations, incl. and craniotomy.

The last Inca was called Tupac Omaru.

Additional information.

The oldest cultures of Peru date back to the 3rd millennium BC.

Close to ᴦ. Lima there was a culture at that time whose representatives did not know about the existence of metals, but erected clay and stone temples on artificial platforms.

The Temple of the Crossed Hands is famous. Later, this gesture-sign is found in Colombia.

culture Chavin, associated with the cult of the Jaguar was widespread at the end of II - the middle of the Ithousand. BC.

culture Nazca(mid-2nd century BC) corresponds to the valleys of the Ica, Pisco and Nazca rivers. Here was found the ʼʼwooden Stonehenge of Peruʼʼ - the sanctuary of Escuqueria. It consists of hundreds of dried mesquite trunks. The center of the composition is a square formed by 12 rows of 12 columns each. Found gigantic images in the Nazca desert. Pampa de Nasca Gallery - ϶ᴛᴏ platforms, lines, spirals, human and animal ʼʼfigurasʼʼ (geoglyphs). The head of a giant bird (length 120m) is directed to the point of sunrise on the day of the winter solstice. According to M. Stingl, the Indians buried the deceased with a triangular-shaped balloon. The deceased was placed in a wicker basket at sunset, the balloon rose above the sea and disappeared over the horizon.

culture Mochica(I-VII centuries BC) left behind the pyramids of the Sun and the Moon. In Pampa Grande. The Pyramid of the Sun has a base of 342×159 m. Gold items are unique. The legend of the existence of a golden garden has come down to us and eyewitness accounts of a room with five thousand golden butterflies, each of which weighed less than a gram and hovered in the air with slight fluctuations in the air. Butterflies were melted down by the conquerors. As a result, they received 4 kg 700 ᴦ. pure gold. Around Lake Titicaca, many chulpas were found - burial towers of rectangular and cylindrical, expanded upwards.

According to legend, the founder of the Chimu culture sailed to Peru from the north with his detachment on rafts. His name is Naimlan. ʼʼNaymʼʼ means ʼʼbirdʼʼ or ʼʼflightʼʼ. Chimu built the city of Chan Chan with an area of 18 square meters. km. The city is surrounded by two rows of defensive walls and is divided into 10 quarters of 450x300 m. In many respects, the customs that prevailed in the state of Chimu differed little from those of the 25th century. Incas. In the 1460s. Two cultures collided - the coastal culture of Chimu, worshiping the moon, and the mountain culture of the Incas, worshiping the Sun. The victory remained for the second. Clay reliefs depicting birds, fish, lizards, foxes, and ornaments have been preserved from the Chimu culture. Since ancient times, the supreme deity in Peru has been depicted framed by a snake arch, surrounded by predators. The arch symbolized the rainbow, the Milky Way, thunder, the firmament.

culture Olmec- one of the cultures of ancient Mexico. San Lorenzo - the capital of the Olmecs - was abandoned for unknown reasons in 900ᴦ. The second capital of the Jaguar Indians was La Venta. Huge stone heads found in La Venta.

Tribes Chol and Zelltal left in Palenque (Mexico) the famous ensemble, in which the tower of the palace, a 4-storey building, was also an observatory.

Interesting culture of the Toltecs. The Pyramid of the Morning Star in Tula (Tollan) has been preserved.

The Incas(Inca) - a tribe from the Cusco Valley, whose mighty civilization existed in the "pre-Columbian" era on the South American continent. The Incas managed to create a powerful empire that changed its appearance and conquered many peoples.

The Incas themselves called their empire Tahuantinsuyu(Four cardinal directions), because 4 roads left Cusco in different directions.

The Indians called their ruler Inca, which means "lord", "king". Then “Incas” began to be called all representatives of the ruling class, and with the invasion of the conquerors, the entire Indian population of the Tahuantinsuyu empire.

Creation of the Great Inca Empire

Thanks to the findings of archaeologists, it is obvious that the Inca civilization arose in 1200-1300. At the end of the 11th century, due to the drought that raged in the Andes for more than 100 years, neighboring, stronger tribes lost their power in battles for water and food.

Inspired by success, the Inca rulers turned their eyes to an abundant land - a spacious plateau with. And Pachacutec-Inca-Yupanqui, one of the great rulers of the Incas, in the 15th century undertook a military campaign to the south.

The population of the lakeside states was about 400 thousand people. The slopes of the mountains are pierced with gold and silver veins, fat herds of llamas and alpacas grazed on flowering meadows. Llamas and alpacas are meat, wool and leather, that is, military rations and uniforms.

Pachacutec conquered the southern rulers one by one, pushing the boundaries of his possessions, which became one of the largest empires on the planet. The number of subjects of the empire reached about 10 million people.

Victories in the military field were only the first stage on the path to power, after the soldiers, officials, builders and artisans set to work.

Incas: Wise Rule

If an uprising broke out in some province of the Incas, the rulers undertook the resettlement of people: they resettled the inhabitants of remote villages in new cities located near the built roads. They were ordered to build warehouses along the roads for regular troops, which were filled by subjects with the necessary provisions. The Inca rulers were brilliant organizers.

The Inca civilization reached an unprecedented peak. Stonemasons erected architectural masterpieces, engineers turned disparate roads into a single system that connected all parts of the empire. Irrigation canals were created, agricultural terraces were laid out on the slopes of the mountains, about 70 types of crops were grown there and significant provisions were stored in storage facilities. The viceroys were masters of inventory: they kept abreast of the contents of every vault of the vast empire, keeping records using a kippah - analogous to the computer code of the Incas - a bunch of multi-colored threads with special combinations of knots.

The rulers of the Incas were quite harsh, but fair: they allowed the conquered peoples to maintain their traditions. The main social unit was the family. Each group of 20 families had a leader who was subordinate to the leader, who already headed 50 families, and so on - up to the Ruler of the Inca.

The social structure of civilization

The Inca Empire had such a social structure: everyone worked here, with the exception of the youngest and deepest old people. Each family had its own cultivated land plot. People weaved, sewed their own clothes, shoes or sandals, made dishes and jewelry from gold and silver.

The inhabitants of the empire did not have personal freedom, the rulers decided everything for them: what to eat, what clothes to wear and where to work. The Incas were wonderful farmers, they built grandiose aqueducts to irrigate fields with water from mountain rivers, growing many valuable crops.

Many buildings erected by the Incas still stand today. The Incas created many original bridges from wicker and vines twisted into thick ropes. The Incas were born potters and weavers:
they wove the finest fabrics from cotton, such that the Spaniards considered them to be silk. The Incas also knew how to spin wool, making beautiful and warm woolen clothes.

Mummy - the ruler of the Incas

In the middle of the 15th century, Huayna Capac, the new ruler of the Incas, ascended the throne. Then it seemed that the Inca dynasty was omnipotent. People could even change nature in incredible ways: during the construction of Huayna Capac's residence, workers razed the hills to the ground, drained the swamps, and moved the channel (Spanish: Rio Urubamba) to the southern part of the valley to plant cotton, corn, chili peppers and peanuts, and in in the center of the "new" territory of brick and stone to build a palace - Quispiguanca.

Around 1527, Huayna Capac died of an unknown illness. The entourage, having mummified the body, transported it to Cuzco, and members of the royal family visited the deceased, asking for advice and listening to the answers uttered by the oracle sitting next to him. Even after his death, Huayna Capac remained the master of the Quispiguanca estate. The entire harvest from the fields went to keep in luxury the mummy of the ruler, his wives, descendants and servants.

The traditions of inheritance among the Incas were such that even after the death of the rulers, all the halls remained in their property. Therefore, each Inca, only having ascended the throne, began the construction of a new city palace and country residence. Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of up to a dozen royal residences built for at least six rulers.

Incas - Conquest by the Spaniards

In 1532, a detachment of 200 foreign conquerors landed on the coast of present-day Peru under the leadership of. They were in steel armor and armed with firearms. Along the way, those dissatisfied with the rule of the Incas joined the army. The Incas stubbornly resisted the conquerors, but the empire was weakened by internecine warfare and the fact that a large number of Inca warriors died from smallpox and measles brought by the Spaniards.

The Spaniards reached the northern city of Cajamarca, executed the ruler, placing their puppet on the throne.

Cuzco, the capital of the Incas, was conquered by the Spaniards in 1536. The invaders appropriated palaces, flourishing country estates, women and girls from the royal family. When , the last ruler of the Incas, was beheaded in 1572, it marked the end of the Tahuantinsuyu empire. The culture of the Incas was destroyed, the state was plundered. The extensive network of roads, temples and palaces gradually fell into disrepair.