The beginning of the Inca rule started with the conquest of the Moche Culture in Peru in 1438 by the Inca ruler Pachucuti and his army. The Inca were warriors with a strong and powerful army. Because of the brutality of their army and their hierarchical organization, they became the largest Native American society; it consisted of more than six million people.

The name given by the Inca to their empire was The Tahuantinsuyo Empire. From their base in Cuzco they went out to conquest other areas and during the next 50 years they brought under their control the area of Peru, Bolivia, northern Argentina, Chile and Ecuador.

Their empire came to an end in 1535 when their 40.000 member army was destroyed by a 180-member Spanish conquistador army under command by Fancisco Pizarro during the rule of Atahuallpa. The warriors of the Inca could not resist the Spanish army with their modern guns.

The City Structure

The Inca cities and fortresses were mostly built on highlands and in the Andes Mountains to be able to protect the increasing population. By building the cities on the top of mountains, the Inca could see their enemies coming and defend the cities against them.
In these cities, stone steps lead up to the highest point, that was reserved for religious purposes, because this point was the closest to the sun, which represented the major god, Inti, the Sun God.

The stone blocks of which the city was built weigh several tons and they fit together perfectly. The central cities were mainly used for government purposes, and not many people lived in the cities, but in the nearby villages and traveled into town for festivals or business. Their homes were made from the same stone material and had grass rooftops. The only people who did live in the cities were metalworkers, carpenters, weavers and other crafters who made artwork for the temples; they lived in the ‘artisans quarters’.

In every major Inca city, The Sapa Inca (the Inca Ruler) had a palace that he could use when he visited the city. Around this palace were also the convents for the Sun Virgins and the houses for servants.

The Inka Society

The Inca society had a strict hierarchical structure. There were many different levels with the Sapa Inca and his wives at the top. The High Priest and the Army Commander were next. After that came the temple priests, architects, administrators and army generals. The society was than divided in ayllus, which were families who lived and worked together. A family member, called a curaca, supervised each ayllu and came next in hierarchy. The two lowest classes consisted of artisans, army captains, farmers, and herders.

The secret of the Inca wealth was the ‘mita program’. The Inca Ruler imposed this labor structure on every Inca (except for the very young and the very old). It took about 65 days a year for a family to work on its own fields (the most important crops cultivated: coca, peanuts, cotton, tomatoes and potatoes) and the rest of the time was spent on working for the Empire. Examples of work for the Empire were building bridges, roads, temples or extracting gold and silver from the mines. This work was controlled through chiefs.
The society was controlled by a violent punishment system. If someone stole, murdered, said negative things about gods or had sex with a Sapa wife or a Sun Virgin, they were thrown off a cliff, hands were cut off, eyes were cut out or the criminal was hung up by their hands and feet to a wall to starve to death. Therefore, no prisons existed, because punishment usually consisted of death or physical torture and the harsh punishments also explain the little crimes existing during in the Inca culture.

Religion

The Inca were very religious people. The most important god the Inca honored was Inti, the Sun God. The six major gods of the Inca represent the moon, sun, earth, thunder and the sea. Pachamama is the earth god, who is the mother of all humans. They also believed in animal spirits living on earth. The condor represented heaven, the anaconda the underworld and the puma represented the brother who resided on earth.
They also believed in reincarnation, saving their nail clippings, hair cuttings and teeth in case the returning spirit needed them. Recent excavations of the Inca sites have revealed mummified bodies of the Inca royalty. They have been preserved by ice in the peaks of the Andes Mountains.

The center of the Inca society and religion was located in Cuzco, the home of the Sapa Inca and site of the sacred Temple of the Sun. The Sapa Inca was believed to be sacred and to be the descendant of the sun god. That is also way the legend of the origin of the Inca tells how Inti sent his children Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo (and in another version the four Ayar brothers and their wives) to found Cuzco, the sacred city and capital of the Inca empire.

To worship the ‘Apu Inti’, the most important, spectacular and magnificent festivity was carried out in June 21 on the great Cuzco Main Plaza, called Inti Raymi ("Sun Festivity").
During this important religious ceremony, the High Priest performed the llama sacrifice offering a completely black or white llama. With a sharp ceremonial golden knife called "Tumi" he had to open the animal's chest and pull out the its throbbing heart, lungs and viscera with his hands, foretelling the future by the observation of those elements. Once that all ritual stages of the Inti Raymi were finished, the people were entertained with music, dances and abundant chicha.

Road System

The Inca are also famous for the construction of a sophisticated road system to connect the villages and cities. The main road was almost as long as the entire South American Pacific Coast line, known in Quechua as Capaq Ñan. The roads in the Andes Mountains were paved with flat stones and they built stonewalls to protect the messengers (called chasqui) from falling down the cliff and on the coast the roads were marked only by three trunks.

One high road crossed the higher parts of the Cordillera from north to south and another high road on the coast. Small crossroads link these two main Inca ‘highways’ together. The roads were swept and kept free or rubbish everywhere and lodges (known as a ‘Tambo’), storehouses, temples to the sun and posts were built along the way. There were also a lot of bridges built to cross the rivers, and every time one of the bridges broke down, the locals would repair it as quickly as possible, since the major road could not fully function when one was broken down.

This road system made administration, communication and transport efficient and fast. The main form of communication between the cities was the chasqui, who were young men who relayed the messages. When a message had to be passed, one chasqui runner would start to run a few kilometers to the next chasqui, who was waiting outside another hut. This chain could continue for miles until the last runner reached the goal and told the message, exact to the original word, because severe punishments were given when mistakes were made.