When we hear the concepts of "Inca", "Maya" or "Aztecs", we are mentally transported across the ocean, into the mountains and jungles of the American continent. It was there that these tribes of Indians, little-known to mankind, lived - the creators of the civilization of the Incas, Aztecs and Maya, which we will briefly talk about further. From history we know only that they were skilled craftsmen. The Incas built big cities connected by such roads as if cars were racing along them. The pyramids were erected similar to the Egyptian ones, but according to local religious beliefs. Irrigation canals 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 oriented by the stars. And suddenly, overnight - all civilizations disappeared. Many scientists are working on a solution to the reasons for a rather strange, even from the standpoint of modern science, socio-demographic phenomenon. The first is to present the Inca civilization in a short 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 its 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, which 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 lands were inhabited by about twenty million people.
Archaeologists say that the Quechua culture did not begin from scratch. It has been proven that a significant part either came to Quechua from outside, or they settled on foreign territory and appropriated the achievements of previous civilizations.
The Incas were good warriors and did not disdain the seizure of new territories. From the Mochica culture and the Kari state, they could adopt the technology of making colored ceramics, laying canals on the fields, from Nazca - the installation of underground water pipes. The list goes on.
What the Quechua themselves have succeeded in doing is in stone-cutting. The blocks for the buildings were so finely cut that no bonding material was required when laying them. The pinnacle of architecture is a group of temples under the general name of the Golden Courtyard with the 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 land remind of the former greatness.
Ancient maya
The Maya tribe had everything that characterized ancient civilizations, except for a wheel and tools made of metal. The tools were carefully turned from strong stone, even for cutting 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 frozen glass scalpel.
Like the Incas (Quechua), the Maya had a great knowledge of space and the stars. But hardly any of them could own spacecraft. But then why did they need a domed observatory tower that has survived to this day? The building is positioned so that it is better to navigate the orbit of the brightest planet. Just to create a calendar aimed at this planet? There were obviously 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 came from nowhere on the American continent. For example, their experience of making drinks from a substance similar to chocolate, and in religion they adopted deities in the form of animals.
The Maya disappeared in the 10th century AD. And the Incas, and 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. The second is evidenced by the artifacts of other tribes in the territory where the Mayans lived.
Ancient aztecs
Up to a dozen tribes have lived on the fertile lands of the Mexican Valley for centuries. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Tepanec tribe appeared there. Militant, to the point of impossibility of cruelty, 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 were expelled by other tribes to a deserted island. And from here came the power of the Aztecs to the entire valley of Mexico, where up to ten million people already lived. Traded with all who accepted them. Thousands of people lived in cities. The state has grown to unprecedented proportions.
The Indians called the Inca only the emperor, and the conquistadors used this word to designate the entire tribe, which in the pre-Columbian era, apparently, used the self-name "kapak-kuna" ("great", "glorified").
The landscapes and natural conditions of the former Inca Empire were very diverse. In the mountains between 2150 and 3000 m above sea level. moderate climatic zones favorable for intensive farming. In the southeast, the huge mountain range is divided into two ridges, between which, at an altitude of 3840 m, there is a vast plateau with Lake Titicaca. This and other high plateaus stretching south and east of Bolivia all the way to the northwestern regions of Argentina are called altiplano. These treeless grassy plains are in the zone continental climate 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 breadth of the Argentine pampa.
Pacific coastal strip of Peru, starting at 3 ° S lat. and up to the Maule River in Chile, it is a continuous zone of deserts and semi-deserts. The reason for this is the cold Antarctic Humboldt Current, which cools the air currents going from the sea to the mainland and prevents them from condensing. However, the coastal waters are very rich in plankton and, accordingly, fish, and the fish attract seabirds, whose droppings (guano), which cover the deserted coastal islets, is an extremely valuable fertilizer. The coastal plains, stretching from north to south for 3200 km, do not exceed 80 km in width. Rivers flowing into the ocean cross them approximately every 50 km. In the river valleys, ancient cultures flourished, developed on the basis of 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, the jungle stretches - the Amazonian selva. The Incas called the hot humid foothills and their inhabitants "yungas". Local Indians put up fierce resistance to the Incas, who were never able to subdue them.
STORY
Pre-Incan period.
The Inca culture was formed relatively late. Long before the arrival of the Incas in the historical arena, back in the 3rd millennium BC, sedentary 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 on the northern coast, among which the early class state of Mochica (c. 1st century BC - 8th century AD) stands out, which created magnificent works of architecture, ceramics and weaving.
On the southern coast, the mysterious Paracas culture flourished (c. 4th century BC - 4th century AD), famous for its fabrics, undeniably the most skillful in all of pre-Columbian America. Paracas influenced the early Nazca culture that developed further south in five oasis-valleys. In the basin of Lake Titicaca approx. 8 c. the great culture of Tiahuanaco was formed. The capital and ceremonial center of Tiahuanaco, located at the southeastern end of the lake, is built of hewn stone slabs held together by bronze spikes. The famous Gate of the Sun is carved out of a huge stone monolith. In the upper part there is a wide bas-relief belt with images of the sun god, which flows in tears in the form of condors and mythological creatures. The motive 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 proceeded down the Pisco Valley towards the coast. Judging by the spread of the crying god motif, from the 10th to the 13th centuries. the state of Tiahuanaco subjugated most of the peoples of 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 the 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 in the past an ancient and high cultural tradition, the Incas were more likely heirs than the founders of Peruvian culture.
First Inca.
The legendary first Inca Manco Capac founded Cusco 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 the two steep ridges of the Andes. According to the 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 archaeological 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 numbers 13 names - from Manco Capac to Atahualpa, killed by the Spaniards in 1533.
Conquest.
The Incas began to expand their possessions from the territories directly adjacent to the valley of Cuzco. By 1350 during the reign of the Rocky Inca, 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 territories in the upper reaches of the Urubamba River, after which they directed their expansion westward. Here they faced fierce resistance from the Sora and Rucanian tribes, but emerged victorious from the confrontation. Around 1350, the Incas built a suspension bridge over the deep canyon of the Apurimac River. Previously, it was crossed by three bridges in the southwest, but now the Incas have paved a direct route from Cuzco to Andahuaylas. This bridge, the longest in the empire (45 m), was called by the Incas "huacacaca", the sacred bridge. Conflict with the powerful warlike tribe Chanka, which controlled the Apurimac passage, became inevitable. At the end of the reign of Viracocha (d. 1437), the Chunks made a sudden raid on the lands of the Incas and laid siege to Cuzco. Viracocha fled to the Urubamba Valley, leaving his son Pachacuteca (literally "earth shaker") to defend the capital. The heir brilliantly coped with the task entrusted to him and utterly defeated the enemies.
During the reign of Pachacuteca (1438-1463), the Incas expanded their domains northward to Lake Junin, and conquered the entire basin of Lake Titicaca in the south. Pachacute's son Tupac Inca Yupanqui (1471-1493) extended Inca rule 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 Cuzco as hostages.
The last conquests were made by the 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 Marañón River in its upper reaches, subdued the warlike tribes of the Puna Island near Ecuador and the adjacent coast in the area of present-day 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 in before Pachacutec elevated Quechua to the rank of the state language in 1438. Thanks to the policy of conquest and resettlement, Quechua spread throughout the empire, and it is still spoken by the majority of Peruvian Indians.
Agriculture.
Initially, the population of the Inca state consisted mostly of farmers, who, if necessary, took up arms. Their daily life followed the agricultural cycle, and under the guidance of experts, they turned the empire into an important center for plant cultivation. More than half of all foods currently consumed in the world come from the Andes. Among them - over 20 varieties of corn and 240 varieties of potatoes, "kamote" (sweet potatoes), squash and pumpkin, various types 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, capable of withstanding extreme cold and growing at an altitude of 4600 m above sea level. By alternately freezing and thawing the potatoes, the Incas dehydrated them to such an extent that they turned them into a dry powder called chuno. . Corn (sarah) was grown at an altitude of 4100 m above sea level. and was consumed in various forms: cheese on the cob (choklo), dried and lightly fried (kolo), in the form of mamalyga (mote) and turned into an alcoholic drink (sarayaka, or chicha). To make the latter, women chewed corn grains and spit the pulp into a vat, where the resulting mass, under the influence of saliva enzymes, fermented and secreted alcohol.
In that era, all Peruvian tribes were approximately at the same technological level. The work was carried out jointly. The main tool of the farmer's labor was taklya , a primitive digging stick - a wooden stake with a tip burnt for strength.
Arable land was available, but not in abundance. Rain in the Andes usually falls from December to May, but dry years are not uncommon. Therefore, the Incas irrigated the land using canals, many of which testify to the high level of engineering. To protect soils from erosion, terrace farming was used by the pre-Incan 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 abandoned 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, manure from llamas (taki) was used for fertilization.
Llamas.
These camelids are descended from the wild guanacos, which were domesticated thousands of years before the arrival of the Incas. Llamas endure high-altitude 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, called "cups". Llamas, like camels, have a habit of emptying in one place, so their manure can be easily collected to fertilize the fields. Lamas were instrumental in shaping 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 - the ailyu. It was formed from family clans who lived together in the territory allocated to them, jointly owned land and livestock and shared the harvests among themselves. Almost everyone belonged to one community or another, was born and died in it. Communities were small and large - up to the whole city. The Incas did not know individual land tenure: the land could only belong to the Ailya 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 - allotments increased or decreased depending on the size of the family. All agricultural work in Ailya were made together.
At the age of 20, men were supposed to marry. If a young man himself could not find a match for himself, a wife was selected for him. In the lower social strata, the strictest monogamy was maintained, while representatives of the ruling class practiced polygamy.
Some women had the opportunity to leave the Isle and improve their position. These are the "chosen ones" who, for their beauty or special talents, could be taken to Cuzco or to a 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 concubines of the Inca himself.
State of Tahuantinsuyu.
The name of the Inca empire - Tahuantinsuyu - literally means "four connected sides of the world." Four roads left Cusco in different directions, and each, regardless of its length, bore the name of the part of the empire to which it led. Antisuyu included all the lands east of Cuzco - the Eastern Cordillera and the Amazonian selva. From here, the Incas were threatened with raids by tribes that were not pacified by them. Continsuyu united the western lands, including the conquered cities of the Costa - from Chan Chan in the north to Rimac in Central Peru (the location of present-day Lima) and Arequipa in the south. Colasuyu, the largest part of the empire, extended south of Cuzco, encompassing Bolivia with Lake Titicaca and parts of present-day Chile and Argentina. Chinchasuyu ran north to Rumichaki. Each of these parts of the empire was ruled by an apo, linked by blood ties to the Inca and accountable only to him.
Decimal administrative system.
The social and, accordingly, the economic organization of the Inca society was based, with various regional differences, on a decimal administrative-hierarchical system. The unit of account was a 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-Kuraka), a hundred households were headed by Pacha-Kuraka, a thousand - by a fry (usually the manager of a large village), ten thousand - by the governor of the province (Omo-Kuraka), and ten 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 observed. 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 and countless concubines. So, according to some estimates, Huayna Capac had about five hundred sons alone, who happened to live already under Spanish rule. The Inca appointed his offspring, who constituted a special royal ailya, 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 work in part for the state. This compulsory labor service was called mita. Only state dignitaries and priests were exempted from it. Each Ailyu, 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, respectively, to the priesthood and the state. 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 expert experts. With the help of a nodular letter, the kipu kept an accurate record of the fulfillment of duties by each ailyu. In addition to labor duties, each purik was part of the detachments of rural law enforcement officers and could be called up to war at any time. If he went to war, the community members worked on his plot of land.
Colonization.
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 from there and instilled in Quechua-speaking. The latter were called "mita-kona" (in the Spanish pronunciation "mitamaes"). The remaining local residents were not forbidden to observe their customs, wear traditional clothes and speak their native language, but all officials were obliged to know Quechua. Mita-kona was entrusted with military tasks (protection of border fortresses), administrative and economic, 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 supervise the road and bridges and thereby spread the power of the emperor everywhere. The colonists received significant social and economic privileges like the Roman legionaries who served in the outlying provinces. The integration of the conquered peoples into a single cultural and economic space was so deep that up to now 7 million people speak Quechua, the Ailiu tradition is preserved among the Indians, and the influence of Inca culture in folklore, agricultural practice, and psychology is still felt on a vast territory.
Roads, bridges and couriers.
Excellent roads with a well-functioning courier service made it possible to keep a huge territory under unified management. The Incas used the roads laid by their predecessors, and they themselves built approx. 16,000 km of new roads designed for all weather conditions. Since the pre-Columbian civilizations did not know the wheels, the Inca roads were intended for pedestrians and caravans of lamas. The road along the ocean coast, stretching 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 cars; four bridges crossed the gorges of the Apurimak River. Every 7.2 km there were distance indicators, and after 19-29 km - stations for travelers' rest. In addition, courier stations were located every 2.5 km. Couriers (chaski) transmitted news and orders on the relay, and thus information was transmitted over 2000 km in 5 days.
Preservation of information.
Historical events and legends were kept in memory by specially trained storytellers. The Incas invented a mnemonic means for storing information called kipu (literally, node). It was a rope or stick with colored laces with knots hanging from it. The information contained in the pile was orally explained by a specialist in nodular writing, kipu-kamayok, otherwise it would have remained incomprehensible. Each governor of the province carried many kippu-kamayok with him. , who kept a meticulous record of the population, soldiers, taxes. The Incas used the decimal numbering system, they even had a zero symbol (skipping a knot). Spanish conquistadors left rave reviews for the system kippu .
The kipu-kamayok courtiers 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, which excluded references to the achievements of the conquered peoples and asserted the absolute priority of the Incas in the formation of the Andean civilization.
Religion.
The Inca religion was closely related to government. The god-demiurge Viracocha was considered the ruler of all that exists, he was helped by deities of a lower rank, among whom the sun god Inti was most revered. The worship of the sun god, who became a symbol of the Inca culture, was official. The Inca religion included numerous decentralized cults of gods who personified natural realities. In addition, the veneration of magical and sacred objects (huaca) was practiced, which could be a river, lake, mountain, temple, stones collected from the fields.
Religion was practical in nature and permeated the entire life of the Incas. Agriculture was considered a sacred occupation, and everything associated 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 there is always warmth and abundance; as for the 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. Ethics and morality of the Incas boiled down to one principle: "Ama sua, ama llyulya, ama chelya" – "Do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy."
Art.
Inca art gravitated towards austerity and beauty. Weaving from wool of llamas was distinguished by a high artistic level, although it was inferior in the richness of decoration to the fabrics of the peoples of the Costa. Carving of semi-precious stones and shells, which the Incas received from the coastal peoples, was widely practiced.
However, the main art of the Incas was casting from precious metals. Almost all of the 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 stonework. The thatched roofs of the temples had splashes of gold that imitated 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-size maize stalks, made of gold, "grew" from golden "earth" with leaves and ears, and twenty lamas of gold "grazed" on the golden grass - again -so in full size.
Architecture.
In the field of material culture, the most impressive achievements of the Incas were in architecture. Although the Inca architecture is inferior to the Mayan in terms of the richness of decor and the Aztec in terms of emotional impact, there is no equal in that era, either in the New or in the Old World, in terms of bold engineering decisions, grandiose scale of urban planning, and skillful layout of volumes. Inca monuments, even in ruins, are amazing in their number and size. The Machu Picchu fortress, built at an altitude of 3000 m in the saddle between the two peaks of the Andes, gives an idea of the high level of Inca urban planning. Inca architecture is distinguished by its extraordinary plasticity. The Incas erected buildings on treated rock surfaces, fitting stone blocks together without mortar, so that the structure was perceived as a natural element of the natural environment. In the absence of rocks, sunburned bricks were used. Inca craftsmen knew how to cut stones according to given patterns and work with huge stone blocks. The fortress (pucara) of Saskahuaman, which defended Cusco, is undoubtedly one of the greatest creations 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 foundation masonry, stones weighing more than 30 tons with beveled edges are found. The construction of the fortress took at least 300,000 stone blocks. All stones are irregular in shape, but fit together so firmly that the walls withstood countless earthquakes and deliberate attempts at destruction. The fortress has towers, underpasses, 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 INX EMPIRE
It is still difficult to understand how a miserable handful of Spaniards could have conquered a powerful empire, although many considerations have been put forward on this score. By that time, the Aztec empire had already been conquered by Hernan Cortes (1519-1521), but the Incas did not know about this, since they had no direct contacts with the Aztecs and 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's outpost at Gran Chaco, an arid lowland on the empire's southeastern border. In 1527, Francisco Pizarro briefly landed at Tumbes on the northwestern Peruvian coast and soon sailed, leaving two of his men behind. Ecuador was then devastated by a smallpox epidemic brought in by one of these Spaniards.
Emperor Huayna Capac died in 1527. According to legend, he was aware that the empire was too large to rule from one center in Cuzco. Immediately after his death, a dispute over the throne broke out between two of his five hundred sons - Huascar from Cuzco, the son of his lawful wife, and Atahualpa from Ecuador. The feud between the blood brothers resulted in 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 40,000-strong army rested in the provincial center of Cajamarca in the north-west of the country, from where Atahualpa was going to go to Cuzco, where the official ceremony of his elevation to the imperial dignity was to take place.
Pizarro arrived at Tumbes on May 13, 1532 and marched to Cajamarca with 110 foot and 67 cavalry soldiers. Atahualpa was aware of this from intelligence reports, on the one hand accurate, on the other - biased in interpretation of the facts. So, the scouts assured that the horses do not see in the dark, that the man and the horse are a single creature that, when they fall, is no longer able to fight, that the arquebusses emit only thunder, and even then only twice, that the 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. Until now, no one can explain why Atahualpa let himself be lured into a trap. He knew very well about the strength of the strangers, and the favorite tactic of the Incas themselves was precisely an ambush. Perhaps the emperor was driven by some special impulses beyond the understanding of the Spaniards. In the evening of November 16, 1532, Atahualpa appeared in the Cajamarca square in all the splendor of the imperial regalia and accompanied by a large retinue - albeit unarmed, as demanded by Pizarro. After a short, unintelligible conversation between an Inca demigod and a Christian priest, the Spaniards pounced on the Indians and killed almost everyone in half an hour. During the massacre of the Spaniards, only Pizarro was injured, accidentally wounded in the arm by his own soldier when he was blocking Atahualpa, whom he wanted to take prisoner safe and sound.
After that, apart from 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 Spanish accused him of conspiracy and "crimes against the Spanish state" and after a short formal trial on August 29, 1533, strangled him with a garrotto.
All these events plunged the Incas into a state of strange apathy. The Spaniards, almost without encountering resistance, reached Cuzco along the great road and took the city on November 15, 1533.
Novoink state.
Manco the Second.
Having made the former Inca capital of Cuzco the center of Spanish rule, Pizarro decided to give the new power a form of legitimacy and for this he appointed Huayne 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, nursing plans for an uprising, he showed patience.
In 1536, when part of the conquistadors, led by Diego Almagro, went on an expedition of conquest to Chile, Manco, under the pretext of searching for imperial treasures, slipped out of the hands of the Spaniards and raised an uprising. The moment was favorable for this. Almagro and Pizarro, at the head of their supporters, started a dispute over the division of military booty, which soon escalated into 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 on April 18, 1536 fell on the capital. The defense of the city was led by an experienced soldier Hernando Pizarro, brother of Francisco Pizarro. He had only 130 Spanish soldiers and 2,000 Native American allies at his disposal, but he displayed outstanding martial arts and withstood the siege. At the same time, the Incas attacked Lima, founded by Pizarro in 1535 and declared new capital 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 get through to the besieged Cuzco. The three-month siege of Cusco was lifted due to the fact that many of the warriors left the Inca army in connection with the beginning of agricultural work; in addition, the army of Almagro, returning from Chile, was approaching the city.
Manco II and thousands of his loyal men retreated to prearranged positions in the Vilcabamba mountain range northeast of Cuzco. The Indians took with them the surviving mummies of the former Inca rulers. Here Manco II created the so-called. Novoink state. In order to protect the southern road from military attacks of the Indians, Pizarro set up a military camp in Ayacucho. Meanwhile, the civil war continued between the soldiers of Pizarro 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 headed 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 domain. The Spaniards taught the Indians to ride, firearms, and blacksmithing. By setting up 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, with the help of which the king of Spain tried to restrict the abuses of the conquistadors, fell into the hands of the Indians. After reviewing this document, Manco II sent one of his Spaniards, Gomez Perez, to negotiate with Viceroy Blasco Nunez Vela. As the strife between the conquistadors continued, the Viceroy was interested in a compromise. Shortly thereafter, the renegade Spaniards who settled in the Novoinka state fell out with Manco II, killed him and were executed.
Sairee Tupac and Titu Kushi Yupanqui.
The head of the Novoinka state was the son of Manco II - Sairi 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 the large herds of llamas and alpacas, the Indians raised a fair number of sheep, pigs and cattle.
In 1555 Sairee Tupac launched military operations against the Spaniards. He moved his residence to the warmer climate of the Ukai Valley. Here he was poisoned by those close to him. Power was succeeded by his brother Titu Cusi Yupanqui, who resumed the war. Any attempts by the conquistadors to subdue the independent Indians were in vain. In 1565, Fray Diego Rodriguez visited the Inca citadel in Vilcabamba in order to lure the ruler out of hiding, but his mission was unsuccessful. 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 Wink state. The next year, another missionary made a similar attempt, but during negotiations, Titu Kusi 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 Inca Supreme.
After the death of Titu Cusi, another of the sons of Manco II came to power. The Spaniards decided to end the citadel at Vilcabamba, made gaps in the walls and, after a fierce battle, took the fortress. Tupac Amaru and his collared commanders were taken to Cuzco. Here in 1572, in the main city square, with a large number of people, they were beheaded.
Spanish domination.
The colonial authorities of Peru retained some of the administrative forms of the Inca Empire, adapting them for their own needs. The colonial administration and the latifundists ruled the Indians through intermediaries - the community leaders of the "kurak" – and did not interfere with the daily life of the householders. The Spanish authorities, like the Inca, practiced mass resettlement of communities and a system of labor services, and also formed a special class of servants and artisans from the Indians. The corrupt colonial authorities and the exorbitantly greedy latifundists created unbearable 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. Inky Quechua... M., 1975
Culture of Peru... M., 1975
Berezkin Yu. Mochica... L., 1983
Berezkin Yu. The Incas. Historical experience of the empire... L., 1991
At the turn of the XIV-XV centuries. the first empires arose on the Pacific coast and in the northern regions of the South American continent. The most significant of these was the Inca state. During its heyday, it was home to from 8 million to 15 million people.
The term "Inca" denoted the title of the ruler of several tribes in the foothills of the Andes; This name was also borne by the Aymara, Huallacan, Keuar, and others tribes who lived in the Cuzco 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 Cuzco and located in the vicinity of Lake Titicaca, included the territory of modern Bolivia, northern Chile, part of what is now Argentina, the northern part of what is now the Republic of Peru and what is now 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 artisans-jewelers made for him a new golden throne, richly decorated precious stones, most often emeralds. Gold in the Inca Empire was widely used in jewelry, but was not a means of payment. The Incas got along without money, since one of the main principles of their life was the principle of self-sufficiency. The entire empire was a huge subsistence economy.
Inca religion
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 beliefs was totemism - the worship of a totem - an animal, plant, stones, water, etc., with which the believers considered themselves related. The lands of the communities were named after the deified animals. In addition, the cult of ancestors was widespread. The deceased 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 lived in caves, the Incas erected stone mounds near the caves, which in their outlines resembled the figures of people. The cult of ancestors is associated with the custom of mummification of the corpses of the dead. Mummies in smart clothes, with decorations, utensils, food were buried in tombs carved into the rocks. The mummies of rulers and priests were especially magnificently buried.
Your buildings The Incas were erected from various types of stone - limestone, basalt, diorite and from raw bricks. The houses of the common people had light roofs of thatch and bunches of reeds; there were no stoves in the houses, and the smoke from 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 binders were not required for the construction of buildings. In addition, the Incas built fortresses on the mountain slopes with numerous watchtowers. 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 a 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 ground; Inti's wife, the goddess of the moon - Mama Kilya. The Morning Star (Venus) and many other stars and constellations were also revered. In the religious beliefs of the ancient Aztecs, a special position was held by the extremely ancient cults of Mother Earth - Mama Pacha and Mother Sea - Mama Kochi.
The Incas had many religious and ritual festivals associated with the agricultural calendar and the life of the ruling family. All festivities were held in the main square of Cusco - Huacapata (Sacred Terrace). Roads diverged from it, connecting the capital with the four provinces of the state. By the time the Spaniards arrived, there were three palaces towered over Piazza Huacapata. Two of them have been converted into sanctuaries. When the Inca ruler died, his body was embalmed, and the mummy was 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 considered the ensemble of temples Korikancha (Golden Courtyard). 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 located in the western part, and it was illuminated by the first rays rising sun... The walls of the temple were completely covered with sheet gold. The ceiling was covered with woodcarvings, and the floor was covered with carpets stitched with gold threads. The windows and doors were strewn with precious stones. Several chapels adjoined the Temple of the Sun - in honor of thunder and lightning, the rainbow, the planet Venus, and the main one - in honor of the Moon (Mama Kilya). The image of the moon in the Inca empire is associated with the idea of a woman, a goddess. Therefore, the chapel of Mama Kiglia was intended for the Koim, the wife of the Inca ruler, only she had access to this chapel. Here were also the mummies of the rulers' deceased wives. In the chapel of the Moon, all the decoration was of silver.
Various crafts among the Incas, they reached their highest flowering. The Incas quite early mastered mining 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, embossing, soldering and riveting, and also made products using the cloisonné enamel technique. Chroniclers reported that the Inca craftsmen made a golden ear of corn, in which the grains were golden, and the fibers surrounding the ear were made of the finest silver threads. The pinnacle of the Inca jewelry art was the image of the Sun God in the Temple of the Sun in Cusco in the form of a huge golden solar disk with a skillfully carved human face.
The golden wealth of the Incas reached its climax during the reign of Huayne Kapaka. He orders! to revet the walls and roofs of their palaces and temples with sheet gold; there were many golden animal sculptures in the royal palace. During solemn ceremonies 50 thousand. the soldiers were armed with golden weapons. A huge portable golden throne with a cape of precious feathers was placed in front of the palace-residence.
All this was plundered by the conquistadors from the expedition of Francisco Pissaro. The pieces of jewelry were melted down into ingots and sent to Spain. But much has remained in hiding places and has not yet been discovered.
According to researchers of the Inca culture, their empire perished largely because of religion. First, a rite was approved by religion in which the ruler chose a successor from among his sons. This led to an internecine war between the Huascar brothers and Atahualpa, which significantly weakened the country before the invasion of the Spanish conquistadors led by Pizarro. Secondly, among the Incas there was a tradition that in the future new, strangers would rule the country, who would conquer the empire and become its only rulers. This explains the fear and indecision of the Incas before the Spanish conquistadors.
It is considered that The Incas came to the valley of Cuzco, where they founded the capital of the empire, around 1200, the American archaeologist J. X. Rowe, who carried out excavations in the Cuzco region, suggested that before the first half of the 15th century. the Inca state owned only a few mountain valleys, and the imperial period began in 1438 - the date when the ruler of the Inca state Pachacuti Yupanqui defeated the warlike Chanka Indians and annexed to his state " western part Sveta". However, the Inca civilization was certainly expanding before the defeat of Chunk, but it was directed mainly south of Cuzco.
In 1470 the Inca armies approached the capital. After a long siege, the Chimu empire fell. The winners resettled many skilled artisans to their capital, Cuzco. Soon the Incas conquered other states, including them in their new empire: Chincha in the south of Peru, Cuismanka, which united the coastal valleys of the central part of the country, including the temple city of Pachacamac, the small states of Cajamarca and Sican in the north.
But the legacy of the Chimu empire was not lost. The Inca Hyperia did not destroy the capital of Chan-Chan and kept the roads, canals, terraced fields intact, making these lands one of the most prosperous provinces. The centuries-old culture of the Indians of Peru became the basis of an ancient civilization.
From amazing wonders and treasures the Inca empire almost nothing has survived to this day. Having captured the ruler of the Incas Atahualytu, the Spaniards demanded - and received - as a ransom for his life 7 tons of gold and about 14 tons of silver items, which were immediately melted into ingots. After the conquistadors executed Ataualyta, the Incas collected and hid the gold that remained in temples and palaces.
The search for the missing gold continues to this day. If someday archaeologists are lucky enough to find this legendary treasure, we will surely learn about civilization " children of the sun" a lot of new. Now, the number of products of Inca craftsmen can be counted on one hand - these are gold and silver figurines of people and lamas, magnificent gold vessels and breast discs, as well as traditional crescent-shaped tumi knives. Combining their own technology with the traditions of the Chimu jewelers, the Inca metallurgists achieved excellence in the processing of precious metals. Spanish chroniclers recorded the story of golden gardens that adorned temples dedicated to the Sun. Two of them are reliably known - in the coastal city of Tumbes in the north of the empire and in the main sanctuary of Cuzco, the Coricancha temple. The trees, shrubs and grasses in the gardens were made of solid gold. Golden shepherds grazed golden llamas on golden lawns, and golden corn ripened in the fields.
Architecture
The second highest achievement of the Incas can rightfully be considered architecture. The level of stone processing under the Incas surpasses the best examples of the craftsmanship of the masons Chavin and Tiahuanaco. Simple, "typical" buildings were built of small stones, fastened with a clay-lime mortar - pirka. For palaces and temples, giant monoliths were used, not fastened to each other by any mortar. The stones in such structures are held by numerous protrusions that cling to each other. An example is the famous dodecagonal stone in the wall in Cusco, so tightly fitted to the neighboring boulders that even a razor blade cannot be inserted between them.
Inca architectural style severe and ascetic; buildings suppress with their power. However, at one time many buildings were decorated with gold and silver plates, which gave them a completely different look.
In the cities, the Incas used planned buildings. The main element of the city was the kancha - a quarter consisting of residential buildings and warehouses located around the courtyard. Each major center had a palace, barracks for soldiers, a temple of the Sun and a "monastery" for the virgins of Aklya dedicated to the Sun.
Great roads of the Incas
All cities of the empire were connected by a network excellent roads... The two main highways, which were adjacent to the smaller roads, connected extreme points in the north and south of the country. One of the roads ran along the coast from the Gulf of Guayaquil in Ecuador to the Maule River, south of modern Santiago. The mountain road, called Kapak-kan (Tsar's Way), began in the gorges north of Quito, passing through Cuzco, turning to Lake Titicaca and breaking off in the territory of modern Argentina. Both of these arteries, together with the secondary roads adjacent to them, stretched for more than 20 thousand km. In wet places, roads were paved or filled with a waterproof mixture of maize leaves, pebbles and clay. On the arid coast, they tried to build roads along hard rock outcrops. In the swamps, stone dams were erected, equipped with drainage pipes. Poles were installed along the roads indicating the distance to settlements. There were inns at regular intervals - tambo. The width of the track on the plains reached 7 m, and in the mountain gorges it was reduced to 1 m. The roads were laid in a straight line, even if for this it was necessary to hammer a tunnel or cut down a part of the mountain. The Incas built wonderful bridges, the most famous of which are hanging bridges, designed to cross mountain streams. On each side of the gorge, stone pylons were erected, thick ropes were attached to them - two served as railings, and three supported a canvas of branches. The bridges were so strong that they could withstand the Spanish conquistadors fully armed and on horseback. Local residents was charged with the obligation to change the ropes once a year, as well as to repair the bridge if necessary. The largest bridge of this design across the Apurimac River was 75 meters long and hung 40 meters above the water.
Roads became the backbone of the empire stretching over a vast area from Ecuador in the north to Chile in the south and from the Pacific coast in the west to the eastern slopes of the Andes. The very name of the state claims to world domination. This word in the Quechua language means "four interconnected countries of the world." In the countries of the world, and Administrative division: in the north was the province of Chinchasuyu, in the south - Kolyasuyu, in the west - Kontisuyu and in the east - Antisuyu.
During the reign of the most famous emperors - Tupac Yupanqui, who took the throne in 1463, and Vaino Kapaca (1493-1525), the state finally acquired the features of a centralized empire.
Society
At the head of the state was the emperor - Sapa Inca, the Only Inca. A census of the population of the empire was carried out and a decimal administrative system was introduced, with the help of which taxes were collected and an accurate count of subjects was conducted. In the course of the reform, all hereditary leaders were replaced by appointed governors - kurak.
The entire population of the country bore labor duties: the processing of state fields of maize and sweet potatoes (potatoes), the maintenance of state flocks of lamas, military service and work on the construction of cities, roads and mines. In addition, the subjects were obliged to pay the tax in kind - with textiles and livestock.
The practice of mass resettlements in the conquered territories was widespread. The Quechua language spoken by the Incas was declared official language empire. The inhabitants of the provinces were not prohibited from using their own language. Mandatory knowledge of Quechua was required only from officials.
Writing
It is believed that the Incas did not create their own writing system. To transmit information, they had a nodular letter "kipu", perfectly adapted to the needs of management and economics. According to one of the legends, the Incas once had a written language, even books, but they were all destroyed by the reformer ruler Pachacuti, who "rewrote history." An exception was made for only one, which was kept in the main sanctuary of the Coricancha empire. Robbers of the capital ancient civilization Inca the Spaniards discovered canvases covered with incomprehensible signs in Coricancha, set in gold frames. The frames were melted down, of course, and the canvases were burned. Thus perished the only written history of the Inca empire.
The peoples conquered by the Incas for the most part belong to the same civilization, the geographical contours of which can be defined quite clearly. The area, which archaeologists call the "central Andes", includes the coast, mountains and Amazonian foothills of modern Peru, the highlands of Bolivia and the extreme north of Chile. From the west it is limited By the Pacific Ocean, from the east - the Amazonian forest. Its northern border coincides with the Tumbes River (near the modern border between Peru and Ecuador), the line of change in the rain regime (equatorial in the north, tropical in the south) and the lowering of the mountain range. This ecological border is duplicated by a geographical barrier: 400 kilometers of forested tropical mountains and rugged terrain divide Cajamarca, in northern Peru, with the Equadorian Loja. On the coast, 200 kilometers of wilderness separates the Lambayeque Valley with the Piura Valley (northern Peru). At the southern borders of the central Andes, the upper plateaus, which continue the basin of Lake Titicaca to the south, smoothly merge into huge saline expanses, almost uninhabited, which on the Pacific coast are buried in the vast Atacama Desert. The Bolivian Cochabamba Valley, already separated from the upper plateau by three hundred kilometers of mountains, is also isolated from the regions located just to the east by the extremely inhospitable Bolivian mountain range.
These boundaries have not become a hindrance to cultural, economic and even political relations. Trade between the Andes and, for example, Amazonia has always been intense, and in some places the Incas extended their rule to the upper Amazon. These boundaries define rather territories with quite different geographic conditions, where it is possible to develop various ways of organizing life. The Spanish were very quick to grasp these geographical and cultural coincidences. They gave us the name "Peru", which was definitely a little higher, after the name of the South Colombian or Ecuadorian section of the coast, which one of the expeditions first got acquainted with in the 1520s, clearly opposing it to the "provinces of Quito" corresponding to modern Ecuador ( which is part of the northern Andes), and "Chile", the territory of the Mapuche Indians (which is part of the southern Andes). It is in this sense that the word "Peru" will be used here, only two Amazonian thirds of the modern republic of Peru are excluded from it and, on the contrary, the high mountains of the modern republic of Bolivia and northern Chile are added to it. With the exception of the upper southern plateaus, the central Andes is a fragmented, heterogeneous territory. Coastal valleys are interspersed with deserts several tens of kilometers long. The Andean valleys are often very narrow, even tiny, and, again, are isolated from one another by steep slopes or practically insurmountable mountain chains.
Production regions
In the central Andes, a traveler, moving from the ocean to the Amazonian forest, can find a huge variety of ecosystems in an area of 200 km. Such a variety and proximity of various dwellings and settlements is not found in any other corner of the world and is determined by extremely distinctive forms of economic and social organization. Peruvians distinguished (and continue to distinguish) three main types of spheres and regions of production, which are distributed along a vertical axis. In the Quechua language, the term Yunkan refers to the hot, humid lands that extend from one part of the Andes to another between 1500 and 2800 m (depending on the location) above sea level. The temperate mountain valleys, which in some regions rise to 3500 m - the upper limit for maize farming - are named Quechua. Alpine treeless savannas, located at an altitude of 3000 or 3500 m to 4800 or 5200 m, are called navels. Freezing temperatures here make all irrigation useless. At an altitude of about 5000 m, the pune is replaced by rocky formations, above which snow-capped peaks and glaciers rise, and all the vegetation of which is limited by lichens and moss. The height of several dozen mountain peaks exceeds 6,000 m.
Between the sands of the Atacama and Piura coast South America It is a desert strip where, with the exception of a light winter frost-dew, it never rains. Rivers descending from the Andes form oasis-valleys there, separated by distances of 20-60 km. Very narrow in the south, wider but shorter in the center, these valleys are wide and deep in the north, where they harbored some of the most complex and brilliant societies of ancient Peru. Over the millennia, the inhabitants of the coast developed a gigantic network of irrigation canals, which allowed them to breed maize, cotton, common and bottle gourds. Above 300 m, where it is hottest, they bred coca (which is an aphrodisiac and dulls hunger), peppers and fruit trees: annona, avocado, guava and pacu. Extremely rich in plankton, the cold waters washing the coast amaze with the diversity of marine fauna, due to which huge flocks of fishing birds live in those places, the name of which (guano) has been used as fertilizer since ancient times. The eastern foothills of the Andes were not as densely populated as the coast and highlands, but were of great economic interest to the highlanders, who settled there, planting coca, cotton, pumpkin, pepper, macaw and avocado. From these plants, they extracted resin and incense, and also used them as medicines.
The highest concentration of the mountain population was observed in the temperate zone, Quechua, between 2500 and 3500 m, where the natives cultivated maize, beans, quinoa, as well as root vegetables and tarui (legume family). Thanks to irrigation, these farmers learned long ago to lengthen the growing season and mitigate the inconvenience caused by the variability of the weather. Under the Incas, thousands of kilometers of canals were built, which were added to those that were erected by the previous states. They have increased the number of irrigated terraces everywhere, since the temperate zone is located mainly on the slopes and cannot be properly exploited without significant land improvement work.
Pupas are steppes covered with all kinds of cereals and cacti, which occupy most of the territory of the central Andes. Representatives of the deer family (luichu and taruka), rodents, the chinchilla family (viscacha), wild camels (vicuñas) and predators (for example, foxes or cougars) live there. A wide variety of birds can be found on numerous lakes. For people, the navel is a priority area for extensive breeding of llamas and alpacas. In the lower part of the pune, in depressions protected from night frosts, between 3500 and 4000 m, root crops are grown: potatoes (470 varieties of it are known to dad), oku, olyuko, mashua, anyu, macu, as well as cereals - canyivu and quinoa. From Cajamarca to Cuzco, Puna is one large undulating steppe. In the south, it forms wide plateaus around the basins of lakes, which stretch as far as the Bolivian province of Lipes. These upper plateaus define a specific space in the bowels of the central Andes, of which they are the center - the Spaniards called it "Charcas", then "Upper Peru". At the heart of this space is Lake Titicaca (the highest navigable body of water in the world), on the shores of which there are the most fertile lands of the upper plateau - temperate climate these places are favorable for agriculture. The “pre-Hispanic” inhabitants of the upper plateaus have expanded their agricultural areas thanks to the technology of “flooded fields”, which creates thermal protection around the furrows. This technology, which contributed to the development of Tiahuanaco, sank into oblivion soon after the Spanish conquest. In the part of Peru northwest of the watershed between the Lake Titicaca basin and the Cusco region, Puna is more of a peripheral area, much less important from a demographic and political standpoint. But the relatively weak population of this wavy puna does not diminish its economic importance for the population living in its lower regions: these steppes are home to many animals, which are one of the main sources of wealth in the Andes.
The weather in the central Andes hardly changes, and the seasons are determined not by the "warm" and "cold" months, but by precipitation. It has a rainy season, from October to April, and a dry season, from May to September. On the eastern slope, rain is not uncommon, while it is infrequent on the western slope.
The northern Andes ("provinces of Quito") in geographic terms differ from the central Andes quite strongly. The coast there is covered with mangrove and tropical forests, which the Incas found inhospitable and, in fact, did not even try to integrate into their empire. The wet prairies, which extend above 3500 m, although favorable for the breeding of llamas and alpacas, were only exploited when the Incas brought their herds there. The mountain valleys (the landscape of which is in many ways similar to the landscape of the Peruvian Quechua) have been densely populated by farmers since ancient times, which, apparently, explains the great interest that the Incas showed in them. No other region, however, offered them such fierce resistance, probably because the northern Andean communities, which developed in a slightly different environment than their Peruvian neighbors, were very different from the latter from a socio-economic and cultural point of view. to easily agree to join those political and ideological structures that the Incas wanted to impose on them.
Empire "Four cardinal points"
At the time of the Spanish conquest, the Inca empire numbered between 10 and 12 million inhabitants and represented the most densely populated mountain range in the world. The Incas called their state Tauapsipsuyu, which literally means "four united stripes" in the Quechua language and which is sometimes translated as "four cardinal directions". Tauantpingsuyu was indeed divided into four parts, each of which stretched from one to another of the four main roads that extended from the capital. Due to the lack of two-dimensional maps, the Incas imagined the territories they controlled as the space between the roads, along which were the administrative centers and inns built by them. Each of the quarters of the empire, thus, seemed to the Incas a "strip" defined by one of these roads. There were textile "maps" in the form of kipu, where each road was marked with a string on which provinces, cities or inns were marked with knots. The name Tauantpingsuyu also indicates that, through their domination, the Incas intended to ensure a common territory, which they imagined as an ethnic and linguistic mosaic, placed in a kind of geographically fragmented space. that in Cuzco they saw exactly the sacred center of this reunited world.
Each of the four parts that made up the Empire was known under the name of one of the ethnic groups that lived in it and which metonymically designated other groups. To the north-west of Cuzco stretched the Chinchasuyu, or "Chincha strip", after the name of the rich coastal state, with which the Incas were tied for centuries of ties. To the southwest stretched the Kuntisuyu, or "smoke strip", an important group that settled in this part of the coastal slope of the mountains. To the south went the Kolyasuyu, or "strip of stakes", a people who occupied the northern part of the basin of Lake Titicaca and for a long time was the main rival of the Incas. To the east was Aptisuyu, where, among others, there lived anti, which the Spaniards also called "the Andes." They occupied a mountain range covered with tropical vegetation, located northeast of Cuzco and called by the Spaniards the "Mountain system of the Andes". The very term "Andes" began to be used in relation to this mountain system much later.
Cuzco
Located at 3450 meters in the Ouatanay River Valley, Cusco did not look like a well-structured city. The capital was a relatively shallow center, located at the foot of a hill, a settlement in which elite buildings were concentrated and the surroundings of which were spread along the spurs of the valley.
Indeed, in order to maximize the area of land suitable for cultivation, the Incas erected only terraces, roads and canals in the depths of the valley. Cusco's buildings were "sandwiched" between two canal rivers, the Ouatanayi Tulumayu.
It is believed that between 15,000 and 20,000 people lived in Cusco, mainly representatives of the elite and their servants. The palaces of the dead Incas were also located here. They kept the mummies of the rulers and their descendants, as well as, as in the temples, many gold and silver objects in the form of dishes, statues and plates that decorated the walls and roofs. For the Incas, these metals had no monetary value, and their use was the lot of the nobility only. The extreme degree of their accumulation in the capital, probably, should have emphasized the sacred character of this place. Cusco, thus, was primarily a religious city and a kind of museum in memory of the Inca rulers. The gods and the dead received offerings there almost incessantly and in huge quantities, consuming a rather significant part of the rent. the ruling Inca... Juan Polo de Ondegardo, a Spanish official who carefully studied the Incas in the 1550s, described the capital as follows: “Cuzco was the home and abode of the gods, and in the city it was impossible to find a single fountain, passage or wall, about which would not say that they have their own secret. " As soon as travelers discovered this city for themselves, crossing the pass, they no longer spared prayers and offerings for it.
"Kancha" in Ollantaytambo
The basic element of Inca town planning was a set of rectangular, one-room and one-level buildings located around a courtyard. Such a building was called a kancha (“enclosed place”), since it was usually surrounded by a high wall with one or two entrance doors, which guaranteed the isolation of the life passing behind this “fence”.
Prospective perspective of the Aucaipata (1) and Cusipata (2) squares in Cusco.
A - The current location of the church of St. Francis; B - The modern layout of the Garcilaso de la Vega house
This structure was characteristic both for ordinary dwellings and for palaces and temples in which the gods "lived". The streets of Cusco were narrow passages between the high walls that contained these residential or religious complexes. On one side of the city there was a huge, 190x165 m, square. It was known as Aukaipata ("recreation area"), as it served as a venue for large ceremonial feasts. Bounded on one side by the Ouatanay River, it stretched along this river, smoothly passing into another, almost so vast area, which was called Kusipasha ("amusement square"), where military parades were held.
Cuzco looked relatively monotonous: most of the houses, temples and palaces were one-story, and all, without exception, had a straw roof; no structure, like the Mexican pyramids, stood out among these homogeneous structures. The city's drawing was largely dictated by the topography: the buildings of the center were located on a high spur separating the Tulumayu and Ouatanay rivers, while other buildings were piled on top of each other on the hillside.
Above all this cluster of buildings towered a huge fortress and the Sacsayhuaman temple, built on a hill in the northern part of the city. Today, only the largest stones remain of it, those that the Spaniards did not manage to move during the construction of the colonial city.
The city of Cusco as described by Pedro Sancho (1534)
This city is the greatest and most beautiful city ever seen in this country or anywhere in the West Indies. It is so beautiful and its buildings are so beautiful that it would be magnificent even in Spain.
It all consists of dwellings belonging to the lords, since ordinary people do not live in it. [...] Most of the buildings are built of stone, while the rest of the buildings have half of the façade. There are also many adobe houses, very skillfully built. They are located along straight streets in a cross-shaped plan. All streets are cobbled, and in the middle of each street there is a stone-lined water channel. The only drawback of these streets is that they are narrow: only one person can ride on horseback on each side of the canal. [...] The square, square in shape, is located in the most flat part and is completely covered with fine gravel. Around there are four manor houses, made of hewn stone and painted. The most beautiful of the four is the dwelling of Guainacaba [= Huayna Capac], an old cacique. It has an entrance made of red, white and multi-colored marble, and it is decorated with other two-sided structures, magnificent in appearance [...] At the top of a round and very steep hill overhanging the city, there is an incredibly beautiful fortress made of stone and adobe. Its large windows overlook the city, which makes it even more beautiful. Behind the cross wall are numerous buildings, and in the middle of them is the main tower, cylindrical in shape, four or five stories high. [...] The stones [of the tower] are so smooth that they can pass for polished boards. [...] There are so many rooms and towers in the fortress that one person cannot inspect them in a day. Many Spaniards who visited Lombardy and other foreign kingdoms claim, having visited her, that they had never seen a similar building or an equally well-fortified castle. [...] The most beautiful thing that can be seen in this city is its fortress wall. It is made of stones so huge that you would never believe that ordinary people put them in their places. They are so large that they seem to be pieces of rocky mountains.
Walls of Sacsayhuaman (according to George Squire, 1877)
The valley of the Ouatanay River was distinguished by a very dense development. Nearby, in the foothills, the Incas erected terraces, irrigation canals, complexes of grain barns and new villages, where they housed peasants who arrived from various provinces of the empire. There were also country houses of representatives of the local aristocracy, as well as temples. The total number of residents of the capital and its suburbs could reach 100,000.
"Cuzco" (Kuscu) is a term from the Aymara language meaning "owl". According to the Inca myth about the founding of this city, Manco Capac, having arrived in the vicinity of the future Cuzco, ordered one of his brothers, Ayaru Auqueu, to fly up a stone pillar located not far from the place on which the Golden Temple (Corikancha) would one day arise, and to gain a foothold there, in order to designate their ownership of this territory. Ayar Auka did just that, turning into specified location into the stone. This monolith has been known since then under the name of Kuscu Huanca, "Owl's Rock", probably because Ayar Auka turned into this very bird in order to reach this boundary stone. It was he who gave his name to this settlement, which gradually expanded around it and became known simply as Cuzco.
Metropolitan area
Above the valley of the Huatanay River, within a radius of about 70 km, stretched the actual territory of the Incas, the one on which they founded the proto-state several centuries before the formation of Tahuaptipsuyu. Protected by the canyon of the Apurimac River, which could only be crossed by bridge bridges, and bordered by the Amazonian forest, this territory was almost impregnable, with the exception of the valley of the Vilcanota River - the possessions of the Kapa and Kanchi tribes, allies of the Incas.
All the rulers, starting with Viracocha and ending with Huascar, erected country residences for themselves in this region, together with their Court they lived during the dry and cold season. The favorite territory for the construction of these country palaces was the valley of the Vilcanota River, between Pisak and Machu Picchu, located not far from the capital, but having a much milder climate. All residences were equipped with improved hydraulic structures: carved fountains poured water in cascades through canals, as well as artificial lakes, in which, to the sound of murmuring water, buildings were reflected. Forests, parks and hunting reserves stretched all around. There were at least 18 such holdings in the Cuzco region. One of the most sophisticated was the Quispiguanca Palace, built by Wye-na Capac near the modern town of Urubamba, at an altitude of 2800 meters. From the point of view of geographical location, one of the most impressive is the palace of Kakia-Shakshaguana (modern Uchuy-Kusku), which belonged to the Inca Viracoche - located on a ledge at an altitude of 3650 meters, it rises 600 m above the Vilcanota valley. But the most famous residence of the rulers is, of course, Machu Picchu, located three or four days from Cusco. Built by Pachacuti, Machu Picchu Palace, with its 200 buildings, could serve as a comfortable refuge for 750 people at a time. Food and drinks were delivered to it from the capital, since Machu Picchu has almost no agricultural terraces and there is not a single peasant yard in the neighborhood, as well as storage facilities. Nor were there any agricultural tools found in it. The warriors and managers were probably encamped around the settlement. The Inca residence has baths and a garden, as elsewhere, such as Cajamarca. But the main activity of the Court takes place inside, on an area that occupies about a third of the entire area of the settlement (excluding the terrace). Machu Picchu was probably primarily intended to strengthen social bonds between the Incas through feasts and religious ceremonies during the dry season. Pachakushi knew that rivalries and conflicts were not uncommon in the bowels of the elite, and, apparently, wanted to create a pleasant and harmonious environment in which one could worship the gods and enjoy life in the company of representatives of the most powerful families of Cuzco.
Provincial centers
The Incas created about 80 administrative and ceremonial centers in new places, designed to serve as provincial centers. Most are located four or five days' journey from each other.
In these centers there is always a very large square, rectangular or trapezoidal, where the population of the province periodically feasted at the expense of the Inca, in gratitude for the work for the benefit of the ruler. In such cases, religious ceremonies made it possible to renew the agreement concluded between the Inca and his subjects. The rituals of offerings to the gods were carried out on an elevated platform (I will sleep), so that all the people gathered in the square could participate in them.
Thus, the Inca settlements were not just real cities, or even administrative centers, but "centers of well-being." There was no market in them, and for most of the year only a few of their buildings were inhabited. Moreover, after the Spanish conquest, these "artificial" cities were hastily abandoned. Thus, the permanent population of Atun-Shaushi, one of the largest centers, was only about 7000 people.
But when the city was filled with people to perform rituals that extolled imperial unanimity, its population increased many times over. Conquistador Miguel de Estete, who in 1532 saw this settlement in similar circumstances, even decided that he was in one of the largest cities all over the continent. Hernando Pizarro, who visited there in 1533, claims, perhaps somewhat exaggerating, that he saw 100,000 "service Indians" there, feasting and dancing. In these cities, as a rule, there was also the residence of the ruler, where the Inca stayed in transit, as well as the temple of the Sun and the "house of the chosen women" (aklyahuasi), in which women constantly lived and worked, who devoted themselves to the cult of the Sun and the preparation of maize beer and ceremonial robes.
Of all these provincial centers, the city of Huanuco is probably the best preserved. In the center of this settlement, located at an altitude of 3700 m, on the road that connects Cuzco and Quito, there was a huge area (520 x 360 m), capable of accommodating a very large number of people. In the midst of it rose a platform that served as a stage for the rituals of offering, so grand that everyone could see it. In case of rain, revelers took refuge in the large oblong-shaped buildings that surrounded the square and continued to feast there.
Several streets emanated from the square, dividing the city into segments that stretched over 2 square kilometers and included about 4,000 buildings in a typical Inca architectural style.
A nearby hill housed about 700 grain barns, which served to supply armies and temporary residents.
Such centers are most often found in the highlands and in the middle part of Tahuantinsuyu. On the coast, the Incas built only two settlements: Incahuasi, in the Canyete Valley, and Tambo Colorado, in the Pisco Valley. Not a single Inca city existed on the territory of the ancient Chimu Empire, with the exception of Tumbes, from which nothing remained. In Kolyasuyu, the Incas built far fewer administrative centers than in the Chinchasuyu highlands, preferring to occupy ancient settlements such as Atun-Koli or Chukuito. In the extreme south of the Empire, in the regions that now belong to Argentina and Chile, where the population density was somewhat lower, and the only minerals were minerals - in particular, Chilean obsidian - the Incas ordered the construction of only inns.
Roads, inns, postal service
The most impressive material achievement of the Incas is probably their road network. In 1532, Miguel de Estete, who participated in Pizarro's expedition, remarked about its main site, the one that connected Cusco with Togobamba: "This is one of the greatest structures that the world has seen." In less than a hundred years, the Incas built 40,000 km of roads, mostly paved with rubble. It is the most significant road network in existence before the industrial era. Due to the absence of draft animals, and therefore carts, only pedestrians and caravans of lamas moved along these paths, and only roads equipped with a drainage system, paved with rubble, could ensure smooth and constant movement along steep mountain slopes annually destroyed by torrential rains. In addition, in the Central Andes, inhabited areas are separated from each other by practically uninhabited zones, representing significant obstacles to traffic: deserts, mountain ranges, steep slopes, wooded areas.
The squire was one of the last to see this Inca bridge (45 m in length), maintained until that time in order by the surrounding communities
In general, the state could not function without infrastructure, which would have made possible the relatively easy and fast movement of armies, representatives of power, work force and goods. In this regard, the Inca roads not only serve public purposes, but also help the state keep its territories under control, freely transferring troops and representatives to any place. This road network, called kapak drunk, the "Great Road," was the most tangible and ubiquitous expression of Inca power. Its main section was the main artery of the empire and in some places reached more than sixteen meters in width. Basically, the width of the Inca road paths ranged from one to four meters, moreover, depending on the relief, they could be transformed into a string of steps. Two other sections were of particular importance: the one that connected Cusco with southern provinces and the one that walked along the coast. Cross roads connected these longitudinal axes or already went to the eastern foothills. In the coastal desert, where every possible path was covered with sand, the roads were marked with sticks driven into the ground at regular intervals.
Crossing the rivers and canyons was carried out on bridges of various types. The empire consisted of more than a hundred bridges made of woven fibers, the production technology of which was very complex. Made of lianas and planks, fixed on stone ledges, they provided a relatively easy transition for livestock and armies.
Where the traffic was less intense, they crossed the river in a hoist suspended from a rope. In the gorges, crossings were carried out along stone or wooden bridges.
Along the Inca roads, every 15-25 km (which was equal to a day's journey for a caravan of lamas) there were tampu, a kind of inns. Travelers found there shelter and food, as well as pens and fodder for livestock. Throughout the empire, such Tampu, according to various estimates, ranged from 1000 to 2000. Their size, layout and architecture varied greatly depending on their importance and additional functions that they could perform. Some served as administrative centers in those regions where there were no provincial centers, as was often the case at the southern borders of the empire, for example, in Qatarpa, in the oasis of San Pedro de Atacama (in the north of modern Chile).
On most roads, every 1-8 km - depending on the relief - a special messenger, a chaski, lived with his family, "passing from hand to hand." His task was to deliver to the destination (usually by running) messages or small items that were brought to him by the cha-ski located at the previous post station. Thus, this or that message reached from Lima to Cuzco in just three days, although these cities are 750 km apart. The addressee and the place of assignment were indicated orally, but the message itself was contained in the kippah.
