The Incas

Centuries before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the West Indies, several American peoples had reached a high degree of civilization. The most important were the Aztecs, who dominated the center of present-day Mexico; the Mayas, established in the lowlands and highlands of the Yucatan peninsula; and the Incas, a group of Quechua origin that forged, along almost the entire length of the Andes mountain range, the Inca or Inca Empire.

The word “Inca” is in fact polysemic, since it refers to this group of Quechua origin that became the dominant clan, to the empire it formed, to the imperial magistracy that headed it (the sovereigns held the title of “Inca”) and to the civilization that flourished within it. In the Quechua language, the territory of the Incas was called Tahuantinsuyu (“four parts”), so that their empire was the “Empire of the four parts of the world”.

The Inca or sovereign was a military, political and religious chief; he had a semi-divine character, since he was venerated as a personification of the Sun God. His power was based on a kind of theocratic absolutism, which crowned a collectivist organization of society: in exchange for the obligation to support his subjects, the Inca imposed on them the duty to work in the construction of irrigation works, public buildings, bridges, tunnels and an extensive road network.

The Inca clan was hierarchically divided into three groups, according to their kinship with the Inca: the top group was made up of the Inca himself, his brothers, ascendants and descendants, including the Inca’s eldest sister (coya), whom he was obliged to marry to maintain the purity of the lineage.

A second group were the palla, concubines of the Inca, also of royal blood, and their descendants; and the lower group were the mama-kunas, concubines not related to the clan, with their respective descendants. The children of the concubines of the second and third classes constituted the aristocracy of the empire, from which the leading personnel of the clergy, the army and politics were drawn.

The Inca Empire

According to Inca tradition, the Incas descended from Manco Capac, son of the Sun, who settled in Cuzco, coming from Lake Titicaca, in the 13th century; it is not certain whether this legendary character really existed, as is the case with his first seven successors. During this period, called the “legendary empire”, the Inca domain was limited to the city of Cuzco and its surroundings.

The “historical empire” began in the 15th century, with the Incas Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui (1438-1471) and Tupac Inca Yupanqui (1471-1493); both extended their domination to form the Tahuantinsuyu, which would encompass what is now Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, southern Colombia and central and northern Chile, a vast Andean empire bordered on the west by the Pacific coast and on the east by the Amazon jungle.

The Inca Empire

His successor, Huayna Capac (1493-1525) slightly extended the empire, bringing it to its apogee, but at his death he divided it between his two sons: the kingdom of Cuzco for Huáscar and that of Quito for Atahualpa. A war then broke out between the two brothers to take control of the empire (1527-1532).

Due to its particular geographical situation, the Spanish did not know of the existence of the Inca Empire until a few decades after the discovery of America. In 1522, in the course of an expedition up the San Juan River, Pascual de Andagoya learned of the riches of the Inca kingdom; his information prompted Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro to undertake the conquest of Peru.

Francisco Pizarro arrived to the region in the middle of the war between Huáscar and Atahaulpa, and, like other astute conquerors, he knew how to take advantage of the internal dissensions and took advantage of the confrontation to conquer the country (1532-1533). He first supported Atahualpa until he defeated and executed Huáscar; next, Pizarro had Atahualpa himself executed, and named his brother Manco Cápac II or Manco Inca as Inca (1533-1544).

Manco Inca treated the Spaniards as allies until, in 1536, he led a rebellion against them. The Spaniards managed to put down the rebellion with the help of the Inca’s own brother, Paullu. Defeated, Manco Inca withdrew to the mountainous region of Vilcabamba, where he maintained a focus of resistance organized as an imitation of the old empire.

He was succeeded by his sons Sayri Túpac (1544-1558), Titu Cusi Yupanqui (1558-1571) and Túpac Amaru I (1571-1572), until in 1572 the Spaniards took the redoubt and executed the last Inca. From a daughter of Túpac Amaru would descend Túpac Amaru II or simply Túpac Amaru, cacique who in the XVIII century led an indigenous uprising against the Spaniards.

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