Inca history of civilization. The history of ancient civilization - the Inca Empire in brief. Government of the Inca Empire
The Incas(Inca) - a tribe from the Cuzco Valley, whose powerful civilization existed in the “pre-Columbian” era on the South American continent. The Incas managed to create a powerful empire that changed its appearance and conquered many peoples.
The Incas themselves called their empire Tawantinsuyu(Four cardinal directions) because from Cusco to different directions there were 4 roads.
The Indians called their ruler Inka, which means “lord”, “king”. Then “Inca” began to be called all representatives of the ruling class, and with the invasion of the conquerors - the entire Indian population of the Tawantinsuyu empire.
Creation of the Great Inca Empire
Thanks to archaeological finds, it is obvious that the Inca civilization arose in 1200-1300. At the end of the 11th century, due to the drought that had been raging in the Andes for more than 100 years, neighboring, stronger tribes lost their power in fights for water and food.
Inspired by success, the Inca rulers turned their gaze to the abundant land - a spacious plateau with. And Pachacutec-Inca-Yupanqui, one of the great rulers of the Incas, undertook a military campaign to the south in the 15th century.
The population of the lakeside states was about 400 thousand people. The mountain slopes are riddled with gold and silver veins, and fat herds of llamas and alpacas grazed in the flowering meadows. Llamas and alpacas are meat, wool and leather, that is, military rations and uniforms.
Pachacutec conquered the southern rulers one after another, expanding the boundaries of his possessions, which became one of the largest empires on the planet. The number of subjects of the empire reached about 10 million people.
Victories in the military field were only the first stage on the path to power; after the warriors, officials, builders and artisans got down to business.
Incas: Wise Rule
If an uprising broke out in some Inca province, the rulers undertook the resettlement of people: they resettled residents of remote villages to new cities located near the built roads. They were ordered to build warehouses along the roads for regular troops, which were filled by their subjects with the necessary provisions. The Inca rulers were brilliant organizers.
The Inca civilization reached an unprecedented peak. Stonemasons erected architectural masterpieces, engineers turned isolated roads into a single system connecting all parts of the empire. Irrigation canals were created, agricultural terraces were laid out on the mountain slopes, about 70 types of crops were grown there and significant reserves of provisions were stored in storage facilities. The governors were excellent at taking inventory: they were aware of the contents of each repository of the vast empire, keeping records using a kippah - an analogue of the Incas' computer code - bundles of multi-colored threads with special combinations of knots.
The Inca rulers were quite harsh, but fair: they allowed the conquered peoples to preserve their traditions. The main social unit was the family. Each group of 20 families had a leader who was subordinate to a superior, who already headed 50 families, and so on - until the Inca Ruler.
Social structure of civilization
The Inca Empire had such a social structure: everyone worked here, with the exception of the youngest and very old people. Each family had its own cultivated plot of land. People weaved, sewed clothes, shoes or sandals, made dishes and jewelry from gold and silver.
The inhabitants of the empire had no personal freedom; the rulers decided everything for them: what to eat, what clothes to wear and where to work. The Incas were remarkable farmers; they built grandiose aqueducts to irrigate fields with water from mountain rivers, growing many valuable crops.
Many buildings erected by the Incas still stand today. The Incas created many original bridges from willow twigs and vines twisted into thick ropes. The Incas were natural potters and weavers:
They wove the finest fabrics from cotton, such that the Spaniards considered them silk. The Incas also knew how to spin wool, making beautiful and warm woolen clothes.
Mummy - ruler of the Incas
In the middle of the 15th century, Huayna Capac, the new ruler of the Incas, ascended the throne. Then it seemed that the Inca dynasty was all-powerful. People could even change nature in incredible ways: during the construction of Huayna Capac's residence, workers leveled hills, drained swamps, and moved the riverbed (Spanish: Rio Urubamba) to the southern part of the valley to plant cotton, corn, chili peppers and peanuts, and In the center of the “new” territory, a palace - Quispiguanca - will be built from brick and stone.
Around 1527, Huayna Capac died of an unknown illness. Those close to him, mummifying the body, transported it to Cuzco, and members of the royal family visited the deceased, asking for advice and listening to the answers spoken by the oracle sitting next to him. Even after his death, Huayna Capac remained the owner of the Quispiguanca estate. The entire harvest from the fields was used to maintain the mummy of the ruler, his wives, descendants and servants in luxury.
The traditions of inheritance among the Incas were such that even after the death of the rulers, all the palaces remained their property. Therefore, each Inca, as soon as he ascended the throne, began the construction of a new city palace and country residence. Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of up to a dozen royal residences, built for at least six rulers.
Inca - Spanish Conquest
In 1532, a detachment of 200 foreign conquerors under the leadership landed on the coast of what is now Peru. They were wearing steel armor and armed with firearms. Along the way, those dissatisfied with the dominance of the Incas joined the army. The Incas stubbornly resisted the conquerors, but the empire was weakened by internecine war and the fact that a large number of Inca warriors died from smallpox and measles brought by the Spaniards.
The Spaniards reached the northern city of Cajamarca, executed the ruler, placing their puppet on the throne.
Cusco, the capital of the Incas, was conquered by the Spanish in 1536. The invaders appropriated palaces, flourishing country estates, women and girls from the royal family. When the last Inca ruler was beheaded in 1572, it marked the end of the Tahuantinsuyu Empire. The Inca culture was destroyed, the state was plundered. The extensive network of roads, temples and palaces gradually fell into disrepair.
03.10.2017 21:16
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The Incas are an Indian tribe that inhabited South America before the arrival of Europeans. They created a powerful empire with its capital in the city of Cusco on the territory of the state of Peru. The Inca Empire was inhabited by about 12 million people, and the area extended across the lands of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Argentina.
The Incas managed to create a great civilization. They were well versed in mathematics, astronomy and architecture. This knowledge helped them build unusual structures and make new discoveries. The great achievement of the Inca culture, which has survived to our day, is the city of Machu Picchu, built high in the mountains. It contains various buildings and temples in which the Incas performed rituals. A water pipeline was connected to the city, providing residents with water. On special terraces, peasants grew various vegetables that were used for cooking.
The Incas had their own religion. It was based on various natural phenomena. The Incas worshiped different gods. The sun god Inti played a major role. He was considered the progenitor of life on Earth, since the sun is a source of light and heat. The Indians considered members of their nobility to be direct descendants of Inti. In the city of Machu Picchu they built a temple of the Sun, in which they observed the celestial body.
In addition, the Incas considered certain rocks sacred, which they called huaca. Ancient Indian legends said that when the world was created, celestial objects went underground and then emerged through rocks and caves.
The great empire ceased to exist in 1572 after a long war with the Spaniards that lasted many years. To this day, in memory of the Inca civilization, abandoned cities, ancient temples, ceramic vessels and much more have been preserved, reminiscent of the former greatness of the mighty Inca country.
When we hear the concepts “Inca”, “Maya” or “Aztec”, we are mentally transported overseas, to the mountains and jungles of the American continent. It was there that these Indian tribes, little known to mankind, lived - the creators of the civilization of the Incas, Aztecs and Mayans, about whom we will briefly talk further. From history we only know about them that they were skilled craftsmen. The Incas built big cities, connected by roads that looked as if cars were racing along them. The pyramids were built like the Egyptian ones, but according to local religious views. 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 to unravel the causes of a rather strange, even from the standpoint of modern science, socio-demographic phenomenon. First, let's introduce the Inca civilization in a brief description.
Ancient Incas
If we consider geographical map South American continent, its vertical division by the Andes mountains will be striking. To the east of the mountains extends Pacific Ocean. This area, closer to the north, was chosen by the ancient Indian tribe of the Incas, pronounced “Quechua” in their language, in the 11th – 15th centuries. In such a short period, on a certain scale, it is difficult to create a unique and one of the early class civilizations of Mesoamerica. The Incas succeeded at this, perhaps with some outside help.
It stretched for five thousand kilometers from north to south - this is exactly half the length of the Russian Federation. It included the territories, in whole or in part, of eight modern Latin American countries. These regions were inhabited by about twenty million people.
Archaeologists say: Quechua culture did not begin out of nowhere. It has been proven that a significant part either came to the Quechua from outside, or they settled on foreign territory and appropriated the achievements of previous civilizations.
The Incas were good warriors and did not hesitate to conquer new territories. From the Mochica culture and the Kari state they could adopt the technology of making colored ceramics, laying canals in the fields, and from Nazca - the construction of underground water pipelines. The list goes on.
What the Quechuas themselves excelled at was stone-cutting. The blocks for the buildings were cut so beautifully that no binding material was required when laying them. The pinnacle of architecture is a group of temples under the general name of the Golden Court with the temple of the Sun God. The supreme rulers of the Quechuas simply adored gold; the emperor’s palaces were covered with it from floor to ceiling. The Spanish conquistadors melted down all this luxury and transported it home in ingots. Only the majestic pyramids on the lifeless land remind of past greatness.
Ancient Mayans
The Maya had everything that characterized ancient civilizations, except the wheel and metal tools. Tools were made of high quality from strong stone, even for cutting wood.
The Mayans skillfully erected buildings using arched ceilings, 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 scalpels made of frozen glass.
Like the Incas (Quechua), the Mayans had great knowledge about 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? Obviously there were other plans. No wonder there are mysterious images of flying people on the rocks.
There is also this version of the origin of the Mayans: perhaps they sailed to America on ships from another continent. Like the Incas, the Mayans used the experience of a more developed civilization - the Olmecs, who appeared from nowhere on the American continent. For example, their experience of making drinks from a substance similar to chocolate, and in religion they adopted deities in the form of animals.
The Mayans disappeared in the 10th century AD. The Incas, Mayans, and Olmecs suffered the same fate - their civilizations ceased to exist in their prime. There are two popular versions of the death of the Mayans: ecology and conquest. The second is supported by artifacts from the presence of other tribes in the territory where the Mayans lived.
Ancient Aztecs
Up to a dozen tribes lived on the fertile lands of the Valley of Mexico for centuries. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Tepanec tribe appeared there. Warlike, incredibly cruel, it conquered all other tribes. Their allies in the seizure of territories were a small tribe of tenochki.
These were the Aztecs. Neighboring tribes called them by this name. The Aztecs are driven out by other tribes to a deserted island. And from here the power of the Aztecs spread over the entire valley of Mexico, where up to ten million people already lived. They traded with everyone who accepted them. Thousands of people lived in cities. The state has grown to unprecedented proportions.
It is believed that The Incas came to the Cusco valley, where they founded the capital of the empire, around 1200. The American archaeologist J. H. Rowe, who conducted excavations in the Cusco area, suggested that until the first half of the 15th century. the Inca state owned only a few mountain valleys, and began the countdown of the imperial period from 1438 - the date when the ruler of the Inca state, Pachacuti Yupanqui, defeated the warlike Chanca Indians and annexed the “western part of the world” to his state. However, the Inca civilization probably expanded even before the defeat of the Chanca, but it was directed mainly to the south of Cuzco.
In 1470, the Inca armies approached the capital. After a long siege, the Chimu Empire fell. The winners relocated many skilled artisans to their capital, Cusco. Soon the Incas conquered other states, including them in their new empire: Chincha in the south of Peru, Cuismanca, which united the coastal valleys of the central part of the country, including the temple city of Pachacamac, small states Cajamarca and Sican in the north.
But the legacy of the Chimu Empire was not lost. The Inca Empire did not destroy the capital of Chan-Chan and kept roads, canals, and 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 ancient civilization.
From amazing wonders and treasures Inca Empire Almost nothing has survived to this day. Having captured the Inca ruler Ataualita, the Spaniards demanded - and received - 7 tons of gold and about 14 tons of silver items as ransom for his life, which were immediately melted down into ingots. After the conquistadors executed Ataualita, the Incas collected and hid the gold remaining in the temples and palaces.
The search for the missing gold continues to this day. If someday archaeologists are lucky enough to find this legendary treasury, we will undoubtedly 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 disks, as well as traditional crescent-shaped tumi knives. By combining their own technologies with the traditions of Chimu jewelers, Incan metallurgists achieved perfection in the processing of precious metals. Spanish chroniclers recorded the story of golden gardens adorning 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 Cusco, the Coricancha Temple. The trees, bushes and herbs in the gardens were made of pure gold. Golden shepherds grazed golden llamas on golden lawns, and golden corn ripened in the fields.
Architecture
Architecture can rightfully be considered the second highest achievement of the Incas. The level of stone processing during the Incas surpasses the best examples of the craftsmanship of the stonemasons of Chavin and Tiahuanaco. Simple, “standard” buildings were built from small stones held together with clay-lime mortar - pirka. For palaces and temples, giant monoliths were used, not fastened together with any mortar. The stones in such structures are held in place by numerous protrusions that cling to each other. An example is the famous dodecagonal stone in a wall in Cusco, so tightly fitted to neighboring blocks that even a razor blade cannot be inserted between them.
Inca architectural style stern and ascetic; the buildings are overwhelming with their power. However, many buildings were once decorated with gold and silver plates, giving them a completely different look.
The Incas used planned development in their cities. The main element of the city was the kancha - a quarter consisting of residential buildings and warehouses located around a courtyard. Each major center had a palace, barracks for soldiers, a temple of the Sun, and a “monastery” for the Aklya virgins dedicated to the Sun.
Great Inca Roads
All the cities of the empire were connected to each other by a network excellent roads. Two main highways, to which smaller roads adjoined, 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 Capac-can (Royal Road), began in the gorges north of Quito, passing through Cusco, turned to Lake Titicaca and ended 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 damp places roads were paved or filled with a waterproof mixture of maize leaves, pebbles and clay. On the arid coast, they tried to lay roads along areas where hard rocks were exposed. Stone dams equipped with drainage pipes were erected in the swamps. Posts were installed along the roads indicating the distance to settlements. At regular intervals there were inns - tambo. The width of the road surface on the plains reached 7 m, and in mountain gorges it was reduced to 1 m. Roads were laid in a straight line, even if this meant digging a tunnel or cutting down part of a mountain. The Incas built wonderful bridges, the most famous of which were suspension 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 the canvas of branches. The bridges were so strong that they could withstand Spanish conquistadors fully armed and on horseback. Local residents were required to change the ropes once a year, as well as repair the bridge if necessary. The largest bridge of this type across the Apurimac River was 75 m long and hung 40 m above the water.
Roads became the basis 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 world domination. This word in the Quechua language means “four interconnected countries of the world.” Administrative divisions also took place according to the countries of the world: in the north was the province of Chinchasuyu, in the south - Collasuyu, 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 Capac (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 empire's population was carried out and decimalism was introduced. administrative system, with the help of which taxes were collected and an accurate count of subjects was carried out. During the reform, all hereditary leaders were replaced by appointed governors - kuraks.
The entire population of the country carried out labor duties: processing state fields of maize and sweet potatoes (potatoes), maintaining state herds of llamas, military service and work on the construction of cities, roads and mines. In addition, subjects were required to pay a tax in kind - in textiles and livestock.
The practice of mass resettlement in conquered territories became widespread. The Quechua language spoken by the Incas was declared official language empires. Residents of the provinces were not prohibited from using their native language. Compulsory knowledge of Quechua was required only from officials.
Writing
It is believed that the Incas did not create their own writing. To transmit information, they had a knotted letter “kipu”, perfectly adapted for the needs of management and economics. According to one legend, the Incas once had writing, even books, but they were all destroyed by the reformer ruler Pachacuti, who “rewrote history.” An exception was made only for one, kept in the main sanctuary of the Coricancha empire. Those who robbed the capital ancient civilization Incas The Spaniards discovered in Coricancha canvases covered with incomprehensible signs, inserted into golden frames. The frames, of course, were melted down and the canvases burned. Thus perished the only written history of the Inca Empire.
Several civilizations are known to have existed in the territory South America, however, the Inca civilization is considered the most significant. In the fifteenth century, its population was at least six million people living over a vast territory. At the head of the Empire was the son of the Sun, Inca, the divine ruler. The economy was based on agriculture. All subjects were required to work for a month of the year on public works, building government facilities: fortresses, canals, bridges, roads. The state regulated all aspects of citizens' lives, including personal life. The Incas created legends, myths, religious hymns, epic poems and even dramatic works. This civilization did not have real writing, therefore from its cultural heritage little has survived. The Inca Empire fell with the arrival of conquerors from Europe in the mid-sixteenth century.
The Inca Empire (Quechua Tawantin Suyu, Tawantinsuyu, Tawantinsuyu, Tawantinsuyu, Tawantinsuyu) is the largest Indian early class state in terms of area and population in South America in the 11th-16th centuries. It occupied the territory from what is now Pasto in Colombia to the Maule River in Chile. The empire included the entire territory of present-day Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador (with the exception of part of the flat eastern regions covered with impenetrable jungle), partially Chile, Argentina and Colombia. The first European to penetrate the Inca Empire was the Portuguese Alejo Garcia in 1525. In 1533, the Spanish conquistadors established control over most of the empire, and in 1572 the Inca state ceased to exist. There is a hypothesis that the last independent refuge of the Incas is the undiscovered city (country) of Paititi (until the middle or end of the 18th century).
Archaeological research shows that a large number of achievements were inherited by the Incas from previous civilizations, as well as from the neighboring peoples they subjugated. By the time the Incas appeared on the historical scene in South America, there were a number of civilizations: Moche (the Mochica culture, famous for colored ceramics and irrigation systems), Huari (this state was the prototype of the Inca Empire, although the population apparently spoke a different language - Aymara) , Chimu (center - the city of Chan-Chan, characteristic ceramics and architecture), Nazca (known for creating the so-called Nazca Lines, as well as for their underground water supply systems, ceramics), Puquina (civilization of the city of Tiahuanaco with a population of about 40 thousand people, located east of Lake Titicaca), Chachapoyas (“Warriors of the Clouds”, famous for their formidable fortress Kuelap, which is also called the “Machu Picchu of the North”).
The Quechua name of the country, Tawantinsuyu, can be translated as the four united provinces (Tawantin - "group of four" (tawa "four" with the suffix -ntin meaning "aggregate"); suyu - "country", "region" or "province" "). As Quechuan linguist Demetrio Tupac Yupanqui points out: “-ntin - “all integrated,” “all that make up one whole.” The previous parts disappear to give way to one distinct integration - one whole. It creates what we whimsically call a “legal entity,” the subject and the responsible being distinguished by their constituent parts. It is as if there were one enterprise in which the legal entity assumes responsibility, thereby releasing the constituent parts.”
This name is due to the fact that the country was divided into four provinces: Kuntinsuyu (Kunti Suyu), Qulla Suyu, Anti Suyu and Chinchay suyu. In addition, four roads left Cuzco (Quechua Qusqu) in four directions, and each of them was named after the part of the empire to which it led.
In the Andean region and the adjacent coast in the 1st millennium BC. e. - 1st thousand AD e. developed agricultural civilizations of Chavin, Paracas, Nazca, Mochica, Tiahuanaco, etc. arose. In the 12th century, a people appeared on the shores of Lake Titicaca, led by the Inca, the supreme ruler. He moves to the new capital, Cusco, and spreads his influence over a vast territory, covering by the 15th-16th centuries. most of modern Ecuador, Peru, a significant part of Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, as well as a small area of Colombia.
The creation of the state is attributed to the legendary Inca Manco Capac, who also founded the capital - the city of Cusco, at an altitude of 3416 meters above sea level, in a deep valley between two mountain ranges.
After its creation, the country's territory constantly expanded. Especially after the Inca Yahuar Huacac created a regular army in the empire. Great conquests were carried out by Inca Pachacuti. He created a real empire, because before this the Incas were just one of the many Indian tribes, and Cusco was an ordinary town. Most of the Inca-controlled lands were conquered by Pachacuti and his son Tupac Inca Yupanqui. A small part of the territory was annexed by the eleventh Inca, Huayna Capac. The rulers Huascar and Atahualpa were sons of Huayna Capac. After his death, they began a grueling internecine war. When the Spaniards arrived, Atahualpa became the winner of the war.
When conquering neighboring tribes, the Incas, on the one hand, used their strong and numerous army, and on the other hand, attracted the elite of the conquered regions. Before taking military action, the Incas three times invited the rulers of the conquered region to voluntarily join the empire. They forced the conquered tribes to learn the Quechua language, imposed their customs and introduced their own laws. The local nobility and the priesthood of the conquered peoples retained their position, and the practice of local religions was not prohibited, subject to the obligatory worship of the imperial sun god Inti. The Incas attached great importance to the preservation of local folk crafts and costume, so that by the dress of any resident of Tawantinsuyu it would be easy to determine his origin and social status.
The Incas were characterized by the division of power and society into: warriors and non-warriors. The main generals and military leaders were either the rulers of the Empire or people appointed by them from the ruling ethnic group - the Incas. At the same time, it seems that there was still a kind of dual power - a full-fledged duumvirate: when the ruler (governor) of the city of Cusco was in charge of the economic activities of the Empire, supplying and supporting the troops, which is repeatedly mentioned by the historian Juan de Betanzos.
At the peak of its existence, the Inca Empire was one of largest states on the ground. The number of subjects of the empire reached, according to various sources, from 5-6 to 12 million people.
In 1521, Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs. This conquest inspired Francisco Pizarro. According to the report of Juan de Samano, secretary of Charles V, Peru first became known reliably in 1525 in connection with the completion of the first Southern Expedition of Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro. The expedition left Panama on November 14, 1524, but was forced to return in 1525. After this, two more trips were carried out. In 1532, Pizarro arrived on the coast of modern Peru with 200 foot soldiers and only 27 horses. However, on the way, his army is replenished by those dissatisfied with the rule of the Incas. The Incas fiercely fight the conquerors, but the empire is weakened by internal turmoil and internecine war, in addition, a large number of Inca warriors die from smallpox and measles brought by the Spaniards.
By deception, Pizarro was able to capture and execute the Great Inca Atahualpa, after which the resistance was led by the military leader Rumiñavi for 2 years. The Inca capital, Cusco, was conquered by the Spaniards in 1536. Inca Manco Inca Yupanqui with a small number of followers hides in the mountainous region of Vilcabamba, where the Inca rule continues for about 30 years. In 1572, the last Inca ruler, Tupac Amaru, was beheaded. This marked the end of the Tawantinsuyu empire. The state was plundered, the Inca culture was destroyed.
In the book “Chronicle of Peru,” Cieza de Leon was the first European to ask the question of the reason for such an easy conquest of the Inca Empire:
Thus, although I have depicted Peru as three deserted and inhabited Cordilleras, out of them, as I related, by the will of God, there emerge valleys and rivers, beyond which people could in no way survive: this is the reason why local residents were so easily conquered and why do they serve without rebelling, because if they did that, they would all die from hunger and cold. Because (as I said), with the exception of the land they inhabited, most of it is uninhabited, these are continuous snow-capped mountains and amazingly high peaks.
- Cieza de Leon, Pedro. Chronicle of Peru. Part one. Chapter XXXVI.
The conquered Incas became part of the Quechua people. The result of the Spanish conquest was clearly noted by the same chronicler Cieza de Leon:
I do not approve of the overthrow of power in any way, but I still mourn the extortion and ill-treatment inflicted by the Spaniards on the Indians, enslaved by cruelty, regardless of their nobility and the high dignity of their people. Because of this, all these valleys are now almost deserted, but in the past they were densely populated, as many people know.
- Cieza de Leon, Pedro. Chronicle of Peru. Part one. Chapter LXI.
The empire was divided into 4 parts: Chinchaisuyu - red color, Kolyasuyu - blue color, Antisuyu - green color, and Kuntisuyu - yellow color, in turn, each such part consisted of provinces:
north of Cusco were: Vilcas, Xauxa, Bombon, Cajamarca, Guancabamba, Tomebamba, Latacunga, Quito, Carangue ;
on the other side of Cusco, to the South: Atuncana, Atuncolla, Ayavire, Chuquiabo, Chucuito, Paria and others, stretching to Chile.
Each province had its own capital, where taxes were collected, where there was a temple of the Sun, foundries and jewelry workshops, a garrison, large inns, warehouses, as well as a representative of the Court - the governor.
Separately in administrative division, as the capital, the city of Cusco stood out. It was indicated in yellow. Each village, which was the capital of the province, had its own number. For example, to indicate that “Manco Capac, the first Inca ruler, conquered the first capital of the province, one large knot was introduced into the thread, two large knots were introduced into the second, and so on with all the others. It is known that Cuzco, the capital of the Empire, had three or four nodes, one above the other." It is also known that the distance of a province from the capital of the empire, Cuzco, was often made dependent on ordinal numbers: for example, the closer the province, the closer it or its curaca representative was to the Inca ruler in services, campaigns, rituals, and ceremonies.
To identify the provinces of the Tawantinsuyu Empire in the quipu writing, each province had its own mixture of colored threads. On the thread, in turn, a red thread could be placed (inserted) to indicate those killed in one’s army “from/in such and such a province.” Also, the use of thread color for the provinces of the Empire was found in kipus related to the statistics and taxation of such provinces. The same system applied to reports on the geographical and economic description of the Empire.
Pedro de Cieza de Leon, in his Chronicle of Peru, reported on the unprecedented accuracy of accounting using quipus: “In each capital of the province there were accountants called quipucamayocs, and with the help of these nodes they calculated and recorded the necessary taxes paid by the inhabitants of that area, starting from silver, gold, clothing and livestock, and ending with firewood and other much more insignificant things; and with the help of these same quipus, after one year, or ten, or twenty, they notified the one who was entrusted with collecting the reports; and it was done so well that even a couple of alpargata could not be hidden.”
Cieza de Leon provided information about the number of positions of Quipucamayoc in a single territorial unit: “and in every valley this accounting is still available today, and always in the inns there are as many accountants as there are managers in it [the valley], and every four months they submit their reports in the above-mentioned manner." For the provinces, the deadline for submitting reports was set at 1 year, since “at the end of the year, each province ordered that all people, both those who died there that year and, accordingly, those who were born, be included in the pile according to the number of its nodes. And at the beginning of the year they were entering, they came to Cusco with piles, from which it became clear how many were born that year and how many died.”
In the vicinity of the village of Cotapachi in Cochabamba, there were 2076 collcas (rounded storage facilities), which is 22.09% of warehouse buildings out of the currently known 9395 units in the Inca Empire, that is, it was one of the strategic areas of the empire where the procurement and storage of provisions took place. The average diameter of the storage facilities in Cotapachi was 3.5 m, and the approximate height was 2 m, therefore, the volume of round storage facilities in the Cochabambe Valley could be 45,000 m3 (almost the entire volume was filled with provisions), which was a very significant figure even in relation to other provincial centers Inca Empire. In modern terms, this is comparable to 1,360 TEU (20-foot containers) that could fit on a Handymax Class container ship (1,000-1,700 TEU). In general, the scale of the Incas' warehouse economy was so large that it is quite comparable with our modern ones.
The absence of a distinguished layer of free artisans and the associated weak development of private exchange, the absence of trade and any kind of commercial intermediaries is a feature of Inca society, in contrast to the Aztecs. It is explained by the fact that in Peru the early despotic state appropriated the labor of the community members, leaving them with little surplus for exchange.
Coins
In general, coins were not used in domestic trade, but in foreign trade they circulated mulu shells, coca leaves, clothing, and copper hatchets. The Indians of the Chonos culture (Ecuador) back in the 15th-16th centuries smelted copper with a content of 99.5% and used it as a coin in the form of hatchets 2 cm on the sides and 0.5 cm thick. This coin was circulated throughout west coast South America, including in the Inca state in the province of Chincha, where 6,000 traders lived.
