The Inca Empire - Essay Example

Inca Empire

Introduction

The Inca Empire was based in modern-day Peru which was known as Cusco in the early times. By the 16th century, it was recognized as the biggest empire in the world. The empire began in the 1400s by conquering neighboring regions that were weaker than them regarding military strength. Between the 1400s and 1500s, the Incas acquired a lot of wealth through conquering and in few situations through peaceful collaboration with neighboring societies. It conquered a wide part of South America including Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina and also Chile (Adrianna 48). The Incas were conservative people since they did not associate and with outside world cultures and abide by their traditions.

Rise of the Inca Empire

The Inca civilization process began in the 13th century from the highlands in Peru where Incas were based. The Incas using their leadership took control of various regions in South America through conquest and peaceful assimilation. The Incas began their conquest from the year 1438 through the years that followed. Through the conquest, the leader of the Inca had great control over the people in the regions they conquered, and he was assisted in ruling the empire by a small number of appointed individuals. The leader of the empire who was the emperor was referred to in local language as The Inca. During its existence, the empire had some emperors. The Incas had various life skills that enabled them to earn their livelihoods increasing the wealth of their society. The wealth helped them in their conquest of the neighboring lands since it financed their conquest activities.

Religion in the Inca Empire

The Incas practiced several different religions that were similar in one way or another. They used their religions in promoting the cohesion between the different communities in the empire. They also transmitted their religious beliefs to the societies that they conquered and this enhanced their control over them. They had three different deities that they considered as being supernatural with spiritual powers. The first deity was the sky which was referred to as the Hannan Pacha. The second deity was the earth’ core which was referred as Uku Pacha. The third deity was the earth’s surface which was referred to as the Cay Pacha.

Furthermore, the Incas had different sites that they considered as being sacred within the empire. These sites were mostly natural sites such as mountains and rivers. Other sites that were not natural but considered to be sacred were battlefields and locations that were associated with previous leaders of the Inca society. They used spiritual leaders in carrying out their sacrifices and praying. The Inca offered sacrifices in the form of animals or material possessions to their gods to please them. They buried their sacrifices in the ground as a unique form of sacrificial offering. They also sacrificed human beings to their gods since they believed this would please their gods even more.

Language of the Incan people

The Incan people used quips, spoken language that was known as Quechua and ceramics. They did not know how to write. Hence they would only use word of mouth or other forms of communication when interacting with others especially those of a different clan. They did not apply numeric calculations in the determination of time and the different months of the year. They instead used quipus in determining the time and different periods of the year. The different people in the empire especially those in different clans spoke a different language. Hence they could not understand each other easily. The different tribes in the empire were faced with disunity and disagreements just because of the different languages they spoke. The citizens of the empire diversified their original language from the Kingdom of Cusco which was known as Quechua into some different languages. Even though the Incas transmitted their language to the societies, they conquered they did not do so forcefully. They allowed some of these societies to maintain their original languages a good example being the Aymara language which was an indigenous language and still spoken in the country of Bolivia.

Social structure of the Inca Empire

The governed by the Inca people was well organized and managed and was based in Cuzco which is modern-day Peru. The smallest unit of the society was the family. The family comprised of individuals who were related by blood. The family then formed the village which was the second smallest unit in the Inca society. The clans in the empire were referred to as ayllus and comprised of people who resided in the same geographical location (Allan 26). The clan members participated in various crafts to earn a livelihood that could sustain them and their families. The various clans in the furthermore formed what was known as the Inca Empire and are comprised of people who spoke different languages, had different religions and cultures.

Political structure of the Inca Empire

The Incan society was patriarchal since men dominated it and women played few roles in it especially leadership and conquest roles. The leader of the empire was the emperor who was referred to by the people as the Inca (Gouda 166). They had a stable government that was based in the region of Cuzco which is modern-day Peru. The Inca was the leader of the government, and he appointed nobles to work below him and support him in various leadership activities. After The Inca, The High Priest and Army Commander in Chief followed regarding authoritative powers in the empire. The Incan villages were ruled and controlled by chiefs and village administrators. They implemented the government’s rules and regulations on the communities that they ruled. The family as the smallest society unit was led by the father since he was considered as the head of the house.

Economic organization of the Inca Empire

The Incan economy was managed by the government since it controlled business and finance matters in the kingdom. The government also required its citizens to pay taxes in relation to their business activities. The economy was mainly traditional and conservative. The Incan people traded with other people outside the empire since there were no restriction and their major form of trade was barter trade. They exchanged goods for other different goods. The external and internal trading operations were enhanced by the good infrastructure that was present in the empire. The good infrastructure was characterized by good roads and effective communication channels that help people in different regions to interact and trade with each other.

The Incan people had various life skills that included agricultural skills and art skills. They practiced crop farming and livestock keeping. They grew crops such as potatoes, maize, cotton and tomatoes which they used for domestic purposes and sometimes for trading with other people. They also kept domestic animals such as llamas and alpacas with the aim of extracting meat and wool from them and also use for transportation purposes. Moreover, they had artistic talents and skill of making jewelry, unique hairstyles, ceramics, and metalwork. They made a beautiful object from gold, bronze, copper, and silver that were meant for sale to earn a livelihood for themselves. Also, they designed unique hairstyles for the braiding of women’s hair and other beauty ornaments such as earrings.

Fall of the Inca Empire

The Inca Empire was conquered by Spain in 1532 through the leader of the Spaniard conquest who was known as Francisco Pizarro with the help of his army. The Spaniards kidnapped and killed the Incan Emperor at the time that was known as Atahualpa (Barbara 52). After killing the emperor, the Spaniards moved deeper into Cuzco where the center of the Incan government and resources was based. Pizarro with his army did not face much resistance from the Incan people since they had already killed their leader and the Incan military did not have direction forward on how to deal with the Spaniards invasion. The Incan people due to poor functioning social, economic and political structures that arose due to the death of their leader faced with many hardships (John 98). A great population experienced poverty while other became weak or died as a result of starvation or diseases.