The Incas
The Incas were a South American people who developed a great civilization in the 15th and 16th centuries. They numbered about 16 million people concentrated along the Pacific coast of what are now Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. The Andes Mountains with grass-covered plateaus, jungles, stretches of desert and fertile river valleys dominated their lands. This was the only true empire in the Americas with a system of government that rivals that of any other American Indian people. They did not have a written language and did not have knowledge of the wheel. Yet they accomplished feats of engineering that have astounded archaeologists and engineers.
The Incan culture developed from a series of earlier civilizations. The economy was based on agriculture and each village had its own self-supporting farm community. The crops grown included corn, white and sweet potato, manioc, which is a starchy root, peanuts, gourds and cotton. They did all the work by hand using simple implements such as a wooden spade or a foot plough. They made terraces on the steep mountainsides to create more farmland and to keep the topsoil from washing away in the rainy season. Stone reservoirs and irrigation ditches helped to bring water to the crops in the dry season.
The llama was a beast of burden important to the lives of the Incas. It was used for carrying heavy loads and was also a source of wool. Alpacas were also raised for wool, which the people wove into textiles in intricate geometric shapes. Men usually wore breechcloths and sleeveless tunics that came to the knee, covered with cloaks or ponchos. Women wore long dresses and capes that fastened with pins of copper, silver or gold. All the clothing was made from woven cloth.
A typical Incan house was made of adobe brick or stone with a thatched or gable roof. Inside there was only one room with no windows or chimney. The houses of the nobles were a little larger and had several rooms. Most of the people were peasants and the clan owned the land. The people were also expected to do a certain amount of work for the emperor, such as building forts and roads. Gifted boys were trained in crafts or in keeping records, or were trained to be pages or assistants to the emperor. The most beautiful 10-year old girls of the villages were selected to become “chosen women” to study religion or domestic arts and work in the homes of the nobles.
There was a definite structure to Incan society. The emperor was at the top and below him was the aristocracy. The empire was divided into four quarters, each one divided into provinces with its own appointed governor. The provinces were further divides into groups decreasing in size from 10,000 to 10.
There was a huge network of roads and suspension bridges built across gorges. Relays of government messengers carried important documents and letters crossing roads of the empire. Along the way there were rest houses spaced a day’s journey apart where the messengers could rest and find food.
The people worshipped the Sun-god and a number of nature gods as part of their religion. They believed that the spirits of these gods lived in sacred places, such as on a hill or in a temple. They believed in life after death and buried the body of a deceased person with food and drink.