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This is our story of what happened to the Inca Empire…. The people and its origins….
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The people and its origins… "Our father, Inti the Sun, noticed the miserable condition of the people, and decided to send his sons and one of his daughters down to Earth in order to help them. Our Father put down his two children at the shores of Lake Titicaca and spoke to them: I give you my light and my radiance to the whole world, I give the humans warmth when they're freezing, I make their crops fertile and their livestock to multiply, each day I go around the whole World to keep me informed about the needs of the humans and to satisfy their needs - follow my example. Do to them all what a kind father would do to his beloved children, for I have sent you down to earth fort the sake of the people, so that they will stop living like the animals. You will be kings and rulers over all the peoples who receive our laws and recognize our power" This is how the Inca Empire was created according to one of the own legends…
But the reality was far from that simple…. Back in time, the Incas would become one of the mightiest and the largest empires in all of America.
They were called the Incas which roughly mean "the ruling people", and we first find them just north of Lake Titicaca in the 1200's, in what today is southern Peru. This occurred at the same time as the Aztecs (mexica) entered Mexico from the north
The first Incas lived in tribes led by chiefs, and they were to form a nation when they united around 1200 A.D….
The Incas were the people in all the Americas who had… the highest level of animal-keeping and cultivation. In all, their advanced terrace cultivations handled forty different crops cultivated with effective tools of agriculture, like the taclla foot plow.
Fertilizers were used; guana - excrements from bats and birds, and the irrigation technology was well developed. • Corn was cultivated in the lower valleys, potatoes at higher altitudes.
Cuzco and the first rulers… In the late 13th century, the city of Cuzco was founded in the Cuzco basin, north of Lake Titicaca.
Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui ascended the throne in 1438 or 1440, and with him followed a new era in Incan history due to his expansive politic and civic planning. With the 9th ruler - the Incas enter history as we know it.
The Inca realm was by now… A real empire in every way; just within little more than 50 years of conquests their territory had increased by an unbelievable 1500 percent, covering about 950 000 km² - the size of western Europe or the American east coast - stretching approximately 4 000 km from north to south - from Ancasmayo valley in Ecuador to central the Maule river in Chile along the Andes
It was the unrivalled largest empire ever seen in the entire pre-Columbian Americas, though it was home to more than 70 nationalities Quechua was the official languages and Inti the Sun was the highest God.
The Empire was known as Tahuantinsuyu (Tawantinsuyu) - "The land of the four corners (or regions)". When Tupac Inca made the first travel in his Empire from north to south, it took him four years of traveling through his domain.
The Incas were always close to their strong religious beliefs which permeated their lives. Sacrifices of food and animals were made regularly; the Incas also sacrifice young children (Capacocha) to console the Gods
The Incas were known as the "Children of the Sun". They worshiped gods of nature - the sun god, the god of thunder, Moon, rainbows, mountain tops, stars, planets, and many more. Like the ancient Greeks, the Incas believed the gods could intervene to help you or hinder you. To avoid problems, they worshiped all the gods every day.
The Incas saw themselves as the most advanced and highest ranking people on earth. • They perceived themselves as spreaders of civilization and culture, missionaries among the savages. • The Empire was held together by an extremely well developed administration and bureaucracy.
But how could this vast Empire be so controlled? The Incas had one of the world's most developed communication services before modern time – with special trained message runners known as chasquis.
Equally important were… the road network. It is estimated that the Incas at the height of the empire had constructed more than 20,000 km of roads, built by engineers as the Inca army advanced in their conquests - just like the Romans did.
But in the 1530’s the Inca Empire… was seriously threatened for the first time.
The Civil War, Spanish Arrival and the Fall of the Inca Empire… In the mid-1500's CE, an Inca ruler died without first • choosing an heir. Two of his sons both wanted to be the next Sapa Inca. • One brother crowned himself Inca. • But the other brother did not accept his rule. • Civil war broke out in the Inca Empire. • For five years, the brothers and their armies fought each other. Atahualpa finally won the war.
It was not long after this that the Spanish first arrived... The Spanish had heard about the fabled cities of gold from the conquered people who lived along fertile strips in the Coastal Desert.
The civil war had kept the Incas busy. They knew nothing about the Spanish conquest of other tribes in Mexico, to the north. Unfortunately for the Incas, their new Sapa Inca, Atahualpa, decided to allow the Spanish intruders safe passage. His plan was to kill some of the intruders and to keep others as slaves.
Pizarro and his band of 167 men… spent a nervous night, waiting for the arrival of the Atahualpa, who was coming the next morning to officially greet them. They worked up a plan. Their plan was to kidnap Atahualpa.
When Atahualpa visited them the next morning… he brought with him a small group of priests and attendants. None were armed. When Pizarro's men leaped from their hiding places, they grabbed Atahualpa. The priests and attendants did not know what to do. The Spanish killed most of them.
Once Atahualpa understood that the Spanish intruders wanted gold and silver… He offered them a room filled with gold and silver for his safe release. The intruders could take the gold and silver and leave freely. Atahualpa kept his word. The Spanish did not. Once the gold was delivered, they killed Atahualpa and fled with as much gold as they could carry.
But how 150 to 180 Spaniards were able to easily overcome the Inca empire, containing between 12 and 16 million inhabitants?
The Spanish conquest was brutal… and these are the events that led to Pizarro success and the fall of the Incas • Pizarro took advantage of the religious beliefs of the Incas. • Spaniards superior weaponry (metal weapons, the use of horse for cavalry, and gunpowder). • Finally, the introduction of diseases that killed most of the Inca population such as smallpox, influenza, and measles.
I hope all of you like our story about what happened to the Inca Empire.
