1. Part 2: Incas Theme: Centralization and the “triumph of the human spirit”
Lsn 6

2. ID & SIG
Cuzco, Inca roads, quipu, terrace farming

3. Inca

4. Inca
By the 13th Century, the Inca had established domination over the regional states in Andean South America
In 1438, Pachacuti launched a series of military campaigns that greatly expanded Inca authority
Success bred success and the Inca empire expanded
By the late 15th Century, the Inca empire covered more than 2,500 miles, embracing almost all of modern Peru, most of Ecuador, much of Bolivia, and parts of Chile and Argentina

5. Characteristics of a Civilization
Intensive agricultural techniques
Specialization of labor
Cities
A social hierarchy
Organized religion and education
Development of complex forms of economic exchange
Development of new technologies
Advanced development of the arts. (This can include writing.)
Intensive agricultural techniques, such as the use of animal power, crop rotation, and irrigation. This enables farmers to produce a surplus of food that will not be needed for their own subsistence.
A significant portion of the population that does not devote most of its time to producing food. They can go into other occupations and trade for the food they need. This is called "specialization of labor." It is possible because of the food surplus described above.
The gathering of these non-food producers into permanent settlements, called cities.
A social hierarchy. This can be a chiefdom, in which the chieftain of one noble family or clan rules the people; or a state society, in which the ruling class is supported by a government or bureaucracy. Political power is concentrated in the cities.
The establishment of complex, formal social institutions such as organized religion and education, as opposed to the less formal traditions of other societies.
Development of complex forms of economic exchange. This includes the expansion of trade and may lead to the creation of money and markets.
The accumulation of more material possessions than in simpler societies.
Development of new technologies by people who are not busy producing food. In many early civilizations, metallurgy was an important advancement.
Advanced development of the arts by those who don't have to farm for a living. This can include writing.

6. Agriculture
Llamas

7. Agriculture Intensive agricultural techniques
Inca empire spanned many types of environments and required terraces to make farmland out of the mountainous terrain
Chief crop was the potato
Herded llamas and alpacas for meat, wool, hides, and dung (used as fuel)
“… every civilization represents a triumph of the human spirit.”
Upshur, p. 14

8. Social Hierarchy

9. Social Hierarchy
In order to rule the massive territory and populations they had conquered, the Incas completely restructured much of Andean society
Relocated populations
Reordered the economy
Constructed an extensive transportation network
Inculcated a state religion

10. Social Hierarchy Rulers Aristocrats Priests Bureaucrats
Peasant cultivators of common birth

11. Social Hierarchy
Chief ruler was a god-king who theoretically owned everything and was an absolute and infallible ruler
Dead rulers retained their prestige even after death
Remains were mummified and state deliberations often took place in their presence in order to benefit from their counsel
Were seen as intermediaries with the gods
Intensive agricultural techniques, such as the use of animal power, crop rotation, and irrigation. This enables farmers to produce a surplus of food that will not be needed for their own subsistence.
A significant portion of the population that does not devote most of its time to producing food. They can go into other occupations and trade for the food they need. This is called "specialization of labor." It is possible because of the food surplus described above.
The gathering of these non-food producers into permanent settlements, called cities.
A social hierarchy. This can be a chiefdom, in which the chieftain of one noble family or clan rules the people; or a state society, in which the ruling class is supported by a government or bureaucracy. Political power is concentrated in the cities.
The establishment of complex, formal social institutions such as organized religion and education, as opposed to the less formal traditions of other societies.
Development of complex forms of economic exchange. This includes the expansion of trade and may lead to the creation of money and markets.
The accumulation of more material possessions than in simpler societies.
Development of new technologies by people who are not busy producing food. In many early civilizations, metallurgy was an important advancement.
Advanced development of the arts by those who don't have to farm for a living. This can include writing.

12. Social Hierarchy
Aristocrats lived privileged lives including fine foods, embroidered clothes, and large ears spools
Spanish called them “big ears”
Inca ear spools

13. Social Hierarchy
Priests often came from royal and aristocratic families
They lived celibate and ascetic lives
Influenced Inca society by education and religious rituals
Large class of bureaucrats to support centralized government
Bureaucrats administered over sections of the population based on numerical rather than geographic distribution
Bureaucrats often were drawn from the loyal ranks of conquered people

14. Social Hierarchy
Peasants worked lands allocated to them and delivered substantial portions of their production to the bureaucrats
Surplus supported the ruling, aristocratic, and priestly classes as well as providing public relief in times of famine or to widows
Also owed compulsory labor services to the Inca state
Men provided heavy labor
Women provided tribute in the forms of textiles, pottery, and jewelry

15. Cities

16. Cities: Cuzco
Inca capital at Cuzco served as the administrative, religious, and ceremonial center of the empire
May have supported 300,000 residents at the height of the Inca empire in the late 15th Century
Tremendous system of roads emanated from Cuzco

17. Major Roads of the Inca Empire
New Technologies
Major Roads of the Inca Empire

18. New Technologies: Roads
Built an all-weather highway system of over 16,000 miles
Ran “through deep valleys and over mountains, through piles of snow, quagmires, living rock, along turbulent rivers; in some places it ran smooth and paved, carefully laid out; in others over sierras, cut through the rock, with walls skirting the rivers, and steps and rests through the snow; everywhere it was clean swept and kept free of rubbish, with lodgings, storehouses, temples to the sun, and posts along the way.” (Ciezo de Leon)

19. New Technologies: Roads
Allowed the Inca government to maintain centralized control by moving military forces around the empire quickly, transporting food supplies where needed, and tying the widespread territories together
Rest stations were built a day’s walk apart
Runners were positioned at convenient intervals to deliver government messages

20. Economic Exchange
Inca gold

21. Economic Exchange
Inca society did not produce large classes of merchants or skilled artisans
Locally they bartered among themselves for surplus agricultural production and handcrafted goods
Long distance trade was supervised by the central government using the excellent Inca roads

22. Arrival of Francisco Pizarro in South America
Economic Exchange
Gold, the Inca’s most valuable commodity, proved to be their undoing when Spanish conquistadors destroyed much of the empire in the early 1500s in search of gold
The Spanish melted down almost all the gold so few works of art remain
Arrival of Francisco Pizarro in South America

23. Specialization of Labor
Inca textile fragment

24. Specialization of Labor
Large class of bureaucrats to support centralized government
Much fewer skilled craftsmen than other people of Mexica and the eastern hemisphere
Some potters, textile workers, and tool makers
Inca designated different specialties for captured people to meet the society’s needs

25. Religion and Education
Inti Raymi, the feast of the sun

26. Religion and Education
Main god was Inti, god of the sun
In the capital of Cuzco, some 4,000 priests, attendants, and virgin devotees served Inti
Sacrificed agricultural produce or animals rather than humans
Inca religion taught that sin was a violation of the established or natural order
Believed sin could bring divine disaster for individuals and communities
Had rituals for confession and penance
Believed in life after death where an individual received rewards or punishments based on the quality of his earthly life

27. Art and Writing
Quipu (khipu)

28. Art and Writing The Inca had no writing
Instead they kept records using a quipu
A array of small cords of various colors and lengths, all suspended from a thick cord
By tying knots in the small cords, Inca could record statistical information
586 on a quipu