Inca Empire

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Inca Empire
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I. The Incas Create an Empire

1. The Incas built their empire around the Same time
   as the Aztecs
2. It began small in the Andes with the city of
   Cuzco
3. Under the ruler Pachacuti, the territory
   expanded, by the early 1500s it was huge!
4. From modern Ecuador to central Chile and included
   as many as 12 million people

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A. Central Rule

• Pachacuti wanted to limit the power of the people
  so he
• Removed local leaders and replaced them with
  officials he trusted
• Made children of conquered leaders travel to
  Cuzco to learn Inca government and religion
• Used the official Inca language, Quechua

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B. A Well Organized Economy

• Inca government controlled the economy by telling
  each household what they had to do
• Farmers took care of government land and their
  own
• Villagers made goods for the army
• Some Incas served in the Army or built roads and
  bridges

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A Well Organized Economy cont.

• This way people paid taxes in the form of labor
• Mita a labor tax
• b. No merchants or markets, instead the
  government distributed good collected through the
  mita
• c. The leftovers were stored and distributed in
  cases of emergency

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II. Life in the Inca Empire

• Social Divisions
• Two main social classes
• Upper class emperor, priests and government
  did not pay labor tax and lived lush lives
• Lower class farmers, artisans and servants by
  law could not own more than needed

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B. Religion

1. Religion was related to social structure
2. Believed rulers were related to the sun god and
   never died, therefore, mummies were brought to
   ceremonies and given gifts and food
3. Religion included sacrifice, rarely human, mostly
   llamas, cloth or food
4. People outside Cuzco worshipped other gods at
   sacred locations. They also believed spirits
   lived in elements of nature

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C. Achievements

1. Master builders they cut stone so precisely,
   they did not need cement to hold the stones
   together.
2. Network of roads connecting the empire
3. Art jewelry (gold and silver) and pottery
4. Textiles great weavers
5. No writing system, but kept records - knots on a
   cord represented numbers
6. History was passed down through oral history

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Pizzaro Conquers the Incas

1. Atahualpa won a battle with his brother to
   control the Inca Empire in the year 1532
2. On his way to be crowned, he got word of a band
   of 180 Spanish soldiers arrived in the empire
3. Led by Francisco Pizzaro, the Spanish were
   outnumbered. They captured Atahualpa because he
   disrespected the Catholic faith.
4. To win his freedom Atahualpa told his people to
   fill a room with gold and silver, they did, but
   he was killed anyway.
5. Incas fought back, but lost the empire in 1537
   anyway