Read Online The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Kim MacQuarrie
Tags: History, South America
Ads: Link
food-producing cultivators. Here, amid the barren deserts of Peru and high up in the Andes, a revolution had taken place, one that would form the basis of every subsequent Peruvian civilization to come. Small groups of people, or elites, had gained control over much larger masses of people.
Eventually a series of large, complex polities emerged, such as the Tiwanaku, Wari, and Chimu. By A.D 900, in the region of Lake Titicaca, for example, the Tiwanaku civilization had already flourished for more than seven hundred years, had erected giant, perfectly cut stone monoliths and temples, had forged copper tools, and had created and maintained a capital of some 25,000 to 50,000, people, located high up on the altiplano at 12,600, feet in elevation (the population of London at the time, by comparison, was less than 30,000,).
By A. D. 1400 the Kingdom of Tiwanaku had long since disappeared while, on the northwestern coast of Peru, the Chimu Empire had gradually conquered river valley after river valley, eventually extending its rule for nearly a thousand miles, from Tumbez in the north all of the way down the coast to where the modern capital of Lima now lies. Had the Spaniards arrived in Peru one hundred years earlier than they did, say in 1432 rather than in 1532, the Spanish chroniclers would no doubt have written excitedly about the great Chimu Empire and about its golden treasures—while the tiny Inca kingdom far to the south would have been largely ignored.
As Chimu lords administered their empire, built irrigation canals, and collected the taxes in the form of labor from the masses of peasants under their control, far to the south, however, the tiny Kingdom of the Incas suddenly began to explode. According to Inca legend, the Inca “Alexander the Great” who began this process was a man named Cusi Yupanqui. At the time of his ascension sometime in the early fifteenth century, the Kingdom of the Incas spread over a relatively minuscule area that was centered around the valley of Cuzco, located at 11,300 feet in the Andes. The Kingdom of the Incas was no different from other kingdoms that had existedin Peru, however, with peasants relinquishing their power to warrior kings who, in this particular case, maintained their exalted positions by claiming divine descent from the ultimate source of all life, the sun.
Because land and resources were finite, the lords of Peru’s scattered highland kingdoms and smaller polities were constantly on guard against the attacks of others, or else were busy planning attacks themselves. Rulers had to protect both the fertile soil they had either inherited or seized as well as the peasants who supported and defended them, if their kingdoms were to survive. Only by maintaining the integrity of their realms could the rulers and their associated elites maintain themselves in power and thus retain their own privileged lifestyles. No matter what other characteristic a ruler might possess, the primordial one was that he be good at warfare. And since theirs was a competitive world in which a hostile and expanding kingdom beyond their borders could at any time prove lethal to their own, the elites realized that there was an obvious advantage in possessing as large a kingdom as possible. The larger the kingdom, the more warriors that could be assembled, and thus the less vulnerable the kingdom would be to attack.
According to Inca oral history, in the early fifteenth century, the Kingdom of the Chancas, which lay centered in the Andahuayllas region to the west of Cuzco, began coveting the fertile valleys controlled by the tiny Kingdom of the Incas. Marshaling an army, the Chancas began marching east, determined to annex the Incas’ kingdom and thus expand their own. Victory seemed imminent, for the Incas were few in number and were both weak and politically divided.
The Inca king on the throne at the time, Viracocha Inca, was already quite elderly. Rather than fight, he chose to flee the capital,
Eventually a series of large, complex polities emerged, such as the Tiwanaku, Wari, and Chimu. By A.D 900, in the region of Lake Titicaca, for example, the Tiwanaku civilization had already flourished for more than seven hundred years, had erected giant, perfectly cut stone monoliths and temples, had forged copper tools, and had created and maintained a capital of some 25,000 to 50,000, people, located high up on the altiplano at 12,600, feet in elevation (the population of London at the time, by comparison, was less than 30,000,).
By A. D. 1400 the Kingdom of Tiwanaku had long since disappeared while, on the northwestern coast of Peru, the Chimu Empire had gradually conquered river valley after river valley, eventually extending its rule for nearly a thousand miles, from Tumbez in the north all of the way down the coast to where the modern capital of Lima now lies. Had the Spaniards arrived in Peru one hundred years earlier than they did, say in 1432 rather than in 1532, the Spanish chroniclers would no doubt have written excitedly about the great Chimu Empire and about its golden treasures—while the tiny Inca kingdom far to the south would have been largely ignored.
As Chimu lords administered their empire, built irrigation canals, and collected the taxes in the form of labor from the masses of peasants under their control, far to the south, however, the tiny Kingdom of the Incas suddenly began to explode. According to Inca legend, the Inca “Alexander the Great” who began this process was a man named Cusi Yupanqui. At the time of his ascension sometime in the early fifteenth century, the Kingdom of the Incas spread over a relatively minuscule area that was centered around the valley of Cuzco, located at 11,300 feet in the Andes. The Kingdom of the Incas was no different from other kingdoms that had existedin Peru, however, with peasants relinquishing their power to warrior kings who, in this particular case, maintained their exalted positions by claiming divine descent from the ultimate source of all life, the sun.
Because land and resources were finite, the lords of Peru’s scattered highland kingdoms and smaller polities were constantly on guard against the attacks of others, or else were busy planning attacks themselves. Rulers had to protect both the fertile soil they had either inherited or seized as well as the peasants who supported and defended them, if their kingdoms were to survive. Only by maintaining the integrity of their realms could the rulers and their associated elites maintain themselves in power and thus retain their own privileged lifestyles. No matter what other characteristic a ruler might possess, the primordial one was that he be good at warfare. And since theirs was a competitive world in which a hostile and expanding kingdom beyond their borders could at any time prove lethal to their own, the elites realized that there was an obvious advantage in possessing as large a kingdom as possible. The larger the kingdom, the more warriors that could be assembled, and thus the less vulnerable the kingdom would be to attack.
According to Inca oral history, in the early fifteenth century, the Kingdom of the Chancas, which lay centered in the Andahuayllas region to the west of Cuzco, began coveting the fertile valleys controlled by the tiny Kingdom of the Incas. Marshaling an army, the Chancas began marching east, determined to annex the Incas’ kingdom and thus expand their own. Victory seemed imminent, for the Incas were few in number and were both weak and politically divided.
The Inca king on the throne at the time, Viracocha Inca, was already quite elderly. Rather than fight, he chose to flee the capital,
Similar Books
