FREE ESSAY ON INCAS

INCAS

INCAS 
The vast Inca empire, with its advanced culture and powerful armies, spanned most of the
Andes along South America's western coast at the time of Spanish conquest in the early
16th century. The Incas had a very clear social structure. The ruler, Sapa Inca, and his
wives, the Coyas, had supreme control over the empire. The High Priest and the Army
Commander in Chief were next. Then came the Four Apus, the regional army commanders. Next
came temple priests, architects, administrators and army generals. Next were artisans,
musicians, army captains and the quipucamayoc, the Incan accountants. At the bottom were
sorcerers, farmers, herding families and conscripts. WHO THE INCAS WERE The 16th-century
written accounts of the Incas do not provide a very complete understanding of the
economic and political organization of their state. It is clear, however, that the
principles of Inca economics and politics were taken from old Andean traditions and were
very different from European ones. The Inca state was not under the absolute control of
its ruler. It was an array of dozens, if not hundreds, of different political, ethnic,
and even linguistic groups. In order to maintain unity within the empire, an attempt was
made to introduce uniform organizational and administrative procedures to the realm. This
process, however, was far from complete in 1532, and administrative practices varied
greatly from one part of the empire to another. An unusual characteristic of the Inca
state was its ability to move people about the empire as colonists far from their homes.
This custom of internal colonization allowed the Incas to place loyal groups in regions
that were difficult to control. The practice also appears to have had economic aims in
some cases; people could be relocated to develop new lands, new mines, or other
resources. This use of colonists to exploit the Andean landscape was an old tradition
that the Incas merely expanded to a state scale. Politics and economics were not really
separate for the Incas. The role of markets was very limited, and the exchange of many
products was carried out through political channels. The exchanges were seen as gifts and
favors, and purely economic value was not independent of the social and political
positions of the people between whom goods and services passed. Leaders maintained their
power by providing gifts of luxury goods and elaborate entertainment. The people returned
the favors by providing their leaders with labor. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the
Incas lay in their efficient mobilization and organization of the state's labor force
into armies of conquest, a class of bureaucrats, and attendants for the ruling class.
That is all for this week tune in next week for another boring report by albert. my life
sux