The world's leading conquerors

by Wilson Lloyd Bevan

There were no chronological records, but there was curiously unique evidence in the shape of the mummified bodies of the eleven chieftains, who were given the same attention as lords and landowners that they enjoyed when alive. Their estates, herds of llamas, serfs were still treated as belonging to them; food and drink were daily placed before them; new clothing was prepared, and they were carried out for daily exercise in richly ornamented litters.

The rise of Inca domination had not been without serious opposition; there was a powerful coalition formed against them when their aggression became a menace to the neighboring tribes. The Inca chieftains were killed, and the situation was saved only by the appointment of a new leader, Huiracocha, who saw that more was to be won by conciliation than by aggression. This chieftain was one of the four to whom the consolidation of the Inca dominions was due. Under a later Inca chieftain Pachacutic (1435-1471), “the changer of the world,” the pueblo of Cuzco dominated the whole of central Peru, and a district 300 miles in length towards the northwest. To the southeast it had a sphere of influence over a district of about equal extent, which was converted into definite subjection by Pachacutic and his allies.

The next stage of conquest was towards the north, where no special obstacles were encountered. The population was sparse, and in a low condition. Here an Inca colony was founded, which, with its capital at Quito, still survives under the form of the republic of Ecuador. From this vantage ground in their northern colony the Incas seem to have been brought into direct connection with the sea coast, for, owing to the long overland journey between Cuzco and their northern possessions, the water route was easier, and owing to the penetration of the land by the gulf of Guayaquil would easily suggest itself to those who as residents of the interior were not familiar before with journeyings by water. The advance into the coast valleys met with stout resistance on the part of a powerful confederacy which had Chimu as its center. The place was of strategical value to the Incas because it commanded important roads leading from the coast plain to the sierras, and was also accessible to the newly acquired northern colony and its hereditary domains.

Because of the successive steps by which the power of the Incas was so rapidly extended, the name of Pachacutic was associated with the whole of the administration of the Inca state as a lawgiver, architect, engineer, economist, and chief priest. His successor Tupac-Yuparqui followed in his father’s steps by enlarging the state’s borders both on the south and north. Resistance was cruelly repressed, as one sees from the narrative of his war on the coast valley of Huarco, where the Inca’s warriors, brought together for three years in a permanent camp, wore out the natives by constant harryings, until they agreed to capitulate on the condition of being incorporated with the Inca nation. Tupac had no scruples in violating the compact by a general massacre of the vanquished. Even at the conquest immense heaps of bones were still pointed out, as relics of the methods by which Inca rule had been built up.

In 1493, Tupac died at Cuzco and was succeeded by his son Huaina Capac under whom the era of expansion came to an end; he occupied himself with temple building, with road construction, and with making punitive expeditions on the savage tribes who dwelt on the outskirts of his empire. Afterwards, in 1525, he fell a victim to an epidemic. There was a civil war due to a rebellion in the northern colony under Tupac-atahuallpa who assumed the government because of the incapacity of Huascar, the new chieftain at Cuzco. The revolt was successful; the warriors from the northern colony steadily advanced until they forced Huascar to leave Cuzco and finally to surrender himself and his family into the hands of the rival chieftain, after which he was taken to Lazamara, the fortified station midway between the northern colony and the original dominion.

The extent of the territory conquered by the Incas, as well as the rapidity with which the conquest was made, gives their annals a unique position in the history of tribal life at a comparatively low state of culture. As soon as they passed beyond the confines of middle Peru, their expansion as a conquering power met with no setback. The peoples who were threatened by their advance did not form a coalition against them, and when new areas were once conquered, new peoples were at once added, who supplied them with additional warriors. The structure of the empire was so simple, so loosely knit that it collapsed as soon as it was confronted by the serious internal difficulties that grew out of the disputed succession. The Spaniards came at an opportune moment and received without trouble the large landed inheritance of the Inca overlord, whose domains covered the territory now occupied by Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chili.

In estimating the standard of civilization attained by the Incas their theology, which is certainly of an advanced type, is naturally taken into account. The worship of the sun was one of the strongest bonds that kept together their widely separated lands. In each pueblo there was an estate of the sun god that was worked exactly as if it belonged to a chieftain. This economic network of temple estates was primarily intended to provide the sun with such constant supplies of food that the god’s beneficent activity on the earth and to man could be sustained. The processes of tillage and the craft of weaving were all brought in this way in close relation to the religion of the dominant people. Portions of the finest woven stuffs, along with the offerings of the ground, were burned in sacrifice at each pueblo; the rest was carried on the backs of llamas belonging to the estates of the sun for the great festivals celebrated annually at Cuzco, where these beasts of burden and all they carried were sacrificed in honor of the god. An essential part of the ritual of sacrifice was the offering of human victims. These were not war captives as in Mexico; they were taken from the women serfs, attached to the estates of the sun, the weavers of the llama wool, who were called “the selected ones.” This name was given to them because from each family in the pueblo there was collected a regular tribute of girls, distinguished by their beauty and vigor, who were trained to become members of the communities dedicated to the sun’s service. After an education of eight years most of them were distributed among the various temples of the gods, the sun receiving the larger share, while some were given to the Ccapac Inca himself or to his officials.

These offerings of human victims took place at the prescribed sacrifices during the religious year, and also at extraordinary crises—for example, when the Inca chieftain was attacked by disease, when the country was endangered by wars, or when earthquakes and eclipses occurred. To symbolize the sun, images in the figure of a man were carved with an attire resembling that of the Inca chieftain, decorated with a headdress of darts, to resemble the solar rays.

As in Mexico the warrior class in Peru had a special ritual of sun worship not shared by outsiders. In this case the idol represented an infant molded of solid gold, with golden embroidery, shod with golden sandals, and with a headdress copied from that worn by the chiefs. For the purpose of popular worship, as these esoteric rites were not accessible to the common people, great sun dials covered with leaf of gold were set up, where they were exposed to the rays of the sun, and on them simple liquid offerings were made, that were visibly appropriated by the god through the processes of evaporation.

A great center of pilgrimage was the throne of the sun at Titicaca where, in the innermost shrine, there was a sacred rock the summit of which glittered with gold leaf. In the neighborhood of Cuzco and on the road to the rock of pilgrimage there were stations of sacrifice, where burnt-offerings of llamas, cocoa, and maize were made in order to inaugurate the new sun’s progress from his ancient birthplace in the south. Sunrise was the time selected for these offerings; a white llama, bearing fuel, maize, and cocoa leaves, was previously led up to the mountain top, fire was kindled, and the victim was slain and consumed in the flames. By the time the sun was about to rise above the horizon, the burning pile was in full blaze. As the sun rose, the Incas chanted the prayer for the protection of their god: “O Creator, Sun, and Thunder, be forever young! Multiply the people, let them ever be in peace.”