Incas

Location

• Western Highlands of South America

• Present-day Chile, Argentina, Peru, Colombia

• The empire stretched for more than 3,000 miles

• Capital City – Cuzco

• Founded in 1200 A.D.

Military

• Very powerful army

• All men ages 25-50 were drafted for the army for up to five years.

• Weapons included clubs, spears, spiked copper balls on ropes.

• Soldiers used woven cloth to throw stones 30 yards.

Infrastructure

• Population – more than 9 million

• Infrastructure – more than 10,000 miles of stone paved roads that ran over mountains, desert, and jungles.

• Rope bridges – made from glass – were used to cross canyons an rivers.

Communication

• Runners would carry messages from the emperor to remote remote villages.

• Quechua – official language

• No form of written language

• Quipus – form of record keeping that used strings and knots to keep track of grain supplies

Agriculture

• The mountainous land was not well suited for farming.

• Incas cut terraces into the sides of mountains to make platforms to plant on.

• They built stone walls to hold the soils and plants in place.

• Crops – maize, squash, tomatoes, peanuts, peppers, melons, cotton, potatoes.

Religion

• The Incan Empire belonged to the emperor, who was believed to be a descendant of the sun god.

• Incans believed the sun god enjoyed displays of gold, so they made and wore gold jewelry.

• They built special cities devoted to religious ceremonies. (i.e. – Machu Picchu)