Reading Practice 9

[1] The Andean civilizations were a variety of cultural groups that developed in areas from the highlands of Colombia to the Atacama Desert. Prior to the Spanish conquest, the Inca Empire was the last sovereign political entity that emerged from the Andean civilizations. However, the constituents of this last empire were not all fully loyal. Groups of the Chachapoya that had been conquered had lingering hostile sentiments towards the Incas. As a result, the Inca nobility refused to offer refuge in their kingdom during the time of the Spanish conflict. Furthermore, the local cultures were also a patchwork of different languages, practices and people that were never fully integrated. This contributed to the different economic systems of the various groups that evolved. For instance, the Chimu used money in commerce while the Inca did not. Moreover, the economy of the Inca Empire was based on barter and taxation of luxury goods and labour. The Inca system of taxation was even said to have accommodated the old and the lame by extracting a symbolic tribute from them in the form of head lice. Yet, in spite of their sophistication and vast territory, the last Inca stronghold was overcome by Spanish conquerors in 1572.

 

[2] The Inca Empire was the largest empire in Pre-Columbian America. The Incas succeeded in building an empire with territory encompassing western South America, the Andean mountains, large parts of Peru, Ecuador, western and south-central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, north and north-central Chile and southern Colombia. The empire’s administration, politics and military were located in Cusco, now Peru. This was because the Incas originated from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century. Nevertheless, the Incas used a variety of ways, from bloody conquest to peaceful assimilation, to expand their territory into a state comparable to the historical empires of the Old World order.

 

[3] For example, the Chimu were one of the peoples assimilated into the Inca Empire. Specifically, they were conquered in a campaign led by the Inca ruler Tupac Inca Yupanqui only fifty years prior to the arrival of the Spanish. The Chimu were the residents of Chimor, with their capital located at the city of Chan Chan in the Moche Valley of modern-day Trujillo, Peru. Furthermore, archeological evidence suggests that Chimor grew out of the Moche culture since there are similarities in the characteristics of the two cultures’ black ceramic pottery and intricate work in precious metals. Spanish chroniclers were also able to record accounts of the Chimu culture from subjects who had lived prior to the assimilation into the Inca Empire.

 

[4] In addition, the Muisca were a population encountered by the Spanish Empire in 1537, at the time of their conquest. The group formed the Muisca Confederation of the central highlands in present-day Colombia. The Chibcha-speaking people of the Muisca consisted of two confederations: the Hunza (Tunja) and the Bacatá. The Hunza were from the northern area, belonging to the Zaque. The Bacata were from the southern area, belonging to the Zipa. Both confederations were located in the highlands of modern-day Cundinamarca and Boyacá, specifically in the central area of Colombia’s Eastern Range.

 

[5] The official language of the Inca Empire was Quechua. The Inca themselves referred to their empire as Tawantinsuyu which, when translated, refers to “The Four Regions” or “The Four United Provinces.” Many other languages spoken by the various conquered peoples of the Inca Empire existed at this time and consequently, hundreds of local languages and dialects of Quechua were also spoken. Religious exercises consisted of many forms of worship that centered on the local sacred Huacas. While many local forms of worship persisted in the empire, the Inca leadership encouraged the worship of Inti, the sun god, and therefore imposed its sovereignty above other cults such as Pachamama. Moreover, the Incas considered their King, the Sapa Inca, to be the “child of the sun.” As is common in ancient cultures, the sovereign wielded much power and influence over the people, even to the point where the sovereign was deified and considered a living god. Many of these cultural and religious characteristics transformed as Spanish rule replaced the Inca Empire in 1572, bringing a close to the rich culture of the peoples of the Andes Mountains.