Incas: The Great Empire of the Four Ends of the World. Origin and history of the Inca tribe Which city was the capital of the Inca civilization

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There are very few sources of information regarding the history of the Incas, an ancient Indian civilization. Most of the information comes from Spanish conquistadors and missionaries. Filippo Huaman Poma De Ayaalo, an Inca artist of the 16th century, left one original and priceless document - these are drawings and chronicles that give a detailed description of Inca society. Realizing that his world could disappear, Huaman Poma described all its splendor. This was his life's work. He intended to give it to King Philip II, in the hope that the monarch would see his colony in a different light and change his attitude towards it.

In his work, he also described the way of life of the Andean peoples before the arrival of the Incas - the Indians led a harsh and difficult lifestyle, they were practically savages. But everything changed with the appearance of a creature who was half-man, half-god - the son of Inti, the son of God. His name is Manco Capac. He called himself “Inca” and brought civilization to his world.

He taught people to build cities and cultivate the land. Under his leadership, the Inca world began to flourish. His wife Manco Capacá Ocllo taught the women how to weave.

This was the world of the Incas, where one name belonged to both the ruler and his people.

100 years after the formation of the Inca Empire, in the 15th century, this state, located on the territory of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, ceased to exist. However, more on this a little later... The article will talk about who the Incas were.

The Birth of Civilization

According to legend, the sun god Inti created the ancestors of the Inca rulers. These were 4 brothers and 4 sisters who came out of the Tampa Tokko cave. Their leader was Aiyar Manko, who carried a golden staff in his hands. He had to find a place where the staff would enter the ground, which would be a sign of fertile soil.

After long wanderings, Aiyar Manco and his brothers and sisters came to the valley of Cuzco, where the staff finally entered the ground.

After defeating the warlike locals, the brothers and sisters founded the capital of the Inca Empire. Ayar Manco began to call himself Manco Capac, which means “ruler of the Incas.” He became the first Sappa Inka (paramount chief).

Was everything exactly like that?

Ethnologists at the National Center for Scientific Research are not entirely sure of the historical existence of the first eight Incas. Rather, they were mythical characters. Due to the fact that all currently available information about the Incas is closely related to their epic.

Each family of Inca rulers had its own traditions, similar to African ones. Each generation of rulers told history in their own way.

A significant period in the history of the Incas is associated with the ruler Pachacuti. Among other things, he was the greatest religious reformer. During his reign, the Inca people became much less dependent on the high priests of the solar religion.

Pachacuti time

In the 12th century, the Andes were inhabited by a huge number of different peoples and tribes constantly warring with each other. Pachacuti wanted to create an empire that would unite all the Andean peoples. His name, which means “world changer,” perfectly describes his aspirations.

He united the tribes around the city of Cusco and his goals became a reality.

At the beginning of the 15th century, the Inca Empire was subjected to an armed attack by the Chanca tribe. The city of Cusco is under threat. Pachacuti took command of the army and managed to repel the attack and, inspired by the victory, began military expansion.

Pachacuti captured territory in the area of ​​Lake Titicaca and expanded the possessions of the Inca Empire of Tahuantinsuyu in the North up to the Cojamarca region.

A few words about the way of life

Briefly, the culture of the Incas reflects their life. When the Incas enslaved peoples, they presented local rulers with special gifts - women and various wonders. Thus, they made him somewhat grateful, left him in debt. In exchange for these gifts, the leaders had to pay tribute to the Incas or perform various types of work for them. From that moment on, they entered into a relationship that is historically called vassalage. This could be forced labor, called "mita", or unequal exchange, called "aine".

This system of relationships with the captured tribes became one of the main aspects of the power of the Incas.

Creating an orderly system on such a large scale in one of the largest mountain ranges on the planet was no easy task. The Incas needed to create collective labor, trade, a management system and ensure security. All this would have been impossible without the construction of roads.

There is no doubt that the Incas already knew what a wheel was. However, mountainous landscapes were not suitable for the use of wheeled vehicles. Even today, most travel in the Andes is done on foot. But the Incas conquered the mountain peaks, creating a developed network of communication routes. They built bridges in a world that literally hung between heaven and earth.

A few words about the reign of Sappa Inca

The power of the Incas, like any other power, required influence on the consciousness of people. And the majestic city of Machu Picchu, according to ethnologists, is only part of the image of power. For example, the ruler could not be looked at in the face. His image has always been associated with sacred rituals. He was revered as the son of the Sun and was a real shrine for the people.

The power of the ruler was perpetuated after his death, when he joined all the gods and himself became a God. The Huamana Poma Chronicles describe the Incas' understanding of life after death. They believed that human life force does not disappear after death. In their minds, the ancestors could protect those living on earth.

Capital of the Empire

In the heart of the Andes, at an altitude of more than 3 thousand meters, was the city of Cusco - the capital of the Inca Empire. In 1534 it was practically wiped off the face of the earth by Spanish invaders. The city of Cusco is the political and spiritual center of the Inca Empire.

In addition to Cusco, there were several administrative centers; there were not many cities in the Inca Empire. Most of the territory is small villages where the Incas lived and worked on plantations. Agriculture was the centerpiece of their economy.

Rituals

To understand who the Incas were, it is worth turning to their epic.

In the chronicles of Mana Poma, one of the chapters is devoted to a rather strange ritual - capacocha. During certain events, such as solar eclipses, volcanic eruptions, or epidemics, children were sacrificed to earn the favor of the spirits. It also happened that these were the children of tribal leaders.

The capacocha was an important part of the political and religious cult in Cusco.

Counting system

Although the Incas did not have a written language, they used a system of knots and cords called a quipu to record numbers and possibly other information. Thanks to the decimal system, taxation of subjects was orderly and efficient.

Taxes in the form of food were collected throughout the empire and collected in kolpos. This system provided the population with acceptable living conditions and was an important aspect in controlling the economy of the empire.

They lived at high altitudes, where every 5-6 years there might not be a harvest, so they simply needed to stock up.

In return, the empire provided security, maintained infrastructure, and provided residents with a means of subsistence. For this purpose, large warehouses with essential goods were built everywhere. Such kolpos existed in every region.

Now let's get back to the division of land

Pochacuti's son, Tupac Inca, continued to conquer new territories and became ruler in 1471. By the end of his reign, the empire extended throughout Western South America. He showed the inhabitants of neighboring tribes who the Incas were.

In 1493, the ruler was replaced by his son Huayna Capac. The wars of the new ruler on distant frontiers increased the level of discontent in the empire.

In 1502, having won the civil war, Atahualpa's army faced invaders from Europe. And although the Incas outnumbered the Europeans, Francisco Pizarro, with a small contingent of conquistadors, completely defeated their huge army. With the help of guns and horses, which the Incas had never seen before, the Spaniards were victorious. Atahualpa was captured and killed a year later.

However, according to historians, this is not the only reason for the fall of the empire. At that time, it was in the process of fragmentation and war, which was the main reason for the collapse.

The great rise of the Inca Empire was almost as fleeting as its fall. And now, unfortunately, we can find out who the Incas were from the few sources that have survived to this day.

It is believed that The Incas came to the Cusco valley, where they founded the capital of the empire, around 1200. The American archaeologist J. H. Rowe, who conducted excavations in the Cusco area, suggested that until the first half of the 15th century. the Inca state owned only a few mountain valleys, and the imperial period began in 1438 - the date when the ruler of the Inca state, Pachacuti Yupanqui, defeated the warlike Chanca Indians and annexed the “western part of the world” to his state. However, the Inca civilization probably expanded even before the defeat of the Chanca, but it was directed mainly to the south of Cuzco.

In 1470, the Inca armies approached the capital. After a long siege, the Chimu Empire fell. The winners relocated many skilled artisans to their capital, Cusco. Soon the Incas conquered other states, including them in their new empire: Chincha in the south of Peru, Cuismanca, which united the coastal valleys of the central part of the country, including the temple city of Pachacamac, and the small states of Cajamarca and Sican in the north.

But the legacy of the Chimu Empire was not lost. The Inca Empire did not destroy the capital of Chan-Chan and kept roads, canals, and terraced fields intact, making these lands one of the most prosperous provinces. The centuries-old culture of the Indians of Peru became the basis of ancient civilization.

From amazing wonders and treasures Inca Empire Almost nothing has survived to this day. Having captured the Inca ruler Ataualita, the Spaniards demanded - and received - 7 tons of gold and about 14 tons of silver items as ransom for his life, which were immediately melted down into ingots. After the conquistadors executed Ataualita, the Incas collected and hid the gold remaining in the temples and palaces.

The search for the missing gold continues to this day. If someday archaeologists are lucky enough to find this legendary treasury, we will undoubtedly learn about civilization " children of the sun" a lot of new. Now the number of products of Inca craftsmen can be counted on one hand - these are gold and silver figurines of people and lamas, magnificent gold vessels and breast disks, as well as traditional crescent-shaped tumi knives. By combining their own technologies with the traditions of Chimu jewelers, Incan metallurgists achieved perfection in the processing of precious metals. Spanish chroniclers recorded the story of golden gardens adorning temples dedicated to the Sun. Two of them are reliably known - in the coastal city of Tumbes in the north of the empire and in the main sanctuary of Cusco, the Coricancha Temple. The trees, bushes and herbs in the gardens were made of pure gold. Golden shepherds grazed golden llamas on golden lawns, and golden corn ripened in the fields.

Architecture

Architecture can rightfully be considered the second highest achievement of the Incas. The level of stone processing during the Incas surpasses the best examples of the craftsmanship of the stonemasons of Chavin and Tiahuanaco. Simple, “standard” buildings were built from small stones held together with clay-lime mortar - pirka. For palaces and temples, giant monoliths were used, not fastened together with any mortar. The stones in such structures are held in place by numerous protrusions that cling to each other. An example is the famous dodecagonal stone in a wall in Cusco, so tightly fitted to neighboring blocks that even a razor blade cannot be inserted between them.

Inca architectural style stern and ascetic; the buildings are overwhelming with their power. However, many buildings were once decorated with gold and silver plates, giving them a completely different look.

The Incas used planned development in their cities. The main element of the city was the kancha - a quarter consisting of residential buildings and warehouses located around a courtyard. Each major center had a palace, barracks for soldiers, a temple of the Sun, and a “monastery” for the Aklya virgins dedicated to the Sun.

Great Inca Roads

All the cities of the empire were connected to each other by a network excellent roads. Two main highways, to which smaller roads adjoined, connected the extreme points in the north and south of the country. One of the roads ran along the coast from the Gulf of Guayaquil in Ecuador to the Maule River, south of modern Santiago. The mountain road, called Capac-can (Royal Road), began in the gorges north of Quito, passing through Cusco, turned to Lake Titicaca and ended in the territory of modern Argentina. Both of these arteries, together with the secondary roads adjacent to them, stretched for more than 20 thousand km. In wet areas, roads were paved or filled with a waterproof mixture of maize leaves, pebbles and clay. On the arid coast, they tried to lay roads along areas where hard rocks were exposed. Stone dams equipped with drainage pipes were erected in the swamps. Posts were installed along the roads indicating the distance to populated areas. At regular intervals there were inns - tambo. The width of the road surface on the plains reached 7 m, and in mountain gorges it was reduced to 1 m. Roads were laid in a straight line, even if this meant digging a tunnel or cutting down part of a mountain. The Incas built wonderful bridges, the most famous of which were suspension bridges, designed to cross mountain streams. On each side of the gorge, stone pylons were erected, thick ropes were attached to them - two served as railings, and three supported the canvas of branches. The bridges were so strong that they could withstand Spanish conquistadors fully armed and on horseback. Local residents were required to change the ropes once a year, as well as repair the bridge if necessary. The largest bridge of this type across the Apurimac River was 75 m long and hung 40 m above the water.

Roads became the basis of the empire, stretching over a vast area from Ecuador in the north to Chile in the south and from the Pacific coast in the west to the eastern slopes of the Andes. The very name of the state claims world domination. This word in the Quechua language means “four interconnected countries of the world.” Administrative divisions also took place according to the countries of the world: in the north was the province of Chinchasuyu, in the south - Collasuyu, in the west - Kontisuyu and in the east - Antisuyu.

During the reign of the most famous emperors - Tupac Yupanqui, who took the throne in 1463, and Vaino Capac (1493-1525), the state finally acquired the features of a centralized empire.

Society

At the head of the state was the emperor - Sapa Inca, the Only Inca. A census of the empire's population was carried out and a decimal administrative system was introduced, with the help of which taxes were collected and an accurate count of subjects was carried out. During the reform, all hereditary leaders were replaced by appointed governors - kuraks.

The entire population of the country carried out labor duties: processing state fields of maize and sweet potatoes (potatoes), maintaining state herds of llamas, military service and work on the construction of cities, roads and mines. In addition, subjects were required to pay a tax in kind - in textiles and livestock.

The practice of mass resettlement in conquered territories became widespread. The Quechua language spoken by the Incas was declared the official language of the empire. Residents of the provinces were not prohibited from using their native language. Compulsory knowledge of Quechua was required only from officials.

Writing

It is believed that the Incas did not create their own writing. To transmit information, they had a knotted letter “kipu”, perfectly adapted for the needs of management and economics. According to one legend, the Incas once had writing, even books, but they were all destroyed by the reformer ruler Pachacuti, who “rewrote history.” An exception was made only for one, kept in the main sanctuary of the Coricancha empire. Those who robbed the capital ancient Inca civilization The Spaniards discovered in Coricancha canvases covered with incomprehensible signs, inserted into golden frames. The frames, of course, were melted down and the canvases burned. Thus perished the only written history of the Inca Empire.

Several civilizations are known to have existed in South America, but the most significant is the Inca civilization. In the fifteenth century, its population was at least six million people living over a vast territory. At the head of the Empire was the son of the Sun, Inca - the divine ruler. The economy was based on agriculture. All subjects were required to work for a month of the year on public works, building government facilities: fortresses, canals, bridges, roads. The state regulated all aspects of citizens' lives, including personal life. The Incas created legends, myths, religious hymns, epic poems and even dramatic works. This civilization did not have real writing, so little has been preserved from its cultural heritage. The Inca Empire fell with the arrival of conquerors from Europe in the mid-sixteenth century.

The Inca Empire (Quechua Tawantin Suyu, Tawantinsuyu, Tawantinsuyu, Tawantinsuyu, Tawantinsuyu) is the largest Indian early class state in terms of area and population in South America in the 11th-16th centuries. It occupied the territory from what is now Pasto in Colombia to the Maule River in Chile. The empire included the entire territory of present-day Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador (with the exception of part of the flat eastern regions covered with impenetrable jungle), partially Chile, Argentina and Colombia. The first European to penetrate the Inca Empire was the Portuguese Alejo Garcia in 1525. In 1533, the Spanish conquistadors established control over most of the empire, and in 1572 the Inca state ceased to exist. There is a hypothesis that the last independent refuge of the Incas is the undiscovered city (country) of Paititi (until the middle or end of the 18th century).

Archaeological research shows that a large number of achievements were inherited by the Incas from previous civilizations, as well as from the neighboring peoples they subjugated. By the time the Incas appeared on the historical scene in South America, there were a number of civilizations: Moche (the Mochica culture, famous for colored ceramics and irrigation systems), Huari (this state was the prototype of the Inca Empire, although the population apparently spoke a different language - Aymara) , Chimu (center - the city of Chan-Chan, characteristic ceramics and architecture), Nazca (known for creating the so-called Nazca Lines, as well as for their underground water supply systems, ceramics), Puquina (civilization of the city of Tiahuanaco with a population of about 40 thousand people, located east of Lake Titicaca), Chachapoyas (“Warriors of the Clouds”, famous for their formidable fortress Kuelap, which is also called the “Machu Picchu of the North”).

The Quechua name of the country, Tawantinsuyu, can be translated as the four united provinces (Tawantin - "group of four" (tawa "four" with the suffix -ntin meaning "aggregate"); suyu - "country", "region" or "province" "). As Quechuan linguist Demetrio Tupac Yupanqui points out: “-ntin - “all integrated,” “all that make up one whole.” The previous parts disappear to give way to one distinct integration - one whole. It creates what we whimsically call a “legal entity,” the subject and the responsible being distinguished by their constituent parts. It is as if there were one enterprise in which the legal entity assumes responsibility, thereby releasing the constituent parts.”

This name is due to the fact that the country was divided into four provinces: Kuntinsuyu (Kunti Suyu), Qulla Suyu, Anti Suyu and Chinchay suyu. In addition, four roads left Cuzco (Quechua Qusqu) in four directions, and each of them was named after the part of the empire to which it led.

In the Andean region and the adjacent coast in the 1st millennium BC. e. - 1st thousand AD e. developed agricultural civilizations of Chavin, Paracas, Nazca, Mochica, Tiahuanaco, etc. arose. In the 12th century, a people appeared on the shores of Lake Titicaca, led by the Inca, the supreme ruler. He moved to the new capital, Cusco, and spread his influence over a vast territory, covering by the 15th-16th centuries. most of modern Ecuador, Peru, a significant part of Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, as well as a small area of ​​Colombia.

The creation of the state is attributed to the legendary Inca Manco Capac, who also founded the capital - the city of Cusco, at an altitude of 3416 meters above sea level, in a deep valley between two mountain ranges.

After its creation, the country's territory constantly expanded. Especially after the Inca Yahuar Huacac created a regular army in the empire. Great conquests were carried out by Inca Pachacuti. He created a real empire, because before this the Incas were just one of the many Indian tribes, and Cusco was an ordinary town. Most of the Inca-controlled lands were conquered by Pachacuti and his son Tupac Inca Yupanqui. A small part of the territory was annexed by the eleventh Inca, Huayna Capac. The rulers Huascar and Atahualpa were sons of Huayna Capac. After his death, they began a grueling internecine war. When the Spaniards arrived, Atahualpa became the winner of the war.

When conquering neighboring tribes, the Incas, on the one hand, used their strong and numerous army, and on the other hand, attracted the elite of the conquered regions. Before taking military action, the Incas three times invited the rulers of the conquered region to voluntarily join the empire. They forced the conquered tribes to learn the Quechua language, imposed their customs and introduced their own laws. The local nobility and the priesthood of the conquered peoples retained their position, and the practice of local religions was not prohibited, subject to the obligatory worship of the imperial sun god Inti. The Incas attached great importance to the preservation of local folk crafts and costume, so that by the dress of any resident of Tawantinsuyu it would be easy to determine his origin and social status.

The Incas were characterized by the division of power and society into: warriors and non-warriors. The main generals and military leaders were either the rulers of the Empire or people appointed by them from the ruling ethnic group - the Incas. At the same time, it seems that there was still a kind of dual power - a full-fledged duumvirate: when the ruler (governor) of the city of Cusco was in charge of the economic activities of the Empire, supplying and supporting the troops, which is repeatedly mentioned by the historian Juan de Betanzos.

At the peak of its existence, the Inca Empire was one of the largest states on Earth. The number of subjects of the empire reached, according to various sources, from 5-6 to 12 million people.

In 1521, Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs. This conquest inspired Francisco Pizarro. According to the report of Juan de Samano, secretary of Charles V, Peru first became known reliably in 1525 in connection with the completion of the first Southern Expedition of Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro. The expedition left Panama on November 14, 1524, but was forced to return in 1525. After this, two more trips were carried out. In 1532, Pizarro arrived on the coast of modern Peru with 200 foot soldiers and only 27 horses. However, on the way, his army is replenished by those dissatisfied with the rule of the Incas. The Incas fiercely fight the conquerors, but the empire is weakened by internal turmoil and internecine war, in addition, a large number of Inca warriors die from smallpox and measles brought by the Spaniards.

By deception, Pizarro was able to capture and execute the Great Inca Atahualpa, after which the resistance was led by the military leader Rumiñavi for 2 years. The Inca capital, Cusco, was conquered by the Spaniards in 1536. Inca Manco Inca Yupanqui with a small number of followers hides in the mountainous region of Vilcabamba, where the Inca rule continues for about 30 years. In 1572, the last Inca ruler, Tupac Amaru, was beheaded. This marked the end of the Tawantinsuyu empire. The state was plundered, the Inca culture was destroyed.

In the book “Chronicle of Peru,” Cieza de Leon was the first European to ask the question of the reason for such an easy conquest of the Inca Empire:

Thus, although I have depicted Peru as three deserted and inhabited Cordilleras, out of them, as I related, by the will of God, there emerge valleys and rivers, beyond which in no way could people survive: this is the reason why the locals were so easily conquered and why do they serve without rebelling, because if they did that, they would all die from hunger and cold. Because (as I said), with the exception of the land they inhabited, most of it is uninhabited, these are continuous snow-capped mountains and amazingly high peaks.
- Cieza de Leon, Pedro. Chronicle of Peru. Part one. Chapter XXXVI.

The conquered Incas became part of the Quechua people. The result of the Spanish conquest was clearly noted by the same chronicler Cieza de Leon:

I do not approve of the overthrow of power in any way, but I still mourn the extortion and ill-treatment inflicted by the Spaniards on the Indians, enslaved by cruelty, regardless of their nobility and the high dignity of their people. Because of this, all these valleys are now almost deserted, but in the past they were densely populated, as many people know.
- Cieza de Leon, Pedro. Chronicle of Peru. Part one. Chapter LXI.

The empire was divided into 4 parts: Chinchaisuyu - red color, Kolyasuyu - blue color, Antisuyu - green color, and Kuntisuyu - yellow color, in turn, each such part consisted of provinces:

north of Cusco were: Vilcas, Xauxa, Bombon, Cajamarca, Guancabamba, Tomebamba, Latacunga, Quito, Carangue ;

on the other side of Cusco, to the South: Atuncana, Atuncolla, Ayavire, Chuquiabo, Chucuito, Paria and others, stretching to Chile.

Each province had its own capital, where taxes were collected, where there was a temple of the Sun, foundries and jewelry workshops, a garrison, large inns, warehouses, as well as a representative of the Court - the governor.

Separately in the administrative division, as the capital, the city of Cusco stood out. It was indicated in yellow. Each village, which was the capital of the province, had its own number. For example, to indicate that “Manco Capac, the first Inca ruler, conquered the first capital of the province, one large knot was introduced into the thread, two large knots were introduced into the second, and so on with all the others. It is known that Cuzco, the capital of the Empire, had three or four nodes, one above the other." It is also known that the distance of a province from the capital of the empire, Cuzco, was often made dependent on ordinal numbers: for example, the closer the province, the closer it or its curaca representative was to the Inca ruler in services, campaigns, rituals, and ceremonies.

To identify the provinces of the Tawantinsuyu Empire in the quipu writing, each province had its own mixture of colored threads. On the thread, in turn, a red thread could be placed (inserted) to indicate those killed in one’s army “from/in such and such a province.” Also, the use of thread color for the provinces of the Empire was found in kipus related to the statistics and taxation of such provinces. The same system applied to reports on the geographical and economic description of the Empire.

Pedro de Cieza de Leon, in his Chronicle of Peru, reported on the unprecedented accuracy of accounting using quipus: “In each capital of the province there were accountants called quipucamayocs, and with the help of these nodes they calculated and recorded the necessary taxes paid by the inhabitants of that area, starting from silver, gold, clothing and livestock, and ending with firewood and other much more insignificant things; and with the help of these same quipus, after one year, or ten, or twenty, they notified the one who was entrusted with collecting the reports; and it was done so well that even a couple of alpargata could not be hidden.”

Cieza de Leon provided information about the number of positions of Quipucamayoc in a single territorial unit: “and in every valley this accounting is still available today, and always in the inns there are as many accountants as there are managers in it [the valley], and every four months they submit their reports in the above-mentioned manner." For the provinces, the deadline for submitting reports was set at 1 year, since “at the end of the year, each province ordered that all people, both those who died there that year and, accordingly, those who were born, be included in the pile according to the number of its nodes. And at the beginning of the year they were entering, they came to Cusco with piles, from which it became clear how many were born that year and how many died.”

In the vicinity of the village of Cotapachi in Cochabamba, there were 2076 collcas (rounded storage facilities), which is 22.09% of warehouse buildings out of the currently known 9395 units in the Inca Empire, that is, it was one of the strategic areas of the empire where the procurement and storage of provisions took place. The average diameter of the storage facilities in Cotapachi was 3.5 m, and the approximate height was 2 m, therefore, the volume of round storage facilities in the Cochabambe Valley could be 45,000 m3 (almost the entire volume was filled with provisions), which was a very significant figure even in relation to other provincial centers Inca Empire. In modern terms, this is comparable to 1,360 TEU (20-foot containers) that could fit on a Handymax Class container ship (1,000-1,700 TEU). In general, the scale of the Incas' warehouse economy was so large that it is quite comparable with our modern ones.

The absence of a distinguished layer of free artisans and the associated weak development of private exchange, the absence of trade and any kind of commercial intermediaries is a feature of Inca society, in contrast to the Aztecs. It is explained by the fact that in Peru the early despotic state appropriated the labor of the community members, leaving them with little surplus for exchange.

Coins
In general, coins were not used in domestic trade, but in foreign trade they circulated mulu shells, coca leaves, clothing, and copper hatchets. The Indians of the Chonos culture (Ecuador) back in the 15th-16th centuries smelted copper with a content of 99.5% and used it as a coin in the form of hatchets 2 cm on the sides and 0.5 cm thick. This coin circulated along the entire western coast of South America, including in the Inca state in the province of Chincha, where 6,000 traders lived.

When we hear the concepts “Inca”, “Maya” or “Aztec”, we are mentally transported overseas, to the mountains and jungles of the American continent. It was there that these Indian tribes, little known to mankind, lived - the creators of the civilization of the Incas, Aztecs and Mayans, about whom we will briefly talk further. From history we only know about them that they were skilled craftsmen. The Incas built large cities connected by roads that looked like cars were racing along them. The pyramids were built like the Egyptian ones, but according to local religious views. Irrigation canals made it possible to feed the people with their own agricultural products.

The Incas created calendars, chronology and writing, had an observatory and were well oriented by the stars. And suddenly, overnight, all civilizations disappeared. Many scientists are working to unravel the causes of a rather strange, even from the standpoint of modern science, socio-demographic phenomenon. First, let's introduce the Inca civilization in a brief description.

Ancient Incas

If you look at the geographical map of the South American continent, you will notice its vertical division by the Andes mountains. To the east of the mountains lies the Pacific Ocean. This area, closer to the north, was chosen by the ancient Indian tribe of the Incas, pronounced “Quechua” in their language, in the 11th – 15th centuries. In such a short period, on a certain scale, it is difficult to create a unique and one of the early class civilizations of Mesoamerica. The Incas succeeded at this, perhaps with some outside help.

It stretched for five thousand kilometers from north to south - this is exactly half the length of the Russian Federation. It included the territories, in whole or in part, of eight modern Latin American countries. These regions were inhabited by about twenty million people.

Archaeologists say: Quechua culture did not begin out of nowhere. It has been proven that a significant part either came to the Quechua from outside, or they settled on foreign territory and appropriated the achievements of previous civilizations.

The Incas were good warriors and did not hesitate to conquer new territories. From the Mochica culture and the Kari state they could adopt the technology of making colored ceramics, laying canals in the fields, and from Nazca - the construction of underground water pipelines. The list goes on.

What the Quechuas themselves excelled at was stone-cutting. The blocks for the buildings were cut so beautifully that no binding material was required when laying them. The pinnacle of architecture is a group of temples under the general name of the Golden Court with the temple of the Sun God. The supreme rulers of the Quechuas simply adored gold; the emperor’s palaces were covered with it from floor to ceiling. The Spanish conquistadors melted down all this luxury and transported it home in ingots. Only the majestic pyramids on the lifeless land remind of past greatness.

Ancient Mayans

The Mayans had everything that characterized ancient civilizations, except the wheel and metal tools. Tools were made of high quality from strong stone, even for cutting wood.

The Mayans skillfully erected buildings using arched ceilings, rare for those times, and knowledge of geometry helped to correctly lay irrigation canals. They were the first to know how to get cement. Their surgeons performed operations with scalpels made of frozen glass.

Like the Incas (Quechua), the Mayans had great knowledge about space and the stars. But hardly any of them could own spacecraft. But then why did they need a domed observatory tower that has survived to this day? The building is positioned so that it is better to navigate the orbit of the brightest planet. Just to create a calendar aimed at this planet? Obviously there were other plans. It’s not for nothing that there are mysterious images of flying people on the rocks.

There is also this version of the origin of the Mayans: perhaps they sailed to America on ships from another continent. Like the Incas, the Mayans used the experience of a more developed civilization - the Olmecs, who appeared from nowhere on the American continent. For example, their experience of making drinks from a substance similar to chocolate, and in religion they adopted deities in the form of animals.

The Mayans disappeared in the 10th century AD. The Incas, Mayans, and Olmecs suffered the same fate - their civilizations ceased to exist in their prime. There are two popular versions of the Mayan demise: ecology and conquest. The second is supported by artifacts from the presence of other tribes in the territory where the Mayans lived.

Ancient Aztecs

Up to a dozen tribes lived on the fertile lands of the Valley of Mexico for centuries. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Tepanec tribe appeared there. Warlike, incredibly cruel, it conquered all other tribes. Their allies in the seizure of territories were a small tribe of tenochki.

These were the Aztecs. Neighboring tribes called them by this name. The Aztecs are driven out by other tribes to a deserted island. And from here the power of the Aztecs spread over the entire valley of Mexico, where up to ten million people already lived. They traded with everyone who accepted them. Thousands of people lived in cities. The state has grown to unprecedented proportions.