WEBVTT 1 00:00:17.879 --> 00:00:23.640 Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve Episode two hundred and forty six. The 2 00:00:23.719 --> 00:00:29.640 Incan Empire. Last week I introduced the people of the Andes and the Inca 3 00:00:29.679 --> 00:00:34.799 in terms of geography and mostly social history. To an extent, there is 4 00:00:35.320 --> 00:00:41.399 little that separates the Inca from multiple other Stone and Bronze Age civilizations. The 5 00:00:41.399 --> 00:00:46.960 Inca would have absolutely trounced the Mycenean Greeks, for example. Of course, 6 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:52.320 the problem is that they're not going to face the Mycenean Greeks. They are 7 00:00:52.359 --> 00:00:57.840 going to face the early modern Spanish, whose tempered steel blades, gunpowder, 8 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:04.200 horses, and above all European diseases. Today, I want to cover the 9 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:11.640 Inca Empire in greater detail, focusing on his political structure and its military structure, 10 00:01:11.159 --> 00:01:18.000 since those will be crucial issues going into the Clash of civilizations when Pisaro 11 00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:23.519 arrives in the early sixteenth century. Then next week we'll switch gears and talk 12 00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:27.359 a bit about Pisaro, because he actually visits the edges of the Inca Empire 13 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:33.680 and then goes home to Spain before returning to conquer it, and a lot 14 00:01:33.799 --> 00:01:38.359 happens in the interim, by the way. So with all that introduction. 15 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:52.840 Let's get started right at the outset. Let me say two things. One, 16 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:57.239 the Inca Empire was a short lived phenomenon. In reality, it lasts 17 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:02.480 only about a century. Of course, we have no idea how long the 18 00:02:02.519 --> 00:02:07.560 empire would have lasted had the Europeans not reached the New World at the end 19 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:13.639 of the fifteenth century. Two, it is very difficult, especially early on, 20 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:17.479 for us to ascribe specific dates to events pertaining to the Inca Empire. 21 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:24.039 There are a few reasons for this. First, largely thanks to the Spanish 22 00:02:24.120 --> 00:02:30.840 conquest, there is little indigenous writing that survives. Second, as I mentioned 23 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:36.840 last time, the Inca were not above manipulating time for political purposes, so 24 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:40.759 it's difficult to tell if something happened on a given date or if that event 25 00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:49.199 has been moved to suit political expediency. Third, the Indian peoples just didn't 26 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:53.199 calculate time in the same way as the people from Europe. Time was much 27 00:02:53.199 --> 00:03:00.120 more cyclical. So given all those caveats, here's what we can say. 28 00:03:00.719 --> 00:03:05.280 Around the end of the first millennium CE, the Inca were just one of 29 00:03:05.319 --> 00:03:12.639 several ethnic groups jockeying for political position in southern Peru. However, sometime around 30 00:03:12.759 --> 00:03:20.520 fourteen hundred CE, the Inca emerged as the dominant political polity. It's nearly 31 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:27.639 impossible for me to say anything for certain before the fifteenth century. Early Incan 32 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:31.919 history, like most histories, frankly, is shrouded in myth and legend. 33 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:38.800 According to these myths, the Inca were engaged in warfare from the word go 34 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:47.120 with their neighbors in and around Cusco. Cusco itself was reportedly founded by Manku 35 00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:55.000 Kuakap, who is essentially the Eneas of the Inca. The archaeological origins of 36 00:03:55.000 --> 00:04:01.680 this Inca society are almost as sketchy as the historical mythical record. Now. 37 00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:06.960 The problem here is that, in part, we can't recreate Cusco before the 38 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:16.439 Imperial period, because Cusco was entirely rebuilt during the Imperial period deliberately. The 39 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:23.360 evidence that we do have suggests that early on and the Incas shared in quite 40 00:04:23.399 --> 00:04:28.800 a lot in common with the chiefdom based society. Gift giving, for example, 41 00:04:28.959 --> 00:04:33.439 was common a way to establish social and political ties. There are a 42 00:04:33.480 --> 00:04:39.480 few allusions to the benefits associated with war and the capture of labor, but 43 00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:43.879 not much of any specific nature, at least not in any record that survives. 44 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:48.759 The meteoric rise of the Incan Empire has a lot in common with several 45 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:56.160 other notable empires in the past. Perhaps most importantly, the Inca got lucky 46 00:04:56.639 --> 00:05:01.000 and that they were blessed with four or even five silent emperors in succession. 47 00:05:02.120 --> 00:05:08.439 We all know the story of the Antonine emperors in Rome A Trajan Hadrian, 48 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:15.240 Marcus Aurelius, and Antoninus Pius led the empire to its greatest heights. We 49 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:20.959 also know what happened when they were gone. The same goes for the Carolingian 50 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:27.079 Empire or the Persian Empire of the classical Kimanid era. In an age of 51 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:33.240 absolute personal rule, it really helps to have a good ruler. About fifty 52 00:05:34.199 --> 00:05:41.879 accounts of the Incan Empire were written in the decades after said empires collapsed, 53 00:05:42.040 --> 00:05:47.519 giving us the bulk of our historical information about the imperial period. That being 54 00:05:47.639 --> 00:05:56.199 said, distilling exactly how the Inca won their empire might still be impossible even 55 00:05:56.279 --> 00:05:59.759 today, for all the reasons I specified at the beginning of the show. 56 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:05.079 The reign of Rocca Inca, the eighth ruler on the standard list of Inca 57 00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:15.040 rulers, usually marks a narrative transition from raiding an alliance to straight up territorial 58 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:20.279 expansion. Rocca, we know, first used a key marriage alliance with the 59 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:27.160 people to the west of Cusco to cement his power and kickstart his expansionist policies. 60 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:33.040 But what really seems to have started things was defense. The Chanka, 61 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:40.480 another ethnic group in the same region, attacked Cusco in the early fifteenth century, 62 00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:44.879 but the Inca repulsed their advances, and this seems to have propelled them 63 00:06:45.079 --> 00:06:50.279 into their imperial phase. After all, offense is usually the best defense. 64 00:06:53.079 --> 00:06:56.519 That being said, and again I hate to constantly muddy the waters here, 65 00:06:57.279 --> 00:07:01.680 but I do want to point out that not scholar believes that there ever was 66 00:07:02.439 --> 00:07:09.600 an attack from the Chunka. This might be Inca propaganda intended to mask what 67 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:16.040 was really just naked aggression. Most scholars today agree that Chanca existed and were 68 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:21.560 a crucial enemy. These wars, however, seems like most agree, are 69 00:07:21.560 --> 00:07:28.800 probably vastly exaggerated in order to pump up the image, I suppose of the 70 00:07:28.839 --> 00:07:35.319 empire's founder. The earliest target for Inca expansion was the rich and fertile land 71 00:07:35.639 --> 00:07:42.079 around Lake Titicaca. This is if you look on a map about one hundred 72 00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:49.079 and fifty miles southeast of Cusco. These early Incan campaigns were successful, However, 73 00:07:49.600 --> 00:07:55.000 they had the result of bringing the Inca into contact with dangerous and hitherto 74 00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:59.959 unknown foes, and so it's hard to tell when, but at some point 75 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:05.600 point further expansion south, at least in the early fifteenth century, seemed unlikely 76 00:08:05.639 --> 00:08:13.800 as they'd run into too many opponents. So simultaneously the Inca were pressing north 77 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:18.800 into today what we would call Ecuador. The evidence today suggests that these conquests 78 00:08:18.839 --> 00:08:24.399 took about fifty years in some places and in other places the border regions, 79 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:30.160 they were never completely successful. Even in fifteen thirty two, many of the 80 00:08:30.199 --> 00:08:35.679 areas on this outside of the various valleys, were not under Inca control. 81 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:43.679 One of the most important early Inca campaigns was along the coast from Nasca, 82 00:08:43.879 --> 00:08:48.840 home of the famous Nasca Lines, to Mala, which about eighty two hundred 83 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:54.600 miles north. This campaign reportedly took a year. Here the Inco met a 84 00:08:54.679 --> 00:09:00.519 variety of determined opponents who evidently put aside their differences briefly in a light against 85 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:03.399 them, fielding an army of thirty thousand strong. But this is really the 86 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:09.720 only time that any of these people would put aside their differences. In fact, 87 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:13.399 the final Inca victory was a result of a trick and not glory in 88 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:18.399 battle. The Inca used a feigned retreat to get their enemies to come out 89 00:09:18.440 --> 00:09:24.440 of their secure locations. Then when these people were celebrating in the open, 90 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:31.480 the Inca fell upon them and slaughtered them. They deported the remaining living population 91 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:37.639 and brought in more compliance settlers to replace the former indigenous peoples. Now, 92 00:09:37.639 --> 00:09:43.320 while all this expansion was going on, the record is full of accounts of 93 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:50.399 various uprisings that burst forth and had to be put down. The Incan Empire 94 00:09:50.639 --> 00:09:54.879 was, after all, based on the threat of military force, much like 95 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:01.639 the Assyrian Empire. Revolts had to be brutally suppressed, and they were. 96 00:10:01.960 --> 00:10:07.480 But as I'll discussed more in a moment, this was not easy given that 97 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:13.720 the Inca never had a standing army, so every time there was a campaign, 98 00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:22.320 a major mobilization effort was required. The late fifteenth century was dominated by 99 00:10:22.440 --> 00:10:28.960 King Waina quakap. By the time he came to the throne, the major 100 00:10:28.039 --> 00:10:35.919 Incan expansions were over. He divided his time between military concerns, mostly to 101 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:43.279 consolidate his power and administrative duties. Waina Up forces campaigned in Ecuador for over 102 00:10:43.360 --> 00:10:50.360 twenty years with mixed results. The Inca were now faced with sort of the 103 00:10:50.399 --> 00:11:00.279 same problem that confronts basically every empire that doesn't incorporate conquered peoples into its system. 104 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:07.080 They don't have a large enough population to keep expanding. Even Sparta, 105 00:11:07.279 --> 00:11:13.159 for example, as militarized as it was, never expanded beyond the Peloponnese. 106 00:11:13.720 --> 00:11:20.840 Its population simply didn't allow it. The Inca now find themselves faced the same 107 00:11:20.879 --> 00:11:28.559 problem. Of course, because of the training that the army of the Inca 108 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:33.720 goes through. If the enemy was willing to meet the Inca army on an 109 00:11:33.720 --> 00:11:41.000 open battlefield, it stood an excellent chance of success. Likewise, if the 110 00:11:41.120 --> 00:11:48.519 enemy pulled back to one stronghold, the Inca couldn't lay siege to well, 111 00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:56.320 the Incas were about unbeatable. But in the jungles of Ecuador, for example, 112 00:11:56.919 --> 00:12:01.840 where the enemy could hide and then launch devastating sneak attacks, well, 113 00:12:01.919 --> 00:12:07.600 the Inca army wilted and as I suppose, just about all classical armies would 114 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:15.080 win. A Quackup was actually campaigning in the north when word reached him of 115 00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:22.039 an epidemic killing thousands. The epidemic was bearing down on the borders of his 116 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:28.759 empire even as he discussed the situation with his captains. As I will discuss 117 00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:33.879 more in a later episode, the epidemic was smallpox. It started when Navarez 118 00:12:33.960 --> 00:12:39.159 brought the disease from Cuba in his effort to oust Cortez from his position in 119 00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:46.679 Mexico. Since then it had raged through Central America, and now it headed 120 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:52.879 south. Win Aquapuck tried to flee, but in early fifteen twenty eight, 121 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:58.480 he too was struck down. His death would initiate the dynastic struggle which would 122 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:05.399 plague the Inca pun intended right up to the Riolo Cortez. We will come 123 00:13:05.440 --> 00:13:11.600 back to it in detail in about two weeks. For the balance of the 124 00:13:11.639 --> 00:13:15.840 episode, I want to look at the Inca political system and it's military. 125 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:22.559 Since the days of the Spanish conquest, the Inca government was usually portrayed as 126 00:13:22.559 --> 00:13:28.080 a finely tuned machine. Whether they admired or hated Inca rule, the authors 127 00:13:28.159 --> 00:13:35.159 usually agreed that Cusco's crowning success was its orderly administration. In the popular view, 128 00:13:35.559 --> 00:13:39.519 which persisted for a long time, an omnipotent emperor presided over a vast 129 00:13:39.639 --> 00:13:46.039 bureaucracy that was mostly composed of local elites who had been recruited into state service. 130 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:52.200 By applying the same policies everywhere, the Incas soon molded a cultural patchwork 131 00:13:52.720 --> 00:13:58.879 into a homogeneous society. Virtually everything the peasants did from birth to death was 132 00:14:00.039 --> 00:14:05.960 supervised by state officials who called on taxpayer labor to meet state economic and military 133 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:11.480 needs, the officials who spoke Cuscu Quechua in public affairs, and the people 134 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:16.519 who adopted some Inca customs into their daily lives. As for religion, the 135 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:22.639 people's beliefs were eclipsed by a new state ideology that elevated the ruler to the 136 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:28.039 status of a god on earth. Since the Inca society had simply been organized 137 00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:33.320 before the Great Expansion, they invented a state to rule an empire. This 138 00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:39.440 homogeneous portrait of the realm is still common if you read most histories, but 139 00:14:41.559 --> 00:14:46.399 an image of a uniform and total control is an illusion that's based largely on 140 00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:52.039 frankly Cusco's view of the world. We shouldn't be surprised at that, since 141 00:14:52.039 --> 00:14:56.799 both the Incas and their conquerors were preoccupied with the life and times of royalty, 142 00:14:56.919 --> 00:15:01.960 while the Spaniards did ask hundreds of petty lords about life before and under 143 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:05.840 the Incas. They gave a lot more weight to the views expressed by Inca 144 00:15:05.879 --> 00:15:09.519 aristocrats. So should we be surprised at all that we end up with a 145 00:15:09.960 --> 00:15:16.480 Inca centric view. I think not. However, research over the past fifty 146 00:15:16.559 --> 00:15:20.679 years or so has proven that Inca intervention in the societies they conquered was not 147 00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:26.639 uniform at all. They transferred, some others they left, just as they 148 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:31.360 had been before. The Inca tried to apply a standard approach to all the 149 00:15:31.399 --> 00:15:35.720 society as they conquered. However, the people's beyond Cusco were a mosaic of 150 00:15:35.799 --> 00:15:43.000 cultures, and one size fits all was definitely not going to work. That 151 00:15:43.080 --> 00:15:46.759 being said, for all we know, the Inca Empire might have grown more 152 00:15:46.799 --> 00:15:52.919 cohesive over time like the Roman Empire did, but it was too short lived 153 00:15:54.080 --> 00:16:00.360 to ever find out. Like many Indian peoples, the Inca envisioned their society, 154 00:16:00.360 --> 00:16:03.759 history, and land as a uniformed whole. They divided the world and 155 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:07.000 its people into four parts, whose political and cosmic center lay at Cusco. 156 00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:14.039 The name of the realm, which was actually Twani Sanhu means the four parts 157 00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:18.440 together. Each of these parts was headed by a great lord or apu, 158 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:22.639 who advised the emperor in Cusco and directed affairs for one of his four divisions. 159 00:16:23.960 --> 00:16:30.360 Like most pre industrial civilizations, certainly pre French Revolution civilizations stripped to the 160 00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:36.759 bone, the Inca system was politically an hereditary monarchy. A layer beyond the 161 00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:41.799 aunt, however, we find an elaborate hierarchy, complete with ancestor worship, 162 00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:47.440 as well as class and ethnic hierarchies. I hope by now you've learned from 163 00:16:47.440 --> 00:16:49.960 this podcast, but there was rarely, if ever, such a thing. 164 00:16:51.080 --> 00:16:57.519 Isn't real absolute monarchy, even in the dregs of the Dark Ages, kings 165 00:16:57.559 --> 00:17:03.160 and emperors needed the constant support and consent of the men that they ruled. 166 00:17:04.119 --> 00:17:11.799 If not, the result was civil war or at least rebellion. There were 167 00:17:11.960 --> 00:17:18.160 very few elections back then, so civil war kind of was the election process. 168 00:17:18.839 --> 00:17:23.000 Now, the emperor and his family in the Inca system stood at the 169 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:30.240 apex of the political and social pyramid. Obviously below them were two classes of 170 00:17:30.279 --> 00:17:37.839 aristocratic Inca kin and one class of honorary Inca nobility. In fifteen thirty two, 171 00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:44.640 the most exalted aristocrats were ten royal kin groups called panqua. In theory, 172 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:51.200 a new panaqua was created with each royal succession as part of a convention 173 00:17:51.279 --> 00:17:57.240 called quote spiritual inheritance end quote. In this custom, the quote unquote most 174 00:17:57.319 --> 00:18:03.960 able son became the new sovereign. In the final version of Inca government, 175 00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:07.920 the king was an absolute ruler, and so much as that exists, that 176 00:18:08.079 --> 00:18:12.680 is, he was a divine being with a celestial mandate to rule the world. 177 00:18:14.920 --> 00:18:19.200 In practice, however, as I mentioned before, the very human monarch 178 00:18:19.480 --> 00:18:26.559 had to work closely with Couscoe's contentious aristocracy to take the throne and to rule 179 00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:33.000 from it. The royal epics recounted time and time again how rulers had been 180 00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:40.200 elevated, then counseled, then assisted, and then deposed and even assassinated by 181 00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:45.880 their relatives. The two faces of this monarchy, which really could be the 182 00:18:45.920 --> 00:18:51.400 two faces of any pre modern monarchy, by which I mean there's an omnipotent 183 00:18:51.559 --> 00:18:56.720 ideal, a sort of godlike figure, and then there's a negotiated, very 184 00:18:56.799 --> 00:19:02.119 real, practical side. And these are found throughout the Inca oral histories as 185 00:19:02.119 --> 00:19:07.759 well. Because the Incas drew no neat distinctions among different aspects of power. 186 00:19:08.599 --> 00:19:15.839 The emperor melded political, social, military, and sacred leadership into one person. 187 00:19:17.079 --> 00:19:22.599 Ideally, his existence passed through three distinct stages. Early in life, 188 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:27.079 he had to show himself to be a warrior worthy of his lineage and the 189 00:19:27.119 --> 00:19:32.960 support of Cuscoe's nobles. Once anointed by the son to rule the land, 190 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:38.119 he was revered as a deity whose powers and prerequisites were unique among the beings 191 00:19:38.119 --> 00:19:45.440 who walked the earth. Then, in death, his descendants accentuated his perpetual 192 00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:49.839 vitality as he feasted, conversed with the dead and the night, and retired 193 00:19:49.880 --> 00:19:55.880 to his quarters for repose. When a ruler took office, he assumed a 194 00:19:55.920 --> 00:20:00.400 new personal title that replaced his given name. Ironically, just as many British 195 00:20:00.440 --> 00:20:06.759 monarchs, to the sovereign was to marry his principal wife at that same time, 196 00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:11.440 so that at the coronation it was actually not the installation of an inca 197 00:20:11.519 --> 00:20:15.799 emperor, it was the installation of a new royal couple. As you might 198 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:19.839 expect, many of the emperor's days were filled with ritual pomp and festivals, 199 00:20:21.319 --> 00:20:26.240 all the usual stuff. And there were the usual traditions who might meet with 200 00:20:26.319 --> 00:20:32.359 the emperor, like there were in let's say Augustus's realm or Justinian's Constantinople. 201 00:20:33.559 --> 00:20:37.359 Men were expected to remove their footwear and approach the inca emperor carrying a burden. 202 00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:45.400 The court surrounding the emperor was also meticulously organized. Wives and lords sat 203 00:20:45.440 --> 00:20:51.400 around the emperor according to their rank. When Pizarro arrived, some of his 204 00:20:51.480 --> 00:20:56.519 men reported that no one dared raise their eyes in the presence of the emperor. 205 00:20:57.440 --> 00:21:03.319 Quick aside. Throughout these episodes, and I'll talk about this more next 206 00:21:03.400 --> 00:21:11.359 week, you will never hear me say the words Francisco Pizaro wrote. Unlike 207 00:21:11.519 --> 00:21:21.160 Cortez, our new conquistador, Pizaro was illiterate. His brother, however, 208 00:21:21.960 --> 00:21:26.119 he had to both or not, and we're going to get a lot of 209 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:33.480 information from them, mostly from Pedro Pizaro. For example, when the emperor 210 00:21:33.519 --> 00:21:40.799 traveled, he was carried on an elegant litter. Pedro Pizaro, Francisco's brother, 211 00:21:41.319 --> 00:21:45.640 reports as follows quote, he was seated on a wooden stool a little 212 00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:51.599 more than nine inches high. This stool, called a dujo, was a 213 00:21:51.720 --> 00:21:56.559 very lovely reddish wood and was always kept covered with a delicate rug. Even 214 00:21:56.559 --> 00:22:00.039 when he was seated on it, the ladies brought his meal and placed it 215 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:06.039 before him on tender, thin green rushes. They placed all his vessels of 216 00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:11.480 gold, silver and pottery on these rushes. He pointed to whatever he fancied, 217 00:22:11.480 --> 00:22:15.079 and it was brought. He was eating in this manner one day, 218 00:22:15.160 --> 00:22:19.400 when I was present, A slice of food was being lifted to his mouth 219 00:22:19.400 --> 00:22:23.400 when a drop fell on the clothing he was wearing. Giving his hand to 220 00:22:23.440 --> 00:22:27.319 the Indian lady, he rose and went into his chamber to change his dress, 221 00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:32.799 and returned wearing a dark brown tunic and cloak. I approached him and 222 00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:37.119 felt the cloak, which was softer than silk. He explained that it was 223 00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:41.519 made from the skins of bats that fled by night in Putrato Viejo, and 224 00:22:41.640 --> 00:22:45.720 that bite the natives end Quotum. When a new emperor came to the throne, 225 00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:48.960 the occasion was attended by all the pageantry one might expect for a man 226 00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:53.200 believed to be a god. All the eminent lords in the land who could 227 00:22:53.240 --> 00:22:59.920 travel to Couscoe did on this ceremony. By the way, there were substant 228 00:23:00.279 --> 00:23:07.039 human sacrifices. Sadly the ascension of a new emperor meant that two hundred children 229 00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:12.880 ages four to ten would be sacrificed alongside them. When huge numbers of sacrificed 230 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:18.759 yamas and alpacas, as well as clothing, seashells, gold, and silver. 231 00:23:19.799 --> 00:23:26.759 After an emperor died, he was mummified and his mummified remains remained in 232 00:23:26.839 --> 00:23:33.160 Cusco. Again referencing Pedro Pissaro, he recalled quote, most of the people 233 00:23:33.160 --> 00:23:37.119 of Cuscu served the dead, I've heard it said, who They daily brought 234 00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:41.200 out to the main square, setting them down in a ring, each one 235 00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:45.160 according to his age, and there the male and female attendants ate and drank. 236 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:48.240 The attendants made fires for each of the dead in front of them, 237 00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:52.319 with firewood that was worked and cut until it was quite even very dry, 238 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:57.119 and lighting them burned everything they had before them, so that the dead should 239 00:23:57.119 --> 00:24:00.640 eat of everything that the living hate, which is what was burned in these 240 00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:07.920 fires. The attendants also placed before these dead certain large pitchers of gold or 241 00:24:07.960 --> 00:24:11.200 silver or clay, each as he wished. And here they poured out the 242 00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:15.440 chica that they gave the mummies to drink, showing it to him, and 243 00:24:15.480 --> 00:24:19.200 the mummies toasted each other, and the living and the living toasted the dead. 244 00:24:21.160 --> 00:24:25.000 When the vessels were full, they emptied them over a circular stone they 245 00:24:25.039 --> 00:24:27.200 had for an idol in the middle of the plaza, around which there was 246 00:24:27.240 --> 00:24:32.279 a small channel, and the beer drained off through the underground pipes. End 247 00:24:32.319 --> 00:24:37.960 quote. A different Spaniard who saw the mummies was astonished. Quote. Their 248 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:44.839 bodies were so perfect that they lacked neither hair, nor eyebrows, nor eyelashes. 249 00:24:45.519 --> 00:24:48.720 They were in clothes such as they had worn when alive, with yantas 250 00:24:48.759 --> 00:24:53.519 on their heads, but no other sign of royalty. They were seated in 251 00:24:53.559 --> 00:24:57.839 the way Indian men and women usually sit, with their arms crossed over their 252 00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:03.079 chests, the over the left, and their eyes cast down. I remember 253 00:25:03.319 --> 00:25:07.559 touching a finger of the hand of Juanna Kappak. It was hard and rigid, 254 00:25:07.880 --> 00:25:12.519 like that of a wooden statue. The bodies with so little that any 255 00:25:12.559 --> 00:25:17.079 Indian could carry them from house to house in his arms or on his shoulders. 256 00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:22.359 They carried them wrapped in white sheets through the streets and squares, the 257 00:25:22.480 --> 00:25:26.279 Indians falling to their knees and making reverences with groans and tears, and many 258 00:25:26.319 --> 00:25:32.359 Spaniards taking off their cap end quote. Below the emperor was the willak Umu, 259 00:25:32.440 --> 00:25:36.400 or high priest. He was the second most powerful person in the empire. 260 00:25:37.240 --> 00:25:41.400 Beyond his religious duties, he was often the emperor's field marshal in times 261 00:25:41.400 --> 00:25:47.079 of war. Below him were the different families of the Emperor. There was 262 00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:55.039 significant intermarriage, of course, between different aristocratic factions. These factions also played 263 00:25:55.079 --> 00:25:59.759 a major role in determining the next emperor, so we can guess that there 264 00:25:59.799 --> 00:26:03.400 was a fair amount of jockeying for a position within the court, like there 265 00:26:03.519 --> 00:26:08.960 is in just about any court. Rank though was judged in this case by 266 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:17.079 blood proximity to the emperor and never on age women. Especially the sovereign's principal 267 00:26:17.119 --> 00:26:22.000 life. He could have had. Several were powerful figures in the royal line, 268 00:26:22.599 --> 00:26:26.759 according to our sources, like the acumenated Persians. The Inca married sisters 269 00:26:26.839 --> 00:26:33.039 or first cousins in order to keep the line pure. We have no evidence 270 00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:37.680 that this resulted in any inbreeding issues, probably because the Incan Empire did not 271 00:26:37.839 --> 00:26:44.319 exist long enough for those problems to crop up. This also seems to have 272 00:26:44.319 --> 00:26:49.680 been a change in practice that happened sometime during the imperial period. Another change 273 00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:56.480 with the designation of a quote primary wife end quote, only her offspring would 274 00:26:56.480 --> 00:27:00.960 be considered potential errors to the throne. This just sort of makes sense. 275 00:27:02.680 --> 00:27:06.880 You don't want scores of offspring competing for one spot, or you run into 276 00:27:06.920 --> 00:27:11.599 the kind of dynastic issues that are going to help to undermine the Ottoman Empire. 277 00:27:11.799 --> 00:27:18.039 The Inca's political system undoubtedly evolved over time, but their history's flexibility makes 278 00:27:18.039 --> 00:27:22.599 it really hard to pin down the timing and the nature of these changes. 279 00:27:22.480 --> 00:27:26.240 Still, the chronicles are our best source for insight as to how the practices 280 00:27:26.279 --> 00:27:33.039 of power helped shape the government structure. These suggest that the royal successions and 281 00:27:33.200 --> 00:27:40.960 marriages were pivotal moments for conflict and maneuver, although certain rulers also tried ideological 282 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:47.839 reformations that would have enhanced their positions some years ago. Different historians through attention 283 00:27:47.880 --> 00:27:53.480 to the bloody infighting inherent in royal successions and observed because the situation arose as 284 00:27:53.519 --> 00:28:00.720 a result of Andean rules of succession, typically favoring vigorous actors, really kind 285 00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:04.440 of similar to the Ottomans. Often a lord passed his station to the sun 286 00:28:04.559 --> 00:28:10.200 who showed himself to be the most able, regardless of birth position, but 287 00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:15.039 it wasn't uncommon for a number of able brothers to hold a office successively. 288 00:28:17.160 --> 00:28:23.440 Among the Inca's factional competition meant that successful aspirants won the throne through political intrigue, 289 00:28:23.519 --> 00:28:29.400 coup, murder, and sometimes even civil war. Cusco was the heart 290 00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:33.960 of the Incan Empire. It would not have odd visitors in the way Technostiklan 291 00:28:34.119 --> 00:28:40.480 did. Cusco was the sacred center of the empire and its administrative hub, 292 00:28:41.240 --> 00:28:44.200 but it would be wrong to talk about it as a great city in the 293 00:28:44.240 --> 00:28:48.160 way we can talk about the capital of old Mexico. It was a city 294 00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:53.880 of thatched roofs and temples, the core of which covered about one hundred acres. 295 00:28:55.480 --> 00:28:59.519 To put that into perspective for you, by comparison today, New York 296 00:28:59.559 --> 00:29:07.680 City is one hundred and ninety three thousand acres, So Cusco was about point 297 00:29:07.880 --> 00:29:11.880 zero five percent as large as New York City is today. Not a fair 298 00:29:12.039 --> 00:29:17.359 comparison by any means, but one that was just intended to give you a 299 00:29:17.400 --> 00:29:23.720 sense. The town and its suburbs were larger, encompassing terraced fields and intricate 300 00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:32.240 networks of canals and baths. It's hard to imagine Imperial Cusco today, because 301 00:29:32.279 --> 00:29:36.880 the Spaniards began altering it basically as soon as they took possession of the city 302 00:29:36.920 --> 00:29:41.640 in fifteen thirty three. One thing that anyone who has been to Cousco notices 303 00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:47.599 is the mountains. Cusco is one of the highest cities in the world. 304 00:29:48.519 --> 00:29:52.960 The city lies at an elevation of eleven three hundred feet, but still, 305 00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:59.640 despite this, it's productive. There are numerous streams, and the surrounding valleys 306 00:29:59.680 --> 00:30:04.240 are well suited to growing a variety of highland crops. Despite the fact that 307 00:30:04.799 --> 00:30:11.000 maybe it wouldn't have compared to technos declan in size or splendor, Certainly, 308 00:30:11.400 --> 00:30:15.359 Cousco was the greatest city in all of South America in the sixteenth century. 309 00:30:17.400 --> 00:30:23.559 Its elegance even impressed the Spaniards. Pisaro's personal secretary wrote, quote, the 310 00:30:23.640 --> 00:30:29.480 city would have four thousand residential homes between the two rivers surrounding it, and 311 00:30:29.519 --> 00:30:32.200 they are on the slope of a mountain, and at the head of the 312 00:30:32.240 --> 00:30:34.720 city and the same mountain there is a fort with many rooms end quote. 313 00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:41.079 The population of the urban central sector was only about fifteen to twenty thousand people, 314 00:30:41.599 --> 00:30:45.839 with an additional fifty thousand in the surrounding districts. If you were to 315 00:30:45.880 --> 00:30:48.640 go out, say five miles in all directions, then you could get a 316 00:30:48.720 --> 00:30:53.160 total for the Inca capital of maybe one hundred, one hundred and fifty thousand 317 00:30:53.240 --> 00:30:59.759 people. The Inca famously said that their capital had been built in the image 318 00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:04.559 of a Huma, though whether they meant that literally or figuratively is anyone's guess. 319 00:31:04.720 --> 00:31:10.640 Again, given the destruction that took place after the imperial period, the 320 00:31:10.720 --> 00:31:12.599 streets were laid out in a rough grid, but all were very narrow. 321 00:31:12.920 --> 00:31:17.359 This, after all, was a society that did not use the wheel for 322 00:31:17.400 --> 00:31:22.119 transportation. Of course, as with any capital, there was a royal section 323 00:31:22.160 --> 00:31:26.720 to the city that other ordinary people were not permitted to enter. There were 324 00:31:26.720 --> 00:31:32.599 many temples and shrines throughout the city, but the largest and most important was 325 00:31:32.839 --> 00:31:40.599 Krikkanasha, or the Golden Enclosure. Today it's most commonly referred to as the 326 00:31:40.599 --> 00:31:45.839 Temple of the Sun. You can still see the masonry today I visited myself, 327 00:31:45.400 --> 00:31:49.119 though it was converted to a church and the gold plates carted off immediately 328 00:31:49.160 --> 00:31:56.000 after conquest. It was the Empire's most important shrine that, as I mentioned 329 00:31:56.079 --> 00:32:01.200 last time, all other local temples beyond the Temple of the Sun were situated 330 00:32:01.240 --> 00:32:08.160 along lines which emanated out from the central point. Of course, every ruler 331 00:32:08.200 --> 00:32:15.759 and nobleman owned vast estates beyond Cusco. The period of imperial expansion had put 332 00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:21.599 huge amounts of land into Inca pockets proverbially speaking, and the nobility quickly converted 333 00:32:21.680 --> 00:32:29.559 all this into private estates. Every ruler from Wakashaw Inca on ruled vast estates 334 00:32:29.559 --> 00:32:35.440 of their own, and certainly these were more substantial than anything the nobility commanded. 335 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:39.720 Our picture of the pre Hispanic system of landownership in the Inca Empire has 336 00:32:39.759 --> 00:32:45.240 been clouded by native complaints ready to use European legal ideas to gain control over 337 00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:52.559 land. But even without those complications, control of resources in the Inca Empire 338 00:32:52.759 --> 00:32:58.240 was clouded and entangled. Inca rulers, kin groups, institutions, and other 339 00:32:58.279 --> 00:33:01.599 elite men and women held us states, and there may have been some discretion 340 00:33:01.640 --> 00:33:07.759 involved in who they passed those onto. Most importantly, a deceased ruler's estates 341 00:33:07.799 --> 00:33:13.400 were normally left to his panca or his kin group, following the custom of 342 00:33:13.440 --> 00:33:16.839 split inheritance. The throne passed on to his successor, who then had to 343 00:33:16.880 --> 00:33:22.240 develop his own kin group's resources. The lands of the queen were held separate, 344 00:33:22.279 --> 00:33:27.039 and when she died these went to her relatives, not to the kings. 345 00:33:28.039 --> 00:33:31.680 The natural complexity of the ecology of the region and the slow development of 346 00:33:31.720 --> 00:33:37.240 the estates meant that the parcels belonging to rulers, aristocrats, and local communities 347 00:33:37.519 --> 00:33:43.920 were usually intermingled with one another. Since the Inca elite were linked through blood 348 00:33:43.920 --> 00:33:50.039 and marriage in many ways, ownership of these lands was really really complicated. 349 00:33:51.480 --> 00:33:55.599 Personal choice may have played a role in inheritance, but may not have. 350 00:33:55.759 --> 00:34:00.599 We're not sure. Over the generations, the number in types of claims that 351 00:34:00.599 --> 00:34:08.559 could be placed on particular plots probably multiplied exponentially and created fertile ground for intrigue, 352 00:34:08.599 --> 00:34:14.719 to say the least. So for the balance of this episode, I 353 00:34:14.760 --> 00:34:20.920 will focus on the income military system and how that military translated into provincial rule. 354 00:34:21.039 --> 00:34:25.039 Obviously, because the income military system is going to play a huge role 355 00:34:25.599 --> 00:34:30.280 in the years to come. Of course, it should go without saying that 356 00:34:30.400 --> 00:34:36.000 diplomacy, reward payments, so on and so forth, we're all essential ingredients 357 00:34:36.039 --> 00:34:42.599 in the Inca's formula for creating their empire. But warfare lay at the heart 358 00:34:42.679 --> 00:34:51.440 of the process, both symbolically and practically. Triumphant campaigns put untold resources at 359 00:34:51.519 --> 00:34:57.199 Cusco's disposal, showered glory on the elites, and gave the common folk a 360 00:34:57.360 --> 00:35:02.599 rare chance as soldiers to better their state in life. Although the Inca's negotiated 361 00:35:02.639 --> 00:35:08.360 dominion over many societies while shedding little blood, you should be noted their armies 362 00:35:08.400 --> 00:35:15.119 met considerable opposition, and a few societies resisted the Inca rule for many many 363 00:35:15.199 --> 00:35:23.320 years. Effective Inca strategy thus required mobilizing thousands of military and auxiliary personnel for 364 00:35:23.400 --> 00:35:30.679 campaigns, and these for the last months, sometimes even decades. To meet 365 00:35:30.719 --> 00:35:36.400 their military goals, the Inca created a network of internal garrisons, frontier forts, 366 00:35:37.039 --> 00:35:42.559 and an incredibly remarkable logistical system of roads, support facilities, and supply 367 00:35:42.679 --> 00:35:50.239 depots. Those military activities collectively placed enormous, though sporadic, I should note 368 00:35:50.639 --> 00:35:54.440 demands on the human and natural resources of the Andes throughout the period of Inca 369 00:35:54.519 --> 00:36:01.280 rule. When the Incan Empire exploded, it faced massive obstacles. The Inca 370 00:36:01.440 --> 00:36:07.760 were neither the most populous nor the richest ethnic group in the region. The 371 00:36:07.840 --> 00:36:13.960 Inca balanced annexation through warfare, coercion, and diplomacy. Usually by diplomacy I 372 00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:20.440 mean marriage alliances. But and we have heard this story before, the key 373 00:36:20.519 --> 00:36:24.559 to early Incol's success was that they're neighboring peoples, much like the Ninjas and 374 00:36:24.760 --> 00:36:30.039 all those eighties Karate movies lined up to take them one at a time. 375 00:36:31.320 --> 00:36:37.519 Had these various peoples coordinated really at all, then the Inca probably would have 376 00:36:37.559 --> 00:36:43.599 had a much harder time expanding. By and large, the Inca practiced the 377 00:36:43.639 --> 00:36:50.039 same strategy as countless other successful expansion as peoples, the Romans and the Mongols 378 00:36:50.119 --> 00:36:57.320 probably being the clearest examples. They were generous to those who submitted and vicious 379 00:36:57.360 --> 00:37:01.800 to those who resisted. As the Inca expanded, they switched to a more 380 00:37:01.840 --> 00:37:08.559 stable form of dominion generally, but especially in the highland and northern regions close 381 00:37:08.599 --> 00:37:14.960 to Ecuador. This meant moving from a low intensity form of rule to a 382 00:37:15.079 --> 00:37:21.440 high intensity, high control strategy. Partially this was because of a need to 383 00:37:21.480 --> 00:37:27.320 be more defensive, and so in its nature, the Inca Empire relied on 384 00:37:27.719 --> 00:37:31.960 what we would call defense in depth. Around the periphery of their empire, 385 00:37:32.360 --> 00:37:39.639 they built a variety of strongholds behind which operated mobile attack forces. The forts 386 00:37:39.639 --> 00:37:45.599 were designed merely to hold up the enemy advance until the larger army could arrive, 387 00:37:46.159 --> 00:37:52.480 but there weren't hundreds of these forts. The Inca didn't have a firm 388 00:37:52.480 --> 00:38:00.159 border line like the lines that we enjoy drawing on maps today. Their relationship 389 00:38:00.159 --> 00:38:05.920 with their neighbors was much more flexible. As situations dictated, the Inca could 390 00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:10.079 choose to leave their frontiers permeable, or they could stiffen them up. The 391 00:38:10.159 --> 00:38:15.320 permanent forts were not usually elaborate affairs, though they were of course well tailored 392 00:38:15.320 --> 00:38:21.840 to the kind of threats that the INCA expected. The Incas could expect attacks 393 00:38:21.840 --> 00:38:27.280 with projectiles of limited range and powers mostly arrows, spears, and slingstones, 394 00:38:28.280 --> 00:38:32.679 but they didn't have to cope with things like explosives, mounted attacks, or 395 00:38:32.840 --> 00:38:39.039 siege machinery such as battering rams or catapults. Frontal attacks by shock troops was 396 00:38:39.079 --> 00:38:45.159 the preferred method of taking a stronghold in the Andes, so forts were designed 397 00:38:45.199 --> 00:38:51.719 to repel waves of soldiers in close combat. They usually consisted of walled enclosures 398 00:38:51.760 --> 00:38:55.360 with broad open areas and spare architecture, set on hilltops or at the crest 399 00:38:55.400 --> 00:39:00.880 of steep slopes. Many had several centric walls, moats, so on, 400 00:39:00.920 --> 00:39:07.039 and so forth. The encircling walls were often built with bends and salients to 401 00:39:07.079 --> 00:39:12.000 gain multiple shooting angles on assaulting troops. They weren't totally on like early medieval 402 00:39:12.039 --> 00:39:19.760 castles in any way. Behind the walls, the Inca typically erected elongated platforms 403 00:39:19.760 --> 00:39:25.079 and piles of slingstones. Entry was channeled through doorways that were sometimes offset or 404 00:39:25.159 --> 00:39:30.639 laid out in zigzag patterns in order to foil massive attacks. The largest of 405 00:39:30.639 --> 00:39:37.440 these forts encompassed no more than maybe seven or eight acres, which limited the 406 00:39:37.519 --> 00:39:43.000 number of people who could seek refuge, but kept perimeters relatively short. They 407 00:39:43.039 --> 00:39:46.599 weren't designed to hold large number of soldiers for any length of time, and 408 00:39:46.800 --> 00:39:51.960 armies on the move typically slept in tents even when they were within the fort 409 00:39:52.039 --> 00:39:54.760 structure. Again, you have to keep in mind we're talking about defense in 410 00:39:54.800 --> 00:40:00.840 depth here, so the idea behind the fort isn't really to repel the invading 411 00:40:00.920 --> 00:40:05.079 army. It's to hold it up until your larger mobile force can get there. 412 00:40:05.599 --> 00:40:08.960 Even in fifteen thirty two, the INCA military command structure was not complex 413 00:40:09.119 --> 00:40:14.960 even by the standards of ancient empires, there was no standing army. Levies 414 00:40:14.960 --> 00:40:17.880 were called up as needed. The emperor was the commander in chief. Of 415 00:40:17.880 --> 00:40:22.360 course, below him was a complex hierarchy of commanders all the way down to 416 00:40:22.400 --> 00:40:28.760 the average fighting man. High ranking commanders were normally the blood relations of the 417 00:40:28.760 --> 00:40:36.159 emperor. The Inca did this to prevent civil war. Close blood relations usually 418 00:40:36.239 --> 00:40:42.039 had the same interests. Broadly speaking, putting more capable men in charge of 419 00:40:42.159 --> 00:40:45.639 units might make more sense in the moment, but these men could then create 420 00:40:45.719 --> 00:40:52.480 powerful bonds between themselves and the soldiers they served, and that ladies and gentlemen 421 00:40:52.920 --> 00:40:59.000 is a great way to cause a coup. Today, it's hard to estimate 422 00:40:59.039 --> 00:41:04.519 the size of Inca armies. Both Inca sources and contemporary Spanish ones say that 423 00:41:04.519 --> 00:41:08.920 the Inca could field armies of one hundred thousand men. We should be skeptical 424 00:41:08.960 --> 00:41:15.000 of those numbers for obvious reasons. Certainly, all the Spanish sources list that 425 00:41:15.079 --> 00:41:21.760 they were massively outnumbered. However, it was in their interest to do so 426 00:41:22.159 --> 00:41:29.039 in order to maximize tales of their bravery, etc. Military service under the 427 00:41:29.039 --> 00:41:35.599 Incas was abroad, but not universal labor duty of adult males. In principle, 428 00:41:36.199 --> 00:41:40.800 all able bodied males whose age grade fell between roughly twenty five and fifty 429 00:41:40.880 --> 00:41:46.239 years old were subject to muster on a rotating basis. The elite core of 430 00:41:46.239 --> 00:41:52.639 the army was formed by the Orejonnees, which translates into big ears. This 431 00:41:52.840 --> 00:41:58.079 was a few thousand men who had been trained from youth to know war and 432 00:41:58.199 --> 00:42:04.280 nothing else. They were sort of the equivalent of the Spartan equals. Incan 433 00:42:04.480 --> 00:42:10.000 army has included few specialists other than the officers and the Orejones. There were 434 00:42:10.119 --> 00:42:15.760 some differences, however, Especially late in the empire, the Inca created standing 435 00:42:15.800 --> 00:42:22.880 fortress armies along some of their more troublesome borders, especially in Ecuador. These 436 00:42:22.920 --> 00:42:29.920 tended to be permanent professional soldiers. Because the empire had passed its expansion phase, 437 00:42:30.519 --> 00:42:34.840 there was much less glamor in serving and a lot less booty too. 438 00:42:35.599 --> 00:42:39.199 Hence we can conclude the Inca had a harder time recruiting and had to make 439 00:42:39.239 --> 00:42:47.679 these garrison forces permanent. As a consequence, Certainly, ritual and ideology pervaded 440 00:42:47.719 --> 00:42:53.599 Inca militarism from strategy to tactics. What we cannot say, however, is 441 00:42:53.639 --> 00:43:00.239 how large of a role the ideology played in the Inca's expansion, priests often 442 00:43:00.320 --> 00:43:07.039 served military roles. We do know that Atahualpa, the last real Inca emperor, 443 00:43:07.719 --> 00:43:12.280 had his chief priests lead a major expedition against the province of Rata, 444 00:43:12.440 --> 00:43:16.920 which is modern day Ecuador. And whenever the Inca marched into battle, they 445 00:43:16.960 --> 00:43:22.360 carried an array of idols and religious items with them. This isn't any different, 446 00:43:22.559 --> 00:43:29.519 by the way, from how medieval European armies functioned. Incan religious beliefs 447 00:43:29.519 --> 00:43:34.679 also impacted their battle strategy. For example, the Inca always held festivals on 448 00:43:34.719 --> 00:43:39.480 the night of a new moon and never conducted military operations on that night. 449 00:43:40.760 --> 00:43:45.400 This is a fact that the Spanish are going to use to their advantage. 450 00:43:45.519 --> 00:43:52.440 As we will see, the Inca had a policy of taking captured idols back 451 00:43:52.480 --> 00:43:57.159 to Cusco from people that they conquered, so as to force the conquered people 452 00:43:57.360 --> 00:44:02.159 to travel to Cusco to worship their gods. Was sort of a power play. 453 00:44:02.239 --> 00:44:07.599 When the Inca marched off on campaign, they dispatched multiple contingents who left 454 00:44:07.639 --> 00:44:13.800 at different times. The staggered approach lessened the burden on the communities the armies 455 00:44:13.800 --> 00:44:17.760 had to move through. Any force would have been large. However, as 456 00:44:17.800 --> 00:44:23.880 it would have included a substantial entourage of porters, lives, servants, and 457 00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:30.199 other personnel. The Inca were always careful as they moved their armies. A 458 00:44:30.360 --> 00:44:35.960 lead force preceded the main body by about two or three days march, the 459 00:44:36.039 --> 00:44:40.159 rear guard followed it by two days. In all, troops would be spread 460 00:44:40.159 --> 00:44:45.119 out over more than forty miles, and they had to spread out. The 461 00:44:45.199 --> 00:44:51.760 Inca road system was excellent, but even the provincial centers were not equipped to 462 00:44:51.800 --> 00:44:57.440 shelter thousands of soldiers at one time. Discipline among the troops was kind of 463 00:44:57.480 --> 00:45:00.199 mixed. While on the road, the soldiers were said to be forbidden to 464 00:45:00.239 --> 00:45:05.360 stray from the road or to take any goods from the countryside on pain of 465 00:45:05.440 --> 00:45:12.960 death, and the Spaniards actually witnessed different capital punishment for disciplinary infractions. Thirty 466 00:45:13.000 --> 00:45:16.480 to forty of Ottahuapa's guard were executed when they broke ranks in the face of 467 00:45:16.519 --> 00:45:21.920 a display of horsemanship. Regardless of the order exhibited on the march and in 468 00:45:21.960 --> 00:45:25.599 the camp, however, discipline broke quickly on the battlefield, and looting was 469 00:45:25.639 --> 00:45:31.119 the order of the day following any victories. Few aspects of the Inca Empire 470 00:45:31.159 --> 00:45:37.039 impressed the conquista doors more than its supply and transport system. Besides the road 471 00:45:37.119 --> 00:45:42.400 network, the most renowned aspect of the Inca supply system was the array of 472 00:45:42.440 --> 00:45:47.480 storehouses, which stockpiled an enormous variety of food, arms, clothing, and 473 00:45:47.599 --> 00:45:52.880 other items throughout the empire. Each soldier was supposed to receive a set of 474 00:45:52.880 --> 00:45:59.800 clothing and sandals annually, and some weapons were also provided. They were all 475 00:46:00.199 --> 00:46:06.159 issued blankets, corn peppers, and cocoa leaf. The difficulties of transport in 476 00:46:06.159 --> 00:46:13.599 the rugged Andean terrain required that the storage facilities be replicated regionally. The massive 477 00:46:13.639 --> 00:46:20.119 scale of the system is best exemplified by the hundreds or even thousands of storehouses 478 00:46:20.320 --> 00:46:23.800 at each major center, from Cusco all the way down to the south to 479 00:46:23.880 --> 00:46:31.559 Tupinaya. Each small way of station was located about fifteen miles or so along 480 00:46:31.559 --> 00:46:37.760 the roads, which also stored goods for state travelers, not just military purposes. 481 00:46:38.400 --> 00:46:45.159 The Incas relied on yama caravans and human porters for transportation. The state 482 00:46:45.239 --> 00:46:50.320 owned hundreds, if not thousands, of yamas, and on occasion, individual 483 00:46:50.360 --> 00:46:57.880 pack trains could include tens of thousands of animals. Although these camelids are supremely 484 00:46:57.920 --> 00:47:01.199 well adapted to the rikers of the mountains. There are some limitations to their 485 00:47:01.239 --> 00:47:08.400 abilities. For example, yama caravans could cover only about eighteen, maybe even 486 00:47:08.400 --> 00:47:14.079 only fifteen miles per day, which is actually the reason that that's the distance 487 00:47:14.119 --> 00:47:22.159 between the storehouses. Typically, two loads of about twenty pounds each would be 488 00:47:22.280 --> 00:47:29.239 rotated among three adult males, but they still break down constantly, and as 489 00:47:29.280 --> 00:47:32.320 anybody who's ever seen a yama in real life knows, when they don't want 490 00:47:32.320 --> 00:47:37.960 to go, they don't want to go, and when they get tired, 491 00:47:37.639 --> 00:47:43.800 the yama just sort of stops right where it is and there's nothing you can 492 00:47:43.800 --> 00:47:50.400 do about it. As a consequence, humans probably carried the majority of portage 493 00:47:50.400 --> 00:47:54.960 on their backs. In reality, they were more reliable and could carry heavier 494 00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.440 loads. Of course, they had to be fed from local supplies or carry 495 00:47:59.480 --> 00:48:06.239 their own, but both colonial and modern figures because there are porters still around 496 00:48:06.239 --> 00:48:12.840 Manchu Pichu today, and this suggests that these folks could carry at least twenty 497 00:48:12.840 --> 00:48:19.480 five to thirty pounds on their back per day for upwards of maybe twenty miles. 498 00:48:20.320 --> 00:48:23.800 And as an aside, the porters that the Incas used, they were 499 00:48:23.840 --> 00:48:30.440 both male and female, so it was an equal opportunity business. In terms 500 00:48:30.480 --> 00:48:37.079 of tactics, the Inca followed a few tried intrude strategies. The Inca typically 501 00:48:37.079 --> 00:48:42.119 waited until their entire force was assembled before launching an attack. This was so 502 00:48:42.159 --> 00:48:45.440 that they could bring a massive amount of force to bear on their opponent. 503 00:48:45.480 --> 00:48:51.320 Sometimes this really did go to extremes. In fifteen thirty six, the Inca 504 00:48:51.360 --> 00:48:55.800 commander is going to wait several weeks to attack the Spanish in Cusco until his 505 00:48:57.000 --> 00:49:01.679 army was between one hundred to two hundred thousand men strong, even though the 506 00:49:01.800 --> 00:49:09.239 Spanish only had one hundred and ninety men. The Inca also used feigned retreats 507 00:49:09.280 --> 00:49:16.559 and pincer attacks. It's hard to imagine or even talk about an Inca battle. 508 00:49:16.639 --> 00:49:22.400 Once the armies were joined, they would have been noisy, certainly colorful 509 00:49:22.400 --> 00:49:28.599 affairs. I mean, consider the following Spanish account quote. Over this defensive 510 00:49:28.639 --> 00:49:32.000 gear, they would usually wear their most attractive rich adornments and jewels. This 511 00:49:32.119 --> 00:49:37.960 included wearing fine plumes of many colors on their heads and large gold and silver 512 00:49:38.079 --> 00:49:43.760 plates on their chests and backs. However, the plates worn by the poorer 513 00:49:43.840 --> 00:49:50.239 soldiers were of Copper end quote. The Inca, like most pre modern societies, 514 00:49:50.599 --> 00:49:54.239 lined up for battle according to their kin group. Each group, like 515 00:49:54.679 --> 00:49:59.679 the achaemen in Persian armies, for example, had their own sort of special 516 00:49:59.679 --> 00:50:04.119 weapon. The bow and arrow, as an example, were totally unknown to 517 00:50:04.159 --> 00:50:09.639 the Inca and only used by their levies from the jungle regions. If the 518 00:50:09.679 --> 00:50:15.000 Inca army had a weakness, and this is going to be very important for 519 00:50:15.079 --> 00:50:22.239 our story, it was in its command structure. Commanders always led their men 520 00:50:22.280 --> 00:50:30.440 into battle, but the chain of command itself never seemed to extend past the 521 00:50:30.519 --> 00:50:37.000 lead commanders, so when they fell, no one knew who was in charge, 522 00:50:37.920 --> 00:50:43.800 and the attack inevitably faltered and then inevitably turned into a route the other 523 00:50:43.840 --> 00:50:50.039 way. This is true even in circumstances by the way in which the Inca 524 00:50:50.119 --> 00:50:58.480 are going to enjoy massive numerical advantages in terms of the empire. When the 525 00:50:58.519 --> 00:51:02.079 Inca were victorious, we know that they held grand triumphs in Cusco. In 526 00:51:02.119 --> 00:51:07.360 fact, we know this because Atahualpa was on his way to one when he 527 00:51:07.440 --> 00:51:14.119 ran into Pizarro. Once the conquest was over, the Inca needed a way 528 00:51:14.159 --> 00:51:19.960 to rule over their conquered subjects. In the provinces, the Inca officials were 529 00:51:19.960 --> 00:51:25.440 outnumbered, probably one hundred or more to one, so the Inca adopted a 530 00:51:25.519 --> 00:51:31.880 mixed strategy. The central portions of the empire closer to Cusco they ruled those 531 00:51:31.960 --> 00:51:38.960 directly the coast, north and south. The more distant regions those they ruled 532 00:51:38.960 --> 00:51:47.000 through local elites. Another favored tactic of the Inca was resettlement. They regularly 533 00:51:47.119 --> 00:51:53.840 moved populations large populations around to make them easier to govern and to break up 534 00:51:53.880 --> 00:52:01.679 some ethnic loyalties. By fifteen thirty two, millions of people had been resettled 535 00:52:01.679 --> 00:52:08.960 in this system, so the Inca were not so much inventding new governments as 536 00:52:08.960 --> 00:52:17.679 they were simply reshuffling ethnic groups. There were at least eighty provinces in the 537 00:52:17.679 --> 00:52:22.960 Incan Empire. Each province was divided into two or three parts, called the 538 00:52:22.039 --> 00:52:29.519 sayya, and the Inca used a decimal system to build this. The goal 539 00:52:29.639 --> 00:52:34.360 was to wind up with even groups. Ideally you would have ten thousand heads 540 00:52:34.360 --> 00:52:38.920 of household per sayya. A governor was in charge of each large province, 541 00:52:39.599 --> 00:52:45.800 and this person was ideally in ethnic Inca, but in a pinch, they 542 00:52:45.920 --> 00:52:52.760 could and did recruit local elites. In this case, the INCA favoritability and 543 00:52:52.039 --> 00:53:00.079 inept but ethnically Incan governors found themselves quickly replaced. These governors had a lot 544 00:53:00.119 --> 00:53:07.480 of tasks, from supervising the census all the way to mobilizing their population for 545 00:53:07.639 --> 00:53:12.480 whatever task was required. And as I just mentioned, the INCA used the 546 00:53:12.559 --> 00:53:16.840 decimal system and they tried to organize their heads of households into groups of ten 547 00:53:17.280 --> 00:53:22.239 fifty, one hundred, five hundred one five and then ultimately ten thousand. 548 00:53:22.400 --> 00:53:30.119 That was the goal. The INCA ultimately decided who was the head of household 549 00:53:30.119 --> 00:53:35.639 in each family. What they tried to do was designate an air normally at 550 00:53:35.639 --> 00:53:40.960 the most appropriate transition points, so when the current air enters the sort of 551 00:53:42.039 --> 00:53:45.960 lake endgame of their major stage of life, it was time to appoint a 552 00:53:46.079 --> 00:53:52.440 new head of household. Hence, the INCA were much more intimately involved at 553 00:53:52.440 --> 00:53:55.760 the local level than many of the other empires that we've talked about in this 554 00:53:55.840 --> 00:54:05.159 podcast. Now, of course, this decimal system was never universally used and 555 00:54:05.199 --> 00:54:10.400 it was never perfect. Obviously, sure did they want a ten thousand group 556 00:54:10.440 --> 00:54:15.119 of head of households? Obviously? Yeah they did. Is that easy to 557 00:54:15.119 --> 00:54:19.639 achieve in the pre modern system. No, of course not. So they 558 00:54:19.639 --> 00:54:23.599 got as close as they could, and in fact, we have no evidence 559 00:54:24.239 --> 00:54:30.760 that the decimal system was ever used in Incan provinces in Chile or Argentina. 560 00:54:31.039 --> 00:54:36.559 If you were ethnically a non Inca, then the only way into the top 561 00:54:36.599 --> 00:54:42.199 of their power structure was to be named a quote Inca by privilege and quote, 562 00:54:43.199 --> 00:54:49.760 but this, ladies and gentlemen, was rare. To keep the system 563 00:54:49.840 --> 00:54:55.719 running and free from corruption, the administration in Cousco used various levels of inspectors 564 00:54:55.800 --> 00:55:00.920 or judges to tour the realm and ensure that the rule were being followed. 565 00:55:00.960 --> 00:55:07.440 Evidently, officials in Cusco did not totally trust everyone in the provinces, and 566 00:55:07.519 --> 00:55:13.000 to maintain social order, the Inca applied many of their own customs to the 567 00:55:13.039 --> 00:55:17.880 societies that they ruled, but they never invented massive law codes or anything more 568 00:55:17.960 --> 00:55:23.480 formal like that. They did have rules that were intended to make sure that 569 00:55:23.519 --> 00:55:30.639 people stayed where they were supposed to be. A resettled colonist was tortured if 570 00:55:30.639 --> 00:55:35.199 he tried to go home for the first time. The second time he was 571 00:55:35.239 --> 00:55:40.880 executed. There was the usual class consciousness that we would expect to find in 572 00:55:40.920 --> 00:55:46.079 a pre modern society. For example, you couldn't judge someone unless you were 573 00:55:46.119 --> 00:55:52.039 in at least the same social rank as them. Obviously, this put the 574 00:55:52.039 --> 00:55:58.480 lower orders at a severe disadvantage, which was intentional. Men and women were 575 00:55:58.480 --> 00:56:04.880 also punished differently for the same crime, but they were both punished. Incest 576 00:56:05.119 --> 00:56:10.000 violations resulted in both parties being beaten and shaved, but then the man was 577 00:56:10.039 --> 00:56:15.960 sent to the mines and the woman to the temple for service. Most penalties, 578 00:56:16.440 --> 00:56:23.320 as you probably guessed, involved some form of physical punishment. The INCA 579 00:56:23.440 --> 00:56:30.639 managed provincial affairs through a network of regional centers and secondary facilities, all connected 580 00:56:30.639 --> 00:56:37.119 by a highway system that was the absolute best in the New World. One 581 00:56:37.199 --> 00:56:39.960 Spaniard, who saw much of the inc And world wrote, quote, for 582 00:56:40.039 --> 00:56:44.280 it was their custom, when they traveled anywhere in this great realm, to 583 00:56:44.440 --> 00:56:46.880 do so with great pomp, and to be served with great luxury, as 584 00:56:47.000 --> 00:56:51.880 was their customed. It is said that, except when it was necessary for 585 00:56:51.920 --> 00:56:55.639 their service, they did not travel more than four leagues, about fifteen miles 586 00:56:55.679 --> 00:57:00.360 a day, and so that there would be sufficient provisions for their people. 587 00:57:00.760 --> 00:57:04.679 At the end of each four leagues there were lodgings and storehouses, with great 588 00:57:04.719 --> 00:57:07.920 abundance of the things that could be had in this land, and even if 589 00:57:07.920 --> 00:57:15.119 it was uninhabited, there had to be lodgings and storehouses end quote. In 590 00:57:15.159 --> 00:57:20.360 the records, all the highway installations are called tampo, although the term refers 591 00:57:20.440 --> 00:57:25.599 most properly to lodgings. There were two thousand or more of these spread out 592 00:57:25.599 --> 00:57:32.239 across the Empire, and the provincial centers themselves were a kind of forced urbanism, 593 00:57:34.000 --> 00:57:37.119 and very much like many Roman towns, after the collapse of the central 594 00:57:37.159 --> 00:57:45.079 authority, they were abandoned. Upgrading and maintaining the roads was a constant effort 595 00:57:45.159 --> 00:57:51.199 throughout the imperial period. From these administrative centers the governor would administer to his 596 00:57:51.280 --> 00:57:58.639 people. In terms of actual architecture, several historians have called the Inca builders 597 00:57:59.119 --> 00:58:06.719 quote, builders of architecture, of power quote. Everything was intended to reinforce 598 00:58:06.760 --> 00:58:10.840 the Empire's might in the mind of whoever was looking at the structure. There 599 00:58:10.840 --> 00:58:16.400 were no purely administrative buildings. However, everything had a secular and a sacred 600 00:58:16.519 --> 00:58:22.960 use in the Inca system. Obviously, it should go without saying the Inca 601 00:58:22.000 --> 00:58:28.960 had no concept of a separation of church and state. But most of what 602 00:58:29.039 --> 00:58:35.000 has been written about the ink And Engineering relates to the roads. The ink 603 00:58:35.119 --> 00:58:40.239 And Roads were a wonder of Bronze Age engineering, built without the aid of 604 00:58:40.320 --> 00:58:50.199 precise surveying equipment. The roads spanned nearly thirty five thousand miles. Stone and 605 00:58:50.360 --> 00:58:55.800 wood steps were augmented by woven rope bridges used to cross steep but narrow ravines. 606 00:58:57.840 --> 00:59:01.519 The eastern route of the Imperial Road cuts a path from Cusco to modern 607 00:59:01.559 --> 00:59:08.119 day Argentina. In the north, another parallel route cuts through the mountains before 608 00:59:08.199 --> 00:59:15.679 descending to the deserted coast. Throughout both of these main arteries there are lateral 609 00:59:15.760 --> 00:59:21.840 roads that run perpendicular. Some of these roads get as high as five thousand 610 00:59:21.880 --> 00:59:29.400 meters above sea level. Inc And roads vary greatly in their scale, construction 611 00:59:29.440 --> 00:59:34.639 technique, and appearance. For the most part, they vary between one to 612 00:59:34.719 --> 00:59:39.119 three yards in width, with thousands of drainage ditches and culverts spread out to 613 00:59:39.199 --> 00:59:45.280 keep them clean and clear of debris. As you approached Cusco, they were 614 00:59:45.280 --> 00:59:51.920 paved with cobblestones, but in the provinces they would have been mostly dirt. 615 00:59:52.559 --> 00:59:59.079 To get over the rivers, the INCA built rafts, not bridges, but 616 00:59:59.199 --> 01:00:05.920 they did use bridges. The INCA built massive suspension bridges of wood, fiber 617 01:00:06.000 --> 01:00:12.400 and brush. These could span distances of up to forty yards. However, 618 01:00:12.440 --> 01:00:14.840 they could only support a few people at a time, and no one. 619 01:00:14.840 --> 01:00:21.159 If it was windy, then the bridge swee swighing perilously back and forth, 620 01:00:21.280 --> 01:00:28.760 back and forth both the distant canyon floor. Probably not something I would try, 621 01:00:28.800 --> 01:00:34.400 even in the best of conditions. The last issue I want to discuss 622 01:00:34.440 --> 01:00:39.880 here is resettlement. No state policy affected the landscape more than resettlement. As 623 01:00:39.920 --> 01:00:45.519 a rule, inc and leaders selected six to seven thousand families from a new 624 01:00:45.559 --> 01:00:50.000 province to be settled somewhere else. This would have been about twenty five to 625 01:00:50.079 --> 01:00:54.320 thirty three percent of the total population, at least in most places. Sometimes 626 01:00:54.880 --> 01:01:00.280 the INCA tried to move people to new locations that were ecologically similar, but 627 01:01:00.400 --> 01:01:06.559 not always. The reason the INCA did this was security. They wanted to 628 01:01:06.599 --> 01:01:12.800 lower the probability of rebellion, and so far as we can tell, it 629 01:01:12.840 --> 01:01:19.079 worked. New colonists were generally supported by the state for one to two years, 630 01:01:19.920 --> 01:01:27.280 but after that they were expected to defend for themselves. So that does 631 01:01:27.280 --> 01:01:32.079 it for our introductory episodes, we've got the lay of the land, we 632 01:01:32.159 --> 01:01:37.920 understand something about the Inca, their culture, their political and military systems, 633 01:01:37.159 --> 01:01:44.840 and so on and so forth. Next time, I'm going to introduce Francisco 634 01:01:45.199 --> 01:01:50.679 Pizarro, because, as I mentioned a few episodes ago, he actually visits 635 01:01:50.719 --> 01:01:57.079 the Inca Empire on two occasions, doesn't get to conquering until the second time 636 01:01:57.119 --> 01:02:01.519 around. Now, if you've enjoyed the episode, feel free to check out 637 01:02:01.559 --> 01:02:05.000 some of the links in the show notes. I've got the website link there 638 01:02:05.679 --> 01:02:09.199 the link to the Patreon page, which is available if you'd like to support 639 01:02:09.239 --> 01:02:15.440 the show for only twelve dollars a year, So a dollar a month you 640 01:02:15.480 --> 01:02:20.679 can help keep the show going, expand the show pay for the mountain of 641 01:02:20.719 --> 01:02:27.440 books I'm currently looking at as I consider where we're going next. It's all 642 01:02:27.519 --> 01:02:30.920 helpful. Every little bit counts. Let me, one dollar a month can 643 01:02:31.199 --> 01:02:36.320 make a huge difference to the amount of shows that we're able to produce over 644 01:02:36.400 --> 01:02:38.760 here. So I want to check that out, and also check out Western 645 01:02:38.800 --> 01:02:44.360 SI two point zero. You know, I've having a great time going back 646 01:02:44.400 --> 01:02:50.320 through and now recording episodes on Alexander the Great all over again, and I 647 01:02:50.400 --> 01:02:53.000 get to go into a lot greater detail. I can't believe I covered all 648 01:02:53.039 --> 01:02:58.519 these battles in one or two episodes the first time around. This time you 649 01:02:58.559 --> 01:03:02.840 get the real debt that he deserves. Is a free seven day trial. 650 01:03:04.039 --> 01:03:07.679 You can just click the link in the show notes and it'll take you there 651 01:03:07.719 --> 01:03:09.679 for it. Feel free to check it out. But next week we continue 652 01:03:09.719 --> 01:03:12.480 on with Pizarrow