Inca Language More Articles Inca Language In several Spanish documents from after the Conquest, there are references to a 'secret language' spoken by the Inca nobility that most people could not understand. It suits the Quechua Academy in Cuzco to claim that this was some more original or perfect form of the language, they claim that they alone speak the perfect, pure Quechua and are therefore in a unique position to decree standards for the language. In truth, however, there is no single Quechua language--instead there is what linguists called a dialect chain across most of Western South America, in which speakers of one Quechua language can understand the languages spoken by their immediate neighbors, but not a language further from them. Quechua is divided into a number of dialects. The major division is into 'Central' and 'Peripheral' Quechua. These are not normally mutually intelligible. Mutual intelligibility is tricky, however (see the linguistics FAQ on'languages vs. dialects'). Speakers of the modern Quechua dialects don't interrelate much (if they do much travelling, they know Spanish), and so don't have the habit of deciphering other dialects.

Quechua has been heavily influenced by Spanish, of course. Some 30% of the lexicon, even in monolingual speakers, comes from Spanish. Inorder to learn Quechua, it requires some vast changes of mind-set as learners try to master bipersonal conjugation, conjugation dependent on mental state and veracity of knowledge, spatial and temporal relationships, and numerous cultural factors. Quechua has a three-vowel system: a, i, u. The vowels, like computer geeks, spread out to fit the space available-- an i, for instance, may be heard as [i], [I], or [e]. Bilingual Quechua speakers may approximate the five-vowel Spanish system (but they often get it wrong, producing a distinctive Quechua accent called motosidad). The Incan language was based on nature. All of the elements of which they depended, and even some they didn't were give a divine character. They believed that all deities were created by an ever-lasting, invisible, and all-powerful god named Wiraqocha, or Sun god. The King Incan was seen as Sapan Intiq Churin, or the Only Son of the Sun.

Quechua was very distinctive language. Inca were very accurate in their language. The only imperfection that the Inca language had was that it did not have a written language. This would have really affected many of the Inca citizens. Quechua was under a certain procedure of only oral communication. The oral communication was mainly to maintain their culture. Inca traditions survive stubbornly in Peru today. In remote villages older people speak only Quechua, the Inca language. They also keep Inca customs in food, music, and religion that have all but died out in urban areas. Quechua: The Inca Language Explore Cuzco square interactive map. Click the placemark. To Pan: click and drag or take advantage of the pan and zoom bars to go to Sacsayhuaman. Quechua: the Inca Language Hiram Bingham, the American explorer who found the ruins of Machu Picchu in 1911, wrote: Some American archaeologists are prone to shorten the length of time during which the civilization of the Incas was developing.

Because the Mayas of Central America used hieroglyphics and invented a calendar it is easy to grant them a couple of thousand years, while the Incas are limited to a few hundred. Technically they are right, if one chooses to restrict the use of the word Inca to the few centuries when the rulers were actually called Incas. But if one uses the term Inca to characterize that remarkable civilization discovered by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, with its advanced agriculture, its magnificent engineering works and its success over centuries in producing from an exceedingly wild ancestor two such distinct domestic and pure-bred animals as the llama and alpaca, it becomes evident that the period covered by the growth of this ancient Peruvian civilization certainly must have lasted for several thousand years. This theory is also confirmed by the many varieties of both potatoes and corn found in Inca land, and also by the fact that the guinea pigs (cuyes) which they domesticated and bred are as widely different in color and in coat as are the cats of the Mediterranean region which are known to be of extremely ancient lineage. Unfortunately the ancient Peruvians never developed any form of script or picture writing.

It is indeed a great pity that the Incas never had the opportunity, as did the Greeks and Romans, to come in contact with a people like the Phoenicians who were clever enough to invent an alphabet. The language of the Incas was the Quichua or Quechua tongue. Originally it was used only in a small area around Cuzco where the Inca dynasty originated, possibly in the tenth or eleventh century. During the next five hundred years, when the Incas succeeded in subduing the native races as far north as Ecuador and as far south as Argentina, they carried the Quechua language with them and insisted in its being learned by the conquered peoples so that it had a wide distribution by the end of the sixteenth century. Today (1911) the total population of Peru is about seven million. A recent census reports that two and one-half million speak Quechua and two-thirds of these speak no other languages. Although there are many different languages spoken by small forest tribes in the Amazon basin, there are only two aboriginal languages numerically important in the Andes, Quechua and Aymara.

In the region around Lake Titicaca and in northern Bolivia the Indians speak Aymara which has a phonetic system and grammar similar to Quechua. Neither of these languages is related in any way to those of eastern South America nor to any outside the continent. Philological experts are of the opinion that nearly five million people in South America still speak the language of the Incas. Obviously it is by far the most important native language in either North or South America. That this phonetic system is so widespread is in itself a remarkable tribute to the extraordinary people who were so successful in breeding animals and plans. There are few words in Quechua to denote abstract qualities. On the other hand, the people obviously were not militaristic for the word meaning "soldier" also means "enemy." The extent of the empire is emphasized by the fact that the word for "foreigner" means "those belonging to a city a great distance off." The importance of agriculture is strikingly demonstrated by the fact that in Quechua there is but one word for "work" or "cultivate." Apparently cultivating the soil was the only thing which rated as work.

An interesting commentary on the habits of the ancient people and a sidelight on their manners and customs is the abundance of expressions in Quechua for all stages of drunkenness. One of their principal activities was the manufacture of beer or chicha. It was brewed from sprouted corn which served the Andean people as an upper mill-stone or pestle. The Indians of Mexico and Central America in grinding their corn use a miller, pushed back and forth on a slab. This is more fatiguing and requires more effort than the rocking stone invented in the Andes. The fact that the most common necessity of the household, a means of grinding corn, was not the same with the Incas as with the Mayas, points to the long period of separate evolution. The Incas domesticated at least three varieties of dogs but there is no evidence that, like the Polynesians, they used any of them as an article of food. Source: ï¿½Lost City of the Incas, The Story of Machu Picchu and its Buildersï¿½ by Hiram Bingham The American explorer who found the ruins of Machu Picchu in 1911. Hiram Bingham at Machu Picchu The inspiration for Indiana Jones?

What languages were spoken by the Inca civilization? - Quora Quora Written Sep 5, 2015 Quechua was the main language, but many other languages were spoken in the Inca Empire such as the Aymara language, it is however quite difficult to list every language spoken in that empire. An interesting fact about the Incas is that the nobles (actually the term "Inca" was used only to refer to nobles) were allowed to spoke a language regular folks couldn't use in public, it is still not clear what this language was but someone thinks it was either puquina or a language related to Aymara. Written Sep 7, 2015 Quechua, Aymara, and many other languages were spoken throughout the empire. The Incas instituted Quechua to be the ruling language, making it the most useful for trade, so knowledge of a local language as well as a distinct dialect of Quechua was very common. Some local languages were forgotten due to this process, especially when the Spanish came and actually imposed Cuzco Quechua even more.

There are many dialects of Quechua that diverge a lot, but overall form a dialect continuum kind of like the Slavic languages. Aymara is a different language family, but still holds to this day nearly 3.5 million speakers. It appears to be related to Quechua, and many similarities can easily be noted, but many linguistics reject the possibility of there being a "genetic connection." The Incas The Incas Cuzco was the center of the Incan empire. The Incas, an American Indian people, were originally a small tribe in the southern highlands of Peru. In less than a century, during the 1400s, they built one of the largest, most tightly controlled empires the world has ever known. Their skill in government was matched by their feats of engineering. Roads, walls, and irrigation works constructed by the Incas are still in use today. Spanish conquerors captured the Inca emperor in 1532 and began to break up the empire. But the Indian people of Peru never forgot their Inca heritage. Many, even now, believe that a new Inca king will someday arise to restore the glory of their ancestors.

Social Order To fully appreciate the Inca achievement, it helps to visualize the difficult terrain of western South America. Along the coast are some of the world's driest deserts. Next to these flat coastal lands rise the jagged peaks of the Andes, whose eastern slopes are covered with rain forests. The native people of this varied region all lived under the rule of a single man, the emperor, addressed as "Chief Inca," "Son of the Sun," and "Lover of the Poor." The Empire The basic unit of Inca society was the village, or neighborhood, in which the residents thought of each other as at least distantly related. Marriage was within the neighborhood. Villages, as well as towns with two or more neighborhood units, were grouped into provinces. The empire as a whole was divided into four quarters, with the capital, Cuzco, at the center. The Emperor. As a supposed descendant of the sun, the "Chief Inca" ruled by divine right. He ate from gold and silver dishes and never wore the same clothes twice. When messengers came before him, he remained hidden behind a screen. Like the pharaohs of Egypt, he took his own sister as his queen.

Established custom guaranteed that the emperor behave responsibly. He attended to the needs of his subjects and, to a limited extent, took part in public activities. When it was time for planting, the emperor himself broke the first clod of earth with his golden spade. Nobles. The noble class came from Cuzco, home of the original Inca tribe. But as the empire grew, there were not enough nobles to fill all the offices. Men of ability, therefore, were chosen to form a second class of nobles. All men who were nobles, whether of the first or second class, wore ear ornaments to set them apart from commoners. The four nobles who governed the four quarters of the empire served as the emperor's council. Language. Many different languages were spoken in ancient Peru. The Incas of Cuzco spoke Quechua (KETCH-wah). To unify the empire, they spread the language, and as a result Quechua became, and still is, the most widely spoken Indian language in the Americas. Way of Life There are many gaps in our knowledge of Inca life.

But we do have written accounts from several explorers and missionaries, as well as from two Incas: Garcilaso de la Vega and Waman Puma (Falcon Lion). From these we know that most Incas lived in villages. Even Cuzco, the capital, was not a large city. Workers who supplied its needs lived in small settlements in the surrounding countryside. Dress. When Inca people got up in the morning, they did not have to get dressed. They slept in their clothes. Women wore long gowns with a sash at the waist. Men wore loincloths and sleeveless shirts that hung almost to the knees. Both sexes wore sandals and long capes. Food. The first meal of the day was at eight or nine in the morning. Most dishes were soups or stews. Beans, peppers, tomatoes, peanuts, and sweet manioc were used. But the more important foods were maize (corn) and potatoes. So-called Irish and Idaho potatoes actually originated in ancient Peru. Almost the only meat regularly used was guinea pig. Work. Men, if they were not on military duty, worked in the fields. Women did spinning and weaving and took care of the home.

Often, however, wives went to the fields and helped their husbands with the farming. Since there was no regular schooling (except for the children of nobles), most young people learned adult chores by watching their parents. Some workers tended flocks of llamas. The llama, a relative of the camel, provided coarse wool for spinning and was used as a beast of burden. There were no wheeled vehicles, but a llama could carry 100 pounds (45 kilograms). Shelter. The average house was a one-room structure of stone or mud brick, roofed with thatch. At night the whole family slept together on the floor. There were no mattresses (not even for the emperor). People doubled a huge blanket and crawled inside. Religion The most sacred shrine in Peru was the Temple of the Sun, in Cuzco. There was also a temple dedicated to the god of creation, Viracocha (wee-rah-KOH-chah). Other important deities were the Earth Mother and the spirit called Thunder, or God of the Weather. People everywhere worshiped their ancestors. Each neighborhood kept a mummy, supposedly of the ancestor from whom all the living were descended.

Mummies of the emperors were kept in palaces in Cuzco. Feasts and the Calendar. The Incas developed an accurate calendar by observing the movements of the sun. By observing the moon, they divided the year into twelve months and planned their major religious feasts accordingly. A feast celebrating the harvest was held in the month corresponding to May. June marked the great feast of the Sun. Rituals of planting were held in August. Sacrifices of guinea pigs and llamas were required on such occasions. Sometimes human beings were sacrificed. Crafts and Engineering The Incas were competent artists, but their works are valued less for beauty than for technical perfection. They are known not so much for sculpture and painting as for weaving, road and bridge construction, and stone masonry. Textiles. Inca weaving rivaled the best work done in Europe. The finest cloth was a kind of tapestry, finished on both sides, with intricate designs in many colors. This was a woman's craft. Most other works were done by men. Metalwork. The science of metallurgy was more advanced in Peru than anywhere else in the Americas.

Deep ming was practiced, as well as a kind of smelting to remove metal from raw ore. Copper and tin were combined to produce bronze, which made stronger weapons and tools. Metalworkers also knew about casting, soldering, and riveting. Masonry. Stone walls built by Incas were so perfectly fitted that even today a knife blade cannot be inserted in the joints. Stone buildings in Cuzco rose to heights of two and three stories. Waterworks. Streams were rechanneled to bring in fresh water and carry off sewage. To irrigate fields in the highlands, hillsides were terraced, like the rice paddies of China. Roads. Roads connected all towns and villages with Cuzco. In the mountains the roads were built with retaining walls, switchbacks, culverts, and tunnels. Swift streams were crossed by suspension bridges. Along the roads there were post houses, where runners waited to relay messages. Messengers carrying a quipu or a small package could travel 150 miles (240 kilometers) a day. It is said that in this way the emperor in Cuzco, high in the mountains, received fresh fish from the sea.

Inca Heritage Quechua, the language of the Incas, is still widely spoken in Ecuador, Bolivia, and northwest Argentina. In Peru it is the native language of approximately half the population. Most of the Quechua people of Peru live in the highlands. However, in recent years many have migrated to Lima and other coastal cities, where they live in crowded neighborhoods. Inkarrï¿½. The memory of the Incas remains alive. Modern legends say that an Inca ruler will yet return, bringing a better life for the Quechua. Sometimes this hero is called Amaru (from Tupac Amaru), more often Inkarrï¿½ (from Inca and the Spanish word rey, meaning "king"). In the 1960s and 1970s the Peruvian government took steps to improve conditions for the Quechua people and to give the Inca heritage more prominence in national life. Quechua was made an official language of Peru, together with Spanish. The portrait of Tupac Amaru II now appeared on Peruvian paper money.

And government officials made speeches to Quechua audiences, proclaiming, nkarrï¿½" s=""Inkarri"-->"Inkarri is here!" At the same time, schoolchildren in Peru were being taught to recite the names of the Inca emperors  the way young people everywhere learn multiplication tables and the alphabet. Some Peruvians can recite all 13 names in a single breath. John Bierhorst Incan language - definition of Incan language by The Free Dictionary Incan language - definition of Incan language by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Thesaurus , Encyclopedia , Wikipedia . Related to Incan language: Quechuan Quech·ua (kĕch′wə, -wä′) or Quich·ua (kēch′-) also Kech·ua (kĕch′-) n. pl. Quechua or Quech·uas or Quichua or Quich·uas also Kechua or Kech·uas 1. The Quechuan language of the Inca Empire, now widely spoken throughout the Andes highlands from southern Colombia to Chile. 2. a.

A member of a South American Indian people originally having been part of the Inca Empire. b. A member of a Quechuan-speaking people. [Spanish, from Quechua (Cuzco dialect) qhichwa, temperate valley (originally used in Spanish to designate the language of one Quechua-speaking ethnic group inhabiting the temperate valleys of the Andes and later extended to other groups).] Quechua Quechua language, alphabet and pronunciation Search Quechua (Runasimi / Qhichwa simi) Quechua is an Amerind language with about 8 million people in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina. Quechua was the language of the Inca empire which was destroyed by the Spanish in the 16th century. The Inca used a system of knotted strings known as quipu to send messages around their empire. The number and shape of the knots and the colours of the strings helped to remind messengers of the contents of the messages. Recent research suggests that the quipu might have been used not just as mnemonic devices but also to record the Quechua language phonetically.

Quechua first appeared in print in 1560 in the form of a dictionary by Domingo de Santo Tomás. Other early texts include collections of hymns by Cristóbal de Molina and a Quechua cathechism by Juardo Palomino. Pronunciation of Quechua (Cuzco/Bolivian dialect) Sample text in Quechua Tukuy kay pachaman paqarimujkuna libres nasekuntu tukuypunitaj kikin obligacionesniycjllataj, jinakamalla honorniyojtaj atiyniyojtaj, chantaqa razonwantaj concienciawantaj dotasqa kasqankurayku, kawsaqe masipura jina, tukuy uj munakuyllapi kawsakunanku tian. Translation All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) Incan language | Article about Incan language by The Free Dictionary Incan language | Article about Incan language by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Dictionary , Thesaurus , Wikipedia . Related to Incan language: Quechuan Quechua, (both: kĕch`o͞oə, –wä), or Quichua (kēch`wä), linguistic family belonging to the Andean branch of the Andean-Equatorial stock of Native American languages Native American languages, languages of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere and their descendants. A number of the Native American languages that were spoken at the time of the European arrival in the New World in the late 15th cent. ..... Click the link for more information. (mainly in South America). Encompassing far more native speakers than any other aboriginal language group in the Americas, the languages of the Quechuan family are spoken by peoples in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Chile. There is a modern standard language of this family spoken by close to 10 million indigenous people in Peru and 2 million in Bolivia, as well as smaller populations in Ecuador and Argentina.

Some 28 Quechuan languages are still in use. The official language of the ancient Inca empire, also called Quechua, was of this family. In the early 1400s, Quechua was dominant in S Peru. As the Incas' empire expanded, their language became the administrative and commercial tongue from N Ecuador to central Chile. After their conquest of the Incas in the 16th cent., the Spaniards spread the use of Quechua beyond the Inca empire. Quechua Quichua, or Keshua, the largest of the present-day Indian peoples of South America, who make up a considerable part of the population of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Quechua also live in northern Chile and Argentina. The total population amounts to approximately 10 million (1970, estimate). They speak Quechuan. Most Quechua are Catholics, but vestiges of pre-Christian religious beliefs are maintained. The rise of the Inca empire contributed to the ethnic solidarity of the Quechua tribes.

The Spanish conquest of the 16th century and various forms of slaveholding and feudal exploitation of the Quechua by the conquerors led to the breakdown of tribal barriers, the development of a liberation movement, and the formation of a unified popular language. The revolt of Tupac-Amaru in the early 1780’s played an important role in the formation of the Quechua nationality. The Quechua nationality, which included many ethnic groups, was formed by the end of the colonial period (first quarter of the 19th century). The development of commodity-money relations facilitated the consolidation of economic ties among Quechua living in different regions. The Quechua engage mainly in agriculture and, to a lesser extent, handicrafts (making of utensils, clothing, footwear, musical instruments, etc.). The small working class is concentrated primarily in the mining and textile industries; the Quechua bourgeoisie is few in number. The Quechua’s national revolutionary struggle for land and equality of rights and their fight against feudal and capitalist exploitation have often taken the form of powerful popular uprisings. The present-day national revolutionary movement of the Quechua is taking place within the general democratic movements of the countries in which they live.

REFERENCE Quechua (dreams) The Quechua are a people living in the southern Peruvian Andes. According to the early accounts of colonial, missionary priests, the Quechua have always been preoccupied with dreams and dream interpretation. Specially designated ritual specialists were considered particularly significant. In the pre-conquest period, indigenous curers attributed their calling to dreams, and dream specialists were employed for prognostication by the state. Dreams are regarded by contemporary Quechua as premonitory signs about events of the day on which they are dreamed. They are said to be world-creating, in that they literally forecast an event. Generally, under normal circumstances, a person arises from sleep by standing first on the right foot, but when a bad omen appears in a dream, one stands first on the left foot. In addition, dreams can be treated as a narrative from which particular elements are chosen and interpreted according to a lexicon of dream signs, which supplies a general conventional meaning for each. Selecting readily discernible dream signs and taking individual situational factors into account allows for a more specific interpretation, although the interpretation may have absolutely nothing to do with the manifest content of the narrative apart from the interpreted signs.

Quechua | TIME For Kids Day in the Life Peru: Native Lingo Quechua (pronounced "qheshwa") is one of the two official languages in Peru (the other is Spanish). It was also the official language of the Inca Empire. Click and listen below to hear some simple phrases spoken in Quechua. I'm Speaking Quechua ! Quechua Language (Inca) Quechua Language (Inca) Tweet Click to view full Infographic Overview: The Quechua group of languages is the most widely spoken of all the indigenous American languages, estimated to be the mother tongue of anywhere from 8 to 10 million people. These estimates, based primarily on South American census data, are sometimes considered to be artificially low. Statistics on the number of speakers are scarce and unreliable, as the mountainous regions of the Andes where these languages are spoken are frequently remote and/or impoverished. As many as 44 Quechua dialects have been reported, but this number could easily be higher. There are many misconceptions about this family of languages.

The name “Quechua” comes from a misnomer, when the Spanish assumed that the native word for their physical surroundings was actually referring to the language itself. The Quechuan term for their own language is, in fact, “Runasimi.” Although “Quechua” is often referred to as being a single language, it is technically a language family that encompasses three major regions: Ecuador Quechua (in Ecuador and Peru), Central Quechua (in northern Peru), and Southern Quechua (in Peru, Bolivia, and northwestern Argentina). Mutual intelligibility is generally high within these major regions, but Quechua speakers from further afield frequently have difficulty communicating with one another. Roots of the language: Indigenous American languages have not been studied to the same extent as those of the Old World, but attempts have been made to piece together the ancient history of the more major ones. The dialects of Quechua were popular among the people of the Andes thousands of years ago, and interacted heavily with another native tongue, Aymara (to such a degree that some scholars have argued that they belong to the same language family, although most today acknowledge that they came from different roots originally).

The ancient Incan Empire adopted Quechua and spread it throughout their significant holdings, and so it was the dominant language that the Spanish encountered when they began exploring at the turn of the sixteenth century. The Quechua languages have intermixed with Spanish a great deal over the years, borrowing and lending many words (some of which, like llama and condor, have even made their way into English). The indigenous languages have historically been looked down on, and though there are revival movements today, the damage cannot be quickly reversed. There are concerns that the Quechua languages are dying out, as even native people turn to communicating in Spanish in order to get ahead in mainstream life. Quechua is one of the official languages of Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru, but in some cases this is seen as mostly symbolic. Language characteristics: Most Quechua dialects, like many other Native American languages, have an unusually small number of vowels and correspondingly large number of consonants. Several consonant sounds may have been borrowed from Spanish, as even speakers who communicate solely in Quechua use a relatively high proportion of adopted Spanish words. The Quechua languages are very agglutinative, in that they frequently add meaning through the use of suffixes.

There is even a grammatical structure called evidentiality, in which suffixes are added to words in order to express how certain the speaker is of the statement that he or she is making. Written form: Quechua does not appear to have had a written form before colonial times, although the ancient Incas frequently kept track of numerals through the use of a complicated series of knots. Once the Latin alphabet was introduced by the Spanish, it was occasionally used to write in Quechua. Written Quechua was intended mostly for evangelistic purposes, although the indigenous people also took to writing poetry and plays. In modern times, writing has been a key part of attempts to reinforce the native languages in schools, and has been used to record much of the indigenous people’s oral history. South American linguists are currently debating which spelling conventions will be most true to the Quechua languages, while still making them convenient to teach to children. Last Updated : April 21, 2015 The Incas THE INCAS INCAS, an American Indian people of Peru who in the two centuries before the Spanish discovery of America conquered an area stretching from the southern border of present-day Colombia to central Chile.

Centering on the city of Cusco (Cuzco) in the Peruvian Andes, the Inca domain included the coastal and mountain regions of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and the northern areas of Chile and Argentina--the only true empire existing in the New World at the time of Columbus, and the greatest political achievement of the American Indians. In the native language the term ``Inca'' was the title of the Indian emperor. Today, however, it is also applied to the original tribe of conquerors and to all those people who made up the empire (who probably called themselves capac-cuna, ``great ones'' or ``glorious ones,'' in pre-Spanish times). The habitat of the former Inca empire is spectacular and varied. In the mountains, at altitudes between 7,000 and 10,000 feet (2,150-3, 000 meters), are temperate zones capable of sustaining an intensive agriculture. The imposing mountain range, the Andean cordilleras, divides in extreme southeastern Peru to form the Lake Titicaca basin, a 12,600-foot (3,840-meter)-high plateau.

This and the other high intermontane plateaus that continue south and east into Bolivia and northwestern Argentina are called the altiplano; it forms a treeless region of long grass seared by the noonday sun, frigid at night. The bulk of the Andean population lived here. To the southwest are salt marshes, while in the extreme south dense mountains give way to the rolling pampas of Argentina. The coastal area is desert, for the Humboldt Current, which sweeps up from the south, is colder than the adjacent land; therefore, the moisture in the winds going from sea to land does not condense through cooling. Beginning at Tumbes, 3° south latitude, these desert conditions predominate throughout the whole coast of Peru and continue down to the Rio Maule, in Chile. The sea, however, is filled with plankton, which attracts a very rich and varied marine life; this marine life in turn is fed on by myriads of sea birds, whose droppings on the arid coastal islets are the source of guano, a fertilizer extensively used for agriculture.

The 2,000-mile (3,200-km)-long coastal plain, ranging from 1 and 50 miles (1.6-80 km) in width, is broken only every 30 miles (48 km) or so by rivers. In the valleys of these rivers, coastal cultures, using irrigation, flourished. It was these two disparate areas of Peru--mountain and desert--that the Incas knit together in an economic and social synthesis. East of the cordilleras is the Montaña. The area is characterized by deep forest-covered valleys and wildly plunging rivers. Still farther east, the Andes flatten out into the Amazon jungle. The hot, humid portions of the Montaña and the people of the region alike were called yungas by the Incas. The Indians of this region resisted the Incas with considerable success. HISTORY Before the Incas. The Incas arrived comparatively late on the Peruvian cultural scene. Humans had been living for thousands of years on the coast and were growing and weaving cotton and planting such domesticated crops as corn, squash, and beans before about 3000 b.c.

The oldest of the high cultures of the Andes was the Chavin culture, which began between 1200 and 800 b.c. and lasted until about 400 b.c. Its center, which continued to be important as late as Inca times, was the stone-built city of Chavin de Huantar in a narrow valley beyond the Cordillera Blanca in the central Andes. At a later date other cultures developed on the north coast, notably the Mochica (c. 100 b.c.-a.d. 800), a caste-minded empire which developed a high craftsmanship in building, ceramics, and textiles. Along the southern coast, the Paracas culture (c. 400 b.c.-a.d. 400), wrapped in mystery, is famed for its textiles, doubtless the finest ever loomed in pre-Columbian America. Paracas culture influenced the early Nazca culture located in five oasis-valley farther south. In the Titicaca Basin there developed about a.d. 800 the great Tiahuanaco culture. Its capital and ceremonial center at the southern end of Lake Titicaca was built of massive worked stones held together with inset bronze projections (tenons).

The famed Sun Gate, constructed of massive stones, with its sun god weeping tears in the form of many animals, found its way, as a motif, into all Andean and coastal cultures. Further north, at Huari, close to present-day Ayacucho, the Tiahuanaco theme of the weeping god was developed even futher. It was from here, presumably, that a combined religious-military invasion was launched down the Pisco Valley to the coast. From the years a.d. 1000 to 1300 the Tiahuanaco Empire dominated most of the coastal cultures--evident in the recurring motif of the weeping god. When the empire collapsed, the suppressed local political units sprang into new life and evolved into local empires. The greatest (and the contemporaneous rival of the Incas) was the kingdom of the Chimus--Chimor (1300-1463) with its capital at Chan-Chan (near the present-day coastal city of Trujillo). Chan-Chan was 8 square miles (20.7 sq km), with irrigated gardens, immense step pyramids, and stone-lined reservoirs.

The empire was a center of large-scale weaving and pottery industries. It possessed a good communications system and in time it came to rule over 600 miles (960 km) of the Peruvian coast. Such was the cultural inheritance of the Incas. They were the heirs rather than the originators (as they claimed) of Peruvian culture. They were organizers--but incomparable organizers. The First Inca. The legendary founding of Cusco by the first Inca, Manco Capac, is placed about a.d. 1100. Cusco lies in the hollow of a valley at 11, 207 feet (3,416 meters); on two sides, the Andes rise precipitously, and at its southern end the valley stretches for miles between the double row of mountains. Manco Capac, according to legend, came up this valley from the south; following instructions of the sun god he threw his golden staff into the Cusco earth, and when the staff disappeared, suggesting the land's fertility, he founded his city.

It is generally agreed, and archaeologically confirmed, that Inca history actually begins about 1200 and continues through 13 ruling Incas, ending with the death of Atahualpa at the hands of the Spaniards in 1533. In the 12th century, however, the Incas were only one of the myriad tribes that occupied the Andes area. Conquests. The Incas began by enlarging their hold beyond the immediate valley of Cusco. By 1350, during the reign of Inca Roca, they had conquered all areas close to Lake Titicaca in the south as well as the valleys to the immediate east of Cusco. To the north and east the region around the Upper Urubamba River also soon fell to the Incas, and their realm then began to spread westward. There they faced two hardy tribes, the Soras and Rucanas, whom they besieged and overcame. About 1350 the Incas bridged the Apurimac River and its immense canyon.

It had previously been bridged at three different places to the southwest; but the new suspension bridge built by the Incas crossed at the point which formed a straight line from Cusco to Andahuaylas and was the Incas' largest bridge, 148 feet (45 meters) long. They called it huacachaca, ``the holy bridge.'' With this event the Incas collided with the Chanca, a powerful, belligerent tribe which disputed the Apurimac passage. Toward the end of the reign of Viracocha (died 1437) the Chancas made a surprise attack and invaded Cusco. Viracocha fled for safety to the Urubamba Valley, but his son organized the defense of Cusco, and the Chancas were completely defeated. The son, Pachacuti (``earth shaker''), was made Inca (r. 1438-1463); under him, the Incas swept northward as far as Lake Junin; southward they conquered all of the Titicaca area.

Between 1463 and 1493 Pachacuti' s son, Topa Inca, pushed the conquest into Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina, then north again as far as Quito, Ecuador. In 1463 the armies of Topa Inca, by means of a flanking attack, overwhelmed the coastal kingdom of Chimor. The Chimu rulers were whisked off to Cusco as royal hostages. The last indisputable Inca, Huayna Capac, who came to power in 1493, the year after Columbus landed in America, made the final conquests. He extended the empire so that it included Chachapoyas on the right bank of the upper Rio Marañon in northern Peru, and his warriors reduced the belligerent tribes on the Isle of Puná (off the coast of Ecuador) and around Guayaquil on the adjacent shore. The final Inca extension was even farther to the north; in 1525 the frontiers reached Rumichaca, a natural bridge over the Ancasmayo River, which now marks, more or less, the boundary between Ecuador and Colombia. INCA EMPIRE AND CULTURE Language.

Quechua, the language of the Incas, bears only a distant relationship to Aymará, the language spoken in the vicinity of Lake Titicaca. It is not known what the Incas spoke before Quechua was made their official language by the Inca Pachacuti in 1438. Because of their conquests and their system of population transference, Quechua eventually became the dominant language. It is to this day spoken by a large percentage of Peru's inhabitants. Agriculture. The population of the Inca Empire was composed primarily of farmer- soldiers. Agricultural routine was the order of their life, and under the guidance of ``professionals'' the entire Inca realm became a center of plant domestication. More than half of the products that the world eats today were developed or cultivated in the Andean area. Among these are more than 20 varieties of corn and 240 varieties of potato, camote (sweet potato), squash, a variety of beans, manioc (from which come farina and tapioca), peppers, peanuts, and quinoa (pigweed, which is the source of a cereal). By far the most important crop was the potato.

Able to withstand heavy frosts, it was planted as high as 15,000 feet (4,600 meters); at these heights the night freeze was used for dehydration, as the alternating freezing and thawing squeezed out the moisture until the potato was reduced to a light flour, called chuño. Corn (sara) was cultivated up to an altitude of 13,500 feet (4,100 meters) and was eaten fresh (choclo), parched and popped (kollo), made into a hominy (mote), and, finally, made into an alcoholic beverage (saraiaka or chicha). To make the latter, the corn kernels were softened by the women. The saliva of the chewer converted the starch--an enzyme distillate--into a malt sugar which became a dextrose and was thus converted into alcohol. In Inca times all tribes were on about the same technological level in their agriculture. Work was communal, and the most important implement was the taclla, a simple digging stick consisting of a pole with a thick fire-hardened point. Arable land was not unlimited.

Rain generally falls in the Andes between December and May, but there are often years of drought. Water had to be brought to arable lands by canals, many of which showed superb engineering techniques. Terracing of the land to prevent erosion was begun by the pre-Inca tribes and elaborated under the Incas. Andean agriculture was sedentary; the slash-and-burn techniques practiced by the Mexican Indians and the Mayas, in which virgin forest land was constantly being cleared and planted, were not normally employed by the Andean peoples. The Middle American cultures had no natural fertilizer except decayed fish and human feces, whereas in Peru the coastal farmer had guano and the Andean farmer had taqui, the offal of the llama. Llamas. The domesticated llama was developed from the wild guanaco thousands of years before the appearance of the Incas. It can resist the Andean cold and the desert heat; it served as a beast of burden--carrying up to a hundred pounds; it supplied meant (which when sun-dried was called charqui) and wool, used mostly for ropes and cargo sacks. Its dung was important as a fertilizer.

Llamas, like camels, use a common voiding place, so that taqui is easily gathered; it was one of the important factors in Andean sedentary agriculture. Social Organization: The Ayllu. At the base of the social pyramid of the Inca Empire was the ayllu, a clan of families living together in a restricted area and sharing land, animals, and crops. Everyone belonged to an ayllu; one was born into it and died within it. The commune could be small or large; it could even be a town. No individuals owned land; land was owned by the ayllu, or later the emperor, and was only loaned to each member for his use. Each autumn the land was divided again; the allotments were increased or decreased depending upon the size of the family. Planting and harvesting were communal. At the age of twenty a man was expected to marry. If he did not, a mate was selected for him by the chieftain. Marriage for the workers was strictly monogamous, but all members of the ruling class had more than one wife. Some women had a chance to leave the ayllu and better their life.

These were the ``chosen women,'' who were selected because of their beauty or special talents and taken to Cusco or one of the provincial capitals. There they were taught weaving, cooking, and the rituals of the Sun, the state religion. Many of the ``chosen women'' became wives of officials, and some became concubines of the Inca himself. The State: Tawantin-suyu. Tawantin-suyu, meaning four quarters, was the name given by the Incas to their state. Four roads, which went to the ends of each quarter, no matter how distant, came out of Cusco; each road bore the name of the suyu to which it ran. 1) Anti-suyu included all the land east of Cusco; this domain contained the montaña and the jungle, and was continually harassed by attacks from the only partially pacified tribes of the area. 2) Cunti-suyu embraced all the lands west of Cusco, including the conquered coastal empires, from Chan-Chan through the Rimac (now Lima Valley) down to Arequipa.

3) Colla-suyu was the largest in extent; located south of Cusco, it took in Lake Titicaca and regions in Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. 4) Chincha-suyu contained all the land and tribes which lay to the north, up to Rumichaca. Each quarter was ruled by an apo, or governor, related by blood ties to the Inca--and answerable only to him. Organization by Tens. The pattern of political and, in turn, economic organization was based upon decimal groupings of individuals. Although the system varied regionally, typically at the base was the puric, an able-bodied tax- paying Indian. Ten workers had what we would call a ``straw boss'' (the Incas called him coñka-kamayoc); ten of these groups had a foreman (pacha-koraka); ten foremen were ruled by another, ideally the headman (mallcu) of a large village. Ten thousand people came under a district governor (homo-koraka), and ten districts were under the governor ((apo) of the quarter. For every 10,000 people there were 1,331 officials. The Inca.

The Inca was selected by a council of advisers of the royal lineage. There was no clear line of succession; the most competent of the legitimate sons of the Inca's principal wife (coya) was usually selected. The Inca had one real wife, but he maintained a menage of royal concubines; Huayna Capac is estimated to have had in the male line alone 500 descendants living at the time of the Spanish conquest. These formed the Inca' s own royal ayllu. It was from them that he chose his important administrators. The empire was one of the world's few real theocracies, for the Inca was not only ruler but also, in the eyes of his people, a demigod and the head of the state religion. The Inca Empire was a totalitarian state, and the Incas were absolute rulers whose power was checked only by the influence of custom and the fear of revolt. Taxation: The Mit'a. Every puric was obliged to give a certain amount of work to the state. This tax-through-work service was called mit'a. Only the state and religious officials were exempt.

Each ayllu cultivated fields within its communally held lands for the Sun and the Inca, that is, for religion and the state. The crops from these fields, planted and harvested communally, were stored for official use. Another form of work service was prescribed for various projects: road building, bridge building, mining, and the erection of temples, forts, and royal residences. All was under the supervision of professionals. Accurate records of work service for each community were kept on a knotted string-- the quipu. In addition to work service, every puric formed part of an agrarian militia and was liable to military service at any given moment. When he was absent on a military campaign other members of the ayllu cultivated and harvested his allotment of land. Colonization: Mit'a-kona. The system devised by the Incas to organize and assimilate newly conquered territory was an extension of the idea of work service. As soon as any region was conquered, the unreliable part of the local population was moved out and a safe Quechua-speaking population was moved in; these latter were the mit'a-kona (called mitamaes by the Spaniards).

Local customs, dress, and language of the conquered population which remained were allowed, but officials had to learn and use Quechua. It was the duty of the mit'a-kona to bring Inca culture to the newly conquered peoples. The mit'a-kona were of three orders: military (to guard frontier stations), political (to win over the population and coordinate the conquered peoples), and economic. Often, when a planned Inca highway ran through an entirely depopulated area, mit'a-kona were placed there to provide upkeep for roads and bridges and to extend the suzerainty of the Inca Empire. The mit'a-kona were given social and economic benefits much like the benefits accorded the soldiers of the Roman legions when serving in distant lands. So complete was the Inca integration of the Andes, Montaña, and coast, that even today the entire area retains the mark of Inca culture. Seven million people still speak Quechua dialects, the ayllus are maintained in the form of comunidades; and the Inca culture continues to be manifest in music, agricultural practices, and the character of the people. Roads, Bridges, and Couriers.

Roads, bridges, and the courier system were the tactical elements which held the empire together. The Incas took over the roads of earlier civilizations and developed more than 10,000 miles (16,000 km) of new all-weather highways (capac nan). Since pre-Columbian Peruvians did not have the wheel, the roads were constructed for foot and llama caravans. Still, the coastal road was a standard 24 feet (7.3 meters) wide; it was 2,520 miles (4,055 km) in length, running from Tumbes at the northern boundary down to Purumuaca at Rio Maule in Chile. The Andean road, since it crossed mountainous terrain, was narrower; it varied between 15 and 24 feet (4.6-7.3 meters). Its length was 3,250 miles (5,230 km), and it had no less than a hundred bridges, either of wood or stone or fiber-cable suspension; four bridges alone crossed the chasms of the Apurimac River.

Distance markers were used every 41/2 miles (7.2 km) and rest stations for travelers were placed alongside the road every 12 to 18 miles (19-29 km). In addition, the communication system had smaller stations for couriers (chasquis); the chasquis ran in relays, each covering a mile and a half (2.4 km). It has been proven that this chasqui system was able to convey a message over 1,250 miles (2,000 km) in five days. Record Keeping: The Quipu. Official records and the folk stories of the Incas were kept by ``rememberers. '' Neither the Incas nor any other South American cultures had writing- -in any form. Instead, the Incas used a mnemonic device called the quipu, from the Quechua word for a knot. This consisted of a main cord from which dangled a series of smaller colored strings into which knots were tied. The quipus were accompanied by a verbal comment without which the meaning of what each quipu conveyed would have been unintelligible.

The record keepers knowing the theme of each quipu were called quipu- camayocs. Each governor of a province had attached to his person many such quipu-camayocs, who kept an accurate account of population, tribute, and soldiers. A decimal count was used, there even being a symbol for zero (an empty space). The Spanish conquerors, the conquistadors, much admired this system. Special quipu-camayocs were responsible for maintaining a record of Inca accomplishments. Through them, history was selected and manipulated. The accomplishments of whole generations of conquered tribes were blotted out so that the Inca claim of having founded the great Andean civilization could not be contradicted. Religion. In the Inca concept, religion and state were one. Viracocha was the creator god, the one source of power; he was aided in his divine administration by servant gods, the most important of which was the sun god, Inti. The sun god became the symbol for the Incas; his name was always invoked, and his image was the motif of the official religion. There were also gods for all natural phenomena.

Inca religion consisted of numerous decentralized cults, but the most enduring centered on the huaca, a magic and holy object or spirit. Huaca had many ramifications: a lake, river, or mountain was a huaca; a temple could be a huaca; often huaca was associated with agriculture, and stones gleaned from fields in cultivation were gradually transformed into a temple which became huaca. Religion was practical and life was religion. Agriculture was holy, and anything connected with it became huaca. Belief in immortality was general. The nobleman, no matter what his morals, went back to live with the Sun and had warmth and plenty. The common man, if virtuous, went to the same abode; if not he writhed in a sort of hell (oko- paca) where there was cold and hunger. Religion and custom guided conduct. Reduced to a single moral precept, the rule for good conduct was: Ama sua, ama llulla, ama chella--``Do not steal; do not lie; do not be lazy.'' Art. Inca art forms had a tendency towards austerity.

Weaving, especially in vicuña wool, was of the highest quality, but it lacked the inventiveness of the weaving of coastal peoples. The cutting of semiprecious stones was a widely practiced art, although the Inca stonecutters depended on the coastal trade for shell and stones. Goldsmithing was an Inca specialty. Almost all the gold mines worked in historical times had been previously mined by the Incas. Smiths who worked gold and silver lived in a special district and were exempt from taxes. The best examples of their art have not survived, since all went into the crucible of conquest; but according to the Spaniards who first saw it, Cusco seemed ablaze with worked gold. Some of the buildings were covered with gold plate imitating Inca stone work. The grass-thatched roofs of some of the temples had strands of gold that mimicked the grass; a setting sun would catch the gleam of gold and suggest a golden roof.

The fabulous Curi-cancha, the golden enclosure which enjoined the Temple of the Sun in Cusco, had a golden fountain; actual-size representations of maize plants with leaves and ears of gold were ``planted'' in an earth made up of clods of gold, and there were twenty life-size golden llamas grazing on golden grass in the golden enclosure. Architecture. The most awe-inspiring of Inca contributions to material culture was in architecture. Inca architecture had not the subtlety of the Mayan, with its profuse ornamentation; nor had it the emotional impact of the Aztec; but Inca engineering and structural daring--the grandiose concept of its cities and the handling of rock mass--finds no rival in either the New World or the Old. The number and size of Inca structures, even in ruins, is simply overwhelming. Sites such as Machu Picchu, perched in a saddle 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) high between two Andean peaks, gives an idea of what Inca urban planning must have been.

In constructing a foundation, the natural outcrop of rock was cut out and stones, without mortar, were set in to make the building part of its natural surroundings. Inca architecture had great plasticity. The Inca artisans built with sun-baked brick when rock was not available; they could also use precisely cut stone in pattern, or they could build in massive form, with huge rocks. The pucara, or fortress, of Sacsahuaman that guarded Cusco is a case in point. It is without doubt one of the greatest structures of its kind anywhere. Fifteen hundred feet (460 meters) in length, it is composed of three massive tiers of stone walls, which have a combined height of 60 feet (18 meters). The walls are broken into 46 salients, retiring angles, and buttresses. The cyclopean foundations contain stones which weigh more than 30 tons; these stones have beveled edges. The 300,000 or more stones that form the fortress are irregularly polygonal and locked so well structurally that they have defied innumerable earthquakes as well as the attempts of man himself to dislodge them.

The fortress, replete with fighting towers, underground passages, habitations, and an intricate system of water distribution, was begun in 1438 and finished in 1508; it took 30,000 workmen over 70 years to complete it. THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE Many reasons can be offered for the fall of the Incas, but the sudden conquest of a mighty empire by only a handful of Spaniards is still hard to comprehend. The Indian empires of Central Mexico had already succumbed to the Spaniards, who under Hernán Cortes had invaded Mexico in 1519. However, the Incas were unaware of such events, inasmuch as there was no direct contact of Aztec and Maya with Inca. The white man's presence became known only in 1523 or 1525, when a Spaniard named Alejo Garcia led an attack with Chiriguano Indians on an Inca outpost in the Gran Chaco, a dry lowland to the southeast of the Inca realm.

In 1527 Francisco Pizarro appeared briefly at Tumbes on the northwest Peruvian coast and then sailed away, leaving behind two of his men. Shortly afterward, Ecuador was devastated by a pestilence (possibly smallpox) brought by one of them. Huayna Capac died in 1527. He is said to have felt that the empire was too large to be governed only from Cusco. Succession to the Incaship was immediately disputed between Huascar, residing in Cusco, and Atahualpa, the favorite of Huayna Capac's 500 sons, living in Ecuador. A five- year-long civil war which devastated the empire ensued between the two half-brothers. Atahualpa's final victory occurred only two weeks before the second arrival of Pizarro. The victorious chief was resting at the provincial capital of Cajamarca in what is today northwestern Peru, surrounded by 40,000 veterans and planning to march to Cusco, there to be formally acknowledged Inca.

Pizarro arrived at Tumbes on May 13, 1532; he began his march toward Cajamarca with 177 men, of whom 67 were cavalry. Atahualpa knew all this; his intelligence reports were precise, but the interpretation placed on these reports was fatuous. He was told that the horses were no good at night; a man and animal were one, and when the horse or rider fell they were useless; guns were only thunderbolts and could be fired only twice; and the long steel Spanish swords were as ineffectual as a woman's weaving battens. In any of the hundred narrow defiles of the Andes through which the small Spanish detachment climbed, it could have been annihilated. When the Spaniards occupied Cajamarca they sent out an invitation for Atahualpa to visit them in the city, which was walled on three sides. No one has yet been able to explain satisfactorily why Atahualpa allowed himself to walk into an ambush. He was well aware of Pizarro' s strength, and ambush was a much-used Inca military tactic. Perhaps other factors, not sensed by the Spaniards, guided the Inca in his movements.

At vespers on Nov. 16, 1532, Atahualpa marched into the square of Cajamarca, displaying all the panoply of power. Although he was surrounded by thousands of his followers, the Inca and his men came, as Pizarro wished, unarmed. There was an unintelligible parley between a Christian priest and the Inca demigod; then the Spaniards set upon the Indians. The whole action took thirty minutes; the only Spanish casualty was Pizarro, wounded in the arm while defending Atahualpa, whom he wished to take alive and unhurt. After that, except for fierce local skirmishes at several places, there was no serious resistance until 1536. Atahualpa, imprisoned, bargained for his life by agreeing to fill twice with silver and once with gold the large room in which he was kept, but it was not enough.

On the pretense that Atahualpa planned to launch an attack once they were loaded down with their loot, the Spaniards kept Atahualpa in custody and eventually charged him with ``crimes against the Spanish state.'' They formally tried and executed him by garroting, a form of strangulation, on Aug. 29, 1533. The shock of all these events reduced the Inca people to a state of strange timidity, and the Spaniards easily advanced southward over the great Inca highway to Cusco, which they captured on Nov. 15, 1533. From there, by organizing their new realm, they soon turned Spanish conquest into Spanish domination. The Neo-Inca State. Manco II.

After establishing the former Inca capital, Cusco, as the center of Spanish power in Peru, Francisco Pizarro, to give a semblance of legitimacy to the newly imposed regime, selected a grandson of Huayna Capac to ``take the royal fringe as Inca.'' The new Inca, Manco II, was given no power and subjected by the Spaniards to trying indignities, but he bore this during the first years of his reign in order to give himself time to develop a plan of action. In 1536, while part of the Spanish occupying force under Diego de Almagro was off on an exploratory expedition in Chile, Manco II, under a pretext of delivering up more Inca gold, slipped off--and into revolt. The timing of the Inca's revolt was auspicious. Almagro and Pizarro had quarreled over the division of the spoils of the Inca Empire, and the invasion of Chile was only the prelude to a civil war between factions led by the two Spaniards. The natives had felt the ``yoke of peace'' long enough to know that the exactions they were suffering would be permanent unless they resisted. On Apr.

18, 1536, four Inca armies, after killing every Spaniard in the outlying districts, converged on Cusco. As in a hunt, they beat their quarry into a central area for annihilation. But Hernando Pizarro, Francisco's half-brother and an experienced soldier, commanded the besieged forces of Cusco; although he had only 130 soldiers and about 2,000 Cañari Indian auxiliaries, he managed to withstand the siege in one of history's memorable displays of military skill. Meanwhile, Lima, which Pizarro had made his capital in 1535, was also under attack by the Incas. The area that surrounded the city was level, and the Spaniards were able to use their cavalry with devastating effect. This siege was quickly ended. However, four relief columns sent by Pizarro were unable to reach besieged Cusco. The three-month- long siege was lifted only because of the need of the Inca warriors to return to farming and because of the arrival near Cusco of Almagro and his troops returning from Chile.

Manco II, with thousands of his followers and carrying the mummies of his ancestors, retired to prepared positions within the massif of Vilcabamba, the mountainous terrain northwest of Cusco. There he created a Neo-Inca state, from which he led his warriors in attacks on the Spaniards. Pizarro set up Ayacucho as a barracks town to defend the royal road south of Cusco against the sallies of Manco's warriors. Meanwhile, the civil wars between Pizarro's forces and Almagro's ``men of Chile'' continued. In 1538 Almagro was captured and executed; three years later, Pizarro in turn was murdered by the men of Chile. New leaders of the factions came to the force. In the Battle of Chupas (fought near Ayacucho in 1542) the Inca aided the men of Chile against the King's troops, and when the latter prevailed, six of the defeated men of Chile took refuge in the Neo-Inca state.

The Spaniards taught the Indians to ride horses, repair guns, and operate hand forges; this, plus the firearms, clothes, pikes, and money which the Indians took from waylaid Spaniards using the royal road made it possible for them to equip a small army. In one of their raids, copies of the ``New Laws'' promulgated by the King of Spain in 1544 were found. In an effort to right the abuses of the conquerors the King offered a new program, and on this basis Manco II sent one of the renegade Spaniards, Gomez Perez, out of Vilcabamba to negotiate with the viceroy, Blasco Nuñez Vela. The civil wars were still at their height, and Nuñez Vela was deposed before negotiations were brought to a successful conclusion. Shortly afterward, the Spaniards living with Manco II fell into dispute with him, struck and killed him, and were in turn slaughtered. Sayri Tupac and Titu Cusi. The Neo-Inca state developed under Sayri Tupac, Manco II's son. To their large herds of llamas and alpacas the Indians added sheep, cattle, and pigs.

They bound themselves to the Antis tribesmen living in the Upper Amazon, and by 1555, twenty years after its inception, the Neo-Inca state included some 80,000 adherents. In that year Sayri Tupac went over to the Spaniards and left Vilcabamba for the warmer climate of the Yucay Valley, where he was eventually poisoned by his own people. His brother, Titu Cusi Yupanqui, became Inca and reopened the war on the Spaniards. Every attempt to invade the mountains ended in failure. In 1565 Friar Diego Rodriguez entered the Inca stronghold alone for the purpose of inducing the Inca to come out. His description of the rituals surrounding the Inca and the number and belligerency of the warriors is important for its information on the strength of the Inca state. The attempt to induce the Inca to leave ended in failure. Another missionary tried again the following year; but during the negotiations, Titu Cusi became ill and died. His death was laid to the missionary, who was executed, as were the members of another embassy of Spaniards. Tupac Amaru, the Last of the Incas.

Tupac Amaru, another son of Manco II, now became Inca. His only distinction was that he was to be the last. The Spaniards now decided to breach the great stronghold of Vilcabamba in the three known entries. After a sharp struggle, Tupac Amaru and all of his principal captains were captured and in 1572, chained neck to neck, were marched to Cusco. The Inca was hastily tried and led to the great square of Cusco. There, before a mass of people packed so tightly that ``if an orange had been thrown it would not have reached the ground,'' Tupac Amaru, the last of the Incas, was beheaded by a Cañari Indian. The Neo-Inca state had endured as a serious threat to the Spanish occupation from 1536 until 1572. Spanish Rule. During the colonial era that followed the Spanish conquest of Peru, many of the Inca state institutions were retained and adapted to fit the needs of the conquerors. Spanish rule was largely indirect: the colonial administrators and landowners transmitted their demands through local chieftains, or curacas, and did not directly interfere with the daily life of the Indian householder.

Like the Incas, the Spanish practiced mass resettlement of villages, demanded a work-tax of the Indians, and maintained a separate class of servants and artisans. But Spanish demands for gold and produce were intolerably harsh, and the greed of the landowners and the corruption of the administrators provoked numerous Indian uprisings throughout the colonial period. Even today the Quechua Indian peasants of Peru and Bolivia speak Quechua and retain many elements from Inca days in their religion, their family life, and their agricultural techniques. See also Indians, American: The Central Andes. Copyright © 1996 P.F. Collier, A Division of Newfield Publications, Inc. Von Hagen, Victor W., INCAS., Vol. 12, Colliers Encyclopedia CD-ROM, 02-28-1996.

Question: What was the name of the language spoken by the Inca?
Answer: QUECHUA