Peru is located in the western part of South America and shares borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia and Chile. Its enormous territory, covering more than 1.2 million square kilometers, is composed of three regions: Coast, Highlands and Jungle. Its current population exceeds 33 million inhabitants.
It was once home to the ancient Inca civilization, which was one of the most fascinating cultures to ever exist. six hundred of years ago, The Incas studied and practiced agriculture, irrigation, engineering, astronomy, and much more. They built many great Works of architecture, including Machu Picchu.
Ancient Incas
The Incas began to settle along the Cusco valley about thousand year ago. By about 1200 DC, They were united under one King, who was called the Inca.
The ancient Incas believed in life after death. They believed that their next life would be similar to their present life and that they would need the same kinds of tools and objects in their second life. Therefore, many people were buried with a collection of some of the things they possessed in their current life. Of all the people living in ancient Peru, no one was given a more lavish burial than a Inca King. According to the beliefs of the ancient Incas, The Inca King was the son of the sun god. While he was alive on Earth, Inca King was known as Inca.
The Inca Empire was the most extensive and developed empire in pre-Columbian America. The period of their rule is known as Incanato or Incario. It arose in the region of the Peruvian Andes between the 15th and 16th centuries as a consequence of the expansion of the curacazgo of Cuzco, being the second historical stage and the period of greatest apogee of the Inca civilization. It covered 2,500,000 km² between the Pacific Ocean in the west and the Amazon rainforest and the Gran Chaco in the east, from the Ancasmayo River (Colombia) in the north to the Maule River (Chile) in the south.
The origins of the empire date back to the victory of the multiethnic groups, led by Pachacutec against the Chanca confederation in Yawarpampa, in the mid-15th century, around 1438. After the victory, the Inca curacazgo was reorganized by Pachacutec, with whom the Empire Inca began a stage of continuous expansion, which continued with his son the tenth Inca Amaru Inca Yupanqui, then by the eleventh Inca Túpac Yupanqui, and finally by the twelfth Inca Huayna Cápac, who consolidated the territories. In this stage, the Inca civilization achieved the maximum expansion of its culture, technology and science, developing its own knowledge and that of the Andean region, as well as assimilating that of other conquered states.
After this peak period, the empire went into decline due to various problems, the main one being the confrontation for the throne between the sons of Huayna Cápac: the brothers Huáscar and Atahualpa, which even led to a civil war. Among the Incas, smallpox killed the monarch Huayna Cápac, caused the civil war prior to the Hispanic appearance and caused a demographic disaster in the Inca empire. Finally Atahualpa would win in 1532. However, his rise to power coincided with the arrival of Spanish troops under the command of Francisco Pizarro, who captured the Inca and then executed him. With the taking of Cusco in 1533 the Inca Empire ended. However, several rebellious Incas, known as the «Incas of Vilcabamba», rebelled against the Spanish until 1572, when the last of them: Túpac Amaru I, was captured and beheaded.
The Incas considered their king, the Sapa Inca, as the «son of the sun.» Many local forms of worship persisted in the empire, most of them related to the sacred local Huacas, but Inca leaders encouraged the sun worship of Inti – their sun god – and imposed his sovereignty over other cults such as that of Pachamama. (Pachamama means Mother Earth in Inca language)
The Inca empire functioned largely without money and without markets. Instead, the exchange of goods and services was based on reciprocity between individuals, groups, and Inca rulers. ‘Taxes’ consisted of a person’s work obligation for the Empire. Inca rulers (who theoretically owned all the means of production) reciprocated by granting access to land and goods and providing food and drink at their subjects’ celebrations.
