The Flourish And Decline Of The Inca Empire

The Incas and their predecessors had built extensive terraces over thousands of miles of steep mountainside. These and their hardy, varied crops allowed them to produce enough surplus food to build a vast empire. In a land in which money did not exist and gold (called "tears of the sun") was valued only for its beauty, workers and soldiers were paid in food and textiles.

As he expanded his empire outward from Cuzco, he built an immense stone fortress called Sacsahuaman on the heights above the city. So enormous and massive are the stones of Sacsahuaman that the conquering Spaniards could not believe the Incas could have built it.

The Incas had been very controlling masters, organizing and overseeing every aspect of society. They had mandated the use of their language, Quechua, and their sun-centered religion. A period of labor for the state, known as the mita, was required every year, once the crops for the year were taken care of. Taxes of food and textiles were high. Often, the mita required the men to go to war to expand the empire. Yet, the Inca's "accountants", the quipu camayocs, took care to insure that the empire's subjects were allowed to keep sufficient food, clothes and time to meet their families' needs, and they were paid for labor performed for the state. The Spaniards had no such concern for the conquered Incas. They forced Christianity on the subject peoples, destroying anything they thought might have religious significance, even quipus. They tore down Inca buildings and used the stone to construct their own towns and churches. They banned anything associated with the Inca religion or !

Arriving at the walled town of Cajamarca, Pizarro's men found it evacuated by order of Atahuallpa, whose troops were encamped by the hot springs four miles away known as "The Inca's Bath". The Spaniards occupied the town, while Atahuallpa sent his best general into the passes to block the invaders escape route to the coast, should they attempt to flee. Some say it was like locking the wolves in the fold with the “Peruvian sheep!”

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