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 handed down by the chroniclers Spanish conquest. It has news especially of songs and ballads which glorified the undertakings of the emperors and that were performed on the occasion of special ceremonies. The EYID of court composero even epic poems, said or sung before the sovereign. Anything written, however. The only instrument which is somehow knows that could serve to "write" or "record" was the quipo: a main cordella from which hanging off twines smaller, fixing with the language of the nodes the projections made by those maneggiava. And those who maneggiava was the quipu-kamayoc, i.e. a kind of scribe or official interpreter that served to government officials to carry out calculations and censuses. As regards the communications, the Incas had a road system efficient enough. There were two main roads: the strada regia or Andean Cápac (-nan), long 5200 km, that from the northern limit through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, a band of Argentina and Chile until Maule, ran along the cordillera and ended at Purumauca, station more to the south; and the coastal road, long over 4000 km, who descended from Túmbes, north, also up to the river Maule. Because they did not know the wheel, the Incas had no need for wide road funds: these were walking paths, both by the troops, both by officials, both by the courier. History: General information You know that the company inca started to consolidate toward the end of the XII century and especially at the beginning of XIII. Immediately after startup took the expansive phase. It stemmed clashes with the neighboring peoples, always ended with the victory of the Incas. This also happened around the middle of the XIV century, in coincidence with the sunset of the empire of Tiahuanaco, who had dominated the area of Lake Titicaca. The artisans of the first achievements were the incas (the term is used herein in its second meaning, i.e. that of "Lord", "emperor") of the two large Hurincusco dynasties (or Hurin Sáyac) and Hanancusco (or Hanan Sáyac): i.e., Sinchi Rocca, Lloque Yupanqui, Mayta Capac espugnatore (Fortress of Tiahuanaco and founder of Arequipa), Capac Yupanqui, Rocca, Yahuar Huacac. In 1438 he ascended the throne Pachacútec: under his sceptre Status Inca reached its maximum power, succeeding inter alia to eradicate the kingdom of Huanca and subdue definitively, further north, the Grand Chimúecimo inca, Túpac Yupanqui (1471-93), reorganized the empire, who took the name of Tahuantinsuyo: the word meant "the four (tahua) regions (suyo) Nations". These four regions were: Collasuyo, Antisuyo, Chinchayusuyo and Cuntisuyo. As the capital was confirmed to Cuzco. Túpac Yupanqui and his successor Huayna Cápac (1493-1525) extended the borders of the State to S up to the river Maule, in Chile, and N up to Quito, with outposts that penetrated in the current Colombia. But now the empire was in decline, undermined by mollezze and corruption. Huayna Cápac, neglecting the legitimate wife from whom he had had his son Huáscar, joined to a princess of the tribe of Scyris (Quito), who gave him a second son, Atahualpa. Before dying, the sovereign currencies Tahuantinsuyo into two kingdoms of equal magnitude, who entrusted respectively to Huáscar and Atahualpa. They contended the unique power and went down in the field against one another. At the very height of that conflict came the Spanish conquerors of F. Pizarro. Huáscar was killed in 1532 by order of Atahualpa; these, caught by Pizarro, was assassinated the following year. Ended in this way the life of the Inca empire, become colony of King of Spain. Its imprint, however, remained in the history of Latin America, because it had been the center of an advanced civilization. History: the political and social structure From many mistakenly named "socialist", the status of the Incas had a political structure vertical: absolute head was the emperor, or Inca, primary source of all powers. He venerated as a son of the Sun, gave the individual positions of government and li partitioned according to a rigid hierarchy of castes. The members of the imperial family were the aristocracy executive and among them the sovereign chose the most senior officials. They followed the curacas, i.e. dignitaries of lower rank, still important. The empire was thus administered in its more territorial constituencies: driving each of the regions of the Tahuantinsuyo inca posed a viceroy (APO), generally designated among his closest family members (brothers or uncles); provinces were entrusted to tukrikuk, or governors. There were no components of popular representation. Priests and military cooperated with the politicians in the management of power. The basic unit of society Inca was the ayllu, institution prior to formation of the empire and kept by the Incas, but organized so as to take away from him every autonomous trend. While the ayllu preincaico consisted of a human group parent or considered as such, seated in a given territory and venerante a common ancestor of which preserved the tomb or the mummy, the Inca empire deprived him of its characteristics "ethnic" and religious and made it a territorial unit at the administrative level. Founded new ayllu, in this function, entrusting them as fiefs to important personages who, after the dead, took the place of the common ancestor. Every emperor also began a new royal ayllu referred were to join all the male children, excluding the firstborn, destined to become Emperor and as such to form their own ayllu. Each ayllu was governed by a chapter elected by its members and by a council of elders. The goods were in the community, not of the individual. As regards the right to property, it belonged to the Inca, absolute monarch of divine origin; he does, however, had the enjoyment, dividing the State assets in three portions: the first sold it to the Sun God and the second is reserved for himself, the third the confered to ayllu. The cultivation of the land of the sun and of the inca was the responsibility of the Community. The common man was monogamous; polygamous could only be the noble. The Inca had a main wife (coya) - that for purity caste-based generally was his sister - and various secondary wives or concubines. The villac umu, High Priest, belonged to the right to the real ayllu, confirming the spirit theocratic that informed the empire. You do not have evidence of literary works: You must therefore be satisfied of the oral traditions, collected and handed down by the chroniclers Spanish conquest. It has news especially of songs and ballads which glorified the undertakings of the emperors and that were performed on the occasion of special ceremonies. The EYID of court composero even epic poems, said or sung before the sovereign. Anything written, however. The only instrument which is somehow knows that could serve to "write" or "record" was the quipo: a main cordella from which hanging off twines smaller, fixing with the language of the nodes the projections made by those maneggiava. And those who maneggiava was the quipu-kamayoc, i.e. a kind of scribe or official interpreter that served to government officials to carry out calculations and censuses. As regards the communications, the Incas had a road system efficient enough. There were two main roads: the strada regia or Andean Cápac (-nan), long 5200 km, that from the northern limit through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, a band of Argentina and Chile until Maule, ran along the cordillera and ended at Purumauca, station more to the south; and the coastal road, long over 4000 km, who descended from Túmbes, north, also up to the river Maule. Because they did not know the wheel, the Incas had no need for wide road funds: these were walking paths, both by the troops, both by officials, both by the courier. Religion The religious system that builded and supported the imperial structure of Inca you configure as a polytheism oriented from the cult of the sun-god, Inti, almost a divine personification of the Empire. To Inti is offered daily meals and sacrifices of the blade. Solstices and equinoxes were the basis for a festive calendar solar typically. In all the temples Inti had some form of veneration, so much so that the first Spanish chroniclers each temple appeared as a "temple of the Sun" for antonomasia and every priest as "priest of the Sun". The chroniclers of the Spaniards called also "virgins of the Sun" certain virgins dedicated to various functions public sacral closely connected with the kingship: name that does not translated nor the indigenous name (acllacuna, "chosen women", the "elected") nor the inca conception. The capital of the Empire stood the most important temple of the sun, the so-called Coricancha, where burned a solar fire perennial. The Coricancha was a sort of Pantheon that welcomed all the divinity officially recognized, the traditional Inca divinity, and those of the various populations subjection: Illapa ("Tuono-Lampo"), a god is common to the whole of the andean region; Pachacamac, a kind of Supreme Being the Central Coast, entered from the inca conquest in the ranks of the gods governed by Inti; a series of "mothers" divine: Mother Luna (Mama-Quilla) bride of Inti, Mother Sea (Mama Cocha) evidently connected with an unknown experience to Inca up to the conquest of the coastal region, Mother Earth (Pacha Mama) important goddess pan-Peruvian, and Mother Corn (Mama Sara) that, in private worship, could also identify with individual maize plants exceptionally grown. In addition to real, the Coricancha upheld even certain objects venerable, said huaca, who in a certain sense, had the ability to concentrate in itself the sacredness of the conquered territories from which they came. You could say that they represented on the plane of religion, confirming to the city of Cuzco that harbored them the role of capital of the Empire. Generally the term huaca it designates things (images, stones, trees, etc..), places (sources, heights, etc.) and buildings (chapels, tombs, etc.) considered "sacred" or seats of exhibitions of the "sacred". With respect to the cult of the countless local huaca, that at the religious level could jeopardize the unity of the Empire, there were two official attitudes: on the one hand we tried to absorb the huaca more important, accogliendole materially or symbolically in the Coricancha, under the jurisdiction of the god Inti; on the other hand he tried to destroy the remaining, as did the ninth emperor, Pachacútec ("reformer of the World"), said for this "enemy of the huaca". To the religious building of the Empire opposed, in addition to the huaca, even the cults of local ancestors, for their ability to produce a human group bound by the worship of a common ancestor (ayllu), and therefore the same released within certain limits from the broader community constituting the empire. The empire maintained the ayllu, but deprived them of their characteristics "ethnic" and religious. The empire is divided into two halves, the "upper" and "lower", in turn divided into two sections: It thus took four seyu, determined by two ideal lines intersecting at Cuzco, which became the cultural center town, a world open to conquest or to transpose in the quadripartite diagram of the Empire, said "Land of the four regions" (Tahuantinsuyo). The Inca emperor, residing at Cuzco, which was the son of the sun" (Intip churin), a living god. In his own family was the high priest, the villac umu. In this unifying process must also be seen the religious reform of the eighth emperor Hatum Tupac, who introduced the cult of Viracocha and it took the name. Viracocha was a cultural hero of Andean populations, or perhaps a "creator lazy", recalled in various myths but never made the object of worship. His first and only the temples were actually erected by Hatum Tupac, which he gave to Viracocha the character of "father" universal, by replacing single "ancestors" of the various ethnic groups. With the acquisition of Viracocha were born complex theological elaboration (including recalls the investiture of sovereignty, transmitted by Viracocha to Inti and Inti to the emperor and the formulae for which each solar sacrifice became an offering to Viracocha in the name of Inti), which is expressed sometimes in prayers and hymns of high spiritual value and aesthetic. Art The Incas left traces remarkable of their presence in all areas in which spread. Remain everywhere many constructions, Adobes on the coast and in stone on the plateau, which always have characteristics trapezoidal openings. In the area of Cuzco is constructed with large blocks of stone polygonal (bastions, supporting walls) or with blocks of stone rectangular (buildings). The architecture Inca is visible in all its mole and beauty to Machu Picchu, rediscovered city in 1911 by Hiram Bingham. The ceramic inca glossy polychrome and produced vases and other containers of excellent workmanship. As regards the metallurgy, the most important innovation was the spread of the use of bronze throughout the Empire, but the most beautiful objects (figurines, ornaments, jewelry various) are in gold and silver; the production had to be huge and inestimable value (think of the famous garden at the Temple of the Sun of Cuzco, with reproductions in gold with figures of divinity, of animals and plants), but was largely destroyed by the Spanish. Works noticeable were made by craftsmen of the Court not only in the field of jewelry and ceramics, but also in that of weaving and glyptic. Religion The religious system that builded and supported the imperial structure of Inca you configure as a polytheism oriented from the cult of the sun-god, Inti, almost a divine personification of the Empire. To Inti is offered daily meals and sacrifices of the blade. Solstices and equinoxes were the basis for a festive calendar solar typically. In all the temples Inti had some form of veneration, so much so that the first Spanish chroniclers each temple appeared as a "temple of the Sun" for antonomasia and every priest as "priest of the Sun". The chroniclers of the Spaniards called also "virgins of the Sun" certain virgins dedicated to various functions public sacral closely connected with the kingship: name that does not translated nor the indigenous name (acllacuna, "chosen women", the "elected") nor the inca conception. The capital of the Empire stood the most important temple of the sun, the so-called Coricancha, where burned a solar fire perennial. The Coricancha was a sort of Pantheon that welcomed all the divinity officially recognized, the traditional Inca divinity, and those of the various populations subjection: Illapa ("Tuono-Lampo"), a god is common to the whole of the andean region; Pachacamac, a kind of Supreme Being the Central Coast, entered from the inca conquest in the ranks of the gods governed by Inti; a series of "mothers" divine: Mother Luna (Mama-Quilla) bride of Inti, Mother Sea (Mama Cocha) evidently connected with an unknown experience to Inca up to the conquest of the coastal region, Mother Earth (Pacha Mama) important goddess pan-Peruvian, and Mother Corn (Mama Sara) that, in private worship, could also identify with individual maize plants exceptionally grown. In addition to real, the Coricancha upheld even certain objects venerable, said huaca, who in a certain sense, had the ability to concentrate in itself the sacredness of the conquered territories from which they came. You could say that they represented on the plane of religion, confirming to the city of Cuzco that harbored them the role of capital of the Empire. Generally the term huaca it designates things (images, stones, trees, etc..), places (sources, heights, etc.) and buildings (chapels, tombs, etc.) considered "sacred" or seats of exhibitions of the "sacred". With respect to the cult of the countless local huaca, that at the religious level could jeopardize the unity of the Empire, there were two official attitudes: on the one hand we tried to absorb the huaca more important, accogliendole materially or symbolically in the Coricancha, under the jurisdiction of the god Inti; on the other hand he tried to destroy the remaining, as did the ninth emperor, Pachacútec ("reformer of the World"), said for this "enemy of the huaca". To the religious building of the Empire opposed, in addition to the huaca, even the cults of local ancestors, for their ability to produce a human group bound by the worship of a common ancestor (ayllu), and therefore the same released within certain limits from the broader community constituting the empire. The empire maintained the ayllu, but deprived them of their characteristics "ethnic" and religious. The empire is divided into two halves, the "upper" and "lower", in turn divided into two sections: It thus took four seyu, determined by two ideal lines intersecting at Cuzco, which became the cultural center town, a world open to conquest or to transpose in the quadripartite diagram of the Empire, said "Land of the four regions" (Tahuantinsuyo). The Inca emperor, residing at Cuzco, which was the son of the sun" (Intip churin), a living god. In his own family was the high priest, the villac umu. In this unifying process must also be seen the religious reform of the eighth emperor Hatum Tupac, who introduced the cult of Viracocha and it took the name. Viracocha was a cultural hero of Andean populations, or perhaps a "creator lazy", recalled in various myths but never made the object of worship. His first and only the temples were actually erected by Hatum Tupac, which he gave to Viracocha the character of "father" universal, by replacing single "ancestors" of the various ethnic groups. With the acquisition of Viracocha were born complex theological elaboration (including recalls the investiture of sovereignty, transmitted by Viracocha to Inti and Inti to the emperor and the formulae for which each solar sacrifice became an offering to Viracocha in the name of Inti), which is expressed sometimes in prayers and hymns of high spiritual value and aesthetic. Art The Incas left traces remarkable of their presence in all areas in which spread. Remain everywhere many constructions, Adobes on the coast and in stone on the plateau, which always have characteristics trapezoidal openings. In the area of Cuzco is constructed with large blocks of stone polygonal (bastions, supporting walls) or with blocks of stone rectangular (buildings). The architecture Inca is visible in all its mole and beauty to Machu Picchu, rediscovered city in 1911 by Hiram Bingham. The ceramic inca glossy polychrome and produced vases and other containers of excellent workmanship. As regards the metallurgy, the most important innovation was the spread of the use of bronze throughout the Empire, but the most beautiful objects (figurines, ornaments, jewelry various) are in gold and silver; the production had to be huge and inestimable value (think of the famous garden at the Temple of the Sun of Cuzco, with reproductions in gold with figures of divinity, of animals and plants), but was largely destroyed by the Spanish. Works noticeable were made by craftsmen of the Court not only in the field of jewelry and ceramics, but also in that of weaving and glyptic.