Page 204 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

andean states 89

It is not central heating which makes his existence “unnatural,” but his refusal to take an interest
in the principles behind it. By being entirely dependent on science, yet closing his mind to it,
he leads the life of an urban barbarian. • Arthur Koestler (1905–1983)

ments. Between 700 and 1000, the spread of Wari arti- Aymara kingdoms of Lake Titicaca were perhaps the
facts and architecture throughout Peru points to the most populous and powerful in the Andes, yet remained
increasing power of the polity.Wari appears to have taken politically fragmented. Other cultures, such as the Ica,
control over some areas by creating regional administra- Wanka, Chiribaya, Inca, and Chanka, were important
tive centers and shuffling political hierarchies, site loca- regional powers that also failed to develop into states. By
tions, and economic systems to fit their needs. At least at least the beginning of the fifteenth century, however,
twenty administrative centers, the largest of which, Pikil- one of these groups, the Inca, consolidated the area
lacta, measured 800 meters on a side, may have been around Cuzco into a state that eventually dominated
connected to the capital through a network of roads. Chimu and the kingdoms of Peru.
Other areas of Peru, however, bear few or no traces of
Wari domination, and it is likely that these areas enjoyed The Inca
more independence from the state.The Wari state ended The Inca empire, the largest pre-Hispanic state ever
around 1000, and Tiwanaku followed soon after. Some known in the Americas, stretched from the northern bor-
scholars suggest that their demise can be linked to a der of Ecuador to the present-day Chilean capital of San-
multiple-year drought, though no definitive reasons for tiago. According to native accounts and archaeological
the states’ collapse have been agreed upon. evidence, the Inca expansion began in the first half of the
fifteenth century. Using a mixture of diplomacy and
The Chimu State and the force, the Inca managed to conquer much of the Andean
Kingdoms of Peru cordillera in less than one hundred years. Cuzco, the cap-
In the wake of the Tiwanaku and Wari collapse, regional ital, contained an assortment of palaces, temples, and res-
polities filled the power vacuum left in the central Andes. idences arranged around two plazas in the city’s center.
The most complex of these societies was the Chimu state Royal estates, like the site of Machu Picchu, dotted the
on Peru’s north coast. By about 900, the state controlled landscape around the capital.
about 1000 kilometers of coast from the city of Tumbes The Inca empire arranged conquered populations into
in the north to the Chillon valley in the south.The capi- four administrative quarters called Collasuyo, Antisuyu,
tal, Chan Chan, was a sprawling metropolis of more than Cuntisuyu, and Chinchasuyu.Although many local prac-
6 square kilometers.Ten palaces, each built by a succes- tices were often allowed to continue in conquered re-
sive Chimu king,dominated the heart of the city.A palace gions, the empire frequently made significant changes to
would serve as the administrative hub of the state during a group’s political organization, settlement locations,
the ruler’s lifetime,and then turn into a mausoleum to the and economic specializations. The heart of imperial
ruler after his death. The Chimu also erected several re- administration was a system of regional centers that
gional centers in other areas, but their most impressive were interconnected by a road system. Among the many
achievement may have been the construction of an inter- purposes served by these facilities, the most important
valley irrigation system of massive earthen canals that was the collection and redistribution of goods obtained
brought water to fields from as far as 70 kilometers away. by the state through the labor tax levied upon its subjects.
Although other polities during this period are often The Inca labor tax was couched within an idiom of reci-
called kingdoms, they do not appear to have achieved suf- procity by which the Incas would return services rendered
ficient size and complexity to be classified as states by to the state by hosting workers at feasts where prodigious
most archaeologists. The Chincha culture of southern amounts of food and corn beer were consumed.
Peru, for example, was the preeminent trader along the By the beginning of the sixteenth century, Inca rulers
Pacific coast, but the Chincha chose to control the sea strained to keep down rebellions throughout the overex-
instead of controlling the lands around them. The tended empire.Wave of epidemics and a war of succession