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12. The Inca - Cities in the Cloud (Part 1 of 2) — Transcript

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0:26In the year
0:261911, the young explorer Hiram Bingham
0:30was exploring the mountainous cloud
0:33forests of Peru.
0:36He was chasing a rumor that had been
0:38circulating
0:39for many years, a rumor that an entire
0:42lost city might lie somewhere
0:46high in the Peruvian Andes in a valley
0:49known as Urubamba.
0:53Bingham was skeptical, but upon hearing a
0:56tip
0:56from a local guide, he decided to climb
0:59to the top of the precarious mountain
1:01trail
1:02and investigate. He later wrote
1:05about how his journey unfolded.
1:11So lofty are the peaks on either side
1:13that although the trail was frequently
1:15shadowed by dense tropical jungle, many
1:18of the mountains were capped with snow.
1:21There seemed to be little in the way of
1:23ruins, and I began to think that my time
1:26had been wasted.
1:28However, the view was magnificent.
1:31On all sides of us rose the magnificent
1:34peaks
1:34of the Urubamba Canyon, while 2,000 feet
1:37below us,
1:38the rushing waters of the noisy river.
1:43Bingham climbed a little higher, hacking
1:46through the dense forest
1:48and fighting off the effects of altitude
1:50sickness
1:51that would often creep up on travelers
1:54in the high
1:54passes of the Andes. Soon,
1:58he stumbled across something that must
2:00have made his heart
2:02skip a beat.
2:05Presently we found ourselves in the
2:08midst of a tropical forest
2:09beneath the shade of whose trees we
2:11could make out a maze
2:13of ancient walls, the ruins of buildings
2:16made of blocks of granite,
2:18some of which were beautifully fitted
2:20together in the most
2:21refined style of Inca architecture.
2:26Bingham was impressed, but the more he
2:29explored,
2:30the more he realized that this was no
2:33mere
2:33scattering of ruins.
2:37A few roads farther along, we came to a
2:39little open space
2:40on which there were two splendid temples
2:42or palaces.
2:44The superior character of the stonework,
2:46the presence of these splendid edifices,
2:48and of what appeared to be an unusually
2:51large number of finely constructed stone
2:53dwellings
2:54led me to believe that this might prove
2:55to be the largest and most important
2:57ruin discovered in South America.
3:02His trek turned into a frenetic
3:04scramble
3:05as crumbling ruins gave way to yet more
3:08and more ruins, and it became clear
3:11that a large settlement did indeed lie
3:15here under the dense scrub and
3:17undergrowth.
3:20For an hour and 20 minutes, we had a hard
3:23climb.
3:24A good part of the distance we went on
3:26all fours,
3:27sometimes holding on by our fingernails.
3:30Here and there, a primitive ladder made
3:33from the roughly notched trunk
3:34of a small tree was placed in such a way
3:37as to help
3:37one over what might otherwise have been
3:40an impassable cliff.
3:42The heat was excessive.
3:45The ruins that Bingham had discovered
3:47were the remains of a royal estate
3:50of the kings of a people known as the
3:53Inca.
3:54It had lain completely abandoned for
3:57nearly four
3:58centuries on top of the craggy peaks
4:01of the Urubamba Valley. Today,
4:04it is one of the most recognizable and
4:06distinctive ruined places in the world,
4:09and it is known as Machu Picchu.
4:13It had once been an outpost of an empire
4:16that stretched
4:17right across the continent of South
4:19America, and
4:20formed its most extensive and
4:23sophisticated
4:24civilization, an empire that had tamed
4:27one
4:28of the most hostile environments on
4:30Earth.
4:32As Bingham explored the overgrown ruins
4:35over the following weeks and months,
4:37clearing away the vegetation that rolled
4:40over these ancient walls,
4:42he must have asked himself how had the
4:45people of this region
4:47built such a mighty fortress in the
4:50clouds?
4:51How had this great city gone
4:53undiscovered for so many centuries,
4:56and with no signs of war or destruction
4:59on its stones?
5:01What in all the world had happened to
5:04the Inca people
5:05of the cloud forest?
5:41My name's Paul Cooper, and you're
5:43listening to The Fall of Civilizations
5:45podcast.
5:47Each episode, I look at a civilization of
5:49the past that rose to glory and then
5:52collapsed into the ashes of history.
5:55I want to ask what do they have in
5:57common?
5:58What led to their fall, and what did it
6:00feel like to be a person
6:02alive at the time who witnessed the end
6:05of their world?
6:07In this episode, I want to look at the
6:09story of the Inca
6:11Empire. I want to explore how this unique
6:14culture
6:15grew up in one of the most extreme
6:18mountain landscapes
6:19that our planet can provide. I want to
6:22explain
6:23how they built the largest empire to
6:26ever arise
6:26in the Western Hemisphere, and I want to
6:30tell the story
6:31of how their society finally came to an
6:34end
6:34in the most dramatic and cataclysmic way
6:46imaginable.
6:53The Andes Mountains are the largest
6:56continental mountain range
6:57in the world. They stretch
7:01more than 7,000 kilometers
7:03across the South American land mass
7:06from north to south, a distance that
7:09stretches about a sixth of the way
7:11around the circumference of the Earth.
7:14They form part of the eastern edge of
7:17what's called
7:18the Pacific Ring of Fire, a nearly
7:21continuous
7:21chain of volcanic belts, lava-filled
7:25oceanic trenches, and towering mountains
7:28that stretches right around the coast of
7:31the Pacific Ocean.
7:33This is one of the most seismically
7:35active areas in the world,
7:37with around 90% of the world's
7:39earthquakes
7:40and about 75% of its volcanoes
7:44occurring along this enormous ring.
7:48Since their formation around 10 to 6
7:51million years ago, these soaring peaks
7:55have had a dramatic effect on the
7:57circulation of the Earth's atmosphere,
8:00and they have given rise to some of the
8:03world's
8:03most extreme landscapes.
8:06To the east, they act as a wall to the
8:09continent's rain clouds,
8:11pooling and gathering them, and resulting
8:14in the vast
8:15jungle rainforest of the Amazon, home
8:18to over 400 billion trees.
8:23Although the Andes Mountains sit right
8:26beside the Pacific
8:27Coast and are nearly 3,000 kilometers
8:30from the Atlantic,
8:32still more than 90% of the water
8:35that falls in these mountains
8:36will drain into the Atlantic Ocean.
8:40These rainwaters follow the enormous
8:42watercourse of the Amazon River
8:44and bring a super abundance of life to
8:47this vast
8:48plain. But the land on the Pacific side
8:52of the mountains
8:53couldn't be more different. In fact,
8:56the desert that has formed on the
8:58western side of the mountains
9:00is the driest place on earth, and it is
9:03known
9:04as the Atacama.
9:10The Atacama Desert may be the oldest
9:13desert on earth,
9:15and has experienced its extreme climate
9:17for at least the last three million
9:20years.
9:21It's so dry because the winds that blow
9:24up the coast of Chile and Peru
9:26are cold winds from the Antarctic,
9:29parched of any moisture
9:31by the sub-zero conditions of the pole.
9:35The Atacama is so arid that even though
9:38it contains
9:39several mountains higher than
9:416,000 meters,
9:42many are still completely free of
9:44glaciers.
9:46Some weather stations set up in the
9:48desert in modern
9:49times have never detected any rain.
9:53This extreme aridity, as well as its
9:56broken,
9:57rocky landscape, means this desert is
10:00frequently used as a filming location
10:03for science-fiction films set on the
10:06planet Mars.
10:09In fact, in 2003, a team of scientists
10:13even went out into the driest parts of
10:15the Atacama Desert
10:17and repeated the same tests that the
10:20Mars Viking rovers had used
10:22to try to find life on the surface of
10:25the red planet.
10:27The tests returned negative, detecting
10:30no signs of life.
10:34But across this desert, about 40 rivers
10:38do flow down from the mountains.
10:41These desert rivers form rich oases,
10:45and for at least the last 10,000
10:47years,
10:48humans have made their home here.
10:51This was one of the last stops on
10:54humanity's journey
10:55of more than 30,000 kilometers
10:58from the deserts
10:58of Ethiopia. Many common plants were
11:02domesticated and
11:03farmed in these valleys which receive
11:06virtually no
11:07rainfall, foods like avocados,
11:11peanuts, beans, squash, peppers,
11:15sweet potatoes, and a variety of fruits
11:18including pineapples and guavas.
11:21It's in these fertile river valleys
11:24that the very earliest
11:26civilizations of this region began.
11:32In Inca conceptions, the universe was
11:35created
11:35by a god named Viracocha.
11:39He also created mankind, and crafted
11:42humans out of stone,
11:44as one surviving Inca hymn recounts.
11:57Oh creator, root of all, Viracocha,
12:02end of all, lord in shining garments
12:05who infuses life and sets all things in
12:08order,
12:09saying, “Let there be man! Let there be
12:12woman!”
12:13Molder, maker, to all things you have
12:16given life.
12:17Watch over them. Keep them living
12:19prosperously,
12:20fortunately in safety and peace.
12:31In fact, the Inca were only the latest in
12:34a long
12:35string of human civilizations that rose
12:38and fell
12:39in the region of the Andes.
12:42The coastal basin of the Atacama Desert
12:45is thought to be one of the few
12:47so-called cradles of civilization
12:50in the world, along with others like
12:52Mexico,
12:53the Indus Valley, the basin of the
12:56Yangtze and Yellow Rivers
12:58in China, and the Tigris Euphrates Valley
13:01in Mesopotamia, all places
13:04where city-dwelling human societies have
13:07independently risen up.
13:10Some memory of these early days is
13:13recalled
13:14in the Inca's version of their own
13:17history,
13:18known as the Chronicle of the Incas.
13:22In ancient times, they say the land and
13:25the provinces of Peru were dark and
13:27neither light nor daylight existed.
13:30In this time there lived certain people
13:32who had a lord who ruled over them and
13:34to whom they were subject.
13:36The name of these people and that of
13:38their ruler have been forgotten.
13:42Today, we do know the names of some of
13:44these peoples,
13:46and some of the best known of these
13:48early precursors
13:50are the Moche and the Nazca.
13:57During a period roughly equivalent to
14:00the rise and fall of the Roman Empire,
14:03that is, between around 400 BC and
14:06580 AD, the Moche and the Nazca
14:10achieved a high degree of organization
14:12and sophistication,
14:14and expanded their territories across
14:17the deserts of the Atacama.
14:19They became experts at directing water
14:22in the dry landscape,
14:24building long canals and rivulets of
14:27stone,
14:28and soon began to expand their
14:31settlements
14:32into the foothills and the mountain
14:34valleys of the Andes.
14:37The Nazca are most famous for the
14:40hundreds of remarkable patterns and
14:42images that they drew in the landscape
14:45of the coastal deserts.
14:48This is a rough terrain broken by stones
14:51and rubble,
14:53and so, to ease travel and trade between
14:55their settlements,
14:57the Nazca cleared long roads in the
14:59desert.
15:01But soon, these desert lines seem
15:04to have taken on a more decorative and
15:06perhaps
15:07mystical significance. The Nazca
15:11constructed these lines with simple
15:14tools
15:14and careful planning, clearing away the
15:17rocks and rubble of the desert,
15:19and revealing the lighter-coloured sand
15:21beneath.
15:23Some of these vast patterns are nearly
15:25400 meters long,
15:27or the length of four football pitches.
15:30Hundreds are simple geometric designs,
15:34while more than 70 are depictions of
15:37animals
15:38including hummingbirds, spiders, fish,
15:42condors, monkeys, lizards, and humans,
15:46as well as an assortment of trees and
15:49flowers.
15:51These vast shapes in the sand were
15:54invisible from ground level,
15:56but they could be seen from the sharply
15:58rising foothills and
15:59mountains that rose out of the desert.
16:03We don't know the full significance of
16:05these lines,
16:07whether religious or to mark the
16:09positions of the stars at certain times
16:11of the year,
16:12or simply as ostentatious expressions
16:16of wealth and power. But if you've ever
16:18drawn a picture
16:20into the sand of a beach and then
16:22climbed up onto the cliff to see it from
16:24above,
16:25you'll understand this impulse, although
16:28on a scale
16:29hundreds of times larger.
16:33These kinds of vast public works were
16:36possible because of the increasing
16:38social centralization of these empires,
16:42but for reasons we don't entirely
16:43understand, both
16:45of these early societies soon passed out
16:48of history
16:49and into dust.
16:56While the civilization of the Andes may
16:59have begun
17:00on the fringes of the desert, it's in the
17:02mountains
17:03that it reached its most astonishing
17:05heights.
17:07A short distance inland from the coast,
17:10the towering wall of these mountains
17:13rises sharply.
17:16This is a landscape that is
17:18exceptionally hard to live in.
17:21It's made up of high, craggy peaks of
17:24sandstone,
17:25limestone, and granite, and less than
17:282% of its total area
17:30is at all suitable for growing food.
17:34The elevation changes dramatically over
17:36short distances,
17:38with the highest peaks towering up to
17:416,700 meters
17:43or 22,000 feet, roughly
17:46two-thirds the cruising altitude of an
17:49airliner.
17:51The steep, rocky slopes of the Andes
17:54hold very little fertile soil, and
17:58even at the bottom of its valleys, it's
18:00rare to find
18:01any fertile earth.
18:04The mountains above 4,800 meters
18:08are capped with snow and ice all year
18:11round,
18:12while the snows creep much lower in the
18:14winter months.
18:17For the people who lived here, altitude
18:19was one of the primary ways
18:21they measured their landscape. The people
18:25of the Andes
18:26divided the mountains into distinct
18:28zones by
18:29height. There was the Quechua Zone
18:33between about 2,000 and 3,000
18:35meters above sea level
18:37which contained warm valleys free of
18:40frost,
18:41many of them suitable for growing maize
18:43and other
18:44lowland crops. Above that
18:47was the Suni Zone at about
18:503,000 to 4,000 meters.
18:52On these steep slopes, potatoes were the
18:55primary crop.
18:57Higher still was the zone known as Puna.
19:00Agriculture was impossible here, but
19:03there are
19:04vast, frosty grasslands where
19:07herds of alpaca and llama could be
19:09grazed in great numbers,
19:12crucial for their wool and meat.
19:15Also raised for meat were guinea pigs
19:18which were cheap to raise and maintain,
19:21happily ate grains
19:22too coarse or bitter for humans, and
19:26reproduced extremely rapidly.
19:30Life for these early people was hard.
19:34Infant mortality was so high in the
19:37Andes
19:38that Inca children were not given a name
19:40until their third
19:42birthday, and until then was simply
19:44referred to
19:45with the fitting name Wawa.
19:48This rugged landscape was no place for
19:52individualism. There were no horses
19:55or oxen in the Americas that could help
19:57its people
19:58carry heavy loads or pull plows,
20:02so fields had to be turned by human
20:05hands.
20:07A group of farmers worked much faster
20:10than one on his own, and the dry, cold
20:13valleys needed irrigation canals dug
20:16through stone and rock, enormous labors
20:20that required large work gangs. So, to
20:23survive
20:24in this tough environment, people needed
20:27to pull
20:27together. This reciprocal economy
20:31formed the basis of the highly
20:33controlled and centralized empires that
20:36would follow,
20:37and would form the hallmark of Andean
20:39society
20:41right through its history.
20:47These early valley settlements were
20:50joined
20:51by a precarious strand of pathways and
20:54roads that traced narrow lines through
20:57the mountains.
20:59The steep, narrow river gorges were home
21:02to quick flowing rivers,
21:04and could only be crossed at certain
21:06points where it was possible to build a
21:09bridge.
21:10This meant that there was often only one
21:13road
21:13between one town and another, a fragile
21:17web
21:18that slowly turned the landscape of the
21:20mountains
21:21into a traversible network.
21:25Along these roads the people of the
21:28Andes
21:28would trek with caravans of llamas.
21:32These camelid animals are incredibly
21:35strong for their size,
21:37and are capable of carrying loads of up
21:39to 40 kilograms
21:41across some of the world's toughest
21:43terrain.
21:46As a pack animal, they are also
21:48essentially self-sufficient.
21:51Since they were able to eat any of the
21:53coarse grasses
21:55growing along the mountain roads,
21:57travelers
21:58didn't need to bring along any food for
22:00their animals,
22:02saving precious space for cargo.
22:07Along this complex and sophisticated
22:10trade route,
22:11cocoa leaves, tobacco, and bright feathers
22:15passed west out of the jungle while
22:18maize, seashells, and dried fish
22:21passed east from the coast. This system
22:25saw seashells decorating the clothes of
22:28people
22:29who lived a thousand miles from the sea,
22:32and bright tropical feathers decorating
22:35the hair
22:36of people who had never laid eyes on the
22:38jungle.
22:41One of the first great cities of this
22:43region
22:44was called Tiwanaku, and it grew up
22:48in what is now western Bolivia, near
22:51the vast shores of the body of water
22:54known as Lake Titicaca.
23:00This is the largest lake in South
23:02America
23:03and one of the highest in the world,
23:06today straddling the borders of Bolivia
23:10and Peru. This lake
23:14is so vast that it's often impossible to
23:17see the other side,
23:18and so in the craggy landscape of the
23:21Andes,
23:22it forms a completely unique place where
23:25the narrow valleys and
23:26jagged peaks suddenly give way to blue,
23:30open skies, the placid surface of the
23:33lake
23:33reflecting it like a mirror, and a
23:36horizon
23:36vanishing into the distance.
23:40For the whole history of the people of
23:42the Andes,
23:43this lake would hold a special place in
23:45their imagination
23:47and would form the center point of their
23:50mythology.
23:53The city of Tiwanaku held vast
23:56pyramid structures and impressive
23:59carved gateways cut from solid blocks of
24:02stone
24:03weighing up to 66 tons.
24:06It was home to as many as 20,000 people,
24:10and formed one of the first capitals of
24:13the Andes.
24:16In the Inca creation story, we can see
24:19the cultural debt they owed to Tiwanaku.
24:23They believed it was the place where
24:25light was first
24:26brought to the world, when before there
24:29had been
24:30only darkness.
24:34During this time of total night, they say
24:36that a lord emerged from a lake in this
24:38land of Peru.
24:40They say he brought with him a certain
24:42number of people
24:43and went to the place near the lake
24:45where today there is a town called
24:46Tiwanaku.
24:48There they say that he suddenly made the
24:50sun and day,
24:51and ordered the sun to follow the course
24:53that it follows.
24:55Then they say he made the stars and the
24:58moon.
25:00From the Inca perspective, the light of
25:03civilization
25:04had been created at Tiwanaku.
25:07By the time that the Inca ruled the
25:10Andes,
25:11this ancient city was already a series
25:14of ruins.
25:15When the Inca first stumbled upon it,
25:18they would have found the ancient city
25:20abandoned,
25:21a chaotic mess of broken blocks of
25:24masonry,
25:25the high, grassy plains littered with the
25:28fragments of
25:29monumental statues, shattered fragments
25:32of stone
25:33heads staring out of the walls.
25:37To the Inca, the meaning of this place
25:39was clear;
25:40this must have been the workshop where
25:43the creator god
25:44Viracocha had worked to create the world,
25:48and these stone statues were his first
25:51failed attempts at creating human life.
25:57He made some people from stone as a
26:00model of those that he would produce
26:01later,
26:02together with a chieftain to govern and
26:04rule over them, and many women,
26:06some pregnant and others delivered. When
26:09he made all these of stone,
26:11he set them aside and then made another
26:13province forming them of stones.
26:17In the Sumerian legends, the people of
26:21Mesopotamia recounted how the god Enlil
26:24created man out of clay, an idea that
26:28lived on in the Hebrew bible.
26:31Clay was the element of ancient
26:34Mesopotamia.
26:35It was the substance that built their
26:37houses,
26:38their pots and tools, the substance that
26:41allowed them to develop
26:43writing. But in the Andes, the element
26:46that the people knew best
26:47was stone. In the Andes, stone was
26:51everywhere; it towered over you on either
26:54side
26:55in the valleys, it lay waiting for you if
26:58you dug too
26:58deeply into the thin soil. It was what
27:01you had to cut through to build
27:03canals, to build your houses and temples.
27:07It even came tumbling and crashing down
27:10the mountainsides
27:11when earthquakes rocked the ground
27:14beneath your feet.
27:16So perhaps it's no coincidence that the
27:19Inca
27:19believed themselves to have been crafted
27:22from stone.
27:26It's in this city of Tiwanaku that the
27:29art of stone carving
27:31reached its earliest heights. Today, a
27:34great monument
27:35known as the Gate of the Sun still
27:38stands in ruins,
27:40covered with 48 intricately carved
27:43figures,
27:44perhaps representing something like the
27:46signs of the Zodiac.
27:48The city of Tiwanaku was grand,
27:52with its elites living inside a
27:54fortified artificial island
27:56guarded by four high stone walls
27:59surrounded by a moat. But after a time,
28:03Tiwanaku also faded into obscurity.
28:07Still, its influence on the region was
28:10enormous
28:11and all the civilizations that followed
28:14would retain
28:14something of its unique cultural imprint.
28:18One of these civilizations was the Wari.
28:24The Wari were experts at water control,
28:28and they marshaled enormous work gangs
28:30to build
28:31vast reservoirs and aqueducts that cut
28:34through the dry coastal plains and
28:37transformed the landscape
28:39of the low Andes. The Wari
28:42tamed the desert, building aqueducts up
28:45to 40 kilometers long
28:47to divert the sparse waters towards
28:50their cities.
28:52But they were never ornate or showy
28:55builders
28:56like the people of Tiwanaku. Their
28:59buildings
29:00were rough constructions, pulled together
29:03out of uncarved field stones
29:05and locked together with mud for mortar.
29:09But they still liked to build big.
29:12The walls of their cities were sometimes
29:14two to three meters thick
29:17and up to 12 meters high.
29:20The Inca built on the foundations laid
29:23by the Wari,
29:24sometimes quite literally. At certain
29:28sites
29:28you can see the walls of the Wari built
29:31from small stones,
29:32but with Inca additions extending and
29:36upgrading them
29:37in their distinctive signature style of
29:39massive
29:40megalithic stones. For reasons we don't
29:44quite understand,
29:45the Wari soon embarked on a rapid series
29:48of expansions
29:50that saw their power spread across the
29:53Andes.
29:54Some have guessed that they might have
29:56adopted a new
29:57expansionist religion that drove them to
30:00conquer their neighbors.
30:02Others have speculated that climate
30:04shifts
30:05may have reduced the habitability of
30:08their traditional
30:09desert territory, meaning that expansion
30:12may have been a matter of survival.
30:15Either way, they were incredibly
30:17successful.
30:19Between the mid 6th to mid 7th century,
30:22while Europe continued to reel from the
30:25collapse of the Roman Empire in the west,
30:28the Wari expanded across the hostile
30:30mountains of the Andes
30:32and brought people after people under
30:35their banner.
30:37Wherever the Wari went, they built
30:48terraces.
30:51Each terrace was a remarkable feat
30:54of engineering and displayed an intimate
30:57knowledge
30:57of the soil and the plants that grew in
31:00it.
31:02The walls of these terraces were sloped
31:04backwards,
31:05angled to hold in the earth and resist
31:08earthquake damage. They were floored with
31:11broken stones for drainage
31:14which were then covered by gravel and
31:16sand. Finally,
31:18the Wari would gather rich topsoil,
31:21digging it up from the lower elevations
31:24and the river valleys and carrying it up
31:26the mountain paths,
31:28laying it out to form the top layer of
31:30the terrace.
31:32This was constantly fertilized and
31:35turned over
31:36to aerate the soil. The stone walls of
31:39the terraces
31:40absorb the heat of the sun during the
31:43day
31:43and then slowly release it into the
31:45earth throughout the night,
31:47when frosts in the mountains could be
31:49severe.
31:51This technique allowed the people of the
31:53Andes to grow
31:54food at even the highest altitudes, and
31:58transformed these rocky slopes into
32:00shelves
32:01of fertile land.
32:04In this manner, tomatoes, squashes, and
32:08pumpkins,
32:09even types of tobacco were grown in the
32:12high
32:12peaks of the Andes. One
32:15remarkable site known as Moray
32:19is thought to be a kind of laboratory
32:22where the Andean people could develop
32:24new strains
32:25and hybrids of crops for growing at high
32:29altitudes.
32:30Moray is a breathtaking series of
32:33circular terraces,
32:35looking at first glance something like a
32:37Roman
32:38amphitheatre, about 30 meters deep.
32:42Moray is located at a height of
32:443,500 meters
32:46above sea level, but its descending
32:48terraces
32:49act as a kind of artificial climate,
32:52with each terrace increasing the
32:54temperature as you descend
32:56in steady increments. In fact,
32:59the temperature difference from the top
33:01to the bottom of this
33:02well can be as much as 15 degrees
33:05Celsius. These
33:09ingenious techniques made the people of
33:11the Andes
33:12some of the earliest masters of
33:15bioengineering,
33:16and meant that their farmers could
33:18practice a strategy
33:20of resilience through diversity.
33:23The people of the Andes cultivated more
33:26than a thousand varieties of potato
33:28and over 150 varieties of maize.
33:32They would sometimes plant as many as
33:34200 varieties of potato in a single
33:37field,
33:38each with different levels of frost
33:40resistance,
33:41different levels of drought resilience,
33:43and immune
33:44to different blights. These foods
33:47could be naturally freeze-dried in the
33:50cold, dry mountain air,
33:52allowing them to be stored for years on
33:55end,
33:55and ensuring that even in the immensely
33:58changeable environment of the Andes,
34:00any crisis could be ridden out.
34:05The cryptic indigenous document known as
34:08the Huarochiri manuscript
34:10pays tribute to the hard work of these
34:13ancient
34:13ancestors who made the rocky landscape
34:17of the Andes bloom.
34:20In very ancient times when a great
34:23number of people had filled the land,
34:25they lived miserably, scratching and
34:28digging the rock faces and ledges to
34:30make the terraced fields.
34:32These fields, some small, others large,
34:35are still visible today on all the rocky
34:37heights.
34:41It wasn't only in the realm of
34:43terrace building
34:45that the Wari passed on their knowledge
34:47to the Inca.
34:48They also pioneered the kind of
34:51administrative empire
34:52that would lay the blueprint for what
34:54the Inca achieved.
34:56In every new town and city that the
34:59Wari folded into their empire,
35:01they built an administrative building
35:04built
35:04to a standard plan, suggesting a high
35:07degree of centralization
35:09in the empire. The imperial power of the
35:14Wari
35:14lasted for more than 400 years,
35:18but for reasons we can never entirely
35:20know,
35:21around the year 1000, it rapidly came
35:25apart.
35:26By the year 1100, all of the major Wari
35:30centers
35:30were abandoned and never reoccupied.
35:34The Wari Empire passed into dust,
35:38but its legacy continued.
35:41The Wari had introduced the idea of an
35:44empire
35:45that would unite the territories of the
35:47Andes,
35:48and now some of their former client
35:50states
35:51would try their hand at taking up their
35:54mantle.
35:56What followed was centuries of
35:58fragmentation
35:59and warfare in the mountains as rival
36:02states competed
36:04to fill the power vacuum that the Wari
36:07had left behind.
36:09From these wars, the Inca would rise.
36:12They would model themselves both
36:15culturally and
36:16politically on the Wari, even dressing
36:18their nobles
36:19in woven tunics descended from Wari
36:23traditional dress. They built their
36:26imperial capital of Cusco modeled on the
36:29Wari cities,
36:31and all of this was designed to send a
36:34clear message;
36:35the days of chaos are coming to an end.
36:39The heirs of the old empire have arrived
36:42to bring order
36:43once more, and these heirs are the people
36:47of the Inca.
36:54I want to take a moment here to discuss
36:57the sources
36:58available to us. The Inca
37:01never developed a written language, and
37:04so kept
37:04no written records. They recorded
37:08their extensive epic poetry, their
37:11messages and administrative information,
37:15in a remarkable system of rope knots
37:18known as quipus. These quipu
37:22used knots of different sizes, positions,
37:25and colours
37:26to represent different information, and
37:29these could be decoded
37:31by people initiated in their art, who
37:34were known
37:35as quipucamayocs. One early eyewitness
37:39named Hernando Pizarro records seeing
37:43these quipucamayocs at their mysterious
37:46work.
37:48They count by certain knots on cords and
37:51so
37:51record what each chief has brought. When
37:54they had to bring us loads of fuel,
37:56maize, chicha, or meat, they took off knots
38:00or
38:00made knots on some other parts so that
38:02those who have charge of the stores
38:04keep an exact account.
38:07These quipu have never been deciphered
38:10in modern times, and it's unclear how
38:14much information
38:15they actually encoded. It's possible
38:18that they were used as memory joggers
38:21which could help someone to recite
38:22poetry
38:23or messages they had committed to memory.
38:26If you had to remember hundreds of lines
38:29of poetry by heart,
38:31you can imagine that it might help to
38:33write down the first
38:34word or letter in each line, and it's
38:37possible that the quipu
38:39operated in something like this way.
38:42But this means that the quipu isn't much
38:45good unless the person who created it
38:47is there to decipher it, and in the years
38:51since the fall of Inca society, the
38:53knowledge of how to read the quipu
38:56has been lost. This means that the
38:59earliest documents we have to learn from
39:02were made by Europeans and were written
39:04during
39:05their invasion of the Inca lands.
39:09These sources generally fall into three
39:11categories;
39:12these are eyewitness accounts in the
39:14form of Spanish chronicles and
39:17memoirs, accounts written after the
39:19conquest
39:20by Spaniards and other Europeans, and
39:23finally,
39:24the accounts of native authors in the
39:27decades following the conquest,
39:29who were trained to write in Spanish
39:31schools.
39:33The Catholic church also kept voluminous
39:36records
39:37about Inca culture, beliefs, and religious
39:40practices.
39:42Somewhat ironically, these accounts were
39:45designed
39:46to make these practices easier to
39:48eradicate,
39:49but today they form some of the most
39:52useful documents
39:53for understanding the lives and beliefs
39:56of these ancient
39:57people. There were only six
40:00known eyewitness accounts of the Inca at
40:03the time
40:04of the Spanish contact. Four of these
40:07were written immediately after the
40:09conquest. They are vivid and detailed,
40:12but of course are coloured by the world
40:14views of their authors
40:15and the role they played in the
40:17destruction of Inca society.
40:20Two further eyewitness accounts were
40:23written
40:24many decades after the conquest and are
40:26generally considered
40:27less reliable. There's also a huge
40:31confusion of secondary sources written
40:34by people who didn't witness the events
40:36of the conquest and simply interviewed
40:39others,
40:40and many of these are considered highly
40:42unreliable.
40:44But a couple do stand out. One of these
40:47is the Spaniard Juan de Betanzos.
40:50He was one of the few Spaniards who
40:53became fluent in the Inca language of
40:55Quechua
40:56and married an Inca princess who had
40:59quite astonishingly
41:00also been previously married to both of
41:03the great players
41:04in this drama, the last Inca King
41:07Atahualpa,
41:08and the Spanish conquistador Pizarro.
41:12Betanzos’ knowledge of the Inca language,
41:15his interviews with his wife,
41:17and his exceptional understanding of the
41:20culture of the Andes
41:21led to a book called The Narrative of
41:24the Incas,
41:25which relates Inca history as told to
41:28him
41:28by his wife's people.
41:31Another crucial account is that of Pedro
41:35Cieza de Leon, a Spanish Jew who had
41:38converted to Christianity
41:40in order to be allowed to travel to the
41:42New World
41:43and become a conquistador. He wrote down
41:47a number of remarkable documents known
41:50as the Chronicles of the Inca, in which
41:53he documents
41:54everything he could learn about how the
41:56Inca people
41:57thought of their own history. But he
42:00makes no
42:01secret of the fragmentary and unreliable
42:04nature
42:05of some of what he heard, as he writes
42:08in one of his chapters.
42:12These Indians have no letters and can
42:16only preserve their history by the
42:18memory of events handed down
42:20from generation to generation and by
42:23their songs and
42:24quipus. I say this because their
42:27narratives
42:27vary in many particulars, some saying one
42:30thing,
42:31and others giving a different version.
42:34Indigenous accounts are often fraught
42:38and difficult to interpret.
42:41One remarkable hybrid document was
42:44dictated by the Inca
42:45king named Titu Cusi who, after the
42:49conquest,
42:49narrated his first-hand account of the
42:52Spanish
42:53invasion to a missionary named Fray
42:56Marcos Garcia.
42:58The resulting book is called An Inca
43:00Account
43:01of the Conquest of Peru, and was
43:03published nearly 40 years after contact
43:06in 1570. This document
43:10captures an incredible snapshot of the
43:12confusion
43:13and fear of first contact, but even Titu
43:17Cusi
43:17recognizes the difficulty in accurately
43:20reporting events
43:22from so long ago.
43:26As the memory of men is frail and weak,
43:29it would be impossible to remember
43:30everything accurately with regard to all
43:33our great and
43:34important affairs unless we avail
43:37ourselves
43:37of writing to assist us in our purposes.
43:44One final document known as the
43:46Huarochiri manuscript
43:48gives us just a glimpse into the lives
43:51and beliefs
43:52of these Andean peoples prior to contact
43:55with Europeans.
43:57The book was compiled in the 16th
43:59century,
44:00a full 70 years after contact,
44:03and under the supervision of the Spanish
44:05cleric Francisco de Avila,
44:07who believed the people of the Andes to
44:09be engaged in devil worship.
44:13But despite these complications in its
44:15creation,
44:16the book does attempt to record all that
44:19the surviving Andean people of Huarochiri
44:22province
44:23remembered about the myths, religious
44:26notions, and traditions of their people,
44:29and paints a vivid picture of what life
44:32was like
44:32for people like the Inca. Together,
44:36these fraught and difficult accounts
44:38come together
44:39to paint a picture of what happened to
44:42bring
44:43South America's largest empire crashing
44:48down.
44:51In the Inca conception of their own
44:53history,
44:54their story began with a small band of
44:57highlanders
44:58who migrated to a place called Cusco,
45:02a warm valley in the highlands of
45:04southern Peru.
45:06This valley is around 40 kilometers long
45:09and drained by the Huatanay River.
45:12We don't know when this band of settlers
45:14may have arrived,
45:16or even if this event happened at all,
45:19but estimates for when it may have been
45:21usually land around the year 1200.
45:26In Europe at the time, the English
45:29crusader king Richard the Lionheart
45:31had just died, passing the throne to the
45:34infamous
45:35King John. To the east, Minamoto
45:39no Yoritomo, the first shogun of Japan,
45:42had toppled the emperor and turned
45:44himself into a military dictator.
45:48Somewhere in the high Andes, a band
45:50of travelers
45:51settled down in a place that they would
45:54soon call home.
45:56The Inca creation myth describes the
45:59scenes that these first
46:00migrants would have seen upon their
46:02arrival.
46:06In the place which is called today the
46:08great city of Cusco,
46:09there was a small town of about 30 small,
46:12humble straw houses.
46:14The rest of the area around this town
46:16was a marsh of sedge with sharp edged
46:19leaves.
46:22Houses of this time were built from
46:24rough stones
46:26carved into well-fitted but irregular
46:29shapes,
46:30and thatched with a kind of mountain
46:32grass known as ichu,
46:34which grows up to a meter tall in the
46:36mountains above an altitude of three and
46:38a half kilometers.
46:41The straw from this grass was used for a
46:43wide variety of purposes by the Inca,
46:46and was gathered as soon as the rainy
46:48season ended in May.
46:50The name of the new Inca capital, Cusco,
46:54comes from the Quechua name Qusqu
46:56Wanka,
46:57or the Rock of the Owl.
47:01The site of Cusco had long stood at the
47:04crossroads of
47:05empires. It lay right at the point where
47:08the territories of the Wari
47:10and the Tiwanaku had crossed, meaning
47:13that it benefited
47:14from both of their influences and formed
47:17a kind of hybrid culture.
47:20According to one legend, the story of the
47:23Inca people
47:24began when a cave opened up in this
47:26region
47:27and four men, all brothers, walked out of
47:30it,
47:31along with their wives. One of these
47:34was named Ayar Oche.
47:38Then Ayar Oche stood up, displayed a pair
47:41of large wings,
47:42and said he should be the one to stay at
47:44Guanacaure
47:45as an idol in order to speak with their
47:47father, the sun.
47:48Then they went up on top of the hill.
47:51Ayar Oche
47:52raised up in flight toward the heavens
47:54so high that they could not see him.
47:56The sun had ordered him to go to the
47:58town that they had seen.
47:59There they would find good company among
48:01the inhabitants of the town.
48:03After this had been stated, Ayar Oche
48:06turned into a stone,
48:07just as he was with his wings. There,
48:10Manco Capac and his companion, with the
48:13help of the four women,
48:14made a house. Having done this,
48:17Manco Capac planted some land with maize.
48:23Another origin myth states that the Inca
48:26began on an island in Lake Titicaca,
48:29and were then given the task of
48:31civilizing the world of the Andes.
48:35They then migrated northwards to the
48:37site of Cusco,
48:39using a golden staff to test the ground
48:42everywhere they went. On arrival in Cusco,
48:46the staff sank into the ground, and they
48:49knew
48:50that this would be the place they would
48:52call home.
48:54Wherever they really originated, these
48:57stories give us a glimpse of how the
48:59Inca
48:59viewed themselves, and it's an image we
49:02might find familiar from
49:04countless other empires throughout
49:06history. They believed that it was their
49:08destiny
49:09to expand and conquer, and to bring
49:12civilization to the peoples that
49:14surrounded them.
49:16Their achievements were remarkable;
49:20they would soon embark on a rapid
49:22expansion
49:23that would see them grow to become the
49:25greatest empire ever seen
49:27in the Western Hemisphere in what may
49:29have been
49:30as little as 50 to 80 years.
49:34The Inca credit this expansion to the
49:36work of one
49:37great king, a man called Pachacuti
49:41Inca Yupanqui. In Quechua,
49:44his name means ‘He who overturns
49:47time and space’, and according to
49:50traditional understanding,
49:51Pachacuti was a figure something like
49:54Alexander the Great,
49:56a conqueror of unmatched skill and
49:59energy. If the Inca Chronicles are to be
50:03taken
50:03as fact, then during his reign, Cusco
50:07grew from a small town into the capital
50:10of an
50:10empire that covered nearly the whole of
50:13western South America.
50:16Pachacuti was born in Cusco, in the
50:19palace
50:20known as the Cusicancha. As he grew up,
50:24he would have gazed out over the hills
50:26as the sun
50:27washed the grassy valley sides, and
50:30watched birds fly
50:31over the yellow thatched rooftops of the
50:34city.
50:35Perhaps it's here that he began to
50:37dream
50:38of what a power this city could one day
50:41become.
50:43As a boy, it's recorded that he learned
50:46history,
50:47laws, and language, but Pachacuti was not
50:50intended for the throne. That honour lay
50:54with his older brother Urco, who his
50:56father had named as his heir.
50:59But Pachacuti's time would come when the
51:02Inca
51:03faced a desperate threat.
51:07Sometime in the early 15th century,
51:10a people known as the Chanka invaded the
51:13lands of Cusco.
51:16Their armies marched into the fertile
51:19valley
51:20and surrounded the capital.
51:23Pachacuti's father the king and his
51:26brother
51:26the crown prince both fled, believing the
51:30city to be lost,
51:31but Pachacuti stayed behind.
51:34The Inca army must have been on the
51:37verge of desertion,
51:38but according to the story, Pachacuti
51:41stood
51:42up on the walls and rallied the Inca
51:44soldiers behind him.
51:47When the Chanka fell on the city walls,
51:50he led them in a bitter defense
51:52and against all the odds, managed to
51:54repel the invaders.
51:57It's said that Pachacuti fought so
51:59fiercely
52:00that even the stones of the mountains
52:03rose up to fight the Chanka invaders.
52:06Reading between the lines, I think it's
52:08possible that the Chanka army
52:10was caught up in one of the frequent
52:13earthquakes and landslides
52:15that rock this region, and this may have
52:18contributed
52:19to the failure of their invasion.
52:23Whatever the cause, Pachacuti's victory
52:26was so
52:27celebrated that his father had little
52:29choice
52:30but to name him his successor around the
52:33year
52:341438.
52:37From the moment he became king, Pachacuti
52:40embarked on a series of grand
52:42construction projects,
52:44rebuilding Cusco after the war with the
52:47Chanka,
52:48and turning it into a city that would be
52:50the envy of the entire region.
52:53He led his inspired Inca army
52:56in an astonishing series of victories
52:59that stretched their territory even
53:02further.
53:04Part of Pachacuti's success seems to
53:06have been that
53:07wherever he conquered, he also built.
53:11He constructed vast irrigation channels
53:14and cultivated terraces in every
53:16territory he expanded into,
53:19and during his reign, the road system of
53:22the Inca
53:22expanded dramatically until it stretched
53:25more than 5,000 kilometers from Ecuador
53:29to Chile,
53:30allowing his army to travel quickly to
53:33wherever it was needed.
53:35Cieza de Leon describes this ambitious
53:38building work
53:39in his Chronicles of the Inca.
53:44The empire of Peru is so vast that
53:47the Incas ordered a road to be made.
53:50They were built from half league to half
53:53league,
53:54small houses well roofed with wood and
53:57straw
53:58lining the roads at regular intervals.
54:01The order was that in each house
54:04there should be two Indians with
54:05provisions stationed there by the
54:08neighboring villages. In this way,
54:11the lords were kept informed of all that
54:13happened in every part of the empire,
54:15and they arranged all that was needful
54:18for the ordering of the government.
54:22Milestones were placed about every seven
54:25kilometers
54:25along these roads, marking the distances
54:28to the next city
54:30for weary travelers. The Emperor
54:33Pachacuti was also
54:35a poet, with many traditional Inca
54:38poems
54:39attributed to him. Among these are hymns
54:43to the god
54:43Viracocha, asking for blessings for his
54:47people. Lord Viracocha,
55:02who says, “Let there be day, let there be
55:05night,” who says,
55:07“Let there be dawn, let it grow light,”
55:10who makes the sun, your son, move happy
55:12and blessed
55:13every day, so that man whom you have made
55:16has light.
55:24But Pachacuti 0:55:29.440,0:55:37.040 was also capable of extremely ruthless
55:32tactics. As the Inca Empire expanded,
55:37peoples who repeatedly refused to bow to
55:39his rule
55:40were forcefully relocated, dragged from
55:43their homes by Inca soldiers,
55:46and sent to far-flung corners of the
55:48empire as colonists.
55:51But the expansion of the Inca Empire was
55:54not always violent.
55:57Pachacuti relied on an intricate
55:59intelligence network of
56:01spies and informants who would
56:03infiltrate neighboring states
56:06and bring back reports to him on their
56:08power and wealth.
56:10He would then send messages to the
56:12rulers of these kingdoms,
56:14and send them luxurious gifts such as
56:17high
56:17quality textiles and cocoa leaves, as
56:20Cieza de Leon recalls.
56:25They always arranged matters in the
56:27commencement of their negotiations
56:29so that things should be pleasantly and
56:31not harshly ordered.
56:32They marched from Cusco with their army
56:35and war-like materials
56:36until they were near the region they
56:38intended to conquer.
56:40Then they collected very complete
56:41information touching the power of the
56:43enemy.
56:44The Inca sent special messengers to the
56:46enemy to say that he desired to have
56:47them as allies and relations,
56:50so that with joyful hearts and willing
56:52minds,
56:53they ought to come forth to receive him
56:55in their province and give him obedience
56:57as in the other provinces, and that they
57:00might do this
57:00of their own accord. He sent presents to
57:03the native chiefs.
57:06The promise of this gesture was clear;
57:10join the Inca Empire, and I will make you
57:13rich
57:14beyond your wildest dreams.
57:17It seems that most of the neighboring
57:19rulers accepted this offer
57:21and were peacefully folded into the
57:24empire,
57:25but it wasn't without an implicit threat.
57:29Refusal to accept Inca rule resulted in
57:32an invasion,
57:34and any rulers who resisted were
57:36executed
57:37without exception.
57:41The Inca army at this time was a
57:44fearsome
57:45force. Any commoner could be conscripted
57:49as part of the Inca system of organized
57:52labor,
57:53and every able-bodied man was expected
57:55to take part in a war
57:57at least in some capacity at least once
58:00in their life.
58:01The Inca army could reach the
58:03astonishing size
58:04of 140,000 men.
58:08The Inca had no iron or steel, and had no
58:12real technological advantage over other
58:15cultures in the Andes,
58:17so they often relied simply on their
58:18sheer force of numbers to overwhelm
58:21their opponents.
58:23Their weapons were hardwood spears
58:26launched using spear throwers,
58:28arrows and javelins, slings,
58:31as well as clubs and maces made from the
58:34hard wood of the chonta
58:36palm, with blunt or spiked heads
58:39made of copper or bronze. They wore
58:42armor made of wood and animal skin
58:45sometimes lined with these metals,
58:48and on their backs, warriors wore small,
58:50round shields
58:52made of woven palm wood slats and cotton.
58:56Their favorite tactic was to ambush
58:58their enemy in
58:59steep valleys, rolling rocks down the
59:02hillside,
59:03and trapping them in avalanches.
59:06They would march into battle to the
59:08beating of drums,
59:09the blowing of trumpets made of wood,
59:12conch shells, or horn.
59:15The army must have made a tremendous
59:17sight when it all
59:19massed together and marched off to war,
59:22and it's not hard to see why many
59:24kingdoms
59:25elected to take the Inca paycheck
59:28rather than face them in battle.
59:34The logistical network that supported
59:36the army was no less impressive;
59:39Inca soldiers marched along immaculately
59:42maintained highways through the
59:43mountains,
59:45over bridges across the towering gorges.
59:48Along the road, they were sheltered in
59:50barrack-like shelters called
59:52tambos, and were fed from the
59:54well-supplied storehouses
59:56called qullqas. Because of this talent for
59:59organization,
1:00:00the Inca army was able to move faster
1:00:03and amass
1:00:04a greater force than any of their rivals.
1:00:07Once the Inca had taken control of a
1:00:10town whether peacefully or by force,
1:00:12they would always build one of their
1:00:15large fortified storehouses or
1:00:17qullqas just outside it. These they
1:00:21would fill with
1:00:22food; freeze-dried potatoes and corn,
1:00:25beans, dried meats, and other long lasting
1:00:28foods,
1:00:29as well as clothing, blankets, and shawls,
1:00:32even sandals, which would then be
1:00:35distributed to the population.
1:00:38The capacity of this storage system was
1:00:41staggering.
1:00:42In just one region known as the Mantaro
1:00:45Basin,
1:00:46there were nearly 3,000 of these
1:00:48storehouses,
1:00:49with a capacity of 170,000 cubic meters,
1:00:53or around 70 Olympic swimming pools.
1:00:58These qullqa storehouses were always
1:01:00placed in ostentatious positions;
1:01:03on top of hills or on the side of cliffs
1:01:06so that everyone in the valley below
1:01:08could see them. The message they were
1:01:10designed to convey
1:01:12was clear; you are now part of the Inca
1:01:15Empire.
1:01:16The empire will provide for you. All
1:01:20your troubles are over.
1:01:33As part of their policy of expansion, the
1:01:36Inca practiced an incredibly inclusive
1:01:39attitude to religion.
1:01:42Like everything else, religious belief in
1:01:44this region was
1:01:45incredibly diverse. The Huarochiri
1:01:48manuscripts records
1:01:50some of the extreme variation from town
1:01:53to town
1:01:54in the myth of just one goddess named
1:01:56Chaupi Namca,
1:01:57and how she relates to other gods and
1:02:00mythical figures.
1:02:03In each village and even region by
1:02:05region,
1:02:06people give different versions and
1:02:08different names, too.
1:02:10People from Mama say one thing, and the
1:02:12Checa say another.
1:02:13Some call Chaupi Namca the sister of
1:02:15Pari Caca.
1:02:16Others say she was Tamta Namca's
1:02:18daughter. Others still say
1:02:20she was the sun's daughter, so it is
1:02:23impossible to decide.
1:02:26In this atmosphere of extreme religious
1:02:29diversity,
1:02:30the Inca saw benefits to absorbing the
1:02:33gods of others
1:02:34into their pantheon. In territories they
1:02:38conquered,
1:02:38local religions and cults were allowed
1:02:41to continue,
1:02:42and where possible were actually folded
1:02:44into the existing mythos of the Inca.
1:02:48When they conquered the people of
1:02:49Huarochiri province for instance,
1:02:51they happily took on their god named
1:02:54Pacha Kamaq.
1:02:55He became a god of the Inca, too, although
1:02:59of course,
1:02:59the creator god Viracocha kept his prime
1:03:03position.
1:03:04In the Huarochiri manuscript, the people
1:03:07of this province
1:03:08even attribute the many victories of the
1:03:11Inca
1:03:12to the help of their god and his son,
1:03:15Maca Uisa.
1:03:18When Tupac Inca Yupanqui was king,
1:03:21they say he first conquered all the
1:03:23provinces, then rested happily for many
1:03:25years.
1:03:26But then, enemy rebellions arose from
1:03:29some provinces.
1:03:31These people didn't want to be the
1:03:32peoples of the Inca.
1:03:34The Inca mobilized many thousands of men
1:03:36and battled them for a period of 12
1:03:38years.
1:03:39The Inca, grieving deeply, said what will
1:03:42become of us?
1:03:44He became very downhearted. One day he
1:03:47thought to himself,
1:03:48“Why do I serve all these gods with my
1:03:50gold and my silver?
1:03:52Enough; I'll call them to help me against
1:03:54my enemies.”
1:03:55Maca Uisa arrived and sat at the end of
1:03:58the gathering.
1:04:00The Inca king goes on to plead with the
1:04:03gods
1:04:04to help him in putting down these
1:04:06rebellions.
1:04:08Some of them make excuses, telling him
1:04:10that they are too
1:04:11powerful, and their fury would destroy
1:04:14not just the rebellious provinces
1:04:16but the entire land. But soon,
1:04:19the Huarochiri god Maca Uisa speaks up.
1:04:24“Inca! Midday sun! I will go there.
1:04:27I'll go and subdue them for you right
1:04:29away, once and for all.”
1:04:32As soon as they brought him up a hill,
1:04:34Maca Uisa began to rain upon them.
1:04:36Maca Uisa reduced all those villages to
1:04:39eroded chasms by flashing lightning and
1:04:41pouring down more rain,
1:04:43and washing them away in a mudslide.
1:04:45Striking with lightning bolts, he
1:04:47exterminated all the great lords and
1:04:49other strong
1:04:50men. Only a few of the common people were
1:04:52spared.
1:04:55The result of this miraculous
1:04:57intervention
1:04:58is that the Huarochiri god is welcomed
1:05:00with open arms
1:05:02into the Inca religious system.
1:05:05From that time onward, the Inca revered
1:05:08Paria Caca
1:05:09even more, and gave him 50 of his
1:05:11retainers.
1:05:13This open-mindedness allowed the Inca to
1:05:16incorporate a vast and diverse
1:05:18range of peoples into their empire, and
1:05:21expand
1:05:22rapidly. When they conquered the lands of
1:05:26the central Peruvian coast
1:05:27around the year 1470, they took one great
1:05:31temple
1:05:31to the god Pacha Kamaq that contained a
1:05:34famous
1:05:35oracle. During their occupation of the
1:05:38area,
1:05:39they allowed the temple's priests to
1:05:41continue worshiping their own
1:05:42gods, although they did add an additional
1:05:46few buildings
1:05:47to allow worship of Inca gods like
1:05:49Viracocha
1:05:50to take place there as well.
1:05:55Of course, one of the most remarkable
1:05:57outposts
1:05:58that the emperor Pachacuti built is the
1:06:01one
1:06:01that opened this episode.
1:06:05Around the year 1440, he ordered the
1:06:08construction of the outpost
1:06:10in the Peruvian cloud forests that would
1:06:13one day be known
1:06:14as Machu Picchu, perched on a mountain
1:06:17ridge
1:06:18rising half a kilometer above the valley
1:06:21floor,
1:06:22with steep cliffs plunging down on
1:06:24either side.
1:06:26It's not clear exactly what this town
1:06:28was designed for.
1:06:30It was never self-sufficient, relying on
1:06:33constant supplies
1:06:34ferried up to it from the valley floor,
1:06:36and so, it must have served a very
1:06:39specific
1:06:39purpose. Some believe it may have been a
1:06:43royal retreat chosen for the beauty of
1:06:46its location,
1:06:47while others argue that it may have been
1:06:49a plantation or
1:06:51trading post for high-value commodities
1:06:54like cocoa leaves,
1:06:55which the Inca chewed and brewed into
1:06:58tea
1:06:58for a mild narcotic effect.
1:07:02More than a hundred steps of white
1:07:04granite
1:07:05connect the town's temples and houses,
1:07:08its water reservoirs, terraces, and its
1:07:11temple to the sun. In its day,
1:07:14it must have been a magnificent sight,
1:07:17with its rooftops of ichu
1:07:19thatch gleaming bright in the sun, its
1:07:22fields overflowing with corn
1:07:24and potatoes, while herds of llama
1:07:28zigzagged up the narrow mountain roads
1:07:31to supply it with all the necessities of
1:07:33life,
1:07:34and the clouds rolled endlessly over
1:07:37its grassy slopes.
1:07:44The reign of the great King Pachacuti
1:07:47saw the kingdom of Cusco
1:07:49reorganized into an entity known by its
1:07:53people
1:07:53as Tahuantinsuyu. In Quechua
1:07:57this means ‘four regions together’
1:08:00and has been translated as something
1:08:02like ‘the realm of the four
1:08:04parts’ or ‘the land of the four quarters’.
1:08:08This was now a stable imperial state
1:08:11made up of a central government ruling
1:08:14over
1:08:14four provincial governments; Chinchasuyu
1:08:18in the northwest,
1:08:19Antisuyu in the northeast, Kuntisuyu in
1:08:22the south,
1:08:23and Qullasuyu in the southeast.
1:08:27The roads leading to each of these four
1:08:29provinces
1:08:30all met at a crossroads in the central
1:08:33plaza of the city of Cusco,
1:08:36where the babble of dozens of languages
1:08:38would have been heard on the streets.
1:08:43In Quechua, the word ‘Inca’ meant
1:08:46‘lord’, and at this time it also began to
1:08:49be used about the particular
1:08:51ethnic group or caste that ruled the
1:08:54empire from the city of Cusco.
1:08:57It's not clear how many of these people
1:08:59there may have been,
1:09:00but estimates range from about
1:09:0315,000
1:09:03to 40,000. But they would soon
1:09:06rule
1:09:07over an empire of more than ten million
1:09:10people,
1:09:11and the king who reigned in Cusco would
1:09:14soon be known
1:09:15as the Sapa Inca, or ‘the lord without
1:09:18equal’.
1:09:20As with many aspects of folkloric
1:09:22history,
1:09:23it's possible that Pachacuti's
1:09:25achievements have been
1:09:27exaggerated. Mythical retellings of
1:09:30history
1:09:30naturally tend towards what's called the
1:09:33great man
1:09:34theory of history. Simply put, it just
1:09:37makes a better story
1:09:39to imagine that one hero is responsible
1:09:41for the construction of an
1:09:43empire. It's possible that Inca expansion
1:09:46should actually be credited to the reign
1:09:49of several kings,
1:09:50and with various less glamorous economic
1:09:54and
1:09:54social developments. But whether this is
1:09:57true or not,
1:09:58Pachacuti's name would forever be
1:10:00inscribed in the memories of the people
1:10:03of the Andes.
1:10:05This great poet king of the Inca
1:10:08died around the year 1471,
1:10:12and on his deathbed he is said to have
1:10:15uttered the following
1:10:16lament. I
1:10:19was born as a lily in the garden
1:10:22and like the lily, I grew. As my age
1:10:26advanced, I became
1:10:27old and had to die, and so,
1:10:31I withered and died.
1:10:34The son of Pachacuti, a man named
1:10:37Topa Inca, followed in his father's
1:10:39footsteps
1:10:40to expand the empire even further until
1:10:44only one true rival existed in the
1:10:46region,
1:10:47a people known as the Chimu.
1:10:51These were a desert people who built the
1:10:53vast triangular mud brick city of
1:10:56Chan Chan on the coast of northern Peru.
1:11:00The Chimu had grown rich diving for the
1:11:03highly prized
1:11:04shells of the mollusk spondylus
1:11:07that thrived off their desert coast.
1:11:10Their divers paddled out in boats
1:11:13and sank to the bottom of the ocean with
1:11:16stones tied to their feet,
1:11:18holding their breath for minutes at a
1:11:20time beneath the waves.
1:11:23Whole sections of the Chimu city of
1:11:26Chan Chan
1:11:27were given over to the industry of shell
1:11:29production,
1:11:30where the mollusks were cleaned out, the
1:11:32shells were polished and carved,
1:11:35and from there distributed and sold to
1:11:37the whole region.
1:11:39The Chimu dressed their priests and
1:11:41kings in
1:11:42remarkable gold decorations, and were
1:11:45perhaps the last
1:11:46powerful rival to the Inca. But by the
1:11:50year
1:11:501470, the Chimu too were conquered,
1:11:54and Inca power in the region was now all
1:11:58but unchallenged.
1:12:03At Cusco, the Inca celebrated their
1:12:05imperial ascendancy
1:12:07with the construction of an enormous
1:12:09ceremonial center,
1:12:11as well as an imposing structure that
1:12:14they called
1:12:14the Puma's Head, or in Quechua,
1:12:18Sacsayhuaman. We don't know entirely the
1:12:22function of this structure.
1:12:24Due to its towering walls, later European
1:12:28observers would
1:12:29refer to it as a fortress, but it may
1:12:32have also served a religious function.
1:12:35Sacsayhuaman was the largest megalithic
1:12:38structure
1:12:39ever built in the Western Hemisphere. Its
1:12:42walls are built of
1:12:44vast interlocking stones carved so
1:12:47perfectly that they fit together without
1:12:49mortar,
1:12:50so closely that it's impossible to fit
1:12:53even a pin
1:12:54between them. Centuries of expertise
1:12:58at stone carving culminated here in some
1:13:01of the finest stone working ever seen,
1:13:04slaved over by vast work gangs of
1:13:07conscripted labourers.
1:13:10We can only guess at the enormous human
1:13:12cost that moving these stones must have
1:13:15incurred.
1:13:16The Inca moved them without pack animals,
1:13:19using only mats of wooden logs and ropes,
1:13:23and the muscle power of thousands of
1:13:25workers.
1:13:27One 16th century Spanish observer, Pedro
1:13:31Pizarro,
1:13:32would later write an eyewitness account
1:13:34of what
1:13:35Sacsayhuaman must have looked like in
1:13:37its golden age.
1:13:40On top of a hill they had a very strong
1:13:43fort surrounded with masonry walls of
1:13:45stones,
1:13:46and having two very high, round towers.
1:13:49In the lower part of this wall,
1:13:51there were stones so large and thick
1:13:53that it seemed impossible that human
1:13:54hands could have set them in place.
1:13:56They were so close together and so well
1:13:59fitted that the
1:14:00point of a pin could not have been
1:14:01inserted in one of the joints.
1:14:03The whole fortress was built up in
1:14:05terraces and flat spaces.
1:14:10The estimated volume of stone used in
1:14:13its construction
1:14:14is over 6,000 cubic meters.
1:14:17Estimates for the weight of the largest
1:14:20andesite block
1:14:21go as high as 200 tons, or about 100
1:14:25times the weight
1:14:26of the average stone used to build the
1:14:29pyramids of Giza.
1:14:32The closeness of the stones and their
1:14:34lack of regular order
1:14:36are thought to be an adaptation
1:14:38developed over centuries
1:14:39to help these walls survive the
1:14:41devastating earthquakes that regularly
1:14:44rock the Cusco region. It's said that
1:14:47during an earthquake,
1:14:49the stones of these walls dance in their
1:14:51place,
1:14:52jittering and juddering, but always
1:14:55falling back
1:14:56to where they began.
1:14:59Cusco wasn't a city in the way we think
1:15:02of one,
1:15:02as a center of trade. There were no
1:15:06markets or squares, no workshops or
1:15:09places
1:15:10of business. It was forbidden for
1:15:12foreigners
1:15:13and commoners to stay in the city
1:15:15overnight,
1:15:16and it was home purely to the temples
1:15:18and priests
1:15:19as well as the king in his palace and
1:15:22the officials of the empire.
1:15:25At its heart was the Coricancha, or the
1:15:28golden
1:15:28enclosure, what the Spanish would refer
1:15:31to later
1:15:31as the temple of the sun. This was the
1:15:35spiritual
1:15:36and ceremonial heart of the empire, and
1:15:39during the most important rituals,
1:15:41the mummified remains of dead emperors
1:15:44would be brought out into the main
1:15:46square
1:15:47where crowds of thousands would come to
1:15:49see them.
1:15:51The chronicler Pedro de Cieza de Leon
1:15:55recorded the magnificence of the
1:15:57Coricancha’s appearance
1:15:59based on the evidence given to him by
1:16:01Cusco's
1:16:02surviving Inca princes and the few
1:16:05remaining eyewitnesses
1:16:06who had seen the temple in its glory
1:16:09days.
1:16:12Its circumference is some 400 paces,
1:16:15surrounded by a high wall of the finest
1:16:17masonry and precision.
1:16:19In all Spain, I have not seen anything to
1:16:22compare to these walls,
1:16:23nor the placement of their stones. The
1:16:26stone is somewhat black in color,
1:16:28rough, yet excellently cut. At mid height
1:16:32runs a band of gold
1:16:33of some 17 inches in width and two in
1:16:36depth.
1:16:37The doors and arches are also embossed
1:16:40with sheets of this metal.
1:16:42In one of these houses, the grandest of
1:16:44all was the figure of the sun
1:16:46of great size and made of gold, and
1:16:48encased with precious stones.
1:16:50There also were placed the mummies of
1:16:52the Incas who had reigned in Cusco,
1:16:55each surrounded by a great quantity of
1:16:57treasure.
1:17:00From its seat at Cusco, the Inca Empire
1:17:03expanded until it encompassed a truly
1:17:06vast
1:17:06expanse of territory, and ruled over as
1:17:09many as 12 million people.
1:17:12This enormous swathe of land was nearly
1:17:15ten times the size of the Aztec Empire
1:17:18in Mexico,
1:17:19with twice the estimated population.
1:17:23At two million square kilometers, it
1:17:26covered a land mass
1:17:27equal to the Western Roman Empire in
1:17:29Europe
1:17:30and the Qin Empire in China.
1:17:34It reached as far north as the jungles
1:17:36of southern Colombia,
1:17:38and stretched south over barren coastal
1:17:41desert
1:17:41and snowy mountains to about a hundred
1:17:44kilometers south
1:17:45of Santiago in Central Chile.
1:17:51It was actually one of the few empires
1:17:54in history
1:17:55to ever stretch so far from north to
1:17:58south.
1:17:59Most powers stretch horizontally from
1:18:02east to west,
1:18:04in the same direction as the planet's
1:18:06rotation,
1:18:07and the reasons for that aren't hard to
1:18:09see.
1:18:11Most cultures prefer not to go too far
1:18:14outside the climate they're used to. In
1:18:16the Northern Hemisphere,
1:18:18that means if you go north, things get
1:18:20colder and darker,
1:18:22and as you go south, things get hotter.
1:18:25But going east or west
1:18:26doesn't tend to change the climate all
1:18:29that much.
1:18:31But the Inca bucked that trend. Their
1:18:34empire stretches from north to south
1:18:37for an astonishing 4,000 kilometers,
1:18:40or about a tenth of the way around the
1:18:43globe.
1:18:44In Europe, this is enough to stretch from
1:18:46the snowy tundras
1:18:48and icy glaciers of Iceland down to the
1:18:51baking desert sands of the western
1:18:53Sahara.
1:18:54In North America, this would get you from
1:18:57Canada's Hudson Bay,
1:18:58where polar bears wander across the
1:19:00frozen waters,
1:19:02down to the balmy beaches of Jamaica.
1:19:05But in the Andes, it's the mountains
1:19:08themselves
1:19:08that form the largest consistent
1:19:11environment,
1:19:12and it's across these that the empire of
1:19:15the Inca
1:19:16spread. The Inca were deeply suspicious
1:19:20of the Amazon Rainforest
1:19:22and the foothills that descended down
1:19:24into it.
1:19:26They called this region rupa-rupa,
1:19:28meaning
1:19:29hot-hot, which gives you a sense of how
1:19:32they felt about it.
1:19:34The hills that looked out over the
1:19:36forests
1:19:37are known as the eyebrow of the jungle,
1:19:40jutting out as they do
1:19:42over the cloud forest below. The Inca
1:19:45tended to keep well clear of the
1:19:47rainforest's dark,
1:19:49shady depths. They traded with its people
1:19:52for brightly colored macaw feathers,
1:19:55and on a number of occasions seemed to
1:19:57have attempted
1:19:58to spread their empire down into the
1:20:00forest
1:20:01with military power. But what little
1:20:05information we have
1:20:06about these expeditions tells us that
1:20:09they invariably met
1:20:10with disaster. But the Inca were
1:20:14fascinated by this place, by the exotic
1:20:17animals and plants that flourished in
1:20:19the Amazon Basin.
1:20:21The jaguars, snakes, and tropical birds of
1:20:24the jungle
1:20:25appear constantly in Inca art high up in
1:20:29their mountains.
1:20:34The Inca economy is one of the most
1:20:36fascinating aspects of their society.
1:20:40To the extent that we can fit its
1:20:42structure into modern definitions,
1:20:45many have described it as an early
1:20:47example of
1:20:48state socialism or even communism.
1:20:52As far as we can tell, the idea of
1:20:55private property
1:20:56didn't exist in Inca society, and they
1:20:59progressed on the basis
1:21:01of shared ownership of assets, resources,
1:21:04and the means of production. When an Inca
1:21:08couple
1:21:08got married, they were given a house and
1:21:11a plot of land by the state,
1:21:13which they would use to produce enough
1:21:15food to support themselves.
1:21:18The state provided them with seeds and
1:21:20tools,
1:21:21and whenever the couple had a child, they
1:21:23were given another bit of land
1:21:25to help feed it. Each family was also
1:21:29provided with two llamas
1:21:31which were good for transportation and
1:21:33wool, and also produced manure for their
1:21:36fields.
1:21:37In return, the family would give over all
1:21:39the food they didn't eat
1:21:41into the common storehouse. Instead
1:21:44of taxes,
1:21:45they contributed directly with labour,
1:21:48agreeing to perform a service
1:21:50known as mit’a whenever called upon.
1:21:54This would involve laboring on a
1:21:56construction project for part of the
1:21:58year
1:21:59or working in a particular workshop
1:22:01making cloth
1:22:02or pottery, say. If they were a fast
1:22:05runner,
1:22:06their service might be to work as a
1:22:08message carrier on the roads,
1:22:10or if they were strong and able-bodied,
1:22:12to fight in the army.
1:22:15While performing this work, all food and
1:22:18accommodation
1:22:18was provided by the state. Inca
1:22:22nobles were exempt from this labor tax,
1:22:25and also any officials who were
1:22:27responsible for more than a hundred
1:22:29people.
1:22:32Other than food and water, cloth was
1:22:34perhaps the most important resource in
1:22:36the Andes.
1:22:38It was crucial for clothing of course,
1:22:40but was also needed for making
1:22:42containers
1:22:42to store and transport food. The bulk of
1:22:46this
1:22:46textile manufacture was done by women
1:22:49who were provided with all the raw
1:22:51materials involved in
1:22:53spinning, dying, weaving, and plaiting to
1:22:56produce
1:22:56thread, cloth, and rope. Andean society
1:23:01required millions of meters of thread,
1:23:04and the women of this region would have
1:23:06gone about the streets with their drop
1:23:08spindles,
1:23:09devices that allowed them to spin while
1:23:11walking around and
1:23:13taking care of their other duties. The
1:23:15hierarchy of this society
1:23:17was rigidly enforced, and peasants had
1:23:20little
1:23:21independence or power. The authorities
1:23:24even conducted inspections of people's
1:23:27homes
1:23:27to ensure that commoners did not own any
1:23:30gold or silver,
1:23:31have any valuable clothing, or keep more
1:23:34than ten
1:23:35animals. This entire system of organized
1:23:39labor
1:23:39was centrally planned from Cusco and
1:23:43quite remarkably operated without a
1:23:45single word
1:23:46ever being written down. All the
1:23:49information
1:23:50on how many taxpayers there were, the
1:23:53number of men available for military
1:23:55service,
1:23:55the quantities of cloth and food
1:23:58produced and required,
1:24:00the numbers of children and elderly
1:24:01people, all of this
1:24:03was recorded on the quipus, those systems
1:24:06of
1:24:07knots that could only be interpreted by
1:24:09a learned
1:24:10quipucamayoc. With its sprawling territory,
1:24:14its well-oiled centrally coordinated
1:24:17economy,
1:24:18and its state-of-the-art road network,
1:24:20the Inca Empire was now
1:24:22at the height of its power and
1:24:24confidence.
1:24:27But events were already brewing in the
1:24:29wider world
1:24:30that would soon bring them into contact
1:24:32with powers far outside
1:24:34their past experience, and which would
1:24:37ultimately
1:24:38lead to the wholesale collapse and
1:24:40disintegration
1:24:42of their entire society.
1:24:52If we were to soar over the city of
1:24:54Cusco in the year 1500,
1:24:57we would see it in the throes of an
1:24:59impressive
1:25:00and somber procession. The Inca king
1:25:04at the time, a man named Huayna Capac,
1:25:07was returning to the city at the head of
1:25:10a massive
1:25:11army after conquering a fierce people
1:25:14known as the Chachapoyas in the cloud
1:25:17forests to the north.
1:25:19The chronicler Cieza de Leon recalls
1:25:22what a royal procession of this period
1:25:24looked like.
1:25:28Round the litter marched the king's
1:25:30guard
1:25:31with the archers and halberdiers, and in
1:25:33front went
1:25:345,000 slingers, while in the rear
1:25:37there were lancers with their captains.
1:25:40On the flanks of the road and on the
1:25:42road itself
1:25:43there were faithful runners who kept a
1:25:46lookout and announced the approach of
1:25:48the lord.
1:25:49So many people came out to see him pass
1:25:52that the hillsides were covered
1:25:54and they all blessed their sovereign,
1:25:56raising a
1:25:57great cry and shouting.
1:26:04But the army was not in a mood of
1:26:06celebration.
1:26:08In fact, all the soldiers, even the king
1:26:11himself,
1:26:12were weeping. Their faces were painted
1:26:15black.
1:26:16That's because the emperor's mother, the
1:26:18Empress
1:26:19Mama Ocllo, had recently died, and his war
1:26:23in the jungle hills
1:26:24had been waged partly in order to gain
1:26:26the tributes needed
1:26:28to stage her funeral; cocoa leaves,
1:26:31ceremonial foods, and captives
1:26:34who were destined to become the servants
1:26:36of his mother's
1:26:37mummified body. In preparation for the
1:26:40festival,
1:26:41the entire ceremonial court was purified
1:26:44with
1:26:45ceremonies and sacrifices. This
1:26:48melancholy ceremony passed through the
1:26:51gate of Cusco
1:26:52and up the road to the Coricancha, the
1:26:55golden temple where the mummy of the
1:26:57queen mother would be placed.
1:27:00The drums and conches and other
1:27:02instruments would have sounded a
1:27:04mournful tune
1:27:05as the king approached his palace, and
1:27:08the lands of the Inca
1:27:09all joined together in mourning.
1:27:15Although the Inca had no way of knowing
1:27:18it,
1:27:18on the other side of the ocean, some
1:27:2110,000 kilometers to the east,
1:27:24preparations for another very different
1:27:26procession
1:27:27were taking place in a city known
1:27:30as Rome.
1:27:34For the Christians of Europe, the new
1:27:36year was
1:27:37drawing close, and the year 1500
1:27:40AD would be a milestone date,
1:27:44a millennia and a half after the date
1:27:47given to the birth of Jesus Christ.
1:27:50In the Christian world, the half-
1:27:52-millennium marked a time of
1:27:54enormous change. The Catholic monarchs of
1:27:58Spain
1:27:59had recently conquered the last Muslim
1:28:01kingdom in Europe,
1:28:03capturing the city of Granada in
1:28:05southern Spain,
1:28:06and unifying the Iberian Peninsula under
1:28:09a Christian king.
1:28:11New lands had been discovered on the
1:28:13other side of the Atlantic Ocean,
1:28:16and European settlement of the Caribbean
1:28:18had begun.
1:28:20But the ancient holy city of Jerusalem
1:28:23had also fallen to a new rising power,
1:28:27the Ottoman Empire. The ancient Christian
1:28:31capital of Constantinople
1:28:33had fallen only decades before, with
1:28:36Ottoman influence now growing
1:28:38in Eastern Europe. Far from bringing
1:28:41good Christian morals to the New World,
1:28:44settlers like Columbus had become
1:28:46notorious for their use of slavery
1:28:48and torture, refusing to baptize local
1:28:51people
1:28:52in order to justify their continued
1:28:54enslavement.
1:28:56The pope at the time, Alexander VI, was a
1:28:59member of the powerful Borgia noble
1:29:01family
1:29:02and was infamous for fathering several
1:29:04children by
1:29:05various mistresses. Dark,
1:29:10momentous things seemed to be happening
1:29:12in the world,
1:29:13and people became obsessed with one
1:29:15passage in the Book of Revelations
1:29:18that referred to the end of the world
1:29:20coming at the half-time
1:29:22after the time. This was believed to
1:29:25refer
1:29:26to a millennium and a half since the
1:29:28date of the nativity.
1:29:31To mark the occasion, in the year 1500,
1:29:34the painter Botticelli painted a grand
1:29:37artwork
1:29:38showing the nativity scene being
1:29:40attended by angels,
1:29:42and included the following apocalyptic
1:29:44inscription
1:29:45in Greek above it.
1:29:49This picture, at the end of the year 1500,
1:29:52in the troubles of Italy, I, Alessandro, in
1:29:55the half-time after the time,
1:29:57painted according to the 11th chapter of
1:29:59Saint John,
1:30:00in the second woe of the Apocalypse,
1:30:03during the release of the devil
1:30:04for three and a half years.
1:30:08When Rome's river Tiber flooded in the
1:30:11year 1497
1:30:13and months later the papal fortress of
1:30:16Castel Sant’Angelo
1:30:17was struck by lightning, rumor
1:30:20spread
1:30:20that the half-millennium would bring
1:30:22death and devastation,
1:30:24perhaps even the coming of the
1:30:26antichrist and the end of days.
1:30:30But the beleaguered Pope Alexander was
1:30:32determined
1:30:33that the celebrations would mark the
1:30:35dawn of a new beginning
1:30:37for the Christian world.
1:30:41In the final days of the year 1499,
1:30:45the city of Rome was cleared of litter
1:30:48and its vagrants and homeless were
1:30:50driven from the streets
1:30:51for a remarkable ceremony.
1:30:55To mark the half-millennium, the pope had
1:30:58decided to demolish a wall
1:31:00that bricked up the entrance to Saint
1:31:01Peter's, known
1:31:03as the golden gate, supposedly the one
1:31:06through which Christ himself had passed
1:31:08when he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
1:31:12The pope was surrounded by a choir
1:31:14singing hymns,
1:31:16among them notably Psalm 118.
1:31:22Open for me the gates of the righteous.
1:31:26I will enter and give thanks to the lord.
1:31:29This is the gate of the lord through
1:31:31which the righteous may enter.
1:31:35Carrying a mason's hammer in hand, the
1:31:38pope stood from his throne
1:31:40and approached the old bricked-up wall.
1:31:43Then,
1:31:44he struck it three times. A team of
1:31:47masons
1:31:48joined in to finish the job, and they all
1:31:51crashed through the ancient doorway in
1:31:53what must have been a burst of dust and
1:31:56rubble,
1:31:57smashing their way into the new
1:31:59half-millennium.
1:32:02The end of days did not come for
1:32:04Christian Europe
1:32:05at the year 1500, but there is a bitter
1:32:09irony that they were in fact about to
1:32:11unleash
1:32:12a wave of destruction on the other half
1:32:15of the world
1:32:16that would match anything described in
1:32:18the Book
1:32:19of Revelations. For the empire of the
1:32:22Inca,
1:32:23the clock was now ticking, and the
1:32:26funeral procession that passed through
1:32:28the streets of
1:32:28Cusco, the soldiers with their faces
1:32:31painted
1:32:32black, the blowing of conches, and
1:32:35everyone present
1:32:36weeping, all of it may as well have been
1:32:38mourning
1:32:39for the entire society that ruled over
1:32:42the mountains
1:32:43of the Andes.
1:32:56The Inca emperor at the time of the
1:32:58half-millennium
1:32:59was a man named Huayna Capac, whose name
1:33:03meant ‘the young mighty one’.
1:33:07He had come to power at the age of 25
1:33:10in the year 1493, just one year
1:33:13after Christopher Columbus first set
1:33:16foot in the Caribbean.
1:33:18The Emperor Huayna Capac was a conqueror
1:33:22by nature. During his long reign,
1:33:25the Inca army was constantly on the move,
1:33:29and the empire expanded further into
1:33:31present-day Chile
1:33:33and Argentina. He soon became
1:33:36hell-bent on subjugating the tropical
1:33:39northern territory of what is now
1:33:42Ecuador and Colombia.
1:33:44These wars in the jungle were bitter and
1:33:47difficult,
1:33:48a quagmire that must have sapped the
1:33:50energy and
1:33:51strength of the empire.
1:33:54The terrain here was difficult, covered
1:33:57in dense forest
1:33:59and mangrove swamps, and the Inca
1:34:01soldiers were not used to the climate.
1:34:04But Huayna Capac refused to give in.
1:34:07He spent as much as 10 years waging his
1:34:10war in the north,
1:34:11and all this time his messengers would
1:34:13have traveled back and forth
1:34:15along the long Inca road network,
1:34:18carrying orders from the king
1:34:20and bringing back news from his
1:34:22administrators in Cusco.
1:34:25This constant warfare must have become a
1:34:28daily fact of life in the empire
1:34:30that everyone simply grew to accept.
1:34:34Many young people in Cusco would not
1:34:37have remembered a time
1:34:38when the king had resided in the capital,
1:34:41or when the empire had known peace.
1:34:48We don't know for sure, but while leading
1:34:52his armies through the forests of
1:34:53Colombia,
1:34:54it's possible that the Inca Huayna Capac
1:34:57may have heard rumors,
1:34:59rumors of a strange and mysterious power
1:35:02growing
1:35:02even further to the north, strangers who
1:35:05had arrived by
1:35:06boat and who brought a wave of
1:35:09destruction
1:35:10in their wake. Whole villages were being
1:35:14wiped out,
1:35:15laid low by some mysterious force.
1:35:19Perhaps Huayna Capac dismissed these
1:35:21rumors at first,
1:35:23that is, until one day he began to
1:35:25develop
1:35:26a fever the likes of which the Inca had
1:35:29never encountered before.
1:35:33His condition rapidly deteriorated
1:35:36and in the year 1527, the Sapa Inca
1:35:39Huayna Capac,
1:35:41the emperor of all the Andes, died
1:35:44suddenly of this mysterious disease in
1:35:47the jungle
1:35:48a thousand miles from home. Perhaps
1:35:51it's on his deathbed that those rumors
1:35:54came back to him
1:35:55about the strangers who had been sighted
1:35:58far
1:35:58in the north. One Inca chronicler,
1:36:02Garcilaso Inca de la Vega, recorded
1:36:06what was supposedly the dying words of
1:36:09King Huayna Capac
1:36:10that take the form of a prophecy of doom.
1:36:16Our father the sun has revealed to me
1:36:20that after the reign of twelve Incas,
1:36:23his own children, there will appear in
1:36:26our country an unknown race of men
1:36:30who will subdue our empire.
1:36:33I think that the people who came
1:36:35recently to our own shores are the ones
1:36:38referred to.
1:36:39The reign of the twelve Incas ends with
1:36:42me.
1:36:43I can therefore certify to you that
1:36:46these people will return
1:36:48shortly after I have left you, and that
1:36:50they will accomplish
1:36:52what our father the sun predicted they
1:36:54would.
1:36:58Whether or not these were actually his
1:37:00dying words,
1:37:01they certainly show the apocalyptic mood
1:37:04that had begun to sink in
1:37:06among the snowy peaks and deep valleys
1:37:09of the Andes Mountains.
1:37:11Within a few weeks, the emperor's
1:37:14mummified body began its 2,000
1:37:16kilometer journey south to Cusco.
1:37:19His lords carried him on a throne bound
1:37:22tightly in white cloth.
1:37:24The procession traveled along the great
1:37:27Chinchasuyo road
1:37:29that separated the coastal plains and
1:37:31the towering mountains above, a caravan
1:37:34of lords and warriors, porters and llamas,
1:37:38slowly climbing up through the terraced
1:37:40roads and
1:37:41canyon valleys. When they arrived back in
1:37:45Cusco,
1:37:46they found the city a devastated place.
1:37:50While the king had been away, the plague
1:37:52had reached the capital city
1:37:54and killed countless numbers of its
1:37:56citizens,
1:37:57along with many lords and officials.
1:38:02The entire empire was reeling from the
1:38:05destruction,
1:38:06and bodies must have piled up in the
1:38:08streets,
1:38:09with hardly enough people left to carry
1:38:12them away.
1:38:13In some areas, as many as nine out of
1:38:17every ten people
1:38:18died. In one moment of
1:38:22lucidity during his fever, the Emperor
1:38:24Huayna Capac had chosen his son
1:38:27Ninan Cuyusi to ascend the throne as the
1:38:30next
1:38:30Sapa Inca, but this was to be an
1:38:33ill-fated choice.
1:38:36Ninan Cuyusi was an infant and he died
1:38:39only days after his father,
1:38:41possibly of the same disease.
1:38:44The empire was without a ruler, and now
1:38:48multiple
1:38:48claimants to the throne were gathering
1:38:50their armies.
1:38:53Within a year, the Inca realm would be
1:38:56torn by a civil war
1:38:58that would result in the deaths of tens
1:39:00of thousands of its people
1:39:02and the sacking of many of its cities,
1:39:06while diseases like the one that had
1:39:08felled their emperor
1:39:09were only just beginning their spread
1:39:12around every town
1:39:13and city in the mountains.
1:39:16Before the Inca had even set eyes on a
1:39:19single European,
1:39:20the contact of the two worlds had
1:39:23unleashed chaos.
1:39:26Back in the traditional capital of Cusco,
1:39:29one of Huayna Capac's sons named Huascar
1:39:33declared himself the rightful ruler, but
1:39:36in the rebellious northern region of
1:39:38Quito,
1:39:39another of his sons was in charge of a
1:39:41sizable
1:39:42army. This man's name was Atahualpa,
1:39:46and it's in his hands that the Inca
1:39:48Empire
1:39:49would finally crumble into ash and flame.
1:39:59In his work, A True Relation of the
1:40:02Conquest of Peru,
1:40:03the eyewitness Francisco López de Xerez
1:40:06gives the following description of the
1:40:08Inca prince Atahualpa.
1:40:12Atahualpa was a man of some 30 years of
1:40:15age,
1:40:16of fine appearance and disposition,
1:40:18somewhat stocky,
1:40:19his face imposing, beautiful and
1:40:21ferocious,
1:40:22his eyes bloodshot. Atahualpa
1:40:26was a fierce and tenacious battlefield
1:40:29commander
1:40:30who led the battle-hardened troops that
1:40:32had been fighting in the jungle war in
1:40:34the north.
1:40:37Ignoring his older brother Huascar’s
1:40:39claim to the throne,
1:40:41he declared himself the rightful ruler
1:40:44of the northern region of Quito.
1:40:48The Inca Empire had now effectively been
1:40:51divided in two,
1:40:53and a tense stalemate emerged that would
1:40:56last for five years.
1:40:58Huascar, ruling from the old city of Cusco,
1:41:01was by any measure the most legitimate
1:41:04and legal king
1:41:05of the Inca. He was four or five years
1:41:08older than his half-brother Atahualpa,
1:41:11but although he was a brave commander, he
1:41:13had a mild and
1:41:15gentle temper. But Atahualpa was of a very
1:41:19different temperament,
1:41:21as the historian W.H. Prescott recalls.
1:41:27Warlike, ambitious, and daring;
1:41:30he was constantly engaged in enterprises
1:41:33for the enlargement of his own territory.
1:41:36His restless spirit excited some alarm
1:41:40at the court of Cusco.
1:41:43Before long, the land was once again
1:41:46plunged into war.
1:41:48It's said that Atahualpa was captured
1:41:50early on
1:41:51and placed in a wooden cage, but he
1:41:54managed to escape
1:41:55and return to his armies. His soldiers
1:41:59were battle tested,
1:42:00and they were also remorseless and
1:42:02brutal in their tactics.
1:42:05When Atahualpa captured the city of
1:42:07Tumebamba,
1:42:08it's recorded that he put its
1:42:10inhabitants to the sword
1:42:12and burned all of its houses and temples
1:42:15to the ground.
1:42:17His campaign of destruction continued
1:42:19into the south,
1:42:21as Cieza de Leon recalls.
1:42:25Many Indians tell about how, to quell the
1:42:28king's anger,
1:42:29they sent a large group of children and
1:42:31carrying green bouquets in their hands
1:42:33and palm leaves,
1:42:34to ask for his grace and friendship and
1:42:37to look beyond any past injuries.
1:42:39With so many cries they begged him and
1:42:41with such humility
1:42:42that it would be enough to break even
1:42:44hearts of stone.
1:42:46But they made little impression on the
1:42:48cruel man
1:42:49Atahualpa, because they say that he
1:42:51ordered his captains and people
1:42:53to kill all those who had come, which was
1:42:56done,
1:42:56sparing only a few children and the
1:42:58sacred women of the temple.
1:43:02Some of these Spanish sources certainly
1:43:05have incentive to
1:43:06exaggerate the brutality of Atahualpa,
1:43:09considering the role
1:43:10they would later play in bringing about
1:43:13his downfall.
1:43:14But I think it's clear that he was at
1:43:16least very ruthless
1:43:18in the prosecution of his campaign.
1:43:21One story even recounts him burying some
1:43:24rebel chieftains alive,
1:43:26as Juan de Betanzos recounts.
1:43:31He said that he planted that garden with
1:43:33people of evil hearts.
1:43:35He wished to see if they would produce
1:43:37their evil fruit and works.
1:43:42These tactics, however brutal, do seem to
1:43:45have worked.
1:43:46By the spring of the year 1532,
1:43:49Atahualpa had pushed south until he was
1:43:52within a few kilometers of the capital
1:43:54of Cusco.
1:43:56His older brother Huascar hastily
1:43:59gathered all the troops he could from
1:44:01the countryside,
1:44:02many of them untrained men and boys,
1:44:06but it would not be enough. The two
1:44:08armies met
1:44:09on the plains of Quipaypan, each with
1:44:12around 60,000
1:44:12soldiers, the booming of
1:44:16their voices and battle cries,
1:44:18the bashing of wooden shields, and the
1:44:21thundering of drums,
1:44:23the clatter of bronze maces, javelins, and
1:44:26arrows.
1:44:27When the two armies met, Atahualpa's
1:44:30experienced
1:44:31troops prevailed, and Huascar was defeated.
1:44:35He was taken prisoner and placed in a
1:44:38cage
1:44:38just as Atahualpa had been.
1:44:41Atahualpa also seems to have purged
1:44:44members of the royal court
1:44:46who may have had stronger claims to the
1:44:48throne than he did,
1:44:50as Francisco Xerez recalls.
1:44:54To ensure the obedience of the country,
1:44:57he tried to get rid of all pretenders to
1:45:00the crown.
1:45:01He did not spare even the illegitimate
1:45:04princes,
1:45:05because perhaps one or other of them
1:45:08might like to follow in his
1:45:09evil example. These executions and
1:45:13persecutions lasted for several years.
1:45:19Atahualpa was now well on his way to
1:45:22becoming
1:45:22the 13th Sapa Inca, the next in a line
1:45:26of kings
1:45:27that stretched back a hundred years to
1:45:29the reign of the poet king
1:45:31Pachacuti. He made the astonishing
1:45:35announcement that he intended to move
1:45:37the Inca capital
1:45:39from its ancestral heartland of Cusco
1:45:42to his own home town of Quito.
1:45:45He would uproot the entire Inca nobility,
1:45:49strip Cusco of its wealth, and turn Quito
1:45:52into a capital that would dwarf it in
1:45:54magnificence. Atahualpa
1:45:57must have been riding high. His land may
1:46:00have lain in ruins,
1:46:02his people may have been ravaged by
1:46:04disease and
1:46:05war, but the entire world now seemed to
1:46:08bow down
1:46:09beneath him. He wasn't to know
1:46:12that events in the world outside had
1:46:15already overtaken him
1:46:17and made his victory over his brother
1:46:20all but irrelevant.
1:46:22A shadow was now stretching over all the
1:46:25lands of South America.
1:46:27Soon it would grow to cover the Andes.
1:46:31Within only a matter of days, they would
1:46:34encounter
1:46:34another power that would outmatch them
1:46:37in technological sophistication,
1:46:40and that would arrive with only one goal
1:46:42in mind,
1:46:44to topple the empire of the Inca and
1:46:46conquer these lands for themselves.
1:46:50The Inca didn't know it yet, but this
1:46:52power had already landed
1:46:54on their continent, and soon they would
1:46:56meet it
1:46:57face to face.

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