Government of the Inca Empire facts for kids

The Tawantinsuyu ( "four parts together"; fig. "land of the four quarters") or Inca Empire was a centralized bureaucracy.

Administration

Officials, classes & institutions

At the top of the chain of administration sat the Sapa Inca. Next to the Sapa Inca in terms of power may have been the Willaq Umu, literally the "priest who recounts", who was the High Priest of the Sun. Beneath the Sapa Inca also sat the Inkap rantin, who was a confidant and assistant to the Sapa Inca, someone like a prime minister or viceroy.

Most of the upper tier of Inca administration were Inca by class, if not blood relatives of the Sapa Inca. The royal panakas lineages held great influence. Every time a Sapa Inca died, his heir assumed the throne. The rest of his descendants formed a panaqa, or royal lineage who were in charge of maintaining the deceased king and his estates. The deceased king himself, or rather his mallki (mummy), was believed to continue to communicate with the living and so was involved in the affairs of state, political or ceremonial.

Beneath the top-level of government were the suyu, or quarters. Each suyu was led by a governor known as an apu, a title also given to generals and deified mountains. Beneath each suyu were wamani, or provinces, each of which were led by a governor known as a toqrikoq. These lower level governors administered the provinces with the assistance of michoq officers, khipu kamayuq record keepers, kuraka functionaries, and yanakuna retainers. The primary functions of a toqrikoq were to maintain state infrastructure, organize the census, and mobilize labor or military resources when called upon. Typically, these governors, be they apu or toqrikoq, were ethnic Inca, but some provincial groups did manage to ascend to the lower level. Apu, on the other hands, were typically close relatives of the Sapa Inca.

The yanakuna (sing. yana) formed a unique estate within Inca society and government. To become part of the yanakuna meant severing traditional ayllu ties and obligations, serving the nobility rather than their lineage. For many, it was a way to advance in the social and political hierarchy; being inheritable, it meant a more privileged position for their descendants as well. Their labor was attached to important people or institutions such as the Sapa Inca, a panaqa, the nobility, or to temple lands.

The kurakakuna (sing. kuraka), on the other hand, were the rank-and-file of the provincial bureaucracy. They were typically provincial nobility who maintained their social status after Inca conquest. Like the yanakuna, they were exempt from taxation and held hereditary status. Unlike the yanakuna, they served administrative, military, and judicial functions, though it is worth mentioning that one could be both a kuraka and a yana.

List of Sapa Inca

Hurin Qosqo: The "Dynasty" of Lower Cuzco

• Manqo Qhapaq, r. c. 1200 CE – c. 1230
• Zinchi Roq'a, r. c. 1230 – c. 1260
• Lloq'e Yupanki, r. c. 1260 – c. 1290
• Mayta Qhapaq, r. c. 1290 – c. 1320
• Qhapaq Yupanki, r. c. 1320 – c. 1350

Hanan Qosqo: The "Dynasty" of Upper Cuzco

• Inka Roq'a, r. c. 1350 – c. 1380
• Yawar Waqaq, r. c. 1380 – c. 1410
• Wiraqocha Inka, r. c. 1410–1438
• Pachakuti Inka Yupanki, r. 1438–1471
• Thupa Inka Yupanki, r. 1471–1493
• Wayna Qhapaq, r. 1493–1527
• Waskhar, r. 1527–1532
• Atawallpa, r. 1532–1533

Post-Conquest Dynasty: Ruling from Cuzco or Vilcabamba

• Tupaq Wallpa, r. 1533
• Manqo Inka Yupanki, r. 1533 – 1544 initially in Cuzco, then in Vilcabamba (the capital of the Neo-Inca State)
  • Pawllu Inka Tupaq, r. 1536 – 1549 in Cuzco under Spanish
• Sayri Tupaq, r. 1544 – 1560 in Vilcabamba
• Titu Kusi Yupanki, r. 1560 – 1571
• Tupaq Amaru, r. 1571 – 1572, captured and executed

Decimal administration

While there was a great deal of variation in the form that Inca bureaucracy and government took at the provincial level, the basic (perhaps, ideal) form of organization was decimal. In this system of organization, taxpayers—male heads of household of a certain age range—were organized into corvée units (which often doubled as military units) that formed the muscle of the state as part of mit'a service. Each level of jurisdiction above one hundred tax-payers was headed by a kuraka, while those heading smaller units were kamayuq, a lower, non-hereditary status. However, while kuraka status was hereditary, one's actual position within the hierarchy (which was typically served for life) was subject to change based upon the privileges of those above them in the hierarchy; a pachaka kuraka (see below) could be appointed to their position by a waranqa kuraka. Furthermore, it has been suggested that one kuraka in each decimal level also served as the head of one of the nine groups at a lower level, so that one pachaka kuraka might also be a waranqa kuraka, in effect directly responsible for one unit of 100 tax-payers and less directly responsible for nine other such units.

Mit'a and mitmaq

While the Inca state exacted taxes in kind—e.g., textiles, grain, wares, etc.-- it also drew upon corvée labor as an important supply of power. The mit'a was a labor tax performed by male heads of households. These taxpayers were drafted to build massive public works projects, such as aqueducts, bridges, roads, as well as tampu warehouses. A mit'ayuq, "one who carried out mit'a duties", also performed agricultural, extractive (e.g., mining), and artisanal (e.g., working ceramics and metals) labor for the state. Mit'a was also the basis of military conscription; military units followed the same decimal system of administration as mit'a units. Periods of service varied; especially intensive service, such as mining, was kept short to avoid exhaustion.

Mitmaq, or mitima, on the other hand, was the practice of moving certain ethnic groups around for strategic purposes. They could be seen as loyal, and therefore transplanted as a garrison colony to help maintain order in a newly conquered province, or, alternatively, be seen as questionably loyal and therefore settled among more loyal populations. In certain cases, colonizing mitmaq groups were used to exploit ecozones not seen as efficiently or productively used by native groups.

Despite moving perhaps hundreds of miles to new homes, mitmaqkuna were still considered members of their original, native group and land for census and mit'a purposes. The mitmaqkuna were not the only people resettled in the Inca empire, as the state had innumerable communities relocated to less defensible, more productive land in order to both make agricultural production more efficient and reduce the possibility of revolt.

Schematic of hierarchy

Laws

Inti as represented by José Bernardo de Tagle of Peru.

The Inca state had no separate judiciary or codified set of laws. While customs, expectations, and traditional local power holders did much in the way of governing behavior, the state, too, had legal force, such as through tokoyrikoq (lit. "he who sees all"), or inspectors. The highest such inspector, typically a blood relation to the Sapa Inca, acted independently of the conventional hierarchy, providing a point of view for the Sapa Inca free of bureaucratic influence.

Individuals could only be judged by those of higher rank. Moreover, ones as one's rank increased, the latitude of behavior granted to them rose as well; punishments for acts by commoners against nobles were far more severe than for those by nobles against commoners. And yet there were also legal protections for commoners, despite their unequal legal standing. Soldiers who stole food could face capital punishment, as could their captains. Abusive or negligent officials likewise faced punishment. The sentencing of an individual to death rested only among the highest authorities: provincial governors, the apu of the four suyu, and the Sapa Inca himself. The Incas did not have prisons. Instead capital punishment was used for offenses including murder, blasphemy, theft, laziness, second offenses in drunkenness and rebellion. Punishment for lesser crimes included blinding and cutting off limbs.

Organization of the empire

The four suyus of the empire.

The Inca Empire was a federalist system which consisted of a central government with the Inca at its head and four quarters, or suyu: Chinchay Suyu (northwest), Antisuyu (northeast), Kuntisuyu (southwest), and Qullasuyu (southeast). The four corners of these quarters met at the center, Cusco. These suyu were likely created around 1460 during the reign of Pachacuti before the empire assumed it largest territorial extent. It is probably the case that at the time the suyu were established they were roughly of equal size and only later changing their proportions as the empire expanded north and south along the Andes.

Each suyu was further subdivided into wamani, or provinces. These wamani were districts that were roughly geographically coterminous with pre-conquest tribal groupings administered by a tokrikoq, or governor. However, the differential populations of these tribes were taken into account and if they were found to be too small to establish their own wamani, they were put together with other small tribes. Following the creation of a wamani, the Inca would establish an administrative center known as a hatoñ. The naming of these centers was formulaic; the center of the Colla wamani was hatoñ qolla, while that of the Sora wamani was hatoñ sora, et cetera.

Wamani were then further subdivided into saya, reflecting the largely moietal structure of Andean society. The number of saya per wamani varied between two and three, typically the former. These saya were of differential status, with one being higher (the hanan saya) and one lower (the hurin saya). Ideally each saya would contain roughly 10,000 taxpayers. Therefore, three saya were typically only established in those wamani with around 30,000 taxpayers. Following the saya subdivision, the empire was subdivided into ayllu lineage groups, which were then again divided into upper hanan and lower hurin moieties, and then into individual family units.

Administrative divisions

The capital area, Cusco, was likely not organized as a wamani. Rather, it was probably somewhat akin a modern federal district, like Washington, D.C. or Mexico City. The city sat at the center of the four suyu and served as the preeminent center of politics and religion. While Cuzco was essentially governed by the Sapa Inca, his relatives, and the royal panaqa lineages, each suyu was governed by an Apu, a term of great esteem used for men of very high status and for venerated mountains. Just as with so much of Andean society and Inca administration, both Cuzco as a district and the four suyu as administrative regions were grouped into upper hanan and lower hurin divisions. As the Inca did not have written records, it is impossible to exhaustively list the constituent wamani. However, records created during the Spanish colonial period allow us to reconstruct a partial list. There were likely more than 86 wamani, with more than 48 in the highlands and more than 38 on the coast.

Hanan Suyukuna, or the Upper Quarters

The most populous suyu, Chinchaysuyu encompassed the former lands of the Chimú Empire and much of the northern Andes. At its largest extent, the suyu extended through much of modern Ecuador and just into modern Colombia. The second smallest of the suyu, Antisuyu was located northeast of Cuzco in high Andes. Indeed, it is the root of the word "Andes."

Hurin Suyukuna, or the Lower Quarters

Collasuyu or Qollasuyu was named after the Aymara-speaking Qolla people and was the largest of the quarters in terms of area. This suyu encompassed the Bolivian Altiplano and much of the southern Andes, running down into Argentina and as far south as the Maule river near modern Santiago, Chile. Cuntisuyu or Kuntisuyu was the smallest suyu of all was located along the southern coast of modern Peru, extending into the highlands towards Cuzco.

See also

In Spanish: Gobierno del Imperio incaico para niños