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Inca Empire
Inca Empire
The Kingdom of Cusco brought other groups under its control and collected tribute, growing into a sophisticated empire with millions of residents.
As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
Who was Pachacuti?
What did the Inca call themselves? What did Inca mean?
What made the Inca an empire?
How many people were living in the Inca Empire prior to its decline?
What was the Mit’a system?
: MAN: What we're going to do in this video
: is think about the significant empires
: that formed shortly
: before the European colonization of the Americas.
: In particular, we're going to focus on the Inca Empire.
: In other videos, we have talked about the Aztecs.
: But what's interesting is this period of time
: in the 15th and early 16th centuries,
: when these empires form, but then shortly thereafter--
: about 100 years after they form--
: they are conquered by the Spanish conquistadors.
: So let's focus on the Inca Empire,
: but keep it in comparison
: to some of the other significant empires and civilizations
: we know about.
: So, as we enter into the 15th century,
: we have the kingdom of Cusco.
: What we now call the Inca Empire did not exist yet.
: The ninth ruler of the kingdom of Cusco,
: a gentleman by the name of Pachacuti,
: he decides to go on a fairly aggressive effort of expansion.
: And it is Pachacuti that takes the Incas
: from the kingdom of Cusco
: and creates an empire.
: Now, as I mentioned,
: they did not call themselves the Incas.
: "Inca" was actually their word for ruler.
: So this was Pachacuti Inca.
: Their name for the empire that gets started by Pachacuti
: was Tawantinsuyu.
: And what it's really referring to is the four regions.
: And you can see the four regions here that were conquered,
: with Cusco at the center.
: Now, one of the interesting things
: is that right around the same time--
: we talk about it in another video--
: you have the Aztec Empire forming.
: The Aztec civilization exists well before that,
: as does the pre-Inca Empire civilizations.
: But in the 15th century is also
: when you have the Aztec Empire form.
: The Mayan civilization, by this point,
: is in its post-classical period.
: Its classical period is in bold right over here.
: But there are still many independent Mayan city-states
: in the Yucatan Peninsula.
: But the two notable empires here
: are the Aztecs and the Incas, which form in the 15th century.
: What makes them an empire is that you have one group--
: in the case of the Incas, the kingdom of Cusco--
: conquering other peoples and taking tribute from them.
: Now, what was interesting about the Incas
: is that they were able to form this large empire,
: the largest empire in the Americas
: at the time of the European conquest.
: This empire had ten million people in it.
: And what's amazing is, is that you have
: this large, powerful empire
: with significant building projects.
: This is a picture of Machu Picchu.
: Historians believe that it was built
: as an estate for Pachacuti.
: So they were able to do this sophisticated construction
: despite not having a written system as we know it.
: They had a system of knots
: for some forms of record keeping.
: But despite that,
: they were able to have a sophisticated society.
: Their way of taxing people was not through formal coinage.
: They didn't have a monetary system as we know it.
: Members of their society had to dedicate
: a proportion of their labor to the empire, to the emperor.
: And this might seem different than what we do,
: but if you think about it,
: if my income is taxed at 30% or 35%
: in, say, the U.S.,
: essentially what I'm giving to the government
: is 35% of the work of my labor.
: I'm just doing it through a monetary system.
: They did it directly.
: A certain percentage of my labor
: would directly have to be for the empire.
: And that's how things like Machu Picchu actually got built.
: This was called the Mit'a system.
: Well, like the case with the Aztec Empire,
: the Inca Empire lasts for about 100 years
: until the conquistadors come into the picture.
: And Francisco Pizarro in particular,
: on his third expedition,
: is able to conquer this powerful Inca Empire.
: And he does this with only several hundred men.
: But they were far better armed than the Incas.
: But many historians believe it was also complacency
: on the part of the Inca ruler at the time.
: He didn't believe that these conquistadors
: would be able to overtake his army