The Sapa Inca
It is 1493, and you struggle to breathe the thin mountain air of the Andes Mountains more than 10,000 feet above sea level. From afar, you witness a grand spectacle: the arrival of Huayna Capac, the ruler of the Four Regions.
Huayna Capac is carried in a great chair because he never walks in public. The ground is too dirty to accept his saliva, so the ruler spits into the hand of an attendant. The attendant then wipes his hand with a special cloth. The cloth Huayna Capac touched was sacred. It would eventually be burned in a great ceremony so that it did not fall into the hands of common people.
Huayna Capac was the Sapa Inca, or “sole ruler,” of Tawantinsuyu, a word that means “the four regions” in the Inca language. We know Tawantinsuyu by the title of their powerful rulers: the Incas. The Incas formed one of the world’s greatest empires in the forbidding climate of the Andes, the tallest mountains of the Western Hemisphere.
The people believed the Sapa Inca was a living god whose ancestor was Inti, the sun god. The Inca believed Inti was their protector because his light provided life for the crops and the people. Even the Sapa Inca was careful to respect the sun god.
The Gods of the Andes
Quilla was the moon and Inti’s wife. The Incas would watch throughout the month as Quilla would grow from a small sliver in the sky to a beautiful sphere that lit the heavens, only to recede and return the next month. The children of Inti and Quilla were the stars.
Despite the harsh mountain climate, the Incas were at least the fourth significant civilization to rise in the Andes. The Chavín civilization developed in the highlands of northern Peru around 900 BCE, and its influence spread to nearby coastal regions. They were followed by the Wari (500–1100) and the Tiwanaku (tee-wan-AH-ku) (300–1000 CE) in the south. The Incas did not gain prominence until after the fall of the Wari and the Tiwanaku.
The Coya Inca
The Incas believed the Sapa Inca’s mother and father had to be the direct descendants of Inti, the sun god. It was essential that the Sapa Inca’s holy bloodline not mix with that of any other family. For this reason, only his sister was pure enough to be the Coya Inca and mother of the next ruler.
The Coya was the Sapa Inca’s official wife, but Inca custom allowed the rulers to have as many secondary wives as they wished. Historians believe that some Inca rulers fathered more than one hundred children. Late in his life, the Sapa Inca would choose the most qualified of his sons to succeed him as ruler.
Pachacuti and the Rise of an Empire
Pachacuti (pah-chah-COO-tee)—Huayna Capac’s grandfather—ruled from 1438 to 1471. Pachacuti transformed the kingdom of Cusco in modern Peru into a mighty empire through negotiation and warfare. He sent representatives to local rulers inviting them to join his empire. If the local ruler refused, Pachacuti sent his brutal army to force them to give up.
Pachacuti was probably the emperor who ordered the construction of the mysterious Machu Picchu. Located nearly 8,000 feet above sea level near Cusco, Machu Picchu probably served as a country estate for Pachacuti. The site includes more than 200 buildings and three large temples. Because the city was inaccessible for hundreds of years to outsiders, it is the best remaining example of an Inca city.
The Lost City Found
For hundreds of years, explorers had heard tales of a city so high that clouds always hid it. In 1911, Yale professor Hiram Bingham found Machu Picchu and later wrote about it in National Geographic. Bingham has often been compared with Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The “Lost City of the Incas” is now easily reached by railroad. Every year, thousands of tourists flock to what has become the most familiar icon of the Inca civilization.
The Fall of the Inca Empire
In 1532, Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas and claimed their land for Spain. By that time, the glory of the Inca Empire had faded. Huayna Capac and his eldest son died within days of each other around 1527, possibly from smallpox. The European disease had reached the Andes even before the arrival of the first Spanish conquistadors.
The Inca Empire fell into the hands of Huayna Capac’s younger sons, who fought a civil war that weakened the empire. Wracked by disease and divided leadership, the Incas were no match for the guns and cannons of their invaders.
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Mr. Donn has an excellent website that includes a section on
Native Americans.