10. The Expansion of the Empire

10 The Expansion of the Empire The King: One must call the enemies in a friendly way before fight ing them and must speak to them gently. Take care not to shed blood needlessly or to sacrifice the innocent. -The Peruvian drama, Ollantay" scene 3 Many of the most distinguished sociologists have regarded ancient Peru as the very type of a military society, a state designed for conquest. 1 It has pleased some of them to represent the ex pansion of the empire as a simple matter. According to these writers, the first confederation of tribes must have found it easy to prevail over isolated groups by sheer force of numbers, and the expeditions of the sovereigns of Cuzco were no more than military parades. 2 Other authors, emphasizing the feeble resistance that the Peruvians offered to the Spaniards, paint such a vivid picture of the Indians' lack of valor that the reader is reduced to imagining Peru as a singular state indeed-extremely militaristic, yet in habited by people of distinctly peaceable inclinations. These exag gerations are refuted by the facts. It is true that the Incas had a powerful and well-organized army at their disposal and that they subdued a great many tribes, but their conquests were often long drawn-out and difficult; and although they were indeed vanquished with ease by the Spaniards, this was the result of special circum stances, which we shall describe, and which had nothing to do with the courage of the Indians.

There was nothing especially original about the organization 176 The Expansion of the Empire 177 of the army. Every able-bodied man was called to active service, not regularly, but according to circumstances. 3 Special instructors in every village taught wrestling and the military drill to the chil dren over ten. They would then call the attention of the tucricuc to those who distinguished themselves by reason of their strength or their bravery and were worthy to be soldiers. The others would become carriers, looking after the baggage and performing similar tasks.4 Urgency excepted, the men were called in rotation on terms of service that, on the coast, were very short on account of the climate. The rest of the time they attended to their ordinary occu pations. 5 The army was under the command of the Inca or of a generalis simo, the son, brother, or uncle of the Inca. 6 This army was divided into troops of 10, 50, 100, 1,000, and 10,000 men, each division having its own commander. But soldiers coming from different parts of the empire were kept in separate divisions. All those of the same tribe remained united under the same command, and those of the hanan were separated from those of the hurin. 7 In the midst of the combatants were placed the men and women who carried provisions and laid in supplies at the tambos along the route. The armies never had to ask for anything whatever from the inhabitants. They found all they needed-food, clothing, weap ons-in the storehouses. 8 A soldier who took it upon himself to demand so much as a kernel of maize from one of the people or to steal it would have been immediately put to death. What a spectacle these great armies must have presented as they marched through the empire without arousing among the populace the slightest fear of suffering in any way from their passage! And what a difference from the European armies of the past, and even of today! 9 Besides the regular army, there was at Cuzco the Inca's perma nent guard, made up of Indians from the province of Cafiar. 10 All told, the army in the reign of Huayna Capac consisted, ac cording to the chroniclers, of about two hundred thousand com bat troops, exclusive of baggage carriers; but this figure must be taken with certain reservations. ll The Peruvian armies were equipped with both offensive and 178 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru defensive weapons. Of the first, the most redoubtable was certainly the sling. Children from the age of seven used it in keeping the birds from laying waste the maize fields and thus became very ex pert. Slings killed many a Spaniard like Juan Pizarro at the siege of the fortress of Cuzco. The band of this weapon was made of wool, leather, or cabuya fiber and was often woven or embroidered.

The slingstone itself was round. When it was white-hot, it would set the thatched roofs afire. This is how Cuzco was burned. 12 To shoot their bolts, the Indians made use not only of the bow, but also of the throwing stick (estdlica). This implement consisted of a stick from about sixteen to twenty-four inches long, topped by a raised edge at the back end and a hook in front. The shaft was laid along the strip of wood in such a way that its point rested on the raised edge and its butt 'was lodged in the projection at the distal end. The soldier, grasping the stick firmly in his hand, would swing his arm in a wide arc as if to throw the entire weapon; but he would not let go of it, and only the lance, leaving the raised rim and propelled by the hook, would fly toward its goal. The est6lica was thus a simple extension of the arm itself, designed to give the shaft greater speed. 13 The arrowheads were of bone, wood, flint, or metal, but the Inca, with a humanitarian sentiment that was astonishing, would not allow them to be poisoned.

Used especially in hunting, the ayllo (the bolas of the Spaniards) consisted of a thong divided into three small strings, each of them with a stone or a lump of metal at the end of it.14 It was hurled at the legs of wild animals and entangled them in the manner .of a lasso. The Indians used it later to throw the Spaniards' horses. The Argentine horsemen still make use of it today on the pampa. For close combat, the Peruvian soldiers had the club, the ax, the javelin, and the lance. The warclub was made of wood or metal. It was held in both hands and was carried by straps hung from the left arm, which was wrapped in cotton. 15 The battle ax was made of copper or sometimes silver or gold. The defensive armor consisted of a wooden helmet padded with cotton; shields, also made of wood and cotton, sometimes of enor mous size and capable of protecting as many as twenty men;16 and The Expansion of the Empire 179 breastplates quilted with cotton and intended as a defense against arrows. 17 All these arms, offensive and defensive, were stored in great number in the public depositories, which A. de Beauchamp calls "arsenals." 18 The Inca carried a broad square shield, made of ·wood or cop per and fringed with some fabric. On the reverse side was a copper loop through which he thrust his left arm. In his right hand the sovereign held a sling or a warclub with a six-or eight-pointed bronze star-shaped head. 10 This powerful army, thus organized and equipped, and sub ject to a rigid discipline, was a redoubtable instrument of con quest, but the monarchs made use of it only when all other means failed. It is remarkable that the Peruvians never invaded neigh boring territories and massacred their inhabitants without further ado, as so many ancient rulers did. On the contrary, the sover eigns of Cuzco sought first to attract other peoples by showing them the flourishing condition of the empire, making a display of their riches, and offering presents to the tribal chieftains.: w Only if diplomacy failed would the soldiery enter the scene, but the ad versaries always had at any moment the choice of capitulation. If guilty of no treachery, they were sure of not being subject to re prisals. The Inca never gave himself over to acts of needless cruelty. This policy was certainly not motivated by humanitarian ism, but merely by a correct understanding of his own interests.

He was not unaware of the fact that he could attach conquered peoples more firmly to his throne by generous treatment than by brutality, and this insight gives us the measure of his political sagacity.21 Thanks to the chroniclers, we know in some detail how the Inca proceeded when he wished to conquer a territory.22 First, the Inca would inform himself concerning the general condition of the tribe that occupied the coveted territory and their alliances. He would endeavor to isolate the adversary by acting upon the neighboring chieftains, either with bribes or with threats. Then he would order his spies to study the avenues of access and 180 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru the centers of resistance. 23 At the same time, he would send mes sengers on several occasions to ask for submission and to offer rich presents. 24 If the Indians then submitted, the Inca would do them no harm. If they resisted, his army would march into the enemy territory, but would avoid pillaging or devastating an area that the sovereign expected to annex. 25 The order of battle was as follows: The troops with slings would begin the engagement, then the archers would launch their arrows, and finally, when the time for hand-to-hand combat had come, the axes and clubs would be brought into play~26 There do not seem to have been any strategical plans, but the Inca knew how to adapt himself to the given terrain. When he went into the eastern forests to fight the Antis, for example, he divided his troops into three columns and indicated a point in enemy territory where they were to meet. The commanders too seem to have made use of a number of military ruses, such as pretending to retreat and drawing the enemy into an ambush. 27 Once the campaign was brought to a victorious conclusion, the Inca would have the prisoners set free, distribute gifts among the vanquished chieftains, sometimes confirm them in their power, and organize the country as we have seen. The only people pun ished were the rebels and the traitors. 28 Examples of peaceful conquest are numerous. 29 But very often independent tribes like the Caras would put up a desperate re sistance. These last had formed a veritable confederacy with several of their neighbors to the south-Zarzas, Paltas, Canaris but the Peruvians began by detaching the members of this alliance one by one, and the Caras were left with only their own forces.

The struggle that the Incas undertook against them dragged on for seventeen years. It was very severe. They proceeded by stages, consolidating the gains already made before registering others, and organized economically every piece of territory they conquered building magazines, laying out roads, and constructing strongholds to serve as bases for future operations. so We see now how mistaken it is to assert that the Incas extended their empire without any effort, merely by "military parades." Even to establish their power on the Peruvian plateau, the soverThe Expansion of the Emp·ire 181 eigns had to wrestle with confederacies that sometimes defeated them, as the Chane as did,sl and some of them narrowly escaped death in these battles, like the Inca Roca, who was wounded before Ollantay.32 At the beginning of the war ,vith the Caras, Tupac Yupanqui was defeated before Mocha, and the enemy took posses sion once more of the entire province of Puruha. Later Huayna Capac was beaten by the Caranquis, his brother was beaten and killed at the siege of Otavalo in northern Ecuador, and the Inca triumphed in the end only by recourse to a military ruse. Revolts likewise were not uncommon, in spite of all the precautions taken by the monarch, and some even threatened the existence of the empire-for example, that of Cuzco itself during the absence of Viracocha. 33 How can Cunow venture to write: "Those effusive reports that recount the glorious victories of the Incas and demon strate their martial superiority over other tribes, their daring and their invincible valor, are no more than fables [nicht anderes als Miirchen]. Once the Incas had vanquished the small tribes that were their neighbors, a wider expansion offered no difficulty"? 34 The facts also refute the absurd accusation of cowardice leveled against the Indians by Robertson and Pareto. The battles between the armies of Atahualpa and Huascar at Ambato in Ecuador and Quipaypan near Cuzco were furious. Much has been made of the feeble resistance that the Peruvians offered to the Spaniards, but at this time, as we have already noted, the Indians were in the midst of a civil war. The Peruvians, whose legitimate sovereign Huascar had been dethroned by the bastard Atahualpa, looked upon the white men as their saviors, counted it to the strangers' credit that they had taken this usurper captive, and gave them a hearty welcome. It was the Indians of CUlCO who marched against the Indians of Quito under the orders of the Spaniards. In short, the arrival of the white men was only an episode in the great struggle between the Incas and the Caras.35 As for the disintegration of Atahualpa's army when it was taken by the Spaniards, this is readily explained. In the first place, there was actual treachery, for the Peruvian monarch received the strangers as friends, without making any attempt to stop them in the passes of the Cordillera, which would have been extremely 182 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru easy.S6Then too, the Indians, who had never seen either horses or firearms, were filled with superstitious fear. This terror was no less great among the other native peoples of America. 37 Finally, and above all, we must realize that precisely because of the exces sive centralization of power in Peru, the loss of the supreme com mander was bound to lead to the complete demoralization of the army. The extraordinary discipline that prevailed throughout the country, among civilians as well as soldiers, had so far destroyed the spirit of individual initiative that men no longer dared, or even knew how, to act when they were not under orders. This is shown by the fact that the Indians of the former kingdom of Quito, who had been under the Incas' power for a shorter time than the Peruvians, resisted the Spaniards valiantly. Quisquis and Ru miiiaui fought· desperately against Almagro and Benalcazar; one of the sons of Huayna Capac retook Cajamarca; the battle of Tio cajas, in the province of Riobarnba, lasted an entire day, and the

Spaniards would have had to retreat if a providential eruption of Cotopaxi had not frightened the Indians into withdrawing. 3s The Peruvians themselves, when they realized that the Spaniards were destroying .their institutions and misappropriating their goods, found energetic leaders among their own ranks, and the white men came near to being driven out of the plateau. The Inca Manco repulsed Pizarro in the valley of the Yucay and laid siege to Cuzco in February, 1536. It was a siege prolific in deeds of heroism. The white men and the red challenged one another and fought hand to hand, the city was burned, and the Indian captain who was defending the fortress chose to kill himself rather than surrender. 39 Later, Indian insurrections multiplied, and several of them were extremely serious-for example, those of Huarochiri, in 1570, and Tarma, in 1743. In 1780 Tupac Amaru, at the head of sixty thou sand men, conquered no less than six provinces. 4Q Del Hoyo does justice to the soldiers of the Inca in declaring that the weakness and enervation of which the Spanish authors speak existed only in the latters' imagination. 41 It should not be forgotten that the In dians always met the worst of tests-torture and death-with great fortitude. Many writers have paid homage to their "passive cour age." These men were by no means cowards, but they had so long The Expansion of the Empire 183 been condemned to docile obedience that they were brave only when they received orders to be. Voltaire has rightly observed that instead of taking advantage of the dissensions that were not slow in breaking out among the conquerors, the Peruvians "stupidly waited to see which party among their destroyers they should sub mit to." 42 It was the socialist regime, far more than the blows of the Uconquistadors/' that brought about the loss of the empire.

The Inca state disappeared, not because it did not exist, as Cunow says, but rather because it existed too well. It would be an equally great exaggeration to regard war as the ruling passion of the Incas and to assume that their country was in a state of perpetual conflict. The care the sovereigns took to have recourse to force of arms as infrequently as possible shows how mistaken such an opinion is. One has only to compare the situation of the empire during the reign of Huayna Capac with that of earlier days, when tribes or leagues of tribes were con stantly at war among themselves, to appreciate the progress that had been achieved. "The ultimate aim" of the monarchy, accord ing to Prescott, "was domestic quiet. But it seemed as if this were to be obtained only by foreign war. Tranquillity in the heart of the monarchy, and war on its borders, 'was the condition of Peru." 43 That this expansion of the empire did have its economic mo tives we have already attempted to demonstrate, but it would be falling into an odious historical materialism to regard these mo tives as the only ones at work. Ambition and the thirst for glory also played their part. It would be difficult to explain on economic grounds the war undertaken against the kingdom of Quito, a country far removed from the center of the empire, which was in no way indispensable to the existence of the Peruvians, and the conquest of which threatened, because of the resistance of the inhabitants, to become a disastrous enterprise even from the economic point of view.44 On the other hand, contrary to what Lorente believes, religious motives seem to have been absent. 45 The gods of the vanquished were brought to Cuzco as hostages, and foreign cuIts were respected. 46 184 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru The wars in which the sovereign had to engage were not only offensive. He was also obliged to fight in his ovvn defense. The frontiers of the empire were constantly menaced by redoubtable warlike tribes, such as the Guaranis to the east and the Araucans to the south, necessitating the establishment of a whole chain of forts, strongholds, and militarized frontier zones.47 The most famous fortress known to us is that of Saxahuaman at Cuzco, which may have been constructed, in part at least, before the Incas came to power, and which P. de Poo has compared to the Pyramids and the Coliseum. 48 It consisted of a number of con centric walls made of enormous blocks of stone. At its center rose three towers, which were connected by subterranean passages, and a reservoir kept full of water brought in through underground aqueducts. 49 Compared with this masterpiece of Indian art, the hastily built pucaras or enceintes and the fortified tambos with walls of polished stone would seem to have had only a feeble de fensive value.

The great line of fortifications that guarded the routes of access to the empire was in reality fortified and self-sufficient areas. Each of them contained within its walls an entire town, with houses, temples, and planted fields. In case of siege, resistance could be kept up indefinitely. Among them were Pisac, "a whole mountain transformed into a fortress," 'which, according to Squier, recalled the ancient fortified places of the British Indes,50 and 01 lantaytambo, with its palaces, houses, stairways, cisterns, aqueducts, terraces, and crenelated walls of red porphyry. 51 On the coast, to the south of Chimu, there was a whole line of states: Cuismancu, Chuquimancu, and the Chincha confederation. It was to overcome the resistance of the king of Chuquimancu that the Incas constructed a fortified city called Cuzco (Cuzco del Huarcu) to be their capital on the border between the two ter ritories. 52 But the most remarkable of these fortified places was Machu Picchu, the white granite citadel that lifts itself above the preci pices in the canyon of the Uruhamha. Its walls of admirably laid stone have resisted time and earthquake alike; its stairways, cut right out of the granite, still connect the buildings and the terrace The Expansion of the Empire 185 tiers. Everything is either built of stone-houses, temples, ramparts -or hollowed out of it-reservoirs, seats, mortars. The city is sur rounded by a double wall, which in turn is surmounted by huge blocks of stone ready to be hurled down upon an assailant. At the end of a rocky spur there is a sentry post, and on the highest eleva tion rises the sacred rock, "the place to which the sun is tied." 53 Other ancient cities similarly fortified have recently been dis covered in the same general locality. Some of them seem to have been rather agricultural centers or religious shrines. They are con nected by footpaths with stairways and even a little tunnel. They are not so much fortresses as places of refuge for the entire popula tion. 54 On the frontiers of the empire there were veritable militarized zones with systems of fortresses commanding all avenues of ap proach. Thus, the province of Cafiar presented the appearance of an entrenched army camp, with the forts of Pucara near the Pe luicay River, Pitavifia on the banks of the river Jubones, and Incapirca near the confluence of the Silante and the Huaira pungo. 5.5 Similarly, the southern regions of the empire between the Choapa and Maule rivers was protected by troops stationed in advance outposts to keep the Araucans in check. As we have seen, the garrisons of these distant military strongholds were granted special privileges. 56 Beyond the frontiers guarded by the soldiers of the Inca stretched the spheres of Peruvian influence-zones difficult to delimit-which comprised a part of the forests of Brazil,51 of Argentina;58 of Paraguay,59 and even of Colombia. 60 We know that the empire extended from Darien to Araucania in Chile, and from the Pacific Ocean to the heart of Brazil, over the larger part of South America. 61 11 A BriefSurvey of Inca Civilization Certainly, after the study we have just made, no one 'will be tempted to say that the Incas were barbarians. But did these great administrators know how to create and develop the higher forms of civilization-arts, letters, science? This is a question not with out interest if one wishes to give a general account of life and con ditions in Peru, but it is one that we can treat here only in very summary fashion, since a full discussion would require consider able elaboration in detail.