Ancient civilizations-2

Administration of the empire

Topa Inca Yupanqui returned to Cuzco, secure in the knowledge that Inca power could not be challenged. The rapid expansion of the empire, however, created a number of problems concerned with sustaining themselves and governing a large number of diverse ethnic groups. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui and Topa Inca Yupanqui were imaginative and made several important innovations in Inca institutions.

Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui began rebuilding Cuzco, the political and religious capital of the empire. Considerable effort was put into enlarging Sacsahuamán, the huge fortress built on a hill overlooking the city. At the same time he undertook a vast agricultural project over the entire upper end of the Cuzco Valley; rivers were channeled, the valley floor was leveled, and agricultural terraces were built on the surrounding hillsides. This reclamation project undoubtedly increased the agricultural productivity of the area and involved moving many of the original inhabitants of this part of the valley to other localities for several years while the work was being completed.

Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui also turned his attention to social problems. He decreed that no ruler could inherit property from his predecessor; instead, the property of a dead ruler was to pass to his other descendants, who could then support themselves from his lands and the labour taxes owed him. Consequently, each new emperor had to acquire land and labour to support his corporation and government. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui thus ensured that the corporations of his eight predecessors had estates in the area around Cuzco so their members could support themselves adequately, attend certain ceremonies, and perform ceremonial obligations. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui and his successors to the Inca throne formed corporations that had lands and estates scattered throughout the empire as well as in the Cuzco Valley itself.

He probably also began the policy of forced resettlement, or mitma, about this time, in order to ensure both loyalty to the state and better utilization of land resources, at least from the perspective of the Inca. This practice involved moving some members of an ethnic group from their home territory to distant lands. When a new area was conquered, loyal settlers were brought in from a province that had been under Inca rule long enough so that its residents knew how the Inca system of government worked. They were replaced in their home territories by recalcitrant groups from the newly conquered province. The policy had three important consequences: first, it broke up the size and power of an ethnic group by dispersing its members throughout the empire; second, it weakened the ability of an ethnic group to be self-sufficient; and, finally, it made it more difficult for the inhabitants of an area to revolt successfully.

Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui invented a state religion based on the worship of a creator-god called Viracocha, who had been worshiped since pre-Inca times. Priests were appointed, ceremonies were planned, prayers were prepared, and temples were built throughout the empire. He also expounded the view that the Inca had a divine mission to bring this true religion to other peoples, so that the Inca armies conquered in the name of the creator god. His doctrine was a relatively tolerant one. Conquered groups did not have to give up their own religious beliefs; they merely had to worship the Inca god and provide him and his servants with food, land, and labour.