Have you heard of the Incas?

Question

The Incas live in the highlands of the Andes mountains correct? Does anyone one know why they preferred the highlands instead of the lowlands?

Answer 1

I've been to the Inkan capital a dozen times. (I live in NYC, no I'm not Peruvian.)


Well, the Inkas (new way of spelling--will catch on in 10 years) basically had to choose between living in the desert coastal areas, the tropical jungle areas which traditionally cannot hold large populations, or the mountain valleys which have thousands of thermal mountain springs and very fertile soils.

The first major population centers in South America was at Lake Titikaka (Titicaca in the old spelling) where fish and fertile soils made large populations easier than other places. This was the Tiwanaku culture (Tiahuanaco in the old spelling), one of the precursors to the Inkan culture.

Also, the lowlands were agriculturally not significant to food production until the arrival of cattle, where tropical forests could be turned into pasture lands, and grape, wheat and dry-land rice (which come from the Asian mega-continent) could be grown in the fjords of the lowlands on the coast.

To simplify, the Inkans found many grains, Andean rabbits (cuy), thermal springs, predictable weather patterns and even river trout in the highlands, and equatorial heat and desert or jungle in the lowlands.

Cold you can bundle up for. Heat, well you can only take off so many clothes before you can't take off any more.

Today, the largest population center in Peru is in Lima on the coast. That has more to do with its insertioninto the global economy since the 1500's. They shipped Inkan gold to Spain from Lima, so it grew rich and powerful and became the capital whn Peru won their independence.

Lima grew even more when it began to industrialize, and its position as a port city allowed it to grow at the expense of the highlands.

Every notice the the world's major industrial centers are at sea level and 99% of the time at a sea port?

Steel is heavy and shipped easiest by water. Getting the steel up mountains, well, its difficult, therefore costly.

This, I hope, helps explain the difference between the agricultural Inkas of 5 centuries ago (everyone was agricultural then) and modern Peru.

Answer 2

Have you ever heard the expression = There's no place like home?

Incas, as well as all other people usually live where they were born. Why their ancesters decided to locate in the higher climate is a matter of history. Without reading up on it, my guess would be it was a result of tribal warfare. That's generally the case with tribal and nomadic peoples.

Answer 3

Good question. I've always suspected it had something to do with the air at higher elevations. I don't know if you have ever been above 8000 feet for an extended period or not, but when you go through that level, the air clears and your nasal sinuses clear and you can breath in a way you have never experienced below 8000 feet.

I lived at 10,000 feet for about 6 years and I was MISERABLE whenever I had to come back down to 1000 feet... or even worse... Sea Level. People who have never lived at altitude don't have a clue of just what a 'sea' of air they live under at the lower elevations.

Answer 4

The Inca Empire or Inka Empire was an empire centered in what is now Peru from 1438 to 1533. Over that period, the Inca used conquest and peaceful assimilation to incorporate a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean mountain ranges. In 1533, Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor, called a Sapa Inca, was killed on the orders of the conquistador Francisco Pizarro, marking the beginning of Spanish rule.

The Quechua name was Tawantin Suyu1 which can be translated The Four Regions or The Four United Regions. Before the Quechua spelling reform it was written in Spanish as Tahuantinsuyo. Tawantin is a group of four things (tawa "four" with the suffix -ntin which names a group); suyu means "region" or "province".

The empire was divided into four suyus, whose corners met at the capital, Cuzco (Qosqo), in modern-day Peru.

The Incas created the vast and powerful empire of the Pre-Columbian America. Their administrative, political and military center was located in Cuzco. The empire reached its greatest extension at the beginning of 16th century. It dominated a territory that included from north to south, the actual territory of Ecuador and part of Colombia to the center of Chile and the north-west of Argentina, and from west to east, from Bolivia to the Amazonian forests. The empire was organized in “señoríos” (dominions) with a stratified society, in which the ruler was the Inca. It was also supported by an economy based on the collective ownership of the land. In fact, the Inca Empire was conceived as an ambitious civilizing project, based on a mythical idea, in which the harmony of the relationships between human beings, nature and Gods was truly essential.

The official language of the empire was Quechua, although over seven hundred local languages were spoken. The Inca leadership encouraged the worship of their gods, the foremost of which was Inti, the sun god.

From the European rationalist perspective, the Inca Empire has been seen like the utopia concretion. And its spectacular collapse under a group of Spanish soldiers has been seen as a logical consequence of the Spanish technological superiority, that took advantage of the Inca civil war triggered off by two pretenders to the throne.
The Inca had three origin myths. In one, Ticei Viracocha of Colina de las Ventanas in Pacaritambo sent forth his four sons and four daughters to establish a village. Along the way, Sinchi Roca was born to Manco and Ocllo, and Sinchi Roca led them to the valley of Cuzco where they founded their new village. There Manco became their leader and became known as Manco Capac.

In another origin myth, the sun god Inti ordered Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo to emerge from the depths of Lake Titicaca and found the city of Cuzco. They traveled by means of underground caves until reaching Cuzco where they established Hurin Cuzco, or the first dynasty of the Kingdom of Cuzco.

In the last origin myth, an Inca sun god told his wife that he was lonely. She proposed that he create a civilization to worship him and keep him company. He saw this as a wise plan and carried it out. The Inca were born from Lake Cuzco and populated the Andes and worshipped their sun god.

So their capital city was in the mountains near their god - The Sun

Answer 5

Yes, I've heard of them. There is a Buffy episode called: Inca mummy girl.

Answer 6

One would have had to ask them, but it's entirely possible that they were driven to the highlands by some more agressive and lost-to-history tribe who wanted to occupy the lower terrain.

Answer 7

i have never heard of it....incas....new word to me.

Answer 8

ask them