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Kai Marns-Morris, wrote on February 3, 2016:

The Incas

Who were the Incas?

The Incas were an amazing, advanced and progressive civilisation.

The beginnings of the Inca Empire first formed in Peru in the 15th century. They expanded rapidly and soon ruled almost a third of South America.

The Incas were advanced in architecture, engineering and art. They were also advanced in astronomy. We know this because of the remains of their buildings, pottery and artefacts and evidence of progressive (for their time) astronomical research techniques.

The Inca Empire was finally diminished by the Spanish during a time the Spanish were conquering new land.

The Incas of South America were a developed society before their demise at the hands of the conquistadors.

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Above left: This is a picture of Machu Picchu (by Kai Marns-Morris)

Above right: The purple section is the Inca Empire (Sighted at http://www.ducksters.com/history/aztec_maya_inca.php)

 

Where did the Incas live?

Before the Inca domain, there were many other civilisations and tribes in South America. One interesting pre-Inca race was the Nascans. The Inca empire became the biggest empire in South America and in 1492 it was the biggest in all of the Americas. By the 15th century the Inka empire was almost as big as the Roman empire!

The Incas first originated in 1438 in Cusco, a city in the south east of Peru, when a man named Pachucati started taking control of nearby tribes. The name Inca came from Pachutcati’s son Topa Inca, who continued his fathers expansion.

The Incas expanded rapidly and conquered many pre-Inca civilisations along the Andean Mountain Range. The Inca Empire was taking up a large proportion of western south America when the Spanish conquered them. “The Incas ruled over massively varied terrain, made up of large areas of jungle, desert and rugged highlands” *

The Incas also found the amazing Nazca lines. The Nazca lines were made by a pre-Inca race called the Nazcans. The Nazcans lived in the middle of a massive desert in Peru and they made massive pictures in the desert (the Nazca lines). They died out from lack of water in about 800 AD .

From Cusco, the Incas expanded rapidly until their empire covered almost a quarter of South America and consisted of a variety of environments.

*(http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ac84)

 

Art, engineering and architecture of the Incas

The Incas were an advanced civilisation for their time as we can see through to their art, engineering, architecture and building construction.

The Incas were very advanced in some areas like their aqueduct systems. In Machu Picchu they built a path for water to run all around the city from the natural spring on the top of the mountain. The Incas also built 22,500 kilometres of roads.!

The clever Inca building designs have been proven because they have survived many earthquakes when other buildings collapsed. Some of the reasons they can do this is that their walls are built slightly tilted inwards. Also the Inca walls are made of stones packed really close together (the Incas cut perfectly shaped stones from boulders for the walls and they didn’t use cement or any other material to stick them together) and that they have indents in the wall. The tilted walls help strengthen because the walls support each other.

The Incas worshipped the sun, moon and stars. Astronomy was important to the Incas because of it’s effects on their agriculture. For example they knew when to harvest by looking at the sun’s position in the sky. We also know that they are interested in astronomy because their building design reflects this. The whole city of Cusco is a mimic of the star system above!

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Above: This is a picture of an aqueduct in Machu Picchu (by Kai Marns-Morris)

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Above: This is a picture of the tilted walls and the windows that faces the sun when it rises (Greer Marns)

The Incas decorated their pottery with pictures that show their beliefs, history and culture. Some of the scenes on the pottery indicated human sacrifice. Archaeologists also found headless bodies which confirmed that the Incas did human sacrifice.

The Incas had a good building design they were advanced in their astrology and from their pottery archaeologists were able to learn about them.

 

What happened to the Incas?

The Spanish conquistadores were on a mission to conquer new land. Eventually they overcame most of Central and South America. The Spanish and other indigenous allies started attacking the Inca Empire in 1532. After decades of fighting, the last of the Inca strongholds were finally conquered in 1572. The Incas lasted a lot longer against the Spanish than the Aztec empire, who only lasted 3 years.

Although the Incas were conquered, remnants of the culture survived. Some of the Peruvian people today do not follow the Catholic religion introduced by Spain but, for example worship ‘Punchamama’or mother nature which is an Inca belief. If you go to Peru today you will still see ancestors of the Incas and some of their beliefs and ceremonies are still followed.

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Above: This is a picture of Machu Picchu (by Greer Marns)

The Incas, an advanced civilisation of South America, started in Peru and expanded rapidly. Before their downfall by the Spanish invaders the Inca Empire was the largest in the Americas.

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Above: This is a picture taken by me of a bowl of water the Incas used to study the sun without hurting their eyes.

 

 

References

· http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ac84 ACCESSED: 27/11/2015

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Incas ACCESSED: 27/11/2015

· http://www.livescience.com/41346-the-incas-history-of-andean-empire.html ACCESSED: 28/11/2015

· http://incas.mrdonn.org/quickhistory.html ACCESSED: 28/11/2015

· http://incas.mrdonn.org/quickhistory.html ACCESSED: 28/11/2015

· http://incas.mrdonn.org/quickhistory.html ACCESSED: 28/11/2015

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_culture ACCESSED: 2/2/2016

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_the_Inca_Empire ACCESSED: 10/2/2016

· http://www.starteachastronomy.com/incan.html ACCESSED 2/3/16

· DK London when on earth (senior editor R.Houston) Penguin Random House pg 51 and 71

 

 

This entry was posted in Kai's blog, Kids blogs.

One thought on “The Incas

  1. Nat, 06 April 10:12 pm

    Kai, now this is what I’m talking about! its awesome. I think you have your mothers talent for writing. So interesting Kai. Amazing how they built their walls with a lean, and used sun and stars to design their architecture. Beheadings! eeeek. Great job :) Is there any more you haven’t posted yet? Natxxxxx P.S. I’ll have to show Jake, he will find it interesting.

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