Inca Empire Lecture Review

Flashcards detailing key vocabulary and concepts from a lecture on the Inca Empire.

Inca Empire

Thrived for about 100 years (1438 A.D. - 1533 A.D.) and at its peak ruled over 12 million people from northern Chile to Ecuador.

Cuzco

Capital city of the Inca Empire. It was the empire’s administrative, military, and political center.

Francisco Pizarro

Led the group of Spanish soldiers who caused the Inca Empire to fall in 1533.

Tawantinsuyu

Word for the Inca empire meaning 'four parts together'.

Terrace Farming

Slopes cut into stepped platforms; decreases erosion and runoff, increases agricultural productivity.

Panaqa

Royal house; kin-group descendants of the Inca emperor who inherited the emperor’s lands and fortune.

Emperor Pachacuti

Reorganized the Cuzco kingdom into the Tawantinsuyu/four parts Inca Empire; renowned builder who expanded the empire and is credited with its founding.

Machu Picchu

An Inca royal estate on a high mountain peak; possibly built by/for Emperor Pachacuti as an elite retreat or agricultural station.

Khipu

A system of knotted strings used by the Inca to record information; important in the absence of a written script.

Panaqa

“Royal house” kin group descendants of the inca emperor who inherited the emperor’s lands and fortune

Inca rulership

Inca emperors continued to have power after death

Life after death for Inca emperors

Deceased emperor was mummified and continued to be important in ceremonial and political life at Cuzco

Inca Emperor Descendants

The next in line/emperor was cut off from the royal line and had to create their own. (conquer land, get own riches, etc.)

Inca domesticates

potatoes, guinea pigs, alpacas, llamas

Cranial deformation

The practice of shaping the skulls of infants by binding or using boards, often done in Inca culture to signify status or beauty.

Elongated skull

Highland Andes

Cradle Boarding skull

Coastal

Inca Society

Extensive system of roads connecting the empire—

crucial to move goods, people, and information.

Inca military

Large military force drawn from diverse groups that

made up the empire, military campaigns to maintain it

Khipu

a system of knotted strings used by

the Inca to record information. No written script, importance of textiles for Inca society

Inca Expansion

Linked to system of ruling inheritance that

passed lands and territory of emperor to their panaqa