Location/Geography
What is the capital and where is it located?
Cuzco located in south eastern Peru
Who ruled the Inca Empire, and how was the government organized?
The Sapa Inca was the supreme ruler. Below him were nobles and government officials who governed different regions and local communities.
Did the Inca Empire use money?
No. The Inca economy did not depend on currency or traditional markets. Instead, it relied heavily on labor, reciprocity, and redistribution.
What roles did men and women have in Inca society?
Inca society practiced gender parallelism: men and women generally had different but complementary responsibilities, and some women held important religious and economic roles.
What factors contributed to the fall of the Inca Empire?
Spanish conquest, European diseases such as smallpox, internal conflict, and the capture and execution of Sapa Inca Atahualpa contributed to the empire's collapse.
What types of geography did the Inca Empire cover?
The empire stretched across the Andes and included mountains, highlands, valleys, deserts, and coastal regions.
What was the Mit'a system?
A labor system that required communities to provide workers for government projects such as roads, farming, construction, and military service.
What did “reciprocity” mean in the Inca economy?
People provided labor and resources, while communities and the government provided support and redistributed resources when needed.
How did the Inca keep records without a traditional writing system?
They used quipu (khipu), systems of knotted cords used to record numerical and administrative information.
What lasting impact did Inca engineering have on the Andes?
Inca roads, terraces, irrigation systems, and stone structures influenced the region, and many survive or remain in use today.
What was the Inca road system called and why was it important?
Qhapaq Ñan, or Andean Road System, connected the empire and allowed officials, armies, messengers, and goods to travel across it.
How did the Inca govern the different peoples they conquered?
They often allowed conquered peoples to keep local customs and leaders as long as they accepted Inca authority, contributed labor, and followed imperial requirements.
How did the Inca farm successfully in the Andes Mountains?
They built agricultural terraces into mountainsides, which created farmland and helped control water and erosion.
Who were two important Inca gods?
Inti, the sun god, and Mama Quilla, the moon goddess, were important deities. Religion and government were closely connected, and the Sapa Inca claimed divine ancestry from Inti.
Who led the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire?
Francisco Pizarro, whose forces captured Atahualpa in 1532.