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The Inca Empire



//Tawantinsuyu // translated as “The Land of the Four Quarters” was the magnificently, vast empire of South America, which is now known as the Inca Empire. This empire, from 1438 AD to 1532 AD, stretched as far north as Ecuador to the far reaches of Argentina, covering a vast amount of diverse geography and ethnicities. The main concern of the state was to ensure that this empire would stay together, not necessarily through blood and war, but through the assimilation of the diverse ethnicities while incorporating their differences into the empire. This constant balance between assimilation and allowing the peoples to be who they once were was portrayed in the Inca Kinship system, the Inca military control and influence, the culturally diverse Incan architecture, and the forced tribute of Inca ceramic production that was then distributed amongst the populace. The Inca had a complex religious system that tied in everyone that they conquered by their worship of the sun god Inti, the Intihuatana Stone, the hitch to the inca religion. Although the empire only survived for less than a hundred years due to the Spanish invasion, it was these systems that allowed the empire to avoid rebellion and unite a diverse people.
 * Abstract:**


 * < **Table of Contents** ||
 * < Andean Kinship and Inca Political Formation ||< By: Robin Wineinger ||
 * < The Inca Military Conquest ||< By: Patrick Carroll ||
 * < Inca Architecture: Cultural Intersections ||< By: Grant Lowther ||
 * < Inca Ceramic Production and Distribution ||< By: Samantha Pietruszewski ||
 * <  Hitch to the Inca Religion ||< By: Justin Heiser ||