Molly Ammerman
Cultural Anthropology 207
Dr. Carrico
Essay #3

The Inca Empire Before and After The Spanish Conquest

The Inca Empire developed in the 1400’s in the city of Cuzco, Peru. They thrived up through the 1500’s, until the Spanish conquered the land. Originally, the Spanish conquest was not harmful, but eventually the Incas lost more and more power until they finally collapsed. You could say the Spaniard’s got lucky, finding the civilization at a time when they were weak from various battles within their own people. The Inca’s political and social structure was, in fact, not that different from that of the Spaniards, however, they were able to manipulate and play the Inca’s trust in order to gain power and take over their land. The Incas were considered to be a class-stratified, state-based society with a tributary mode of production, that is, until the Spaniards arrived. The Inca Empire prior to the Spanish conquest was a thriving, organized, and productive civilization. They ran on a state-based society, which included hierarchal class-stratification. Along with that, they picked up a tributary mode of production, meaning that lower classes (commoners/peasants) are in charge of producing goods by farming and agriculture for the higher classes to eventually take from them. The state typically owns the plot of land that the commoners are staying and producing goods on, who do not have much or any power at all. The state uses this force of labor to gain wealth and build the civilization, which is how it grew to be so strong and thriving. Patterson says, “The Incas were leaders who depended on the good will of the commoners for prestations of labor service…the commoners gave their labor power only so long as the chiefs responded generously with gifts of food and clothing” (p. 55). It worked both ways; the lower class got a place to stay and was