INCA-05A
John Jenkins Designs
The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America.
The Inca civilization rose from the Peruvian highlands sometime in the early 13th Century. The administrative, political and military centre of the empire was in the city of Cusco.
From 1438 to 15 33 the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. At its largest, the Empire joined modern day Peru, what is now western Equador, western and South central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, the southwest tip of Columbia and a large portion of modern day Chile, into a state comparable to the historical empires of Eurasia. Its official language was Quechua.
The Spanish began the conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532 and by 1572 the last Inca state was fully conquered.
The army’s elite units were provided by the Inca troops themselves, composed of the military contingents of the capital’s two rival divisions of Hanan (upper) and Hurin (lower) Cuzco. Which was north and south of the Urubamba river.
These soldiers were fiercely competitive with each other, and were called “huaminca”, meaning veterans.
These veterans received formal military training as part of their coming of age on reaching 14 or 15 years of age. They were taught not only how to use various weapons but also how to manufacture them.
They would undergo numerous tests of courage and stamina, on successful completion of which they received assorted insignia denoting their status, including having their ears pierced, as well as being given the traditional Inca weapons of sling, mace and shield.