LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Incas: Empire
built 176 days ago
One of the most important inventions of the Incas was the elaborate system of stone roads and bridges they built to connect all the parts of the country. They had no horses, but trained runners running in relays could cover as much as 250 miles per day so that messages and reports could be quickly delivered to distant areas. And since the Incas forced all the conquered people to learn their language, having a common language ... helped people communicate throughout the empire.
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The Incas had a host of priests and priestesses to serve their gods in temples throughout the empire. Priests were ... surgeons who performed simple operations. Patients chewed coca leaves to dull the pain. Priests bit the heads of a type of ant and used the jaws as clips to close wounds.
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The Incas were an empire – no fantasies about liberal democracy there. But they were not as ostentatiously blood-stained as the Mayans and Aztecs. Indeed, in these cases subject peoples were glad to join the foreign usurpers to oust their oppressors. Politics joined with military superiority to give the Spaniards victory.
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The belief system of the Incas was polytheistic. Inti, the Sun God, was the godhead, which the Incas believed was the direct ancestor of the Sapa Inca, the title of the hereditary rulers of the empire. They believed in the sun god.
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To help rule their vast empire the Incas created an efficient network of roads. The Incas ... made rope suspension bridges. As well as the roads the Incas had messengers called chasquis. Messages were carried by relay. Groups of messengers lived in houses by main roads and at all times two of them kept lookout. If they saw another messenger approaching one of them would run to meet him.
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Kim MacQuarrie, an award-winning TV producer, has written a wonderful history of the Spanish conquest of the Incan empire with his The Last Days of the Incas. One can draw parallels to today, but that's not the reason to read this book. It is informative and entertaining, particularly nice for someone primarily interested in modern history but who desires a taste of the Old World.
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