Pachacuti

According to the colonial chronicles Pachacuti was born as Cusi Yupanqui in Cusco, a son of the ruler Viracocha Inca. His birth year (here ca. 1418) is an estimate: the Incas did not count years systematically, and their history is known from Spanish chronicles, Inca traditions recorded after the conquest, and archaeology. Researchers therefore give varying dates.

According to the chronicles his brother Inca Urco was the designated successor of Viracocha Inca. Researchers point out that Spanish writers often described Inca succession through European ideas of inheritance, whereas legitimacy in Cusco also depended on descent within royal lineages (panacas). Little reliable is known about his youth.

According to the chronicles, around 1438 Cusi Yupanqui repelled a Chanca attack on Cusco while his father and brother left the city. He then became Sapa Inca under the name Pachacuti ('the turning of the world or time'). Whether this story is historical is disputed: since the 1980s many researchers have regarded the Chanca war as largely mythical, while others see a historical core in it.

According to the chronicles he had Cusco rebuilt as a capital, with the sun temple Qurikancha, and extended his authority through campaigns to the Titicaca region (Collasuyu) and, under generals' command, northwards to Cajamarca. Important commanders were his brother Capac Yupanqui and later his son Topa Inca Yupanqui. What Pachacuti did himself and what should be attributed to commanders or successors is hard to establish.

In the Urubamba valley he had royal estates built, including Machu Picchu and Ollantaytambo; many archaeologists see Machu Picchu as an estate of Pachacuti. The realm was governed as Tawantinsuyu, 'the four parts together', with four regions (suyu) around Cusco. Means included reciprocal obligations with local rulers, labour service and the resettlement of populations (mitmaq).

The road system Qhapaq Ñan, which partly built on older roads, reached its greatest extent in the fifteenth century; UNESCO describes a network of about 30,000 km. It is often linked to expansion under Pachacuti and his successors, but was built over centuries. For administration the Incas used khipus, systems of knotted cords that mainly recorded numbers.

The Inca realm had no writing in the usual sense. Besides khipus, which mainly recorded numbers, paintings and oral traditions preserved history, and each royal lineage (panaca) kept its own version. What is known comes largely from Spanish chroniclers such as Juan de Betanzos and Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, who collected their information among the Inca nobility, and from archaeology.

In the fifteenth century Cusco grew from a regional centre of power into the capital of Tawantinsuyu, with terraced agriculture, storehouses, labour service and a state religion centred on the sun god Inti. The realm relied on reciprocity with local rulers and on coercion. The Spanish conquest of 1532–1533 disrupted this system; the chronicles were written under Spanish rule, often with interests of their own.

Under Pachacuti and his successors the area governed from Cusco expanded from the surroundings of Cusco to a large part of the Andes, from the Titicaca region in the south to Ecuador in the north. Local elites were bound to Cusco through gifts, feasts and marriages, while some groups received the status of 'Inca by privilege'.

For conquered populations Inca rule meant labour obligations, taxation and sometimes forced resettlement. At the same time many local leaders (kurakas) continued to function as administrators. How this was experienced by the population itself is hard to establish, since the sources come mainly from the Inca nobility and Spanish writers.

According to the chronology of John Howland Rowe (1945) Pachacuti ruled from 1438 to 1471; according to Rowe his son Topa Inca Yupanqui took military command in 1463 and succeeded him. Radiocarbon research at Machu Picchu (2021) points to use from about 1420, which suggests that his reign may have begun earlier than the chronicles imply. According to tradition he was mummified and venerated in Cusco.

Whether Pachacuti was a single historical ruler is disputed. Researchers such as Rowe and Rostworowski regard him as historical; others, such as Zuidema and Duviols, see in the stories a mytho-historical construction summarising the work of several rulers, groups or commanders.

The portrait in this app is a painting from the colonial period (18th century), from a series of fourteen portraits of Inca rulers in the Brooklyn Museum. This type of portrait emerged around 1600 in Cusco, combining a European portrait style with indigenous dress; it is therefore not a likeness from his own time.