July 20, 2008

 
   

It is still very difficult to state exactly who were the first founders of the city or which would be the valid foundation of Qosqo. They could be the settlers of Marcavalle. Victor Angles suggests that they could be the Sawasiras, Antasayas and Wallas, tribes settled in the valley before the Tawantinsuyo development. Another foundation would be that of the first Inka Manko Qhapaq around 1200 A.D. It is also suggested that Pachakuteq, the ninth king did another foundation by 1438. Finally, after the arrival of the first Spaniards to the city on November 15th 1533, Francisco Pizarro refounded it for the Spanish King following the Spanish tradition on March 23rd 1534; with the name and title of: THE VERY NOBLE AND GREAT CITY OF CUZCO. In 1535 Pizarro founded the new capital in Lima that immediately gained importance and power even until today. In 1536 Manko Inka began a long and bloody war against the Spanish invaders having a siege of 8 months over the city. Finally in 1572, after a war that lasted 36 years, Tupaq Amaru I, the last emperor of the Inkan dynasty was defeated, captured and executed cutting his head off in Qosqo's Main Square.

In 1650 the city was badly affected by a violent earthquake that destroyed almost every colonial building . Later in 1780 the city was once again shaken but this time by a social-quake: the Tupaq Amaru II rebellion (today, traditionally the Spanish form of his name is used; originally it was Jose Gabriel Thupa Amaro Inga, as it was signed by himself) He fought for the Peruvian emancipation but unfortunately was betrayed, defeated and then executed as well as his whole family and followers in the same city's Main Square. Between 1814-15, Mateo Pumakawa who was the chief of the village of Chinchero and in his youth had fought against Tupaq Amaru II; began once again another rebellion in order to emancipate the country along with the Angulo brothers and some other Peruvians. They were defeated and later executed by the Spanish army. In 1821 Peru got finally its independence from Spain at the end of a long, cruel and bloody process developed in all the countries of Hispanic America.

In 1933 the 25th Congress of Americanists performed in Ciudad de la Plata, Argentina, declared Qosqo City as the " Archaeological Capital of South America". In 1950 another bad earthquake of 7° in the Mercalli scale had shaken the old Inkan Capital that left just one quarter of its buildings standing. In 1978 the 7th Convention of Mayors of the World Great Cities, performed in Milan, Italy, declared Qosqo as " Cultural Heritage of the World". In Paris, on December 9, 1983, the UNESCO declared Qosqo as " Cultural Patrimony of Humanity". On December 22, 1983, by means of Law Nº 23765 the Peruvian government declared the city as " Tourist Capital of Peru" as well as " Cultural Patrimony of the Nation". Today Qosqo is capital of the department having the same name and at the same time the seat of the Inka Region formed along with the departments of Apurimac and Madre de Dios. The 1993 Peruvian Constitution declares Qosqo as the Historic Capital of the country.

The Tawantinsuyo:

The "Inkas" or "Quechuas", their territory, native land or country was the Tawantinsuyo, a compound name that comes from two Quechua words, "tawa": four, and "suyo": nation or state. So, Tawantinsuyo in the idiomatic Quechua sense is a whole that has four nations, even though, in a very arbitrary way many authors translate Tawantinsuyo as "the four quarters or portions of the world". The Tawantinsuyo was divided in four " suyo" or "suyu" which central angle was in Qosqo City, its capital. The word Qosqo is apparently an archaism that according to chroniclers meant " navel" or " center" of the world; in this case it would be the center or navel of the Tawantinsuyo.

The Tawantinsuyo's success was due to some factors that are missed in present-time Peru which were based in order: a social, economic and legal order according to realities of the moment. The Quechuas were highly organized people and every aspect of their daily life was framed in obedient respect and pursuit of permanent and irremovable laws. It is obvious that by that pre-Hispanic time the legal system tended to state some homogeneity among the different nations in order to get the high living standard that Quechuas reached for that age. The "Runa Simi" was established as official language in the "Tawantinsuyo" territory. They established a land division system with parts belonging to the Sun, to the Inka, and to the State. Like that they guaranteed their flourishing social security system in order to aid old people, orphans, widows or unfortunate people. Logically the biggest portion of lands were devoted to be shared among common people. Thus, every newborn boy had right to one "topo" of fertile farming land and every girl to a half "topo" (topo or tupu: changing measure based on the human step equivalent to about 2700 m²; 0.27 Ha.; 0.67 acres). All lands were the state's property and they could not be inherited or sold; thus when a person died his or her farmland was taken by another newborn. Moreover, they established a planned sedentarism for all the population, trying to get a land-man balance with the "mitimaes" that were people or tribes displaced from their hometowns.

The Tawantinsuyo was characterized by its absolute and monarchical government that developed paternal patterns for their people. People among who there was neither private property nor starvation. Protected people who lacked little, in counterpart, were devoted to work and obedient to the law; making altogether a society that was not perfect but very well balanced. Consequently, modern scholars such as Jose Tamayo classify the Tawantinsuyo framed inside the "Theory of reciprocity and redistribution, and the vertical control of ecological stages in the Highlands and Coast of southern Peru".