Encyclopedia of the Incas

populations and to maintain the peace. This is a very expensive and costly form
of power, requiring extensive surveillance and a highly efficient system of
moving forces around the land. While the Incas certainly had the infrastructure
to move forces around the empire using their famous road system, it is clear
from the revolts and outright rebellions that plagued the Incas and that the
Spaniards recorded in their chronicles, that in many parts of the empire state
control was tenuous and there was considerable underlying discontent with the
demands made by Inca rulers.
The second form of state power depends on the cooperation of the governed
with state institutions. In order to achieve this so-called hegemony, the state
institutes policies that accord closely (or, at least, that are perceived to accord
closely) with the values and practices of the governed. The state must design
administrative units and procedures to garner a high level of conformity by local
populations with state plans and expectations. Hegemonic power aims at
achieving the legitimacy of rule by virtue of cooperation, not force. It appears
from archaeology and the Colonial historical record that the Incas made use of
both of these forms of power, although they clearly preferred cooperation over
force.
The Inca use of force is clear in the archaeological and historical records. At
numerous strategic sites around the empire, the Incas built military installations
from which they could conquer and oversee potentially rebellious populations.
While the arsenal of Inca weapons, comprising slings, clubs, and lances, was not
extensive by fifteenth- and sixteenth-century European standards, it appears
nonetheless to have been adequate to subdue even the most recalcitrant of
Andean opponents. It was not until the Incas faced the Spanish conquistadors,
with their steel swords and guns, that their weapons proved woefully inadequate.
Beyond acts of conquest and the waging of war against resistant and rebellious
populations, the Incas have long been recognized for their highly efficient
system of administration. It was this administration, built around a number of
highly effective institutions, that appears to have had the greatest influence in the
establishment and maintenance of Inca power across the empire. We can,
however, only cover some of the principles and institutions of Inca governance.
Some of these are highlighted below, and many more are detailed in the various
encyclopedia entries.
Principal among Inca institutions and practices of governance were dualism,
hierarchy, ancestor worship, reverence for the divinity of the Inca lineage, the
recognition of kin groups known as ayllus, and the worship of weather and