Inka Empire Flashcards
Coya
wife of the Inca king. In later times, she was required to be his full sister.
Chasqui
messengers that were sent by road throughout the Inca empire to relay information. They would often carry quipus.
Sapa Inca
“Sole” Inca, i.e., the supreme Inca leader, or emperor.
Mita
a form of labor tax required in the Inca empire. Labor projects would be construction of roads, houses, and military service.
Panaca
consists of all the wives, children, and descendants of a Inca emperor, except the current Inca emperor. They will care for the royal mummy and often create original songs about their ancestors to bring them joy and glory.
Ayullu
a group of related individuals and family, who exchange labor and cooperate in ritual and subsistence activities. It is the basic socio-economic unit of Andean society.
Cumbi
The finest grade of cloth, a fine fabric (alpaca, vicuna) made for the nobles of the Inca empire.
Huaca
a place or object invested with sacred power. Huacas could be a certain mountain, cave, or a temple.
Quipu
a knotted cord used in Inca accounting. Specific placement of knots, and variety in colors and lengths carried the numerical meaning and kind of goods.
Coricancha
The most important temple in Cuzco. It was called the Temple of the Sun.
Puna
In the Andes an environmental zone lying above 11,500 feet altitude. Typically a puna can be described as a grassland found in the Andes mountains that lacks trees.
Amautas
Teachers at the Inca school for young men in Cuzco. Also any wise man.
Acllaconas
The Chosen Women. a special class of workers who made cloth, beer, and other products for the empire.
Council of Indies
supreme governing body of Spain’s colonies in America (1524–1834). Composed of between 6 and 10 councillors appointed by the king, the council prepared and issued all legislation governing the colonies in the king’s name, approved all important acts and expenditures by colonial officials, and acted as a court of last resort in civil suits appealed from colonial courts. (Taken from Britannica website).
The flota (“Fleet”) in the Carrera de Indias (“the Indies run”)
the trading fleet intended to sail annually from Spain to New Spain (Mexico) and back for most of the colonial period.
The Spanish Main
Refers to the coastlines and mainlands the Spanish controlled. The area would be from the Gulf of Mexico to the coast of Venezuela. They named this area The Spanish Main to distinguish it from the Caribbean islands also known as The West Indies.
Galeones in the Carrera de Indias
for most of the colonial era, the trading fleet intended to sail annually from Spain to the Caribbean side of the Isthmus of Panama carrying goods for the west coast of South America, and returning goods from there to Spain.
Caste system, Castas
a social hierarchy encoded in law and based on inherited characteristics, real or imagined. Latin America’s caste system corresponded more or less to what we call race.
Encomienda
an institution whereby groups of indigenous people were “entrusted” to a Spanish conqueror for the duty of paying him labor and/or tribute. In return the holder of the encomienda (the encomendero) was to provide instruction in the Christian religion.
Norte Chico or Caral-Supe
the most ancient Peruvian pyramid city and dates back from the same time period as the ancient Egyptian civilization.
Tahuantinsuyu
the Quechua name for the fourfold Incan empire.
Viceroy
a ruler in place of the king. A viceroy rules over a viceroyalty
Maroons
Enslaved Africans who had freed themselves and escaped into the backcountry and selvas (jungles) of South America.
Palenque
runaway black community, sometimes fortified
Conversos
Jews who converted to Roman Catholicism in Spain.
Marranos
a label for Jewish conversos suspected of continuing to practice Judaism in secret. Marranos signifies pigs.
Ladinos
the Jewish population of Medieval Spain and Portugal who developed a Judeo-Spanish, or Ladino, language that mixes Spanish and Hebrew.
Quilombo
a settlement where escaped slaves lived outside of Brazilian slave owners’ control.
Criollo
a person of Spanish descent born in the New World.
Viracocha
creator god of Inca
Pampas
fertile and well-watered grasslands of Argentina. It was a region that was similar to the llanos of Venezuela and Colombia.
Encomendero
This was the title of the conquistador “entrusted with” an encomienda.
Corregidor
Were administrators of villages and cities in the Americas appointed by the Spanish crown.
Audiencia
regional court of appeal, and administrative tribunal, in colonial Spanish America.
Ejido
common lands belonging to a town or village (used in Mexico).
Pedro Alvares Cabral: The Portuguese captain who (somehow) landed in Brazil on his way to India via Africa in 1500, just 7 years after Columbus’s first voyage to the Caribbean.
Viceroyalty
the largest administrative subdivision of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires in America, ruled by a viceroy who acted in place of the king.
Bandeirantes
“pathfinders” of the interior of Brazil, pursuing Native American slaves and precious metals, and active mainly in the seventeenth century.
Cacique
Native American leader, applied to native leaders of all levels on the mainland.
Carrera de Indias
the “Indies run,” or shipping of goods to and fro between Spain and America in the officially permitted flotas and galeones.
Casa de Contratación, (“House of Commerce”)
central trading house and procurement agency for Spain’s New World empire from the 16th to the 18th century. Organized in 1503 by Queen Isabella in Sevilla (Seville); it became an instrument of the Spanish crown’s policy of centralization and imperial control. (From Britannica website)
