THE INCA EMPIRE AND THE CONQUEST

The Incas brought us one of the greatest empires in world’s history. They were able to expand their empire by conquering other tribes through methods of negotiation and the sharing of knowledge before attempting any wars or violence. The Inca territory encompassed the high mountains of the Andes, from Colombia down through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and parts of Chile and Argentina. They were able to cultivate enough food to support more than 10 million people.

When Pizarro and the Conquistadors discovered this beautiful land, with only 169 men loaded with weapons and horses were able to kill and destroy the Inca Empire and its people in the quest for gold, greed, power and fame. The Spaniards melted precious pieces of art, beautiful artifacts of great religious and ceremonial value made of gold and silver to be able to fit it into their ships.

The Indians were forced to work like slaves and the ones that did not convert to Catholicism were automatically killed. More than 6 million Peruvian Indians died in this process. The Spanish conquistadors successfully broke the spirit of the children of the sun through fear, domination and abuse. The Quipus, the Inca’s writing system which consisted of noted strings were burned and totally destroyed. Centuries of history and ancestral stories were taken away from the children that survived the “Conquista”.

In an effort to preserve the ancestral teachings and knowledge some lucky Inca high priests were able to escape to the high mountains of the Andes and survived in seclusion for centuries. The Quero nation, made their home at the bottom of the sacred mountain of Ausangate, 16,000 feet above sea level, keeping the teachings alive.

More than 500 hundred years have passed since the conquest of the Americas and the native Peruvian Indians are still frozen in time, as if nothing had change….. peasants working the land surrounded by nature and farm animals. They have kept part of their Inca lineage traditions within a catholic world, full of Christian festivities colored by Pachamama, nature and rainbows.

As the modern world arrives to towns and cities in the Andes, you can find more and more Internet cafes all over the place; computers, video games, cellular phones, as well as satellite TV affecting and reshaping culture. Cellular antennas are growing like trees fighting for space on top of sacred mountains polluting the environment.

Luckily most of the population cannot afford television in their homes because they don’t have the resources to pay for it and in most of their adobe houses there is no electricity.

If there is a place on earth where a Waldorf education can blossom it is in the highlands of Peru. The children are still not influenced by the media and advertisement, they are fertile ground for this beautiful education.