The Llama, the Incas, Perú and the Andes
by Charles Young and Karl Klooster

The Inca Empire
(continued)

The Inca, while magnanimous to those who accepted his rule without resistance, was merciless, even brutally cruel to those who dared to defy him. With his own subjects, he was firm but just.

To conquer and control his empire the Inca commanded a powerful army, at its largest numbering 200,000 men. They were well organized, equipped and supplied by a sophisticated system of warehouses or "qollas" built as the army advanced and occupied more territory.

In a continual chain of supply and demand, the contents of each group of qollas were transferred on to the next. The Inca's army could scarcely have been better off it they were encamped at the edge of Cuzco.

One by one, they relentlessly subdued tribe after tribe. But, once having conquered, the Lord Inca then bestowed clemency upon the populace and sent teachers to their villages to impart the Inca methods, which improved their lives. Many of them became so loyal to the Inca they did willing service in his army.