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Inca kings; there may have been more, but their names are forgotten According to Inca heritage, it was better to forget the name of a corrupt person or ruler than to remember that person at all To be forgotten was considered to be a terrible shame As an administrative center, Cuzco controlled an empire of approximately 350,000 square miles The streets of Cuzco were laid out according to a planned, geometric design There were carefully defined sections of the city The empire’s best masons were brought in to work on the imperial palaces Some of the stone blocks used to build the palaces were delicately cut pieces as long as 20 feet Ordinary houses, however, were made of adobe with a straw thatch Cuzco was thus a great center for government, religion, commerce, and military life Great wealth, both public and private, was apparent in Cuzco But the city was not without its problems Besides the threat of invasion from outside, many of its residents lived in decadence Drinking and addiction to coca were major problems There were no attempts to curb drunkenness on a social level As for the use of coca, its cultivation was restricted to a specific area Its use provided the user with great endurance, even without the use of food for nourishment As opposed to drinking, the Incas restricted the use of coca to those of the upper echelons of society The conquest of America at the hands of the Span- Cuzco (Peru) 99 ish is a story well known and documented In 1533, the conquistador Francisco Pizarro entered the city of Cuzco The city was swiftly conquered, and plundered The conquering Spanish then built up Cuzco as a colonial city, even to the point of using the foundations of the Inca buildings that were destroyed or damaged Cuzco remains a thriving town today It has good transportation access and a commercial base Cuzco was hit by a devastating earthquake in 1950, but the town was rebuilt, and most of the ancient buildings were restored See also Andean religion; Peru, conquest of Further reading: Brundage, Burr Cartwright Lords of Cuzco: A History and Description of the Inca People in their Final Days Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967; Burns, Kathryn Colonial Habits: Convents and the Spiritual Economy of Cuzco Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999; Dilke, Christopher, ed Letter to a King Dilke, NY: E P Dutton, 1978; Garrett, David T Shadows of Empire: The Indian Nobility of Cuzco Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005; Hyams, Edward, and George Ordish The Last of the Incas New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963; Keen, Benjamin A History of Latin America New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1996 M Newton-Matza
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