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Part of the impetus for the growth of the Empire was a direct extension of the disbelief in death. Among

the Inca it was believed that the Empire was directly owned by the Emperor himself. Since the Emperor was to

own that land for life, even if the political order might be inherited by the next Emperor, the land was not (Conrad

123). So if an Emperor wanted any land to properly call his own, than it would be his responsibility to conquer

more to claim in his name (Conrad 125). That meant further negotiation, further consolidation, and further growth

of the Empire. And it was in this way that the tiny city of Cusco managed to conquer so much territory in so little

time.

The same period of growth in the Inca Empire was a period of political and religious strife in Renaissance

Europe. For centuries, the Catholic Church had been the dominant religious power throughout the European

Continent but unlike in the Andes, the Church’s religious authority only had a superficial influence on political

authority and more often than not the two institutions were in outright conflict with each other. The various

political orders kept Europe divided by nation, language, and culture, even if most of Europe did profess

adherence to the Catholic faith.

One nation in which the Catholic Church and the State closely converged was in Spain. In a somewhat

unique position to the rest of Europe (and certainly in stark contrast with the Andes), Spain was in no way

religiously united. A large minority of Jews, Muslims, and Celtic cults existed under the rule of the Catholic

monarchy (MacCormack 35). When the Reformation and Counter-Reformation movements rocked the European

religio-political order in the 16th century, the non-Catholic minorities in Spain began to suffer under the rule of

the Spanish Inquisition, but in the decades following Columbus’ Discovery of American in 1492, Spain was still a

religiously diverse nation, even if the political order was claiming Catholic benevolence.

Perhaps the strongest similarity between Andean Spirituality and 16th Century Catholicism is that both

attributed aspects of their social world to the direct intercessions of God. 16th Century Catholicism was full to the

brim with visions, apparitions and visitations of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. Every level of society

from king to peasant had experienced visitations and apparitions of holy figures in all walks of life, from a farmer

witnessing the Virgin Mary provide him water along a desert road to apparitions of Christ in Cathedrals across

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