AP+Machu+Picchu+and+Huyanay+Picchu,+Inca+Empire,+Chilean+Communist+Party

= Inca Empire =

Gareth Farrell
Rising from the highlands of Peru in the early 13th, the Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The Inca referred to their empire as Tawantinsuyu, a term describing the union of its four provinces. Inka originally meant ruler or lord in the Inca’s language Quechua. The Spanish picked up the term and used it to describe all of the subjects. The Inca people started as a tribe that was situated in the Cuzco area. Cuzco eventually became the capital of the empire when, under the rule of expansionist leaders, the borders of the empire grew to include land in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. Perhaps the most well known thing about the empire is its fall. Taught to us at an early age, we all know of how the Spanish conquistadors came to the country to make it their own. Francisco Pizarro led the conquest, but despite the Inca Empire being weakened from the small pox and civil war, he was vastly outnumbered with only 168 men, one cannon, and 27 horses. To combat this, Pizarro recruited thousands of natives who were angry with the Inca’s who had taken control of their land. The Inca Empire finally fell when Pizarro had a meeting with the Inca ruler, Atahualpa, and after failing to convert him to Christianity due to the language barrier took him hostage and eventually killed him.

"Inca Empire." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 Jan. 2011. "Inca Empire." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 10 Jan. 2011.

Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu Chris LaRose

Machu Picchu is an ancient city and perhaps the most recognizable icon of the Inca civilization. Legends and myths indicate that the city may have been erected several years before the Inca began to use in the site in the 1400s. It is placed atop Huayna Picchu in Peru around the Urubamba River. Often referred to as the “Lost City of the Incas,” it was only rediscovered recently, in 1911, by American historian Hiram Bingham. One of the most peculiar aspects of the ancient city is its phenomenal architectural precision. “Many of the building blocks weigh 50 tons or more yet are so precisely sculpted and fitted together with such exactitude that the mortarless joints will not permit the insertion of even a thin knife blade” (“Machu Picchu”). This accuracy is a testament of technical ability of the Inca, certainly unfit for the era. Additionally, these precise alignments indicate to some extent the importance of the city to the Inca. It spans an area of only five square miles, leading many to conclude that it was used primarily for ceremonies. When considering other factors such as its relative isolation, some speculate that it was likely a retreat for Inca rulers. Meghan A. Porter at Minnesota State University concludes, “The city has an altitude of 8,000 feet, and is high above the Urubamba River canyon cloud forest, so it likely did not have any administrative, military or commercial use.” For these reasons, it is unlikely that many people lived in the ancient city. In fact, many scholars estimate that only around 1,200 women, children, and priests lived there, further indicating the possibility of the city being a retreat for rulers. Ultimately, the city’s fate followed that of its Empire. Fifty percent of the population had been killed by smallpox by 1527. As the government began to fall, civil war emerged, and Machu Picchu was already uninhabited by the time of Francisco Pizarro’s European conquest in 1532.  “Machu Picchu”. //Sacred Sites// . Magic Planet Productions. Web. 6 Jan. 2010. Porter, Meghan A. “Machu Picchu”. //EMuseum.//  Minnesota State University, 8 Apr. 2008. Web. 6 Jan. 2010.

The Chilean Communist Party  - Au$tin Kromminga 

The Chilean Communist Party is a Chilean political party inspired by the thoughts of Karl Marx and Lenin. It was found ed in 1922, as a result of the Socialist Workers Party. It played a leading role in the development of the Chilean labor movement, which essentially became a political party in and of itself. Closely tied to the Soviet Union and the Third International, the Chilean Communist Party participated in the Popular Front government of 1938, growing rapidly among the unionized working class in the 1940s. It then participated in the Popular Front's successor, the Democratic Alliance. Concern over the PCCh's (Chilean Communist Party ya abbreviations!) success at building a strong electoral base, combined with the onset of the Cold War, led to its being outlawed in 1948 by a Radical government, a status it had to endure for almost a decade until 1958 when it was again legalized. By the 1960s, the party had become a veritable political subculture, with its own symbols and organizations and the support of prominent artists and intellectuals such as Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize-winning poet. At the time (1960s), the U.S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 27 500. It later came to power along with the Socialist Party in the Unidad Popular ("Popular Unity") coalition in 1970. The party was outlawed after the 1973 coup d'état that deposed President Salvador Allende. Much of the Communist leadership went underground, and for a while the party's moderation continued even after the coup had taken place. Around 1977, the party changed direction. Communist Party members set up a guerrilla organization, the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front. With the restoration of democracy and the election of a new president in 1990, the Communist Party of Chile was legalized again. In the 1999/2000 presidential elections the party supported Gladys Marín Millie for the national presidential elections. She won 3.2% of the vote in the first round. At the last legislative elections, 11 December 2005, the party won 5.1% of the popular vote, but as a result of Chile's binomial electoral rules, no seats.
 * Works Cited (Websites)
 * http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-2511.html
 * http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/Communist+Party+of+Chile?cx=partner-pub-0939450753529744%3Av0qd01-tdlq&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=Communist+Party+of+Chile&sa=Search#870