Mita (Inca)
Mita (from the Quechua "work shift work," even "season" in Southern Quechua mit'a ) to was Inca a system of tribute performance through work, the later of the Spanish in the Viceroyalty of Peru was continued in intensified form.
The service providers were called Mitayuq (Quechua, "have the shift", Hispanic mitayo ).
The Mita was a compulsory public service in the Inca period and probably even before that. The Inca needed the Mita for major projects such as building roads and military service. Idols of the conquered peoples were taken to Cusco , thus ensuring the performance of the Mita by the conquered . The Mitayuq did not receive any wages, but were merely fed by the state. To be distinguished from the Mita system are the resettlements ( mitma ) undertaken by the Inca , which served to secure Inca rule and to prevent resistance (Quechua for resettlers: mitmaq ).
The Spaniards first introduced the system for those indigenous people who did not belong to any encomienda . In fact, a significant part of the population was forced into the Mita from the villages. Although the system was formally strictly regulated, the labor force was exploited with great losses, especially in the mines, such as B. on the Silberberg in Potosí .
In the long term, the Mita proved to be an obstacle to development, as it offered no incentive to increase one's own productivity through personal initiative : The result would only have been of use to the mine owner. The American political scientists Daron Acemoğlu and James A. Robinson explain the differences in development in the Peruvian provinces of Calca and Acomayo that are noticeable today: the Mita existed here, but not there.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Hanns J. Prem : History of ancient America. Oldenbourg, Munich, 2006, p. 81 f.
- ^ Hanns J. Prem: History of ancient America. Oldenbourg, Munich, 2006, p. 96 ff.
- ↑ Daron Acemoğlu and James A. Robinson: Why Nations Fail. The origins of power, wealth and poverty . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 38 ff.