Inca Mita Labor System

Timeline

1. c. 1200–1400Ayllus (communities) of the Cuzco Valley · CuzcoBefore the rise of the Inca, Andean communities already had a tradition of taking turns performing public labor organized by ayllu units, providing the social foundation for the imperial mita system.
2. 1401–1410Cuzco and surrounding subject regions · Cuzco RegionBetween roughly 1401 and 1410, as the kingdom expanded into its surroundings, the center began unified registration of each community's labor quota, record-keeping with quipus, and extension of rotation obligations to newly subject peoples, initially forming the mita system.
3. c. 1450–1532Throughout the Inca Empire · Inca EmpireAt the empire's height, the mita covered road building, terrace maintenance, silver mining (such as the precursor of Potosí), and replenishment of the standing army, forming a labor dispatch network centered on Cuzco.
4. 1570–1824Viceroyalty of Peru (Potosí silver mines, etc.) · PotosíSpanish colonial authorities transformed the mita into compulsory mining labor, greatly increasing the burden and causing a sharp population decline, until it was formally abolished after independence.