one-seventh of the male inhabitants, newly arrived in their
reducciones , were required to work in the mines at PotosÃ.
The Potosà mita endured throughout the entire colonial
period and was abolished only in 1825. Map 1 shows the
catchment area of the mita superimposed on the extent of
the Inca empire at the time of the Spanish conquest. It
illustrates the extent to which the mita overlapped with the
heartland of the empire, encompassing the capital Cusco.