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How did the Inca organize the population into units for labor and military service?

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Map showing principal sites of Meso-American civilization, with the Mayan zone of influence shaded in green across southeastern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The map highlights major Mayan, Aztec, and other ancient sites, as well as the extent of the Aztec Empire in central Mexico, using color-coded symbols and labels for notable cities and archaeological locations. — Pre-Columbian civilizations Principal sites of Mesoamerican civilization.

The Inca organized their population into a hierarchical decimal system to manage labor assignments and military conscription. This administrative structure classified the adult male population into units of 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000, and 10,000 households.12

Under this system, the peasantry fulfilled their obligations through the mit’a system, providing their energy for state purposes rather than paying tribute in kind. Led by their traditional ethnic lords, people appeared for these duties lineage by lineage. These labor obligations included:1

Public Works: Constructing infrastructure and maintaining the Inca highway system.13
Agricultural Labor: Cultivating grain for state use, such as the large-scale production of corn in the Cochabamba Valley.1
Military Service: Serving as soldiers under the command of their traditional leaders.1

While the decimal vocabulary was used to rationalize and organize these diverse groups, the Inca also employed forced resettlement, or mitma, to break up the power of ethnic groups and ensure loyalty to the state. Local governors were responsible for overseeing these labor taxes, which were recorded by professional accountants using quipu.431