Inca Empire

The Inca Empire, called Tawantinsuyu by its people, was the largest empire of pre-Columbian America. It began as a small kingdom around Cusco, in the Andes of what is now Peru, and expanded rapidly from about 1438 under the ruler Pachacuti and his successors, reaching from Ecuador to central Chile. The Inca ruled without writing, using knotted cords called quipu for records, and linked their lands with an extensive road system and storehouses. They built stone cities such as Machu Picchu with great precision. A civil war between the brothers Huascar and Atahualpa, along with disease brought by Europeans, weakened the empire before Francisco Pizarro captured Atahualpa in 1532 and the Spanish conquered it by 1533.

Open on the timeline