Inca Empire

The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts , was the largest empire in <a href="/facts/Pre-Columbian_America/0Ntjleee">pre-Columbian America</a>. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of <a href="/facts/Cusco/HqTv3bmJ">Cusco</a>. The <a href="/facts/History_of_the_Incas/64y5ng1I">Inca civilisation</a> rose from the <a href="/facts/Peru/dBt7XrYD">Peruvian</a> highlands sometime in the early <a href="/facts/13th_century/jy6f2sBL">13th century</a>. The Portuguese explorer <a href="/facts/Aleixo_Garcia/l7BdNvWj">Aleixo Garcia</a> was the first European to reach the Inca Empire in 1524. Later, in 1532, the <a href="/facts/Spanish_Empire/RaWWgnQS">Spanish</a> began the conquest of the Inca Empire, and by 1572 <a href="/facts/Neo-Inca_State/vUKhsqFj">the last Inca state</a> was fully conquered.
From 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large portion of western <a href="/facts/South_America/PhrFEMk7">South America</a>, centered on the <a href="/facts/Andes/a4wlgG3e">Andean</a> Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. At its largest, the empire joined modern-day <a href="/facts/Peru/dBt7XrYD">Peru</a> with what are now western <a href="/facts/Ecuador/Tdv7czY4">Ecuador</a>, western and south-central <a href="/facts/Bolivia/YNBoDKKR">Bolivia</a>, northwest <a href="/facts/Argentina/aFSA5bAk">Argentina</a>, the southwesternmost tip of <a href="/facts/Colombia/nl7r8Q2u">Colombia</a> and <a href="/facts/Incas_in_Central_Chile/JW8RQRpV">a large portion</a> of modern-day <a href="/facts/Chile/uEyTfEcx">Chile</a>, forming a state comparable to the historical empires of <a href="/facts/Eurasia/KlLI9GDM">Eurasia</a>. Its official language was <a href="/facts/Classical_Quechua/19qqHJVq">Quechua</a>.
The Inca Empire was unique in that it lacked many of the features associated with civilization in the <a href="/facts/Old_World/jt02swyQ">Old World</a>. <a href="/facts/Anthropologist/CboLlQq5">Anthropologist</a> Gordon McEwan wrote that the Incas were able to construct "one of the greatest imperial states in human history" without the use of the wheel, draft animals, knowledge of iron or steel, or even a system of writing. Notable features of the Inca Empire included its monumental <a href="/facts/Inca_architecture/vP5IL59U">architecture</a>, especially stonework, extensive road network (<a href="/facts/Qhapaq_%C3%91an/TFWRIXoL">Qhapaq Ñan</a>) reaching all corners of the empire, finely-woven <a href="/facts/Andean_textiles/kxwPxYWC">textiles</a>, use of knotted strings (<a href="/facts/Quipu/stJkKV9v">quipu</a> or khipu) for record keeping and communication, agricultural innovations and production in a difficult environment, and the organization and management fostered or imposed on its people and their labor.
The Inca Empire functioned largely without money and without markets. Instead, exchange of goods and services was based on <a href="/facts/Reciprocity_(cultural_anthropology)/rgfL5kJg">reciprocity</a> between individuals and among individuals, groups, and Inca rulers. "Taxes" consisted of a labour obligation of a person to the Empire. The Inca rulers (who theoretically owned all the means of production) reciprocated by granting access to land and goods and providing food and drink in celebratory feasts for their subjects.
Many local forms of worship persisted in the empire, most of them concerning local sacred <a href="/facts/Huaca/tEQ5WN81">huacas</a> or wak'a, but the Inca leadership encouraged the <a href="/facts/Solar_deity/Q2CS3IHN">sun worship</a> of <a href="/facts/Inti/NPaUaUle">Inti</a> – their sun god – and imposed its sovereignty above other religious groups, such as that of <a href="/facts/Pachamama/r81wNrtJ">Pachamama</a>. The Incas considered their king, the <a href="/facts/Sapa_Inca/3wWzUPkx">Sapa Inca</a>, to be the "son of the Sun".
The Inca economy, especially in the past, was often the subject of scholarly debate. Darrell E. La Lone, in his work The Inca as a Nonmarket Economy, noted that scholars have previously described it as "feudal, slave, [or] socialist", as well as "a system based on reciprocity and redistribution; a system with markets and commerce; or an <a href="/facts/Asiatic_mode_of_production/yW3Monok">Asiatic mode of production</a>."

Inca Empire open-in-new

Inca Empire