The Incas :: Pre-Columbian History Culture

The IncasThe Inca were South American Indian people who ruled wholeness of the largest and richest empires in the Americas. The Inca Empire began to expand about 1438 and occupied a vast region that centered on the capital, Cusco, in southern Peru. The Empire extended more than than 2,500 miles (4,020 kilometers) along the western coast of South America. It included parts of Present - Day Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. The Inca Empire was conquered by Spanish Forces soon after their arrival in 1532. Inca emperors ruled their far - reaching territory through a complex political system. The Inca took over many areas by military force. Their political system unploughed a balance between the central authority of the emperor and local rulers. The name Inca was originally the title of the emperor. The peoples he governed had many names. But after the Spanish conquest, all people under the emperors rule were called the Inca. Inca is a group name which covers a la rge numbers of tribes. The original Incas were Quechua speakers who lived in South - Eastern Peruvian highlands. Tribes later conquered by the Incas tended to assimulate Inca culture, to the exclusion of their own. In the 15century, led by Pachacuti Inca Yupaqui and his son Topa Inca, the Inca Empire exploded over the Andes. Both leaders claimed to be descendents of the sun, the most consequential symbol in Inca religious life. When Topa Inca died in 1493 Pachacutis Andean domain ran nearly 2,500 miles from North Ecuador into Chile and covered some 350,000 square miles. The Incas are famous for their mixed gold work and elaborate weaving. For subsistence they relied on terraced and irrigated cultivation, and very little on hunting and fishing. In the mountain areas the main crop was quinoa, and in lower areas maize, beans, peanuts, and squash. They unbroken llamas, alpacas, dogs, guinea pigs, and dogs. Men worked copper and gold and women made fabrics and pots. Inca towns had mas sive public buildings. Most of their technological achievements were grand - scale copies of ideas from earlier civilizations. The skilful farmers who preceded the Inca, harnessing the melting snows of the Andes, turn over irrigation ditches across the desert they also deflected rivers for the same purpose. Nothing which the Minoans, Egyptians, and Sumerians did, agriculturally, equalled this achievement. They also demesticated animals. From the Native American camal the guanaco, they bred the llama and the alpaca for their wool, and guinea - pigs for food.