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SubscribeThe Inca Empire or Tahuantinsuyu
This map is part of a series of 5 animated maps showing the history of Pre-Columbian or Pre-Hispanic civilizations.
The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Hispanic America. Its distant origins date back to the late 12th century, when Manco Cápac, the first Inca ruler and probably a mythical figure, founded the kingdom of Cusco guided by Inti, the sun god.
The territory of this small kingdom remained limited to the surroundings of the city of Cusco until the 1430s, when the Incas began extending their domination over the different peoples of the valley. Their victory over the powerful Chancas was mythologized by the Incas to present their territorial expansion as a providential event.
Around 1438, the kingdom of Cusco was transformed into an empire and Pachacútec, its new supreme ruler, became the Inca. He undertook the conquest of the Altiplano and unified this region, which had previously been divided among many Aymara kingdoms.
In the following decades, Túpac Yupanqui, Pachacútec’s son, considerably enlarged the empire with the conquest of Cajamarca and then the wealthy and powerful Chimú kingdom in the north.
After 1470, expansion proceeded along the southern coast of Peru, toward the southern Andes as far as the center of present-day Chile and toward the Amazon rainforest, where it encountered resistance from local populations.
In 1493, his son Huayna Cápac extended Inca expansion further north, into the region of present-day Ecuador. The need to protect this frontier explains the transfer of the court from Cusco to Quito.
The empire reached its greatest extent and encompassed very diverse ecosystems.
It was called Tahuantinsuyu because it was divided into four large regions, or suyus: Antisuyu, Chinchaysuyu, Contisuyu, and Collasuyu, which met at the center of the empire in Cusco.
In order to connect the capital to these four regions and link spaces separated by great distances, the empire developed a road system known as the Qhapaq Ñan.
Along these roads, tambos and colcas formed a network of inns and storehouses that served to accommodate messengers and imperial officials in transit and to store food, coca, silver, and weapons for supplying moving armies as well as nearby villages during periods of poor harvests.
The roads were paved, equipped with drainage canals along the sides, and sometimes lined with walls. Suspension bridges, stairways, and tunnels were built to overcome natural obstacles of the Andes mountains.
The extraordinary Andean ability to adapt to the environment was demonstrated through the use of agricultural techniques suited to difficult geography, such as terraced farming and hydraulic works designed to control water.
These achievements were made possible through compulsory labor services provided by the people to the state, known as the mita.
From 1520 onwards, the first epidemics introduced by the Europeans broke out. In 1527, Huayna Cápac died of smallpox and the war of succession between his two sons, Huáscar and Atahualpa, facilitated the Spanish conquest and the capture of Cusco by Francisco Pizarro in 1533.