Inca Empire Research Paper

The Inca were South American Indian people who ruled one of the largest and richest empires in the America's. 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 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 is a civilization long lived before in ancient Peru between C.1400 and 1533 CE. Inca had the largest empire on planet Earth. Approximately twelve million people lived there before the Spanish explorer Francisco Pizarro invaded the Incan empire in 1532-1572. This fight has lasted for forty until it came to an end and the spanish had won and the former Inca lands had been incorporated and turned in Viceroyalty of Peru.

Long distance trade fell under the supervision of the central government and administrator’s organized exchanges of the agricultural products. The Incas came up with their own writing system called quipu. Quipu consisted of an array of small cords of various and lengths, all suspended from large thick cord, unlike the Aztecs system which was just symbols. The Incan social structure was based upon hereditary aristocrats, consisting of rulers, priests, and peasant cultivators. Like the Aztecs the Incas performed bloodletting rituals, the sacrificial subject was just an animal instead of a human. The Incans considered the sun as a god and as their major deity, called Inti. They also recognized the moon, stars, planets, rain, and other natural forces as divine. Many of the differences between the Aztecs and the Incas benefited the two by becoming successful, striving, powerful regions.

The Inca Empire, the massive nation that extended 2,500 miles along the western coast of South America and had a population of over 7 million at its peak. It included all of what is now Ecuador and Peru and most of Chile. Known as “The Children of the Sun”, they excelled at craftsmanship, weaving, and culture (“Children of the Sun”). A very religious people, they worshiped the Sun as their supreme god and held religious festivals monthly to appease these gods. Although they did not value it aside from its beautiful appearance, the Inca Empire was home to millions of pounds of solid gold and silver. The Inca had no use for it except to use it to craft decorations and statues. In fact, an Inca citizen valued cloth more than they valued gold

Perhaps more than 12 million people contributed to the creation of sprawling cities, terraced farmlands, extended roadways, and golden palaces. The Inca empire covered nearly 2,500 miles and included regions of present-day Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Argentina. Although, like other native peoples throughout the Americas, they did not have their own written language or the use of the wheel, the Incas were extremely intelligent engineers. They built huge stone structures without mortar and designed suspension bridges that crossed deep mountain

During the 15th century, there were two leading empires of Mesoamerica. The Inca Empire, which was located in what is now Peru and the Aztecs, whose area was located in what is now Mexico. Both the Aztec and Inca empires were advanced civilizations with a good economy, agricultural developments, and religious practices that spread across the region of Mesoamerica.

The Incas Empire began around 1200 and lasted until the Spanish arrival in 1532. They were the largest civilization in pre-Columbia with a territory of 380,000 square miles and a population of about 7 million. Around 1400 the empire began its expansion stretching along the western coast of

In the 1400’s through the 1500”s there were the Aztec and Inca empires, both were empires that started out as marginalized peoples who conquered and absorbed other cultures. Aztec and Inca Empires were based on managing resources, goods, and people in an economy centered on intensive agriculture including having their currency systems. The economic characteristics of the Aztec and Inca empires were similar in that they both changed their environment to improve their agricultural system and they both focused on internal trade networks, however they differed in the way they taxed their people. The Aztecs were a triple alliance; three city states that banded together for the greater good. The joined civilizations were Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. The Incas were located around modern day Peru, and are known as the largest empire in the pre-Columbian America.

Within this extreme environmental variation, however, the geography of the Inca territory can be divided into three categories: the coast (costa), the mountainous region (sierra), and the eastern tropical region (selva) (Suarez and George 3). In these extreme variations of the physical climates and geography, the Incas knew how to adapt.

The most significant physical geographical factor that contributed to the development of the ancient South American society of the Incas was the Andes Mountains. The Inca Empire had villages and cities throughout the Andes Mountains. Some of these settlements were as low as sea level and their capital, Cusco, was at an altitude of 11,200 feet. The Andes are considered some of the longest and highest mountain ranges. In fact it’s tallest peak, Mount Aconcaqua, in Argentina, tops out at 22,841 feet (Zimmermann, 2013). Despite the fact that people were traversing mountains the people flourished creating trails, aqueducts and agricultural practices that still exist today.

The Inca Empire began in 1438 and was conquered in 1532. After the death of Huayna Capac, civil war erupted between his two sons over the succession of the throne. Eventually Atahualpa imprisoned his brother and consolidated his rule in Cuzco. Francisco Pizarro came face to face with each other. Atahualpa didn’t want a battle, however, they each had different worldviews. “In a surprise attack, the Spanish, with far superior weapons and the benefit of surprise, slaughtered the Inca entourage, captured Atahualpa, and held the Inca ruler hostage” (Seaman, R., 2014). After this, the Incas tried to resist, they Spanish were to strong and the Inca empire died out after the last Inca ruler, Tupac Amaru was captured and executed.

The Incas adopted a language called Quechuan which is still frequent in the Andes region today. The Aztec language was called Nahuatl. These were separate and distinct language, Quechuan belonging to the Andean-Equatorial Indian Language group while Nahuatl belonged to the Aztec-Tanoan group. The Incas did not develop a written or symbolic glyph system of the Quechuan language to record events but rather used the quipu, a mnemonic device of knotted cords. The Aztecs did develop a written version of Nahuatl in the form of glyph to record time and events. With regards to counting and measurement the Incas used a base ten system. The Aztec system of counting was based on units of twenty.

The title "Inca Empire" was given by the Spanish to a Quechuan-speaking Native American population that established a vast empire in the Andes Mountains of South America shortly before its conquest by Europeans. The ancestral roots of this empire began in the Cuzco valley of highland Peru around 1100 AD. The empire was relatively small until the imperialistic rule of emperor Pachacuti around 1438. Pachacuti began a systematic conquest of the surrounding cultures, eventually engulfing over a hundred different Indian nations within a 30-year period. This conquest gave rise to an empire that, at its zenith in the early 16th century; consisted of an estimated 10 million subjects living

The Incas were smart, had a lot of interests in gold and silver. A lot the clothing and buildings were outlined with mainly gold or silver to protect them from the harsh roads that they made. A lot the Incas buildings were covered in gold lining because of how much that loved and enjoy gold. Another thing about the Incas was that since they didn’t know how to write, they created a knot system to send messages across the empire. Since the empire was full of roads, some of the Incas fastest runners, ran across the roads to deliver the messages to the emperor or the general.

The Incas were first betrayed when Pizarro decided that he would invite whoever won the battle for emperor to his camp to "congratulate" him. A man, who won the challenge name, was Atahualpa. Atahualpa traveled to Pizarro's camp and was ambushed by a group of soldiers who attack him and his men. Pizarro knew that the Incas had large supplies of gold and silver, so he maliciously told the Incas that he would only release Atahualpa for a ransom of the metals and gold that would have been worth about $100 million in present times. Pizarro evil plot deceived the Incas for more than once throughout their history.