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Inca Empire: A Visual History

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Visual history of an empire

The largest empire in the pre-Columbian Americas, built in a century without wheels, iron or writing, and destroyed by 168 Spaniards and a civil war.

Existed
1438 to 1533
Duration
95 years
Existed
1438 to 1533 (Vilcabamba to 1572)
Peak area
About 2 million km2 (1527)
Peak population
About 10 to 12 million
Capital
Cusco
Notable rulers
Pachacuti, Topa Inca, Huayna Capac, Atahualpa

The Inca Empire, Tawantinsuyu, expanded from Cusco under Pachacuti from about 1438 to rule some 12 million people along 4,000 km of the Andes from Colombia to Chile. It was held together by 40,000 km of roads, runners, storehouses, quipu knotted records, forced labour (mita) and resettlement of peoples. Smallpox killed the emperor Huayna Capac around 1527 and triggered a civil war between Atahualpa and Huascar; Francisco Pizarro captured Atahualpa at Cajamarca in 1532 and Cusco fell in 1533. A rump state at Vilcabamba resisted until 1572.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Inca Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

1400150016001700180019002000Inca Empire (1438 to 1533)Open: First Portuguese EmpireFirst Portuguese Empire (1415 to 1663)Open: Aztec EmpireAztec Empire (1428 to 1521)Open: Spanish EmpireSpanish Empire (1492 to 1976)Open: Spanish conquest of New GranadaSpanish conquest of New Granada (1525 to 1540)Open: Spanish conquest of the Inca EmpireSpanish conquest of the Inca Empire (1532 to 1572)Open: Rebellion of Tupac Amaru IIRebellion of Tupac Amaru II (1780 to 1783)

Inca territory

00.511.521438: 0.051471: 0.81493: 1.51527: 21533: 0.21572: 014401460148015001520154015601572million km2 (approximate)

Timeline of the Inca Empire

  1. 1438
    Pachacuti defeats the ChankaExpansion begins.
  2. 1471
    Topa Inca succeedsThe Chimu conquered.
  3. 1493
    Huayna CapacExpansion into Ecuador.
  4. 1527
    Smallpox kills Huayna Capac
  5. 1529
    Civil warAtahualpa v Huascar.
  6. 1532
    CajamarcaAtahualpa captured, 16 November.
  7. 1533
    Atahualpa executed; Cusco falls
  8. 1536
    Manco Inca's rebellion
  9. 1572
    Tupac Amaru executedVilcabamba falls.

Pachacuti

The Incas were one of many small Andean polities until Pachacuti, who repelled a Chanka attack on Cusco around 1438, rebuilt the city and conquered the highlands to Lake Titicaca. His son Topa Inca took the Chimu kingdom on the coast, and Huayna Capac pushed into Ecuador. Conquered peoples were incorporated through their lords, resettled if unruly, and made to worship the sun god Inti alongside their own gods.

How the empire worked

There was no money and no market economy; the state took labour and produce, stored surplus in vast warehouses and redistributed it. Roads with suspension bridges linked the four quarters; chasqui relay runners carried messages and fresh fish to Cusco. Quipus recorded censuses and tribute. Terraces, irrigation and freeze-dried potatoes fed millions at altitude. Machu Picchu was one of Pachacuti's royal estates.

Plague, civil war and conquest

Smallpox reached the Andes ahead of the Spaniards and killed Huayna Capac and his heir. His sons Huascar in Cusco and Atahualpa in Quito fought a devastating war that Atahualpa had just won when Pizarro's 168 men arrived in 1532. At Cajamarca they seized Atahualpa in an ambush that killed thousands; he filled a room with gold as ransom and was garrotted anyway in 1533. The Spaniards took Cusco with native allies; Manco Inca rebelled in 1536 and his successors held out at Vilcabamba until Tupac Amaru was executed in 1572.

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8 surprising things about the Inca Empire

  1. The Incas had no writing but kept detailed records on quipus, knotted cords whose full meaning is still not decoded.
  2. Atahualpa's ransom room, about 22 by 17 feet, was filled once with gold and twice with silver.
  3. Inca stonework fits so precisely that a knife blade cannot be inserted between blocks, and it has survived earthquakes that destroyed Spanish churches.
  4. The road network was longer than the Roman roads of Europe.
  5. The Incas kept mummies of dead emperors, who retained their palaces and estates and were consulted on decisions.
  6. Machu Picchu was never found by the Spanish and was brought to world attention by Hiram Bingham in 1911.
  7. The Inca army was mostly conscripted farmers with slings, clubs and bronze weapons; horses and steel gave the Spanish an overwhelming edge.
  8. Quechua, the empire's language, is still spoken by around 8 million people.

Sources

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