Incas
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Renaissance Resaerch on IncaINCA
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INCA (Quechua inka, "king" or "prince"), name applied by the Spanish to a Quechuan-speaking Indian people who established an extensive Andean empire in South America shortly before the conquest of the New World by Europeans. The name also applies to each supreme ruler of that empire and, broadly, to all subject peoples of the Incan Empire. See QUECHUA.
The Inca were originally a small warlike tribe inhabiting the south highland region of the Cordillera Central in Peru. About AD 1100 they began to move into the valley of Cuzco, where, for roughly the next 300 years, they raided and, whenever possible, imposed tribute on neighboring peoples. Until the middle of the 15th century, however, the Inca undertook no major imperialistic expansion or political consolidation, their farthest advance prior to this time apparently being southward about 32 km (about 20 mi) from Cuzco in the reign of the sixth ruler, Inca Roca (fl. late 14th cent.).
The first Inca to undertake a truly imperialist campaign was the eighth ruler, Viracocha Inca (fl. early 15th cent.), who, late in his reign, extended the empire about 40 km (about 25 mi) around Cuzco. Thereafter, in a period of about 30 years, the Incan domain was systematically enlarged and unified more than a thousandfold by two remarkable men. The first was Viracocha’s son, Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui (c. 1391–1471), ranked by some historians with the greatest conquerors and rulers of all time; the second was Pachacuti’s equally capable son, Topa Inca Yupanqui (c. 1420–93). The empire reached its greatest extent, however, in the reign (c. 1493–1525) of Topa’s son, Huayna Capac. At this time Inca controlled territory stretched more than 3023 km (more than 2500 mi) north to south; from east to west it extended about 805 km (about 500 mi); and it encompassed an area roughly equal in size to the present-day Atlantic Coast states of the U.S. Scholars estimate that between 3.5 million to 16