The Inca Empire

The Incas believed they had conquered the whole of the civilised world within their empire. The Incas called their empire “Tawantinsuyo”, meaning the “Four Quarters of the Earth together”, with Cuzco at its heart.

At its height, the Inca empire stretched for nearly 5,000 km down the Andean spine of South America: from southern Colombia in the north to central Chile in the south; and several hundred km across: from the Pacific Ocean in the west to Amazonia in the east.

Ruling over more than 10 million inhabitants, the Inca empire was the grandest ever witnessed in South America, and possibly the largest in all the pre-Hispanic Americas.

The scale of the Inca empire was particularly astonishing given it was accomplished in only three generations. Most of the Inca conquests are credited to Pachacuti Inca and his successor Topa Inca Yupanqui, with Pachacuti’s grandson Huayna Capac credited with consolidation of the empire and the final phases of expansion.

The Inca empire evolved uniquely from thousands of years of development in the high Andes, isolated from outside influences – a Bronze Age society surviving into the Renaissance.

As the Romans had done centuries before them, the Incas founded their empire on the achievements of earlier civilisations. Thus, the Incas incorporated into their empire the accumulated wisdom of more than 4,000 years of Andean development.

The Inca empire upheld a state religion and state-prescribed core beliefs that justified their supremacy, and directed and gave purpose to their lives. Inca rulers also manipulated history where it suited their purposes, for instance to assert their supremacy or that of one kindred line or another.

One of the greatest achievements of the Inca empire was the system of efficient administration it developed, particularly recognising that the Inca aristocracy ruled over a vast domain that comprised diverse subjects who outnumbered them by a hundred to one.

The Incas governed the heart of their empire directly. In remoter corners of the empire, they oversaw a hierarchy of caciques (local leaders).