Chapter

12, Part 2
The Inca

South America Map

1) Argen4na
Buenos Aires

2) Bolivia
Sucre
La Paz

3) Brazil
Brasilia
Rio de Janeiro
Sao Paulo

4) Chile
San4ago

5) Colombia
Bogota
Cartagena

6) Ecuador
Quito

7) Paraguay
Asuncion
8) Peru
Lima
Cusco

9) Venezuela
Caracas

10) Uruguay
Montevideo

11) Guyana, 12)
Suriname, 13) French
Guyana, 14) Falkland
Islands

South America Map

1) Argen4na
Buenos Aires

2) Bolivia
Sucre
La Paz

3) Brazil
Brasilia
Rio de Janeiro
Sao Paulo

4) Chile
San4ago

5) Colombia
Bogota
Cartagena

6) Ecuador
Quito

7) Paraguay
Asuncion
8) Peru
Lima
Cusco

9) Venezuela
Caracas

10) Uruguay
Montevideo

11) Guyana, 12)
Suriname, 13) French
Guyana, 14) Falkland
Islands

Geography of a Mountain Empire

The Inca lived in the Andes Mountain in what is today
Peru.
The Inca capital was Cuzco, which is located 11,000
feet above sea level.
Quechua was the language of the Inca, and in
Quechua Cuzco means center.
In 1438, Pachacu7 (pah-chah-koo-tee) became the
ruler of the Inca, which conquered Peru and the
surrounding lands.
By 1500, the Inca governed an empire that extended
2,500 miles along the west coast of South America.
The Inca empire included parts of what is now
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and
Argen4na.

WATCH Travel to Lima and Cusco by Expedia

Governing the Empire

Unlike the Valley of Mexico, the Andes Mountains
did not have loca4ons or enough farmland for large
ci4es.

Machu Picchu never had more than 1,000 people,
and Cuzco had only about 25,000.
The total popula4on of the Cuzco Valley was about
100,000.
People in the Inca Empire had to learn to speak
Quechua and worship the Inca gods.
The Inca used terrace farming and built irriga4on
systems to grow corn, potatoes, and animals
because they lived in areas with steep mountains.
Since the Andes Mountain were at a high eleva4on
and cold climate the Inca raised llamas and alpacas.
WATCH Travel to Machu Picchu by Expedia

Daily Life in the Empire

Inca built more than 14,000 miles of roads
across the Inca empire.

Runners called chasquis carried messages up
and down the Inca empire.
To repair the roads the Incan government
required its subjects to perform a number of
days of labor each year.
The Inca had an economy that did not have
money. The Inca economy was based on the
exchange of goods and services.
Trade was limited to the harvest season and
local. Any trade between regions was
controlled by the emperor.

WATCH Inca Roads

Incan Society
Inca society had 2 main groups.
1) Nobles ran the government and controlled the
army.
2) Commoners were farmers, shermen, and
soldiers.
In Inca society, most people stayed in the class
they were born in for life.
The Inca did not have a system of wri4ng, but
used a coun4ng tool called quipu to keep
records.

The Inca government regulated who would farm,
who would trade goods, who would be soldiers,
and who could marry.

WATCH Sacred Valley

Incan Beliefs
Inca believed the emperors were divine. The
Inca believed their rst emperor was born from
Lake Ti4caca and the son of In4, the god of the
sun.
The Inca society was based on agriculture, and
believed the sun was the source of life.
The priests would perform daily prayers and
rituals, such as animal sacrices for a good
harvest.
To the Inca human sacrices were rare.
Before making important decisions, the emperor
would have priests perform special rituals they
believed would help priests read the future.
WATCH Mankind Rise of the Inca

The Inca Fall to the Spanish

A leader named Atahualpa (ah-tuh-wahl-puh)
became the Incan emperor acer defea4ng his
brother in civil war.
In 1532, as the Incan civil war was ending
Francisco Pizarro arrived in South America.
During a mee4ng between the Inca and Spanish,
Atahualpa was taken prisoner. Pizarro later had
Atahualpa executed.
By 1535, the Spanish conquered most of the
Incan lands, enslaved many, and millions of Inca
died of diseases from Europeans.
The last Incan ruler (Tupac Amaru) was defeated
in 1572.
WATCH Francisco Pizarro History Channel