Incas
The Inca civilisation originated from a tribe in the Cuzco area of Peru that was founded around the year of thirteenth century. The Incas were one of the largest, richest and most powerful empires before pre-Columbian America as their territory covered a massive 2,000,000 km (772,204 sq miles) at its peak. The Inca Empire crossed many boundaries as it conquered many countries and areas through a variety of means from conquest to peaceful assimilation, this lead to the Inca Empire gaining a large part of South America encompassing present day countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador and the area in which the Incas originated Peru. After each area had been conquered the Incas would take take control of the area by imposing their language and organizational skills to the people, this would be followed by building improvements to the area such as creating roads for the people to travel on, irrigation canals, stone buildings and fortresses made following the astonishing technologically advanced masonry techniques used by the Incas. The estimated population of the Inca Empire at its peak was around twenty million people with the official language being Quechua.
The Inca people were renowned for their art and one of their biggest accomplishments was their Architecture, for example the world heritage site of Machu Picchu displays the superb abilities of the builders due to the whole site being constructed without using any mortar. This meant that the whole structure had to be made to perfection with large stone blocks fitting together perfectly without any of the stones moving.
For More Information on Inca Art Please Click HereThe Inca civilization came to an end due to the Spanish conquistadores led by Francisco Pizarro (left). The factors involved in the Inca civilizations downfall were the great unrest in newly conquered Inca territories, smallpox and the in-fighting for the throne between Huascar and his half brother Atahualpa. This left the Empire weak and the Incans were tricked into a meeting with the Spanish conquistadors for a peaceful gathering that lead to Atahualpa being kidnapped and held for ransom. After paying over 50 million dollars in gold by today's standards Atahualpa was promised to be set free, however he was strangled to death and Pizarros army of 180 men, 27 horses and 1 cannon, Cuzco was conquered.
