The Inca Empire was the most extraordinary in the civilizations of America, the one with more impulse and the most organized. Their domain embraced from the North equator to Central Chile; It had a lenght of 4.800 kilometers and a width of 460 kilometers. Their capital calls herself Cuzco that means "navel of the world in Quechua language", for the time of the arrival of the Spaniards it had 100.000 hab. and their main God was the Sun, called " Inti " (it was the given name for the second Peruvian currency).
The foundation of the Empire was attributed to Inca Manco Cápac in the XIII century. The last emperor was Atahualpa, executed by Pizarro in 1533 in the city of Cajamarca. Their invasion in that same year, and in the year of 1535 January 18 founded the city of Lima.
The Inca emperors could maintain and to develop their extensive domain, due to the concern for the well-being and the happiness of their citizens; it was not known the hunger neither the sharp injustices, of there that it has been denominated paternalistic, very
well organized Empire.
The Incan culture was the resultant of the coalition of three cultures that preceded it: the culture tiahuanaco (1000-1300 AC.)
from the region of the lake Titicaca (between Peru and Bolivia); the culture Nazca, of the southern area of the Peru;
and culture mochica-michú, of the northern coast.
Before that the Inca empire reached its maximun bright in America, many Andean cultures had prepared the land for its victory. These cultures didn't leave written testimony of their history and all that is known of them, comes from the study of their architecture, their ceramic and the remains found in their tombs. The archaeologists have identified different periods of development that culminated with the Inca. The first complex societies were formed B.C. toward the 1800. Between this time and the development of the Inca by the middle of the XV century, they arose diverse cultures that, little by little, they became highly organized civilizations, with social structures, political and economic systems, specialized artisans and a region in that many gods were adored.
Along the desert coast of Peru there were states civilized as the Nazca, the Mochica and the Chimúes. In the high lands, the Huaris and the Tihuanacos that were very
well organized cultures.
Between 1438 and 1534 all these elements met and they improved under the Inca empire.
From the isthmus of Panama, Francisco Pizarro and Diego Almagro had news of the wealth that they could take from the Inca territories. Pizarro returned to Spain to request capitulation to the Spanish Crown; and in 1531, with an expedition of 180 men and 37 horses it began the conquest of the Peru. The following year, the Spaniards had the first encounter with Atahualpa, maximum Inca authority, in the region of Cajamarca, who was captured and forced to gather all the treasures of their empire. In spite of having gathered the recompense, Atahualpa was judged and executed by the Spaniards.
After the execution of Atahualpa, the Spaniards named as maximum Inca authority to Inca Cripple who was managed by the Spaniards to their whim, until this it was revealed and with men's thousands it sieged the Spaniards that were in the city of Cuzco. But the arrival of new Spanish troops forced Cripple to escape toward the high mountains.
The Escape of Inca Cripple produced the fall of the Inca Empire and the beginning of the exclusive power of the Spaniards on this vast territory. Soon after, Pizarro founded the city of Lima, from where the Spanish rulers administered the extensive Andean region.
The Inca empire whose capital was Cuzco, extended for a great part of SouthAmerica in the XV century and first quarter of the XVI. The empire embraced about 4.000 Kms. for the western coast of SouthAmerica and deserts coastal, high mountains and areas of low jungle. It covered most of the modern Peru, part of Ecuador and Bolivia, the Northeast of Argentina and most of Chile.