Inca

The Inca Empire arose from a highland kingdom centred on Cusco in Peru. In 1337, its rulers held a kingdom in the Andes, before the imperial expansion that united lands from present-day Ecuador to Chile.

From 1438 Pachacuti led Inca expansion through conquest and negotiation, linking their four regions by roads and recording affairs with knotted quipu. In 1532 Francisco Pizarro captured Atahualpa at Cajamarca; Spanish campaigns continued until the last Inca state fell in 1572.