Wanka

The Huanca or Wanka are a Quechua people of the Mantaro valley in the central Peruvian highlands, named for the Quechua word for the stone monoliths typical of the region.

Their late pre-Inca history included small farming villages in the Wanka I phase of 1000 to 1350 and fortified hilltop towns in Wanka II from 1350 to 1460. By the fifteenth century the valley was shared among five chiefdoms. Around 1460 the army of Túpac Yupanqui incorporated them into Tawantinsuyu, with an administrative centre at Hatun Xauxa.

During the Inca civil war the Huanca stayed loyal to Cusco and suffered Atahualpist reprisals. On Pizarro's arrival they joined the Spaniards, helping defeat the Atahualpist general Quizquiz and later serving the viceroyalty; over five hundred Huanca fighters marched against the rebel Girón in 1553. Their local kuraka dynasties survived under Spanish rule into the independence era.