Quechuan

The Quechuan group includes the Wanka, Chanka, Chincha and the Inka of Cusco. Quechua probably spread before the Incas, possibly with the Wari state, whose cities dominated the Peruvian highlands between about 500 and 1000.

In 1337 the Inka were a small chiefdom at Cusco. After Prince Cusi Yupanqui broke the Chanka siege in 1438 and took the name Pachacuti, they built Tawantinsuyu, which reached from Quito to central Chile. Pizarro's men seized Atahualpa in 1532, and Manco Inca's rump state at Vilcabamba fell in 1572. Quechua remained the common tongue of the Andes.