About 600 years ago, the Incas built an empire. It stretched 2,500 miles down the coast of South America. It held over 12 million subjects. This was an amazing achievement. And they did it all without horses, the wheel, or even a written language.
The Inca empire began expanding in the early 1400s. Before that, the Incas lived in or near Cuzco, their capital city. Cuzco is in what is now Peru. The empire was at its height in 1532. At that time, it covered most of Peru and much of Chile. It also covered parts of Ecuador, Bolivia, and Argentina. The empire included coastal and desert regions, rain forests, and parts of the Andes, the world’s second-highest mountain range. What explains the rise of the Incas and their success as empire builders? How did they hold on to their empire? How did they lose it? Let’s step back through the centuries and find out.
