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Learn The Inca Empire

An Andean empire run without markets or writing, connected by roads and knotted cords.

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The Inca Empire, which its people called Tawantinsuyu, the four parts together, grew from the Cusco valley into the largest state in the pre-Columbian Americas, stretching along the Andes from modern Ecuador to central Chile. Most of that expansion came in roughly a century, traditionally dated from Pachacuti's reign beginning around 1438. The Inca ran a vast road network, recorded information on knotted cords called khipu and organized labor through the mit'a. Learnr builds short lessons that cover Andean geography, Inca government and the Spanish invasion of 1532.

How to learn The Inca Empire, step by step

Start with Andean geography. Learn how the coast, the high Andes and the Amazon slopes produced very different crops, from potatoes and quinoa at altitude to maize and cotton lower down. The Inca state grew rich by linking these zones, an idea scholars call vertical control.
Know the cultures that came before. The Inca built on older Andean societies such as Chavín, Moche, Nazca, Wari, Tiwanaku and Chimú. Knowing them shows that terracing, road building and labor tribute were not Inca inventions, though the Inca organized them on a far larger scale.
Study how the empire ran without money. Instead of coins and markets, subjects owed labor through the mit'a, filling storehouses called qollqa and building the Qhapaq Ñan road system. Learn how this differs from European tax systems and how runners carried messages along the roads.
Investigate the khipu. Khipu used colored, knotted cords to record numbers in a base ten system, and they likely held other information too. Whether some encoded narrative or language is still debated, so study what Gary Urton and other researchers have and have not shown.
Read Andean and Spanish sources side by side. Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala's illustrated letter to the Spanish king, finished around 1615, and Garcilaso de la Vega's Royal Commentaries of 1609 give Andean perspectives. Compare them with Spanish chroniclers like Pedro Cieza de León and Juan de Betanzos.
Review rulers and sites daily. Rulers, places and Quechua terms are unfamiliar at first. Brief Learnr sessions each day help you recall Pachacuti, Huayna Capac, Atahualpa and Huáscar and where Cusco, Cajamarca and Machu Picchu sit on the map.

What you'll learn

Explain how the Inca expanded from Cusco and organized the four suyus
Describe the mit'a labor system, storehouses and the road network
Explain what khipu recorded and what remains unknown about them
Describe Inca religion, including the sun cult and the role of mummified rulers
Analyze how civil war, epidemic disease and Spanish invasion ended Inca rule

What's inside your The Inca Empire course

A sample path Learnr builds for The Inca Empire. Your real course adapts to your goal and level.

1. Andean geography and earlier cultures
2. Cusco and the rise of the Inca
3. Roads, labor and storehouses
4. Khipu, administration and religion
5. Huayna Capac and the civil war
6. Cajamarca, conquest and Vilcabamba

How long does it take to learn The Inca Empire?

An overview of Inca history and the conquest takes about 3 to 6 weeks at 3 hours a week. Adding Andean archaeology, the colonial era or the khipu research literature can stretch that to several months.

What you need before you start

None. A relief map of western South America is very helpful, and the course explains Quechua terms such as mit'a, ayllu and suyu when they first come up.

Common mistakes to avoid

Saying the Inca had no records because they had no alphabet. Khipu stored census, tribute and calendar data, and possibly more, in a system unlike European writing.
Crediting Pizarro's small force alone for the conquest. Epidemic disease, the war between Huáscar and Atahualpa and Indigenous allies all shaped the outcome.
Treating Inca rule as peaceful or utopian. The empire expanded through conquest and forced resettlement of whole communities, known as mitmaqkuna.

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The Inca Empire questions, answered

What did the Inca call their empire?

Tawantinsuyu, a Quechua name meaning roughly "the four parts together," referring to the four regions that met at Cusco. Inca, strictly speaking, was the title of the ruler and the ruling lineage.

Who built Machu Picchu and why?

It was built in the fifteenth century, most likely as a royal estate for Pachacuti. It was never found and destroyed by the Spanish, and Hiram Bingham publicized it internationally in 1911, though local farmers already knew it.

What is a good book on the Inca?

Terence D'Altroy's The Incas is a thorough scholarly survey. Kim MacQuarrie's The Last Days of the Incas is a readable narrative of the conquest and the Vilcabamba resistance that lasted until 1572.