'''इन्का साम्राज्य''' इसका अन्तिम प्रभुसत्ताक सम्राट अटाहुआल्पा था, जिसके स्पेनी पिज़्ज़ारो ने बन्दी बनाया और फिर उसे प्राणदण्ड दिया।
श्रेणी:साम्राज्य
==बाह्य==
thumb|left|इन्का विस्तार (1438-1527)
thumb|right|इन्का कुरता
*[http://www.antiquebooks.net/readpage.html#peru Conquest of Peru, Prescott, 1847] Full text, free to read and search, a definitive history of the Incas.  One of the most readable and engaging history books of all time.  Humankind lost a civilization of impressive societal value.
* [http://www.kellscraft.com/IncaLand/incalandscontents.html Inca Land] by Hiram Bingham (published 1912-1922 CE)
* [http://www.destination360.com/peru/machu-picchu.php Inca Artifacts, Peru, and Machu Picchu] 360 degree movies of inca artifacts and Peruvian landscapes.
* [http://www.lost-civilizations.net/ancient-civilizations.html Inca civilization] and other ancient civilizations by Genry Joil.
* [http://www.davideandrea.com/personal/ideas/inca_stones/index.html Inca stone cutting techniques]: theory on how the Inca walls fit so perfectly.
* [http://www.projectshum.org/Ancient/inca.html Ancient Civilizations - Inca] Great research site for kids.
* [http://www.nationalgeographic.com/mummy/index.html "Ice Treasures of the Inca" ] National Geographic site.
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/peru/ Incan Ice Mummies] NOVA site based on their series about the 1996 expedition that discovered Incan ice mummies.

eo:Inkaa imperio
es:Imperio Inca

qu:Tawantinsuyu
rmy:Thagaripen Inka

simple:Inca

{{Infobox Former Country
|native_name = Tawantinsuyu
|conventional_long_name = Inca Empire
|common_name = Inca Empire
|continent = South America
|region    = Andes
|country   = Peru
|era       = P-Columbian
|status    = Empire
|government_type = Monarchy
|date_pre    = 
|year_start = 1438
|year_end    = 1533
|event_pre   = 
|event_start = Pachacutec created the Twantinsuyu
|event_end   = Spanish conquest lead by Francisco Pizarro
|event1      = Civil war between Huascar and Atahualpa
|date_event1 = 1527-1532
|p1          = Kingdom of Cusco
|flag_p1 = Escudo-echenique3.gif
|s1          = Viceroyalty of Peru
|flag_s1 = Flag of New Spain.svg
|image_map    = Location Tawantin Suyu.png
|image_map_caption  = The Inca Empire at its greatest extent.
|capital          = Cusco <small><br>(1438-1533)</small>
|common_languages = Puquina, Jaqi family, Muchik and scores of smaller languages.
|religion         = Inca religion
|title_leader = Sapa Inca
|leader1      = Pachacutec
|leader2      = Tupac Yupanqui
|leader3      = Huayna Capac
|leader4      = Huascar
|leader5      = Atahualpa
|year_leader1 = 1438-1471
|year_leader2 = 1471-1493
|year_leader3 = 1493-1525
|year_leader4 = 1525-1532
|year_leader5 = 1532-1533
<!-- Area and population -->
|stat_year1  = 1438<ref>[http://www.k12.hi.us/~jowalton/inca.ppt The Inca Empire. Created by Katrina Namnama & Kathleen DeGuzman]</ref>
|stat_area1  = 800000
|stat_pop1   = 12000000
|stat_year2  = 1527
|stat_area2  = 2000000
|stat_pop2   = 20000000
|}}

The '''Inca Empire''' (or '''Inka Empire''') was the largest empire in Andean mountain ranges, including large parts of modern Ecuador, Peru, western and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, north and north-central Chile, and southern Colombia. The Incas identified their king as "child of the sun." 

The Quechua spelling reform it was written in Spanish as '''Tahuantinsuyo'''.  ''Tawantin'' is a group of four things (''tawa'' "four" with the suffix ''-ntin'' which names a group); ''suyu'' means "region" or "province". The empire was divided into four ''Suyus'', whose corners met at the capital, Cusco (''Qosqo''), in modern-day Peru. The official language of the empire was Quechua, although dozens if not hundreds of local languages were spoken. 

There were many local forms of worship, most of them concerning local sacred "Huacas", but the Inca leadership encouraged the worship of Inti &mdash; the sun god &mdash; and imposed its sovereignty above other cults such as that of Pachamama.<ref>[http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=inca The Inca - All Empires<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

== History==
=== Origin myths===

thumb|Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, sons of the [[Inti.]]
The Incas had various Manco and Ocllo, and Sinchi Roca led them to the valley of Cusco where they founded their new village. There Manco became their leader and became known as Manco Capac.<ref>Gary Urton, The History of a Myth: Pacariqtambo and the Origin of the Inkas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990).</ref>

In another origin myth, the sun god Hurin Cusco, or the first dynasty of the Kingdom of Cusco.

These myths were apparently transmitted via oral tradition until early Spanish colonists recorded them; however some scholars believe that they may have been recorded on quipus (Andean knotted string records).<ref>Gary Urton, Signs of the Inka Khipu: Binary Coding in the Andean Knotted-String Records (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003).</ref>

=== Kingdom of Cusco===

The Inca people began as a tribe in the Cusco area around the 12th century. Under the leadership of Manco Capac, they formed the small city-state of Cusco (Quechua ''Qusqu''), shown in red on the map.  In 1438 they began a far-reaching expansion under the command of Sapa Inca (paramount leader) Pachacuti, whose name literally meant "earth-shaker". During his reign, he and his son brought much of the Andes mountains (roughly modern Peru and Ecuador) under Inca control.

=== Reorganization and formation of the Empire ===
thumb|right|Inca expansion (1438–1527)
Pachacuti reorganized the kingdom of Cuzco into an empire, the federalist system which consisted of a central government with the Inca at its head and four provincial governments with strong leaders: Chinchasuyu (NW), Antisuyu (NE), Contisuyu (SW), and Collasuyu (SE).<ref>The three laws of Tawantinsuyu are still referred to in Bolivia these days as the three laws of the Kollasuyo.</ref> Pachacuti is also thought to have built Machu Picchu, either as a family home or as a summer retreat.

Pachacuti sent spies to regions he wanted in his empire; they brought reports on the political organization, military might and wealth. He would then send messages to the leaders of these lands extolling the benefits of joining his empire, offering them presents of luxury goods such as high quality textiles, and promising that they would be materially richer as subject rulers of the Inca. Most accepted the rule of the Inca as a ''fait accompli'' and acquiesced peacefully. The ruler's children would then be brought to Cuzco to be taught about Inca administration systems, then return to rule their native lands. This allowed the Inca to indoctrinate the former ruler's children into the Inca nobility, and, with luck, marry their daughters into families at various corners of the empire.

===Expansion and consolidation of the Tawantinsuyu===
It was traditional for the Inca's son to lead the army; Pachacuti's son Túpac Inca Yupanqui began conquests to the north in 1463, and continued them as Inca after Pachucuti's death in 1471.  His most important conquest was the Kingdom of Chimor, the Inca's only serious rival for the coast of Peru. Túpac Inca's empire stretched north into modern day Ecuador and Colombia. 

Túpac Inca's son Huayna Cápac added a small portion of land to the north in modern day Ecuador and in parts of Peru.<ref>The Incas and their Ancestors</ref>  At its height, Tahuantinsuyu included Peru and Bolivia, most of what is now Ecuador, a large portion of what is today Chile north of Maule River, where they met massive resistance by the Mapuche tribes. The empire also extended into corners of Argentina and Colombia. However, most of the southern portion of the Inca empire, the portion denominated as Collasuyu, was desert wasteland. 

Tahuantinsuyu was a patchwork of languages, cultures and peoples. The components of the empire were not all uniformly loyal, nor were the local cultures all fully integrated. The Inca empire as a whole had an economy based on exchange and taxation of luxury goods and labour  (it is said that Inca tax collectors would take the head lice of the lame and old as a symbolic tribute).

===Inca civil war and Spanish conquest===

thumb|right|[[Sacsayhuamán, the Inca stronghold of Cuzco]]
Spanish conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro and his brothers explored south from Panama, reaching Inca territory by 1526.  It was clear that they had reached a wealthy land with prospects of great treasure, and after one more expedition (1529), Pizarro traveled to Spain and received royal approval to conquer the region and be its viceroy.

At the time they returned to Peru, in 1532, a war of the two brothers between Huayna Capac's sons Huascar and Atahualpa and unrest among newly-conquered territories — and perhaps more importantly, smallpox, which had spread from Central America — had considerably weakened the empire. It was an unfortunate fact for the Inca that the Spaniards arrived at the height of a civil war, fueled almost certainly by the devastating diseases that preceded the European colonization.

draftees were sent to overwhelm opponents.  The Spaniards had developed one of the finest military machines in the premodern world, tactics learned in their centuries' long fight against Moorish kingdoms in Iberia.  Along with this tactical and material superiority, the Spaniards also had acquired tens of thousands of native allies who sought to end the Inca control of their territories.  This, combined with an audacious military attack by the Spaniards in Cajamarca, allowed them to capture the emperor and send the Inca elite into a huge and paralyzing political struggle.  Atahualpa ordered the death of his opponent, Huascar, and the Spaniards skillfully manipulated the various factions within the Inca state.  They also were able to continually increase their native allies and ultimately launched a successful attack on the capital city of Cuzco.  

Their first engagement was the Hernando de Soto was sent inland to explore the interior, and returned with an invitation to meet the Inca, Atahualpa, who had defeated his brother in the civil war and was resting at Cajamarca with his army of 80,000 troops.

Pizarro and some of his men, most notably a friar by the name of Vincente de Valverde met with the Inca, who had brought only a small retinue. Through an interpreter Friar Vincente demanded that he and his empire accept the yoke of King Charles I of Spain and convert to Christianity.  Due to the language barrier and perhaps poor interpretation, Atahualpa became somewhat puzzled by the friar's description of Christian faith and was said to have not fully understood the envoy's intentions. After Atahualpa attempted further enquiry into the doctrines of the Christian faith under which Pizarro's envoy served, the Spanish became frustrated and impatient, attacking the Inca's retinue (see Battle of Cajamarca) and capturing Atahualpa as hostage.

Atahualpa offered the Spaniards enough gold to fill the room he was imprisoned in, and twice that amount of silver.  The Inca fulfilled this ransom, but Pizarro deceived them, refusing to release the Inca afterwards.  During Atahualpa's imprisonment Huascar was assassinated elsewhere.  The Spaniards maintained that this was at Atahualpa's orders; this was used as one of the charges against Atahualpa when the Spaniards finally decided to put him to death, in August 1533.

=== The last Incas ===
thumb|right|A view of [[Machu Picchu, "the Lost City of the Incas".]]
The Spanish installed Atahualpa's brother Manco Inca Yupanqui in power; for some time Manco cooperated with the Spanish, while the Spanish fought to put down resistance in the north.  Meanwhile an associate of Pizarro's, Diego de Almagro, attempted to claim Cuzco for himself.  Manco tried to use this intra-Spanish feud to his advantage, recapturing Cuzco (1536), but the Spanish retook the city afterwards. Manco Inca then retreated to the mountains of Vilcabamba, Peru, where he and his successors ruled for another 36 years, sometimes raiding the Spanish or inciting revolts against them.  In 1572 the last Inca stronghold was conquered, and the last ruler, Túpac Amaru, Manco's son, was captured and executed. This ended resistance to the Spanish conquest under the political authority of the Inca state.

After the fall of Tahuantinsuyu, the new Spanish rulers brutally oppressed the people and suppressed their traditions. Many aspects of Inca culture were systematically destroyed, including their sophisticated farming system.  The Spaniards used the Inca mita (mandatory public service) system to literally work the people to death.  One member of each family was forced to work in the gold and silver mines, the foremost of which was the titanic silver mine at Potosí.  When a family member died, which would usually happen within a year or two, the family would be required to send a replacement.

The effects of Cuzco, Francisco Pizarro arrived and through a series of deceits captured the young leader and his best general. Within a few years smallpox claimed between 60% and 94% of the Inca population, with other waves of European disease weakening them further. Smallpox was only the first epidemic.<ref>[http://muweb.millersville.edu/~columbus/papers/orlow-e.html  Millersville University ''Silent Killers of the New World'']</ref>

Typhus (probably) in 1546, influenza and smallpox together in 1558, smallpox again in 1589, diphtheria in 1614, measles in 1618 - all ravaged the remains of Inca culture.

== Society ==

===Organization of the Empire===
thumb|right|The four ''suyus'' of the empire.The most powerful figure in the empire was the Yachay Wasis (houses of knowledge) to obtain their education.

The Tawantinsuyu was a federalist system which consisted of a central government with the Inca at its head and four provinces: mita (mandatory public service).

===Language===

''For more information look at Quechua''

Since the Inca Empire lacked a written language, the empire's main form of communication and recording came from quipus and Quechua, the language the Incas imposed upon the peoples within the empire. The plethora of civilizations in the Andean region provided for a general disunity that the Incas needed to subdue in order to maintain control, peace, and order within all of the empire. Hence, by establishing a uniform language, the Incas would be able to better achieve such a goal. Nonetheless, it should be noted that Quechua had been spoken in the Andean region, like central Peru, for several years prior to the expansion of the Inca civilization. Moreover, the type of Quechua the Incas imposed was an adaptation from the Kingdom of Cusco (an early form of "Southern Quechua") of what some historians define as "Proto-Quechua" (The original Quechua dialect). <ref>[http://www.macalester.edu/linguistics/endangered/Quechua/Quechua.htm Quechua*<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> <ref name="autogenerated1">[http://www.quechua.org.uk/Eng/Sounds/Quechua/QuechuaOriginsAndDiversity.htm Origins And Diversity of Quechua<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

As in many societies of the world, the language imposed by the Incas further diverted from its original phonetic tone as some societies formed their own regional varieties, or slang. Of course, the diversity of Quechua at that point and even today does not come as a direct result from the Incas, whom are just a part of the reason for Quechua's diversity. The civilizations within the empire that had previously spoken Quechua kept their own variety distinct to the Quechua the Incas spread. Although these many kinds of Quechua were in some form similar, they were not the exact same thing. Not only that, but even though most of the societies within the empire implemented Quechua into their lives, the Incas allowed several societies kept their old languages such as Aymara, which still remains a spoken language in various parts of South America. The linguistic body of the Tawantinsuyu was thus still largely varied,  but it still remains quite an achievement for the Incas that went even beyond their times as the Spanish continued to use the spread of Quechua as a method to impose their culture upon the peoples of South America (even though that further increased the diversity of the language).<ref name="autogenerated1" />

On the other hand, the actual "Inca," or ruling elite, their kind of Quechua tended to remain somewhat closer to the "early Southern Quechua" of the Kingdom of Cusco mainly due to the complex educational facilities the Tawantinsuyu offered them. This standardized governmental Quechua is what served as the backbone for the Tawantinsuyu, but it also differentiated the social status of the community. Moreover, some historians even discuss the possibility that the "secret language" of the ruling elite might have simply been another form of Quechua.<ref name="autogenerated1" />

===Life and beliefs===
right|thumb|Approximately 200 varieties of potatoes were cultivated by the Incas and their predecessors
The Inca diet consisted primarily of potatoes and grains, supplemented by fish, vegetables, nuts, and cuyes (guinea pigs) were also eaten in large quantities.  . In addition, they hunted various wild animals for meat, skins and feathers.  Maize was malted and used to make chicha, a fermented alcoholic beverage.  The Inca road system was key to farming success as it allowed distribution of foodstuffs over long distances. The Inca also constructed vast storehouses, which allowed them to live through El Niño years while neighboring civilizations suffered .

The Inca believed in reincarnation.<ref>http://www.netside.net/~manomed/inca.htm</ref> Those who obeyed the Incan moral code &mdash; ''ama suwa, ama llulla, ama quella'' (do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy) &mdash; "went to live in the Sun's warmth while others spent their eternal days in the cold earth" . The Inca also practiced cranial deformation.<ref>Burger, R.L. and L.C. Salazar. 2004. [http://books.google.com/books?id=bBHrWwtr_pYC&printsec=frontcover#PPA45,M1 ''Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas'']. Yale University Press, p. 45. ISBN 0-300-09763-8.</ref> They achieved this by wrapping tight cloth straps around the heads of newborns in order to alter the shape of their still-soft skulls into a more conical form.  Studies are needed to determine whether these deformations caused actual brain damage.

====Aqllawasi====
The Aqllawasi (Acllahuasi) which means "house of the sun virgins" was developed under the Incans in Peru at about 1438–1532 CE. Its central purpose was in the manufacturing of garments for the Inca royalty and the worship of the sun god, Inti.