History of the Incas

The Incas were most notable for establishing the Inca Empire which was centered in modern-day Peru and Chile. It was about from the northern to southern tip. The Inca Empire lasted from 1438 to 1533. It was the largest Empire in America throughout the Pre-Columbian era. The Inca state was originally founded by Manco Cápac in the early 1200s, and is known as the Kingdom of Cuzco. Under subsequent rulers, through strategic alliances and conquests, it expanded beyond Cusco and into the Sacred Valley. Their territory then rapidly grew under the 9th Sapa Inca, Pachacuti and his descendents.
Over the course of the Inca Empire, the Inca used conquest and peaceful assimilation to incorporate the territory of modern-day Peru, followed by a large portion of western South America, into their empire, centered on the Andean mountain range. However, shortly after the Inca Civil War, the last Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire, Atahualpa, was captured and killed on the orders of the conquistador Francisco Pizarro, marking the beginning of Spanish rule. The remnants of the empire retreated to the remote jungles of Vilcabamba and established the small Neo-Inca State, which was conquered by the Spanish in 1572.
The Quechua name for the empire after the reforms under Pachacuti was Tawantin Suyu, which can be translated The Four Regions or The Four United Regions. Before the Quechua spelling reform it was written in Spanish as Tahuantinsuyo. Tawantin is a group of four things ; suyu means "region" or "province". The empire was divided into four suyus, whose corners met at the capital, Cuzco

Historical sources

Spanish chronicles

The first written traces of the Inca Empire are the chronicles recorded by various European authors ; these authors compiled "Inca history" based on accounts collected throughout the empire. The first chroniclers had to face various difficulties in order to translate Inca history since, in addition to a language barrier, they faced the problem of interpreting a way of seeing the world totally different from the one they were used to. This led to the existence of several contradictions between the colonial texts, an example of this is presented by the chronologies of the Inca rulers; thus, in many chronicles, the same feats, facts and episodes are attributed to different rulers.
Regarding the chronicles of the Inca Empire, it is important to note that its various authors had certain interests when writing them. In the case of the Spanish chroniclers, their interest was to legitimize the conquest through history, for this reason, in many chronicles, it is pointed out that the Incas conquered using violence entirely and therefore had no rights over the conquered territories. In another case, chroniclers linked to the Catholic Church sought to legitimize evangelization by describing the Inca religion as the work of the devil, the Incas as sons of Noah, and trying to identify the Inca deities with biblical beliefs or European folklore. Likewise, there were other mestizo and indigenous chroniclers who also had an interest in extolling the empire or one of the Panakas with which they were related, such as the case of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, who in his work "Comentarios Reales de los Incas" showed an idealized Inca Empire where poverty didn't exist, wealth was distributed, and resources were exploited rationally.

Incan sources

The ayllus and Panakas had special songs through which they narrated their history, these songs were performed in certain ceremonies in front of the Sapa Inca. These stories, by way of collective memory, constitute the first historical records collected in the chronicles. Another resource used to record history were some cloaks and boards that contained paintings representing the stories of the Inca rulers and the biography of each of them. These objects were kept in a place called Puquincancha in Cusco, under the care of specialists in interpreting them. It is known that Viceroy Francisco de Toledo sent King Philip II four cloths illustrating the life of the Incas, adding that the native painters didn't have the same curiosity as those from Spain.
In addition, some past events were stored in the quipus, although it isn't known how these systems of cords and knots could be used to store historical events, there are several chronicles that describe that the quipus were used to evoke the feats of the rulers.
In general, in the Inca Empire there was a strong emphasis on preserving notable events and facts in the historical records. However, precision wasn't always valued, and some rulers might have intentionally excluded or distorted information that they deemed undesirable. María Rostworowski calls this quality of Inca history a "political amnesia" that was assumed by the common people but was remembered by the affected Panakas or ayllus, a factor that contributed to future contradictions in European chronicles about the Incas.
After the meeting of the Hispanic and Andean culture, writing was established as the means of transmission and recording of information. In addition, a process of "miscegenation" and syncretism began that gave rise to the reinvention of traditions and the creation of others. All these reinventions are part of a natural process in all cultures, but to understand Inca history it is necessary to differentiate which are the syncretic or invented aspects and which are not.

Historicity of sources

Chronology

Chronology according to the Peruvian historian José Antonio del Busto Duthurburu.
Chronology based on the works "Suma y Narración de los Incas" by Juan de Betanzos and "El Señorío de los Incas" by Pedro Cieza de León

Order	Sapa Inca	Years	Order	Sapa Inca	Years
I	Manco Capac	1240-1260	VII	Yawar Waqaq	1360-1380
II	Sinchi Roca	1260-1280	VIII	Viracocha Inca	1380-1400
III	Lloque Yupanqui	1280-1300	IX	Pachacuti	1400-1440
IV	Mayta Capac	1300-1320	X	Tupac Yupanqui	1440-1480
V	Capac Yupanqui	1320-1340	XI	Huayna Capac	1480-1523
VI	Inca Roca	1340-1360	XII	Inti Cusi Hualpa	1523-1532

Chronology according to the "Miscelánea antártica" by Miguel Cabello de Balboa. It is highly criticized for the length of several reigns and that it doesn't coincide with archaeological studies. Includes the correction by Howland Rowe, accepted by Kauffmann Doig, Ann Kendall, Alden Mason, and Robert Deviller. Rowe's correction of Balboa, despite its wide use, has also been criticised for lack of coincidence with archeological data and speculative nature, Rowe himself having admitted the latter point of criticism. According to Catherine Julien, the "dates themselves are not important", and Rowe's chronology, while "many students of the Incas have used those dates uncritically", served to "suggest a plausible chronology" since "if the rulers ruled and succeeded each other in the order given, then any dates that reflect a time span that is not out of line for real people who lived for some period of time after adulthood would be plausible".
According to María Rostworowski, the victory against the Chanka took place in the early years of the 15th century.

Pachacuti	40 years
Pachacuti & Amaru Yupanqui	5 – 6 years
Pachacuti & Tupac Yupanqui	14 – 15 years
Tupac Inca Yupanqui	10 years
Huayna Capac	50 years

Origins

Legends

The Ayar Brothers

Four pairs of brothers and their tribes left Pacaritambo: Ayar Cachi and Mama Huaco, Ayar Uchu and Mama Ipacura or Cura, Ayar Auca and Mama Raua, and Ayar Manco and Mama Ocllo. From the summit of the Wanakawri mountain, Ayar Cachi with his sling shot a stone against a hill and turned it into a , then he did the same with three more hills, completing the four cardinal points. His brothers saw his strength and, mistrusting him, they sent him to bring gold objects from Pacaritambo and locked him up with a large stone.
After getting rid of Ayar Cachi, they lived in Wanakawri for a year, they planted potatoes on the back of the mountain, and Mama Huaco became another wife of Ayar Manco. After the year, they moved to a hill called Matagua, from there they looked at the valley of Cuzco, and the inhabitants and subjects of Alcaviza, who was the chief of a village with 30 houses, all thatched and very dilapidated.
They deemed it a good place, so they agreed to conquer and populate it, they also agreed that one of them had to stay in Wanakawri to become a huaca and intercede with the Sun, their father, to increase their children and send good times. Ayar Uchu grew large wings and offered himself, he flew and after being in the "heavens", returned and told Ayar Manco to rename himself Manco Capac, because that is what the Sun commands, and to go the place they had seen because the residents would receive them well; he also gave him his wife Mama Cura to serve him. Having said all that, Ayar Uchu turned into a stone figure with wings. Manco Capac, Ayar Auca, the four women and their respective ayllus, went to see Alcaviza. Before entering his land, in a nearby town called Acamama, Mama Huaco hit a man with a bolas, killing him instantly, and then ripping out his heart, the people feared her and fled to the valley of Guallas. From there the group walked and spoke with Alcaviza, who accepted them. And so the city of Cuzco was founded, the brothers made their house for them and the four women, with seeds that they brought from Pacaritambo they dedicated themselves to planting corn. Ayar Auca died after two years and had no children; while Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo only had one, Sinchi Roca.
This was as told by Juan de Betanzos, the different versions of this story are related by: Bernabé Cobo, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, Martin de Murúa, Pedro Cieza de León, Juan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti, and Cristóbal de Molina.