Incas III

1438-1533 CE

From 1438 to 1533 CE, the Incas wove the largest empire the Americas had ever seen — Pachacuti transforming Cusco from a highland chiefdom into an imperial capital, his descendants conquering from Ecuador to Chile, their roads and runners binding a realm that spoke a hundred languages into one Tawantinsuyu. They moved entire populations, rebuilt cities on Inca plans, and recorded debts on knotted strings. Then civil war and Spanish steel unraveled in a decade what four generations had built.