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According to legend, the Incas began as a small group of people living near Lake Titicaca in Peru. The first Inca emperor, Manco Capac, and seven siblings came from caves in the earth. Manco Capac led ten ayllus, which are clan like groups, to the the valley of Cusco. They conquered the people living there, taking the area for their new capital. Manco Capac married one of his sisters to establish the royal Inca bloodline. They then expanded by conquering nearby groups.
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Pachacuti was the ninth emperor of the empire. According to legend, when his father was emperor, an enemy called the Chancas invaded. Instead of trying to fight them, he fled. Pachacuti stayed behind to fight. Although his army fought bravely,he was losing. That's when nearby rocks turned into soldiers and won the battle for him. He expanded the empire from modern day Ecuador to Chile. He also introduced the new government system called Tahuantinsuyu.
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Machu Pichu is the famous mountain-top city built by Pachucuti. The city is located about 80 km from Cusco. It consisted of four parts: the agricultural section, the religious, section, the nobility section, and the residential section. Work started on Machu Pichu around 1455, at the height of the empire. The city was never completed due to the Spanish Conquest when smallpox was being spread, which is what killed most of the residents and builders.
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Spanish conquistadors (led by Francisco Pizzaro) exploring South America came upon the Incas. Seeing that the Incas had considerable amounts of treasure, Pizzaro, after one more expidition, sailed back to Spain to get permission to attack.
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After getting permission to conquer the Incas in 1529, Pizzaro reurned to South America with more men to help. He also had the support of tens of thousands of other troops from neighbooring groups who didn't want the Incas in power either. Although the Incan troops far outnumbered them the empire was weakened by many things. A civil war was taking place between brothers Huascar and Atahualp for power. There was also the recent spread of smallpox from Central America which was even worse.
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Hernando de Soto was an explorer sent by Pizzaro to explore further inland. While exploring, he recieved an invitation from Atahualpa to meet him. When they met, the Spaniards tried to convert him to Christianity. Maybe because of the language diffrence, he did not understand. The Spanish became impatient after a while and just captured him and held him for ransom. He promised a room full of gold and silver. When he gave it to them, they took it and killed him.
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After the Spanish killed Atahualpa, they put his brother, Manco Inca, as the new emperor. He cooperated with the Spanish for a little after he became ruler but then the Spanish started having internal fights. He used this to his advantage to escape to the jungle. He would sometimes launch attacks and lead revolts against the Spaniards.
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After about 36 years of fighting and leading revolts against the Spanish, Manco Inca and his army were found and killed. Once Manco Inca died, the Spanish took over ruling. The Inca way of life was destroyed. At least one family member was required to work in a mine at all times. Smallpox was also taking a large amount of the Incas. With smallpox and many other diseases, the Incas were almost completely wiped out and the empire collapsed.
