Inca also spelled Inka, Were South American Indians who, at the time of the Spanish conquest in 1532, ruled an empire that extended along the Pacific coast and Andean highlands from the northern border of today's Ecuador to the Maule River in central Chile . The Inca established their capital at Cuzco ( Peru ) in the 12th century and in the early 15 th century, within 100 years of the beginning of their conquests, they gained control over the Andean population which included about 12,000,000 people.
Like other Andean cultures, the Inca left no written records. As common in most Indian culture, their history was past by oral tradition and has been preserved through the generations by official “memorizers” and from the written records composed from them after the Spanish conquest. According to their tradition, the Inca originated in the village of Paqari-Tampu, about 15 miles (24 km) south of Cuzco. The founder of the Inca dynasty, Manco Capac, led the tribe to settle in Cuzco , which remained thereafter their capital. The Inca began to expand Under Mayta Capac, attacking and looting the villages of neighboring peoples and probably assessing some sort of tribute. Under Capac Yupanqui, the next emperor, the Inca first extended their influence beyond the Cuzco valley, and under Viracocha Inca, the eighth, they began a program of permanent conquest by stationing a body of troops among the settlements of those whom they had conquered.
Inca society was highly formed into layers. The emperor ruled with the aid of an aristocratic bureaucracy, exerting strict control on the freedom of those he ruled. Inca economics was wealthy and technologically advanced (although not strikingly original), with sophisticated manufacturing, service industries and architecture, which can still be seen today throughout the Andes. The economy was based on agriculture and its most important articles of trade were, corn (maize), white and sweet potatoes, squash, tomatoes, peanuts (groundnuts), chili peppers, coca, cassava and cotton. They also raised guinea pigs, ducks, llamas, alpacas, and dogs. Clothing was made of llama wool and cotton. Houses were of adobe mud or stone.
The Inca built an extant network of roads throughout its empire. It consist of two main roads going north–south, one by the coast (about 2,250 miles) and the other one is inland along the Andes (about the same distance), with many intersecting links. The use of the system was strictly limited to government and military business and later the network greatly simplified the process of Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
The Inca religion was a combination of animism, fetishism, and the worship of nature gods. Under the empire the Inca religion was a highly organized state religion. Inca rituals included complex forms of prophecies and the sacrifice of humans and animals. These highly established forms of religion practices were eventually destroyed by the Spanish conquerors' campaign against idol worship.
Today the related model of the Inca is the Quechua-speaking rural of the Andes, who constitute about 45 percent of the population of Peru . They combine simple traditional technology of farming and herding. Religion is a kind of Roman Catholicism combined with the pagan hierarchy of gods and spirits.