How was the Inca Empire governed?
Inca rule linked a vast range of Andean lands and peoples in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
Historical context and developments
Cuzco was the political center; roads, terraced farming and labor obligations supported the network. Knotted quipu records helped manage information. Local groups joined in different ways, through both negotiation and coercion.
Consequences and interpreting sources
Spanish conquest, internal conflict and disease transformed the state, but Andean cultures continued. Spanish accounts are important yet one-sided; archaeology and local memory matter.
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