The Inca Empire (Quechua: Tawantinsuyu, lit. "The Four Regions"[2]), also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire, was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America.[3] Its political and administrative structure "was the most sophisticated found among native peoples" in the Americas.[4] The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru. The Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century. Its last stronghold was conquered by the Spanish in 1572.

From 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. At its largest, the empire joined Peru, large parts of modern Ecuador, western and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, north and central Chile and a small part of southwest Colombia into a state comparable to the historical empires of Eurasia. Its official language was Quechua.[5] Many local forms of worship persisted in the empire, most of them concerning local sacred Huacas, but the Inca leadership encouraged the sun worship of Inti – their sun god – and imposed its sovereignty above other cults such as that of Pachamama.[6] The Incas considered their king, the Sapa Inca, to be the "son of the sun."[7]