The Inca Empire controlled most of what is now Peru and Ecuador, as well as parts of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina. Inca influence is still found today especially in rural parts of Peru and of the other aforementioned countries. Below you will find some interesting facts about the Incas:
The Incas built 18,000 miles of roads, connecting the empire. These made transportation and communication easier.- The Incas were the first people to grow potatoes in the whole World.
- The Incas did not have a written language, but used strings with knots to record information (they are called Khipus).
- The Incas gave intelligence tests to children which determined whether they went to school or were taught a trade.
- The clothing worn by a person in the empire was a sign of their class or social standing.
- The Incas had a class system with the emperor at the top, followed by the royal family and advisors, and at the bottom were the common people. A person was born into their class and could never change it.
The people of the lower classes had to work on the lands of the nobles, who did not do farm work.- The emperor could have several wives, but the lower classes could only have one.
- The Incas conquered many other tribes, and moved some of the conquered people to other parts of the empire, and also moved people from other parts of the empire to newly conquered areas.
- The Inca Empire only lasted about 100 years.
- The Incas had food storehouses that would have been able to feed the empire for many years in case of famine.
- Many of the tribes who had been conquered by the Incas hated the Incas, and helped the Spanish during the conquest of the Inca Empire.
- The language of the Incas, Quechua, is still spoken today by millions of people in places that used to be part of the Inca Empire.
- Many Inca sites can be found today in good condition.
- The word “Inca” originally referred to the emperor, but the Spanish used it to refer to the entire empire.
