Lucky bean bracelet from the Maya Indians from Peru

The Incas were an indigenous people who lived from the thirteenth century in an area around their capital Cuzco in Peru today. From 1438, when Pachacuti ninth Sapa Inca (the name for the Inca ruler) to the throne, the Incas started an unprecedented expansion in the Andean region impassable. Eighty years later, during the reign of Huayna Capac, the power of the Incas stretched from the far south of Colombia to the northwest of Argentina and Chile, over a length of 4000 kilometers. This was the Inca empire territorially the largest in the world. Estimates of the population size vary between 7 and 12 million. Characteristic of the Inca Empire was the high degree of political and cultural integration, with the Sapa Inca as absolute ruler was the binding factor. Aided by an extensive road network Inca rulers held their empire under control. Their religion based on the worship of the sun god Inti, spread over the whole empire. So did their language, Quechua, and cultural expressions as weaves and pottery. Using forced labor realized the Inca rulers scale structures, which Machu Picchu is the best known example. The Incas had no formal writing, but through knotted cords (quipu) were well messages transmitted. The discovery of America by Columbus in 1492 ultimately led to the fall of the empire. Several hundred Spanish conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro in 1532 managed to hijack the Inca ruler Atahualpa in Cajamarca, thereby paralyzing the government. Because of the divine status of the ruler dared his subjects initially not to resist his captors. However, it took until 1572 before the Spaniards with the execution of the last Inca ruler, Túpac Amaru, had settled the final plea. Infectious diseases of the Old World had meanwhile carried a devastating effect on the indigenous population (see Columbian Exchange).