ABSTRACT
T he Inka called their domains Tawantinsuyu, the “land of the four quarters.” In the fi fteenth century A.D. , their empire extended along the Andes Mountains and across the altiplano (high plains) of the Titicaca basin. Inka roads descended in tortuous zigzags down precipitous foothills into some of the driest landscape on the earth, along the Peruvian coast. Tawantinsuyu straddled the Andean world, bounded on its eastern side by the dense forests of Amazonia and on the west by the bountiful waters of the Pacifi c (see Table 17.1 and Figure 17.1). Both contributed to the fabric of the great civilizations that had developed centuries before the Inka mastered one of the most diverse landscapes on earth. Chapters 17 and 18 describe the origins and development of Andean civilization from its beginnings over 3,000 years ago until its overthrow by Spaniard Francisco Pizarro and a small band of conquistadors in A.D. 1531.
