Big History 2: Inca

The Inca civilization flourished in ancient Peru between c. 1400 and 1533 CE, and their empire eventually extended across western South America from Quito in the north to Santiago in the south, making it the largest empire ever seen in the Americas and the largest in the world at that time.

The Inca Empire, or Inka Empire, was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America.

By the end of two long reigns (about fifty-five years in all) the Cuzco dynasty, known as the Incas, are in loose control of an empire stretching from Quito in modern Ecuador to the Maule river in Chile - a distance of nearly 2500 miles.

The Inca Empire was a vast empire that flourished in the Andean region of South America from the early 15th century A.D. up until its conquest by the Spanish in the 1530s. Even after the conquest, Inca leaders continued to resist the Spaniards up until 1572 when its last city, Vilcabamba, was captured.

Rising from obscurity to the heights of power, a succession of Andean rulers subdued kingdoms, sculpted mountains, and forged a mighty empire.

The Inca built thousands of well-paved roads, but they never invented the wheel. They lived high in the snow capped Andes Mountains of South America. It was difficult to grow food, but the clever Inca found a way.

INCAS, an American Indian people of Peru who in the two centuries before the Spanish discovery of America conquered an area stretching from the southern border of present-day Colombia to central Chile. Centering on the city of Cusco (Cuzco) in the Peruvian Andes, the Inca domain included the coastal and mountain regions of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and the northern areas of Chile and Argentina--the only true empire existing in the New World at the time of Columbus, and the greatest political achievement of the American Indians.

How do people from different cultures view themselves, the world and their origins?

The ancient Olmec civilization is now considered to be one of the earliest great civilizations in Mesoamerica.

The mysterious Olmec civilization prospered in Pre-Classical (Formative) Mesoamerica from c. 1200 BCE to c. 400 BCE and is generally considered the forerunner of all subsequent Mesoamerican cultures such as the Maya and Aztecs.

The Formative Period (1500 BCE-300 CE) of Mesoamerican culture is surveyed with an overview of the Olmec culture.

Explore the relationship of Mayan kingship and the supernatural world. Learn about the origins of Mayan civilization and about the earlier Mesoamerican culture of the Olmec. Includes wonderful illustrations of Mayan carvings and forms of illustration, with close-ups, descriptions, and explanations of their symbolic meanings.

Using a green stone mask from the Olmec culture and a wall painting from Teotihuacan, both of prehispanic Mexico, as a point of departure, this pdf article presents examples for the historical analysis of art.

The Olmecs had flourished well before the rise of the Mayas. For scholars, the early existence of the Olmecs was hard to believe because there were no other known complex societies in Mesoamerica before the Maya—it seemed as if suddenly and out of nowhere a highly developed society had simply appeared.

1,500 years earlier than the Maya, they were the beginnings of settled village life and participated in the very beginnings of ceramics and adaptation of agriculture in this part of Mesoamerica; that makes them very important in the general history and the evolution of the Maya, and everyone else who comes alongside them or behind them in time. They were the Olmecs.

Ancient Mexico was a mosaic of peoples, languages, and cultures, all with their unique but related art styles, living patterns, and religions.

This site contains the work of a few archeologists and an extensive bibliography page.

Archaeologists have unearthed a city in central Mexico that is more than 2,500 years old and was influenced by the ancient Olmec culture.

4.23.2013: The Maya culture began differently than previously thought, study says.

Civilizations rise and fall, often in dramatic fashion. Their origins, though, are subtler and tend to be overlooked or poorly understood.