WEBVTT

00:00:07.217 --> 00:00:10.218
It was the western hemisphere’s 
largest empire ever,

00:00:10.218 --> 00:00:13.817
with a population 
of nearly 10 million subjects.

00:00:13.817 --> 00:00:17.957
Over an area of more 
than 900,000 square kilometers,

00:00:17.957 --> 00:00:21.177
its people built massive 
administrative centers,

00:00:21.177 --> 00:00:25.658
temples, and extensive road 
and canal systems.

00:00:25.658 --> 00:00:30.247
They did so in an inhospitable, 
extreme terrain,

00:00:30.247 --> 00:00:37.959
all without the use of wheels, 
horses, iron, or even written language.

00:00:37.959 --> 00:00:41.549
Yet within 100 years of its rise 
in the fifteenth century,

00:00:41.549 --> 00:00:45.388
the Inca Empire would be no more.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:45.388 --> 00:00:47.029
According to legend,

00:00:47.029 --> 00:00:51.728
the ancestors of the Inca rulers 
were created by the sun god Inti,

00:00:51.728 --> 00:00:55.620
and they emerged
from a cave called Tambo Toco.

00:00:55.620 --> 00:01:01.069
Leading four brothers 
and four sisters was Ayar Manco,

00:01:01.069 --> 00:01:03.670
who carried a golden staff 
with instructions

00:01:03.670 --> 00:01:06.931
to find the place where 
it would sink into the ground,

00:01:06.931 --> 00:01:09.280
showing fertile soil.

00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:12.410
After many adventures 
and extensive searching,

00:01:12.410 --> 00:01:16.620
Ayar Manco and his siblings 
reached the Cuzco Valley,

00:01:16.620 --> 00:01:19.662
where the staff pierced the ground.

00:01:19.662 --> 00:01:23.201
After fighting off the fierce 
local native population,

00:01:23.201 --> 00:01:25.030
they founded their capital,

00:01:25.030 --> 00:01:33.952
and Ayar Manco became Manco Capac, 
the first Sapa Inca, or king of the Incas.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:33.952 --> 00:01:37.192
Archaeological evidence suggests

00:01:37.192 --> 00:01:41.872
that the Incas first settled 
in this valley around 1200 CE.

00:01:41.872 --> 00:01:45.696
They remained a small kingdom until 1438,

00:01:45.696 --> 00:01:49.971
when they were nearly overrun 
by the neighboring Chanka tribe.

00:01:49.971 --> 00:01:56.162
The Inca king at the time, Viracocha, 
and his designated heir fled in fear,

00:01:56.162 --> 00:01:58.102
but one of his other sons remained

00:01:58.102 --> 00:02:01.330
and successfully rallied 
the city’s defenses.

00:02:01.330 --> 00:02:05.828
For his military skill, he became 
the ninth Inca ruler,

00:02:05.828 --> 00:02:11.215
assuming the name of Pachacuti, 
or "cataclysm."

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:11.215 --> 00:02:15.665
Pachacuti expanded Inca rule 
throughout the Andes mountains,

00:02:15.665 --> 00:02:20.135
transforming the kingdom into 
an empire through extensive reforms.

00:02:20.135 --> 00:02:28.435
The empire’s territory was reorganized 
as Tahuantinsuyu, or "four quarters,"

00:02:28.435 --> 00:02:32.920
with four divisions ruled 
by governors reporting to the king.

00:02:32.920 --> 00:02:35.149
Although the Inca had no writing,

00:02:35.149 --> 00:02:39.989
they used a complex system 
of knotted strings called quipu

00:02:39.989 --> 00:02:44.017
to record numbers 
and perhaps other information.

00:02:44.017 --> 00:02:47.200
A decimal-based bureaucracy 
enabled systematic

00:02:47.200 --> 00:02:50.501
and efficient taxation 
of the empire’s subjects.

00:02:50.501 --> 00:02:56.826
In return, the empire provided security, 
infrastructure, and sustenance,

00:02:56.826 --> 00:03:01.677
with great storehouses containing 
necessities to be used when needed.

00:03:01.677 --> 00:03:04.318
Great terraces and irrigation works 
were built

00:03:04.318 --> 00:03:07.508
and various crops were grown in 
at different altitudes

00:03:07.508 --> 00:03:10.728
to be transported all over the empire.

00:03:10.728 --> 00:03:13.098
And it was during Pachacuti’s reign

00:03:13.098 --> 00:03:17.738
that the famous estate 
of Machu Picchu was constructed.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:17.738 --> 00:03:22.847
Pachacuti’s son Topa Inca continued 
the empire’s military expansion,

00:03:22.847 --> 00:03:28.099
and he eventually became ruler
in 1471 CE.

00:03:28.099 --> 00:03:32.540
By the end of his reign, the empire 
covered much of western South America.

00:03:32.540 --> 00:03:39.219
Topa’s son Huayna Capac 
succeeded him in 1493.

00:03:39.219 --> 00:03:44.250
But the new ruler’s distant military 
campaigns strained the social fabric.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:44.250 --> 00:03:49.240
And in 1524, Huayna Capac 
was stricken by fever.

00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:53.719
Spanish Conquistadors had arrived 
in the Caribbean some time before,

00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:58.711
bringing diseases to which 
the native peoples had no resistance.

00:03:58.711 --> 00:04:01.278
Millions died in the outbreak,

00:04:01.278 --> 00:04:05.768
including Huayna Capac
and his designated heir.

00:04:05.768 --> 00:04:11.501
The vacant throne ignited a civil war
between two of the surviving brothers,

00:04:11.501 --> 00:04:14.371
Atahualpa and Huascar,

00:04:14.371 --> 00:04:16.411
greatly weakening the empire.

00:04:16.411 --> 00:04:20.874
In 1532, after finally winning 
the Inca civil war,

00:04:20.874 --> 00:04:25.763
Atahualpa and his army 
encountered the European invaders.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:25.763 --> 00:04:27.713
Although greatly outnumbered,

00:04:27.713 --> 00:04:32.433
Francisco Pizarro 
and his small group of conquistadors

00:04:32.433 --> 00:04:36.843
stunned the king’s much larger force 
with guns and horses,

00:04:36.843 --> 00:04:39.763
neither of which they had seen before.

00:04:39.763 --> 00:04:44.794
Atahualpa was taken captive 
and killed about a year later.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:44.794 --> 00:04:49.383
The Spanish conquerors 
were awed by the capital of Cuzco.

00:04:49.383 --> 00:04:55.914
Pizarro described it as so beautiful that
“it would be remarkable even in Spain.”

00:04:55.914 --> 00:04:57.674
Though the capital had fallen

00:04:57.674 --> 00:05:01.932
and the native population had been
destroyed by civil war and disease,

00:05:01.932 --> 00:05:06.755
some Incas fell back to 
a new capital at Vilcabamba

00:05:06.755 --> 00:05:09.455
and resisted for the next 40 years.

00:05:09.455 --> 00:05:15.385
But by 1572, the Spaniards had destroyed 
all remaining resistance

00:05:15.385 --> 00:05:19.217
along with much of the Incas’ physical 
and cultural legacy.

00:05:19.217 --> 00:05:25.428
Thus, the great Inca empire fell 
even faster than it had risen.