From 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. At its largest, the empire joined Peru, western Ecuador, western and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, a large portion of what is today Chile, and the southwesternmost tip of Colombia into a state comparable to the historical empires of Eurasia. Its official language was Quechua. Many local forms of worship persisted in the empire, most of them concerning local sacred Huacas, but the Inca leadership encouraged the sun worship of Inti – their sun god – and imposed its sovereignty above other cults. The Incas considered their king to be the "son of the sun." The Inca Empire was unique in that it lacked many of the features associated with civilization in the Old World. The Inca were able to construct "one of the greatest imperial states in human history" without the use of the [[2020-12-07 Waterwheels|wheel]], draft animals, knowledge of iron or steel, or even a system of writing. Notable features of the Inca Empire include its monumental architecture, especially stonework, extensive road network reaching all corners of the empire, finely-woven textiles, use of knotted strings (quipu) for record keeping and communication, agricultural innovations in a difficult environment, and the organization and management fostered or imposed on its people and their labor. - [[the Inca had stronger control of labor forces than Mesoamerican societies]] - [[The Relationship Between Food Storage and Complex Government]] - [[Transporting Information]] - [[Civilizations Thrive in Adverse Environments#Mountains]] - [b] Great [[rAskHistorians|AskHistorians]] piece by [[CommodoreCoco]] about [the Incan mi'ta system](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/f4dzup/how_communist_was_the_incan_empire/fjmghbm/?context=3), [[economics]] basically, particularly redistribution of wealth and how it does or doesn't match up to communism.