Skip to content
Conflict Americas

Inca Empire Expansion

1438 CE – 1533 CE · 95 years

Beginning with Pachacuti's defeat of the Chanka, the Incas expanded from a small kingdom near Cusco into the largest empire in pre-Columbian America, stretching 4,000 km along the Andes. They built an extraordinary road system without the wheel or writing.

See it on the timeline

Belligerents

The main peoples, kingdoms and states involved.

  • Inca Empire (Pachacuti, Huayna Capac)
  • Chimú, Chanka & other Andean peoples

Key moments

Defining events in the Inca Empire Expansion.

  1. 1438 Battle of Yahuarpampa / Chanka War
  2. 1470 Conquest of the Chimú
  3. 1529-1532 Inca Civil War

Elsewhere in Americas at the time

Records whose own span overlaps this one, found by the same test the canvas draws with. The bar under each card is where it sits inside this one.

See the whole view

Landmark · Americas

Machu Picchu

1450 CE – still standing

Polity · Americas

Maya chiefdoms and states

2000 BCE – 1521 CE

Trade route · Americas

Mesoamerican Trade Network

1200 BCE – 1521 CE

Conflict · Americas

Mississippian Chiefdom Wars

800 CE – 1500 CE

Landmark · Americas

Spiro Mounds

800 CE – 1450 CE

Polity · Americas

Vice-Royalty of New Spain

Attested 1530 CE – 1815 CE

Trade route · Americas

Qhapaq Ñan (Inca Royal Road)

1400 CE – 1572 CE

Conflict · Americas

Aztec Triple Alliance Expansion

1428 CE – 1521 CE

Dated moments inside this span

Events the timeline places between 1438 CE and 1533 CE.

1438 CE Qorikancha 1438 CE Sacsayhuamán 1450 CE Machu Picchu 1460 CE Mapuche–Inca War 1462 CE Chimú–Inca War

And in the rest of the world

Records running through the same years, on the other side of the map.

Rangitoto Island Landmark · Oceania 1450 CE – still standing central Asian khanates Polity 1530 CE – 1900 CE Mediterranean Southern Route Trade route · Middle East 331 BCE – 1500 CE Sengoku Period (Japanese Warring States) Conflict · East Asia 1467 CE – 1615 CE Pachacuti Figure · Cusco, Tawantinsuyu (Inca Empire) 1418 CE – 1471 CE Royal Hill of Ambohimanga Landmark · Africa 1500 CE – still standing
Image credits4 pictures from Wikimedia Commons