<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Inca Empire (Quechua: Tawantinsuyu, lit . "The Four Regions"), also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire, was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America, and possibly the largest empire in the world in the early 16th century . The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern - day Peru . The Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century . Its last stronghold was conquered by the Spanish in 1572 . </P> <P> 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, large parts of modern Ecuador, western and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, north and central Chile and a small part of southwest 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 worship of Inti--their sun god--and imposed its sovereignty above other cults such as that of Pachamama . The Incas considered their king, the Sapa Inca, to be the "son of the sun ." </P>

The incan civilization lasted from before it was conquered by the