<P> The term Inka means "ruler" or "lord" in Quechua and was used to refer to the ruling class or the ruling family . The Incas were a very small percentage of the total population of the empire, probably numbering only 15,000 to 40,000, but ruling a population of around 10 million persons . The Spanish adopted the term (transliterated as Inca in Spanish) as an ethnic term referring to all subjects of the empire rather than simply the ruling class . As such the name Imperio inca ("Inca Empire") referred to the nation that they encountered and subsequently conquered . </P> <P> The Inca Empire was the last chapter of thousands of years of Andean civilization . Andean civilization was one of five civilizations in the world deemed by scholars to be "pristine", that is indigenous and not derivative from other civilizations . </P> <P> The Inca Empire was preceded by two large - scale empires in the Andes: the Tiwanaku (c. 300--1100 AD), based around Lake Titicaca and the Wari or Huari (c. 600--1100 AD) centered near the present - day city of Ayacucho . The Wari occupied the Cuzco area for about 400 years . Thus, many of the characteristics of the Inca Empire derived from earlier multi-ethnic and expansive Andean cultures . </P> <P> Carl Troll has argued that the development of the Inca state in the central Andes was aided by conditions that allows for the elaboration of the staple food chuño . Chuño, which can be stored for long periods, is made of potato dried at the freezing temperatures that are common at nighttime in the southern Peruvian highlands . Such link between the Inca state and chuño may be questioned as potatoes and other crops such as maize can also be dried with only sunlight . Troll did also argue that llamas, the Inca's pack animal, can be found in its largest numbers in this very same region . It is worth considering the maximum extent of the Inca Empire roughly coincided with the greatest distribution of llamas and alpacas in Pre-Hispanic America . The link between the Andean biomes of puna and páramo, pastoralism and the Inca state is a matter of research . As a third point Troll pointed out irrigation technology as advantageous to the Inca state - building . While Troll theorized environmental influences on the Inca Empire he opposed environmental determinism arguing that culture lay at the core of the Inca civilization . </P>

What two important civilizations preceded the rise of the inca