According to legend, the Incas became a powerful clan following the migration of their founders from the Tiahuanaco region. Specifically, Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo left Lake Titicaca to found the capital of their civilization, at the request of their god, the Sun. Many rulers, or “Incas”, succeeded these founders, and the Inca Empire expanded considerably.
The Empire was a theocracy, organized by castes and ruled by an Inca, who was worshipped as a divinity. Historians divide the Incas who came to power into two periods: the Legendary or Mythical Empire (1200 to 1410) and the Historical Empire (1438 to 1532). In 1533, while the last two Incas were vying for the throne of the empire, the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Central America and seized the territories from Tumbes to Cusco.
The Inca Empire was short-lived. In 1430, the kingdom amounted to little more than the river valley around Cusco. Less than a century later, thanks to conquest and the clever assimilation of the finest qualities of the societies it gradually subjugated, the Inca capital Cusco (Qosqo) became the richest city in the Americas, with temples literally covered in gold. By 1500, the empire stretched from the Pacific Ocean east to the headwaters of the Paraguay and Amazon rivers, and from the region where present-day Quito (Ecuador) stands, south to the Maule River in Chile.
In 1532, at the height of its greatness, the empire was shaken by a war of succession between two brothers, Huascar and Atahualpa. Francisco Pizarro, who arrived in Peru at the head of the Spanish conquistadors at precisely this moment of tension, managed through cunning and deceit to obtain a personal meeting with Atahualpa, whom he then coldly assassinated, having amassed an enormous quantity of gold and silver. Despite tenacious resistance from the indigenous people, Pizarro and his men managed to conquer Cusco and sacked the city. Although the Incas continued to fight for many years, their Empire was now finished, and the era of the Spanish had begun.
Since Spain was a naval power, Lima was founded on the coast in 1535. Some of the other peoples resisted colonization, but in the end, thanks to superior numbers of men, weapons and horses, the conquest was completed.
All the indigenous uprisings that followed over time ended in failure. The first took place in 1536, when Manco Inca managed to regain almost complete control of the highland regions; in 1539, however, he was forced to retreat to Vilcabamba, in the rainforest, where he was killed in 1544. Later, in 1572, Inca Tupac Amaru attempted to overthrow the Spanish, but failed and was executed. Finally, Inca Tupac Amaru II led a rebellion in 1780 and, after proclaiming himself ruler, was brutally executed. Eventually the creoles (those of Spanish descent born in the Americas) formed an independence movement, and in 1821, under the leadership of General San Martin, proclaimed the independence of Peru.
The country grew wealthy through exports of guano and rubber, but these were short-lived trades. Exports of mineral products and staple goods such as sugar and cotton took hold. Wealth was managed by an elite, while life for the indigenous people in the Andes changed little. The last century has been marked by political uprisings and military governments, up to and including a communist-inspired guerrilla insurgency. The most recent revolutionary movements have been suppressed, and over the last decade the country has enjoyed ever-growing prosperity.