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The rise and fall of the Inca Empire - Gordon McEwan

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It was the western hemisphere's largest empire ever, with a population of nearly 10 million subjects. Yet within 100 years of its rise in the fifteenth century, the Inca Empire would be no more. What happened? Gordon McEwan details the rise and fall of the Inca Empire.

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Gordon McEwan
  • Director Biljana Labovic
  • Script Editor Alex Gendler
  • Animator Emma Carré
  • Designer Emma Carré
  • Composer Nicolas Martigne
  • Associate Producer Elizabeth Cox, Jessica Ruby
  • Content Producer Gerta Xhelo
  • Editorial Producer Alex Rosenthal
  • Narrator Adrian Dannatt
  • Fact-Checker Francisco Diez
  • See more
Additional Resources for you to Explore
What makes the Inca Empire so fascinating to archaeologists and historians is that they specialized in achieving the impossible. They conquered a huge empire without the use of wheeled vehicles or horses to pull them. They had no system of writing but managed somehow to maintain administrative control of far-flung provinces thousands of miles from their capital. Without survey instruments, blueprints, photographs, and machines for construction, they were still able to produce magnificent mountainside terraces, highways, bridges, cities, towns, temples, and royal estates. Many of their projects were built in seemingly impossible places, including sheer cliffs, steep mountain peaks, and raging rivers. And they did this in a remarkably short time of less than 100 years.

Scholars see the Incas as a people who adopted a very successful, alternative approach to some of civilization’s greatest challenges. They offer proof that engineering and social skills can be independently developed in an isolated and challenging environment. Exciting new information about the Incas appears every year as scholars publish their research. Those seeking more information on the Inca can consult my book The Incas: New Perspectives. In it, you will find an extensive list of resources for further study, including a detailed bibliography, a list of scholarly organizations that deal with Inca scholarship, specialized libraries, museum collections, and annual research symposia.
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What do you think were some of the most unique aspects of the Inca Empire?
02/12/2018
Avatar for Luna Ramanelle
Luna Ramanelle • LESSON IN PROGRESS

That they used strings and knots to store information, and that they had a vast empire without any written language, horses, or wheels.

02/12/2018
Avatar for Setefano Sete
Setefano Sete • COMPLETED LESSON

They didn't have a written language, and they had 4 boys and 4 girls.

02/13/2018
Avatar for Livya Ditsch
Livya Ditsch • LESSON IN PROGRESS

That they could invent such great things without a written language and how they stored information with strings and knots.

02/13/2018
Avatar for brian bultinck
brian bultinck • COMPLETED LESSON

That they were able to do such great things without a type of writing system.

02/13/2018
Avatar for Joseph Curylo
Joseph Curylo • COMPLETED LESSON

That they made an empire out of only 8 people. and the fact that they all survived, and that they basically owned South America

02/13/2018
Avatar for Bryan Curylo
Bryan Curylo • COMPLETED LESSON

They had several different empires when Europeans came and survived with only one civilization left.

02/13/2018
Avatar for Cristopher Martinez
Cristopher Martinez • COMPLETED LESSON

This is true they had just use resources not the essentials for a empire even though they fell by a civil war and a disease.

02/14/2018 • 
IN RESPONSE TO Luna Ramanelle Show the comment
Avatar for Cristopher Martinez
Cristopher Martinez • COMPLETED LESSON

Some of the most unique aspects of the Inca Empire is having no language using different tools to store information and having an empire that has no horses which is an very needed thing for transportation.

02/15/2018
Avatar for Nguyen Van Ngoc Hai
Nguyen Van Ngoc Hai • COMPLETED LESSON

Most of their nation is on the mountains

02/16/2018
Avatar for Ayana Shimada
Ayana Shimada • COMPLETED LESSON

That they managed to control a vast empire without any wheels, horses, or writing system.

02/17/2018
Avatar for Alexia Boom
Alexia Boom • COMPLETED LESSON

I find pretty interesting and peculiar their language system with strings and knots and how they had could host the wild space where they lived.

02/18/2018
Avatar for nance paul
nance paul • chicago, Illinois, United States • LESSON IN PROGRESS

I don't have an idea because I am writer and help student online.Becuase so many student ask me to help this http://www.usaassignmentservice.com/

02/19/2018
Avatar for Atticus Horvath
Atticus Horvath • COMPLETED LESSON

The fact that they communicated through knots on rope.

02/20/2018
Avatar for yannick LE LAN
yannick LE LAN • COMPLETED LESSON

Their buildings not only were built in a mountain place, but even sustained earthquakes that are quite common there. Some of the stoneworks stille baffle our modern minds and our technology (like the lack of space between huge block rocks in macchu pichu). the quipu are not much more understood for now, and they're still quite a great challenge. Incas were engineers and their ideas were pragmatic as hell.

02/20/2018
Avatar for Karen Boyce
Karen Boyce • El Segundo, California, United States • LESSON IN PROGRESS

They had the first "welfare" system

02/20/2018
Avatar for Alexandra Mihai
Alexandra Mihai • LESSON IN PROGRESS

That they would still be a more developed civilization than others in the present day.

02/21/2018
Avatar for Jessica Qiu
Jessica Qiu • COMPLETED LESSON

I think it was cool how they did not have a written language, yet were somehow able to communicate with each other and were able to build an empire that functioned for all the people.

02/26/2018
Avatar for Raviraj Gawas
Raviraj Gawas • LESSON IN PROGRESS

They were not having there own written language, and had a mixtur of both 4 boys and 4 girls.

03/01/2018
Avatar for 양 현세
양 현세 • COMPLETED LESSON

It was buliding an empire in highland.

03/04/2018
Avatar for Seongeun Kim
Seongeun Kim • COMPLETED LESSON

I think it's amazing that the Incas didn't use any written language system, and yet managed to construct such magnificent cities.

03/24/2018
Avatar for Hoàng Sơn
Hoàng Sơn • COMPLETED LESSON

The most interesting thing is their development without wheels or written language

05/26/2018
Avatar for Olivia Buckenbrger
Olivia Buckenbrger • LESSON IN PROGRESS

That they would not step down they would fight against anyone who was trying to rule the place.

08/02/2018
Avatar for Hayden Currie
Hayden Currie • COMPLETED LESSON

Their organisation of crop planting and harvesting into different altitudes that were more preferable/productive for the particular crop.

01/25/2019
Avatar for Sandra Miño
Sandra Miño • COMPLETED LESSON

the conection with the earth and the respect of the nature

07/11/2019
Avatar for 황 승환
황 승환 • COMPLETED LESSON

They built an original irrigation canal.

09/01/2019
Avatar for steven grandt
steven grandt • COMPLETED LESSON

the king chnges

09/24/2019
Avatar for Adrian Lema
Adrian Lema • COMPLETED LESSON

I found unique how they adapted plants to grow in higher altitudes with a system that was like stairs. Also I think it is pretty interesting how they communicated and stored the information in rope knots and even with that difficult challenge they had an amazing administration system. Finally they achieved the impossible constructing places like Machu Picchu without any machine, that shows that the Incas had a big knowledge about construction

11/05/2019
Avatar for Cameron Netland
Cameron Netland • LESSON IN PROGRESS

They lived in challenging environments.
The religion with the sun god Inti was very interesting.
The way Atahualpa and Huascar had a civil war for power.
The way the Inca forced people to join their empire.

@Mr. Netland's 7th Grade Aim Higher Class

12/05/2019
Avatar for Trevor Hecht
Trevor Hecht • COMPLETED LESSON

Their economy and how the government worked. If taxes were paid, then food was guaranteed, this is rare in empires.

03/27/2020
Avatar for Trevon Lawson
Trevon Lawson • LESSON IN PROGRESS

That they made an empire out of only 8 people. and the fact that they all survived, and that they basically owned South America.And there civil war most've been very very aspics.

05/05/2020
Avatar for GREGORY PARSHALL
GREGORY PARSHALL • COMPLETED LESSON

the fact that they lived in harsh lands and built a Empire within a 100 years without written language, wheels, or horses and used strings and knots to store info

05/09/2020
Avatar for Lucy Bryant _ Student - LigonMS
Lucy Bryant _ Student - LigonMS • COMPLETED LESSON

They didn't have a written language, horses, wheels or iron, and they stored information with a knotted string system.

05/18/2020
Avatar for Ethan Lopez Muller _ Student - LigonMS

Some unique aspects of the Inca empire were that they made this giant and successful empire with no horses, iron, or written language.

05/18/2020
Avatar for Selah Woodhead _ Student - LigonMS
Selah Woodhead _ Student - LigonMS • COMPLETED LESSON

I think that it was the fact that they created an empire without the use of written language and wheels, and that even without those things it took around only a hundred years. And creating a huge empire within 100 years is an incredible feat, even with technology like wheels and a written language.

05/18/2020
Avatar for Seamus McAuliffe-Williams _ Student - LigonMS

one of the most unique aspects of the Inca Empire were that they accomplished so much without a written language. It seems so important to the world now, but they were able to build cities, towns, and an entire empire without it.

05/18/2020
Avatar for Jada King
Jada King • COMPLETED LESSON

Some of the most unique aspects of the Inca Empire was the kings changes.

05/29/2020
Avatar for Andy Tran
Andy Tran • COMPLETED LESSON

I believe the most unique aspects of the inca empire were the technology they had and how they were made

10/02/2020
Avatar for Lydia Daniel
Lydia Daniel • LESSON IN PROGRESS

The Incas worshiped the sun god Inti and the Incan emperor was believed to have been a direct descendent of the sun god.

10/05/2020
Avatar for Lluc DeoconDay
Lluc DeoconDay • COMPLETED LESSON

hello

10/29/2020 • 
IN RESPONSE TO Luna Ramanelle Show the comment
Avatar for Lluc DeoconDay
Lluc DeoconDay • COMPLETED LESSON

whatcha doin

10/29/2020 • 
IN RESPONSE TO Setefano Sete Show the comment
Avatar for Benjamin McAdams
Benjamin McAdams • LESSON IN PROGRESS

you sus

10/29/2020 • 
IN RESPONSE TO Luna Ramanelle Show the comment
Avatar for Lluc DeoconDay
Lluc DeoconDay • COMPLETED LESSON

hello what's popin

10/29/2020
Avatar for Aiden Miranda _ Student - WestMillbrookMS

The way they built

05/11/2021

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About TED-Ed Animations

TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here »

Meet The Creators

  • Educator Gordon McEwan
  • Director Biljana Labovic
  • Script Editor Alex Gendler
  • Animator Emma Carré
  • Designer Emma Carré
  • Composer Nicolas Martigne
  • Associate Producer Elizabeth Cox, Jessica Ruby
  • Content Producer Gerta Xhelo
  • Editorial Producer Alex Rosenthal
  • Narrator Adrian Dannatt
  • Fact-Checker Francisco Diez
  • See more