Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui
Pachacuti transformed the Inca from a local chiefdom into the largest empire in the Americas. He came to power around 1438, and the name he took means he who overturns the world. The traditional account has him as a younger son passed over for the succession. When the Chanka confederation attacked Cuzco, his father and designated heir fled the city; Pachacuti stayed, organised the defence, and destroyed the Chanka — after which he deposed his father and took the throne. He then expanded systematically for three decades, in campaigns continued by his son Túpac Inca Yupanqui, taking the Titicaca basin, the central highlands and the coast, and building a state that eventually ran some four thousand kilometres from Colombia to Chile. The administrative system is his, and it is what distinguishes the Inca from earlier Andean states. Conquered populations were resettled as mitmaqkuna to break local resistance and spread loyal groups; labour was owed to the state as the mit'a rather than tribute in goods; storehouses along the roads held food and cloth against famine and for armies; and records were kept on knotted-cord quipus. Quechua was spread as an administrative language. He rebuilt Cuzco on a plan said to be shaped like a puma, constructed the Coricancha temple of the sun, and organised the ceque system of sacred lines radiating from it. Machu Picchu is generally attributed to him as a royal estate. He established the cult of the sun as an imperial religion above local deities, while allowing those to continue. He died around 1471.
- Lived: 1418 CE – 1471 CE
- Nationality: Peruvian
- Roles: ruler
