Inca Empire · 1438-1533

Tawantinsuyu: the Inca Empire

In less than a century, the Inca built the largest empire of the Americas, stretching about 4,000 km along the Andes. Students explore how Tawantinsuyu was run from Cusco without money or writing, and why Machu Picchu survived.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 1500
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

In less than a century, the Inca built the largest empire of the Americas, stretching about 4,000 km along the Andes. Students explore how Tawantinsuyu was run from Cusco without money or writing, and why Machu Picchu survived.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe the size of the Inca Empire in 1500 and name its four parts.
  • Explain how the mit'a labour system, storehouses and khipu kept the empire running.
  • Locate Cusco and Machu Picchu and explain why Machu Picchu was not "discovered" in 1911.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1500

The Inca on the story

Open Stories (top left), play Empires of the Americas and stop at the step on the Inca in 1500. Zoom out: from which modern country to which does the empire stretch?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1400

Many states become one

Set the map to 1400 and look at the Andes: the map shows separate states and chiefdoms, such as the Chimú. Then jump to 1500. What has changed in one century?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1500

Cusco and Machu Picchu

Turn on Cities and zoom in on Cusco in 1500. Then follow the Urubamba River north-west to Machu Picchu. Why would a ruler build a royal estate on a mountain ridge?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Tawantinsuyu means "the four parts together". Why would an empire name itself after its parts?
  2. The Inca had no money. People paid taxes with labour, called mit'a. What jobs might the state need done?
  3. Thousands of storehouses held food, cloth and weapons. Why were they so important in the Andes?
  4. The Inca moved whole communities to new regions. Why would a ruler do that, and how would those people feel?
  5. Local farmers knew Machu Picchu long before Hiram Bingham made it famous in 1911. Why do we still often hear that he "discovered" it?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Moctezuma II, who ruled the Aztecs while Huayna Capac ruled the Inca. Afterwards, compare: the Aztecs collected tribute in goods, while the Inca collected labour. Which system gives a ruler more control?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.