section_path: History
section_name: History
paragraph_text: History
  
  After the first humans — who were then arranged into hunter-gatherer tribal groups — arrived in South America via the Isthmus of Panama, they spread out across the continent, with the earliest evidence for settlement in the Andean region dating to circa 15,000 BCE, in what archaeologists call the Lithic Period. In the ensuing Andean preceramic period, plants began to be widely cultivated, and first complex society, Caral-Supe civilization, emerged at 3500 BCE, and lasted until 1800 BCE. Also, distinct religious centres emerged, such as the Kotosh Religious Tradition in the highlands.
  
  This was followed by the Ceramic Period. Various complex societies developed at this time, such as Chavín culture, lasting from 900 BCE to 200 BCE, Paracas culture, lasting from 800 BCE to 200 BCE, its successor Nazca culture, lasting from 200 BCE to 800 CE, the Moche civilisation, lasting from 100 to 700, Wari and Tiwanaku Empires, with both lasting from 600 to 1000, and Chimor, lasting from 900 to 1470.
  
  In later periods, much of the Andean region was conquered by the indigenous Incas, who in 1438 founded the largest empire that the Americas had ever seen, named Tahuantinsuyu, but usually called the Inca Empire. The Inca governed their empire from the capital city of Cuzco, administering it along traditional Andean lines. The Inca Empire rose from Kingdom of Cuzco, founded around 1230.
  
  In the 16th century, Spanish colonisers from Europe arrived in the Andes, eventually subjugating the indigenous kingdoms and incorporating the Andean region into the Spanish Empire.