Around a century before the Incas arrived in Peru, the land was under rule of the Chimu. They controlled a large area from the Andes mountains to the Peruvian coast. In the third century, the Incas settled around Lake Titicaca. The Incas lived in the land with other people until around 1438. At this time, the ruler Pachacuti launched several military campaigns expanding the Inca rule to surrounding areas. By the fifteenth century, they expanded their empire from the city of Quito to Santiago and covered over 2,500 miles.
The Incas did not have any form of writing to organize their government, instead they relied on a group of bureaucrats to make decisions. They also relied on a quipu to keep track of their responsibilities. This involved hanging shorter strings onto larger strings and tying knots in the shorter ones to help them remember stuff.
The capital city of the Incan empire was Cuzco, it served as the religious and political center. And it's population reached over one hundred thousand. This is where most of the higher classes lived. The higher classes were made up of nobility, political leaders and priests. This is also where the hostages that they captured were brought.