The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
The correct answer is South America.
The Inca Empire, known to its people as Tawantinsuyu or the “Realm of the Four Parts,” was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. Its heartland and origin point were centered in the dramatic landscape of the Andean mountain range. This massive empire flourished along the western coast of the continent, demonstrating a remarkable ability to unite diverse peoples and manage challenging terrains.
At its zenith in the early 16th century, the empire’s vast territory stretched for thousands of miles. It encompassed a significant portion of modern-day Peru, where its sacred capital city, Cusco, was located. From Cusco, the Inca administered their domain, which extended north into Ecuador and a small part of southern Colombia. To the south, its influence and control reached across Bolivia, most of northern and central Chile, and into the northwestern regions of Argentina. This incredible geographic expanse highlights the Inca’s sophisticated organizational skills and military power.
The Inca are renowned for their masterful adaptation to this diverse environment, which included arid coastal deserts, towering mountain peaks, and the fringes of the Amazon rainforest. They engineered an extensive road network, the Qhapaq Ñan, to connect their territories and developed advanced agricultural techniques like terracing to farm the steep mountain slopes. Famous archaeological sites such as Machu Picchu, with its precise stonework, stand as testaments to their ingenuity and deep connection to the South American landscape. The other options are incorrect as North America and Central America were home to different civilizations like the Aztec and Maya, while the Caribbean islands were inhabited by peoples such as the Taíno.
