Incas in Central Chile

Inca rule in Chile was brief, it lasted from the 1470s to the 1530s when the Inca Empire collapsed. The main settlements of the Inca Empire in Chile lay along the Aconcagua, Mapocho and Maipo rivers.Quillota in Aconcagua Valley was likely their foremost settlement. The bulk of the people conquered by the Incas in Central Chile were Diaguitas and part of the Promaucae (also called Picunches).

The exact date of the conquest of Central Chile by the Inca Empire is not known. It is generally accepted that Central Chile was conquered during the reign of Topa Inca Yupanqui and most early Spanish chronicles point out that conquest occurred in the 1470s. Beginning with 19th century historians Diego Barros Arana and José Toribio Medina various scholars have pointed out that the incorporation of Central Chile to the Inca Empire was a gradual process. Nevertheless, it is generally accepted that incorporation into the empire was through warfare which caused a severe depopulation in the Transverse Valleys of Norte Chico, the Diaguita homeland.

One theory claims Central Chile was conquered by the Inca Empire from the east after Inca troops crossed the Andes at Valle Hermoso (32º22' S) and Uspallata Pass (32º50' S). This attack from the east would have been done in order to avoid the more direct but inhospitable routes crossing the Atacama Desert. José Toribio Medina claimed in 1882 that the Incas entered Central Chile from both north and east.

Troops of the Inca Empire are reported to have reached Maule River and had a battle with Mapuches from Maule River and Itata River there.

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