The history of Peru spans several millennia. Long before the Incas, there existed peoples who thrived in this territory. About 15,200 years ago, groups of people are believed to have crossed the Bering Strait from Asia and survived as nomads, hunting, gathering fruits and vegetables and fishing in the sea, rivers and lakes. Peruvian territory was home to the Norte Chico civilization, one of the six oldest in the world, and to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. When the Spanish landed in 1531, Peru's territory was the nucleus of the highly developed Inca civilization....