The Quechua-speaking Cabanas, probably descended from the Wari culture, and
the Aymara-speaking Collaguas, who moved to the area from the Lake Titicaca
region, inhabited the valley in the pre-Inca era. The Inca probably arrived in
the Colca Valley around 1320 AD, and established their dominion through
marriage, rather than through warfare. The Spaniards, under Gonzalo Pizarro,
arrived in 1540 and in the 1570s the Spanish viceroy Francisco de Toledo
ordered the inhabitants to leave their scattered settlements and to move to a
series of centrally located pueblos, which remain the principal towns of the
valley