◦ **"Chiri" (Quechua):** It is believed that the term derives from this word, which means "cold" or "border," since for the center of the empire, this area represented the coldest edge of the known world.

◦ **“Chili” (Aymara):** This name is associated with the meaning of “the farthest place on earth,” due to the great distance that separated this territory from the imperial capital in Cusco, the center of the four parts of the world or *Tawantinsuyu* in the Inca worldview.

The Inca presence in what is now Chilean territory (initially recorded in chronicles as “*Chili*”) was short-lived, lasting from the 1470s until the dissolution of the empire at the hands of the Spanish Crown in the 1530s. The most significant urban and agricultural centers of *Tawantinsuyu* were concentrated in the basins of the Aconcagua, Mapocho, and Maipo rivers, with Quillota as the hegemonic settlement in the Aconcagua region.

The local groups subjugated in the central region were primarily the Diaguita and the Promauca (or Picunche). From the geopolitical perspective of the empire, there was a clear distinction between the "province of Chile" and the neighboring "province of Copayapo," located to the north. Furthermore, the occupation of the Aconcagua Valley entailed the forced resettlement of populations (*mitimaes*) originally from Arequipa and, presumably, from the Lake Titicaca basin.

**Image:** Historical map of Chile from the 17th century, simply titled "CHILI," created by the famous Dutch cartographer Willem Blaeu (as indicated by the signature "Guiljelmus Blaeuw" in the lower left corner) and originally published around 1635.

There are several etymological theories that connect the current name of Chile with the name given to the southernmost region of the Altiplano during the Inca era: