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Incan Empire Aided by Global Warming (Rossella Lorenzi, 7/28/09, Discovery News)

A 400-year warm spell helped the ancient Inca to build the largest empire ever to exist in the Americas, a new study has established.

Beginning around 1100 A.D., the increase in temperature served as a "perfect incubator" for the Inca's expansion, an international team of researchers report in the current issue of the journal Climate of the Past.

"Climate warming does not always have to be a negative issue. Our research shows that it can favor societal development, " lead author Alex Chepstow-Lusty, a palaeoecologist from the French Institute for Andean Studies in Lima, Peru, told Discovery News.