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Chapter 2.2 The Woes of the Welsers
Damn it Bartholomew I'm a banker not a landed aristocrat!
The Welser family was a banking family.
They were not a landed family originally. They were not known for their martial power. They were not men of the church more so then anyone else. They had a fine sounding lineage, but nothing more recent then the long dead Byzantine Empire. People feared the Welser family, even Kings and Emperors feared the Welser family. But they did not fear the sword, they feared the money. They did not fear the nonexistent rich lands of the Welsers, they feared the cold numbers of the family’s finances. Banking was where the Welsers had made their fortune, and banking was where they had stayed.
Until now.
In 1528 the Welsers had been granted Venezuela by Charles V in lieu of debt payments, and it was son given the German title Klein Venedig. In the two decades of Welser little had been done. Some settlement had occurred near the coast and some slaves had been imported for sugar plantations, but many had Germans had died of tropical diseases while mining for gold. Thus, the main industry of the Welsers in South America remained looting native American tribes and looking for the mythical city of El Dorado.
In short nothing in the history of the Welser family had in any way prepared them to run their new holdings. Kito was an ancient city, with a long history of central rule. Before the war it had been the seat of power for the most influential group in the empire. And now the armies that had served Quisquis so faithfully were disbanded, their soldiers sent home across the north.
Philipp von Hutten and Bartholomeus VI. Welser were optimistic however. They named their new territory Kleine Alpen or “Little Alps”. As Hutten was already Governor of Klein Venedig Welser, age 36 and heir to a powerful fortune, was named Captain-General. Still concerned about a possible Spanish incursion into Klein Venedig Hutten left as soon as possible once the new order was set up in Kito aboard a Spanish ship. He promised Welser that he would send new troops as soon as possible, either by sea or via the overland route in Columbia the pair had forged. With that promise Hutten departed and left Welser in charge.
Welser had the self-awareness to realize that his situation was tenuous and so appealed to the tribes that lived on the fringes of Kleine Alpen, in jungles that were decidedly not alpine. In exchange for gold and military support he offered them near complete autonomy and freedom to do as they pleased. These tribes in general were fine with paying tribute to Kito, but were reluctant to actually leave their homes to assist Welser’s rule.
These actions, while a stabilizing on the frontiers alienated the heart of Kleine Alpen: Kito. They saw this moves as a deep betrayal from a ruler who had only come into power by treacherously backstabbing Quisquis, a well-respected figure in the area. Welser also immediately seized the gold in Kito and began melting it down. His men invaded temples and desecrated holy sites. Men were forced to bow to a strange foreign cross. All in all, very standard actions for Europeans who had just humbled a mighty native empire.
But the people of Kito had not been humbled. Their leaders had been murdered and in the ensuing chaos they had been occupied. Kito had been occupied before by Europeans, but they had soon been expelled, and even if no help from the south was going to come there existed a strong feeling of superiority amongst the people.
Poma would never live a peaceful life again
Then someone found a mummy. In June 1551, the height of the Andean winter, reports began to emerge from just south of Quito of a rabble rouser called Poma. This was almost certainly not his real name, Poma being the term for Panther, but he still began attracting a large group of followers. Poma was a veteran of the wars that had preceded the division of the Tawantinsuyu. Reports indicate he fought the Spanish several times as well as fighting against the Mapuche before ending up in Quisquis’s army. Like most of said army he was sent home when his side was defeated, but only after having developed a strong sense of loyalty to men like Quisquis and Atawallpa. Under normal circumstances he would have returned home to a quiet life, but the world was changing. Exact records are nonexistent but he probably returned home to find it devastated. His speeches claimed it had been burned by the Welsers, which is very probably false, but he likely found it infected with a few deadly European diseases, many which he might have recognized as uncurbable. Whatever happened there was nothing left for him at his home and he became a wanderer.
Unheard of in the well-ordered days before contact a small but growing number of migrants took to roads of the Tawantinsuyu and Poma joined them, wandering around Kleine Alpen in search of…something.
He found (or made) a mummy.
Mummified remains of rulers held a special position in the faith of the Tawantinsuyu. Even as civil war had raged Atawallpa’s body had been carried unhindered to Qusqo for the process.They retained their old palaces in Qusqo and were periodically borught out for festivals and offered food and drink. Extreme reverence was given to them, and they were an important link between past glories and the present.
And Poma claimed to have found Ninancoro’s. Never mind the fact that Poma had probably had never been back to the site of Ninancoro’s since he had been ordered home. Never mind that the Welsers would have just buried the would be Sapa Inka and that a body switch would have been near impossible. What mattered was that the angered men of the north now had a symbol to rally around in resistance to Welser rule.
What no one, not even the man himself, knew was that in Poma they had found a man who could turn this resistance into something dangerous.
Damn it Bartholomew I'm a banker not a landed aristocrat!
They were not a landed family originally. They were not known for their martial power. They were not men of the church more so then anyone else. They had a fine sounding lineage, but nothing more recent then the long dead Byzantine Empire. People feared the Welser family, even Kings and Emperors feared the Welser family. But they did not fear the sword, they feared the money. They did not fear the nonexistent rich lands of the Welsers, they feared the cold numbers of the family’s finances. Banking was where the Welsers had made their fortune, and banking was where they had stayed.
Until now.
In 1528 the Welsers had been granted Venezuela by Charles V in lieu of debt payments, and it was son given the German title Klein Venedig. In the two decades of Welser little had been done. Some settlement had occurred near the coast and some slaves had been imported for sugar plantations, but many had Germans had died of tropical diseases while mining for gold. Thus, the main industry of the Welsers in South America remained looting native American tribes and looking for the mythical city of El Dorado.
In short nothing in the history of the Welser family had in any way prepared them to run their new holdings. Kito was an ancient city, with a long history of central rule. Before the war it had been the seat of power for the most influential group in the empire. And now the armies that had served Quisquis so faithfully were disbanded, their soldiers sent home across the north.
Philipp von Hutten and Bartholomeus VI. Welser were optimistic however. They named their new territory Kleine Alpen or “Little Alps”. As Hutten was already Governor of Klein Venedig Welser, age 36 and heir to a powerful fortune, was named Captain-General. Still concerned about a possible Spanish incursion into Klein Venedig Hutten left as soon as possible once the new order was set up in Kito aboard a Spanish ship. He promised Welser that he would send new troops as soon as possible, either by sea or via the overland route in Columbia the pair had forged. With that promise Hutten departed and left Welser in charge.
Welser had the self-awareness to realize that his situation was tenuous and so appealed to the tribes that lived on the fringes of Kleine Alpen, in jungles that were decidedly not alpine. In exchange for gold and military support he offered them near complete autonomy and freedom to do as they pleased. These tribes in general were fine with paying tribute to Kito, but were reluctant to actually leave their homes to assist Welser’s rule.
These actions, while a stabilizing on the frontiers alienated the heart of Kleine Alpen: Kito. They saw this moves as a deep betrayal from a ruler who had only come into power by treacherously backstabbing Quisquis, a well-respected figure in the area. Welser also immediately seized the gold in Kito and began melting it down. His men invaded temples and desecrated holy sites. Men were forced to bow to a strange foreign cross. All in all, very standard actions for Europeans who had just humbled a mighty native empire.
But the people of Kito had not been humbled. Their leaders had been murdered and in the ensuing chaos they had been occupied. Kito had been occupied before by Europeans, but they had soon been expelled, and even if no help from the south was going to come there existed a strong feeling of superiority amongst the people.
Poma would never live a peaceful life again
Then someone found a mummy. In June 1551, the height of the Andean winter, reports began to emerge from just south of Quito of a rabble rouser called Poma. This was almost certainly not his real name, Poma being the term for Panther, but he still began attracting a large group of followers. Poma was a veteran of the wars that had preceded the division of the Tawantinsuyu. Reports indicate he fought the Spanish several times as well as fighting against the Mapuche before ending up in Quisquis’s army. Like most of said army he was sent home when his side was defeated, but only after having developed a strong sense of loyalty to men like Quisquis and Atawallpa. Under normal circumstances he would have returned home to a quiet life, but the world was changing. Exact records are nonexistent but he probably returned home to find it devastated. His speeches claimed it had been burned by the Welsers, which is very probably false, but he likely found it infected with a few deadly European diseases, many which he might have recognized as uncurbable. Whatever happened there was nothing left for him at his home and he became a wanderer.
Unheard of in the well-ordered days before contact a small but growing number of migrants took to roads of the Tawantinsuyu and Poma joined them, wandering around Kleine Alpen in search of…something.
He found (or made) a mummy.
Mummified remains of rulers held a special position in the faith of the Tawantinsuyu. Even as civil war had raged Atawallpa’s body had been carried unhindered to Qusqo for the process.They retained their old palaces in Qusqo and were periodically borught out for festivals and offered food and drink. Extreme reverence was given to them, and they were an important link between past glories and the present.
And Poma claimed to have found Ninancoro’s. Never mind the fact that Poma had probably had never been back to the site of Ninancoro’s since he had been ordered home. Never mind that the Welsers would have just buried the would be Sapa Inka and that a body switch would have been near impossible. What mattered was that the angered men of the north now had a symbol to rally around in resistance to Welser rule.
What no one, not even the man himself, knew was that in Poma they had found a man who could turn this resistance into something dangerous.
- King of the Uzbeks
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