Bronze Age New World v2.0

[Hnau]

So, does anyone else have issues with the *Arawaks as they stand? What should we cover from here? The development of the *Aztecs/Tlon/Tlantec and the rest of Mesoamerica? The *Mississippians? The *Chesapeake? The *Muisca?

I think I'll go ahead and redo the *Floridans/*Timuchan. I gave a shot at it in 2009, now I'll go back and moderate that piece a bit. I want the Bronze Age Americas to be completely detailed by the time we bring in the Spanish and other Europeans. I'd like to follow the original timeline as much as possible, but we'll no doubt find complications here and there. For example, the Florida Amerindians were in OTL a very martial society, and in the original BANW they were portrayed as a defenseless population whose only redeeming feature were their beautiful dancers. Ponce de Leon made short work of them. In v2.0, they might put up much more of a fight.

It looks like the Mississippians won't have much in the way of tin bronze... in the original BANW it was suggested that the Mississippians use their large network of rivers to extract tin ores in small amounts from various locations, but where does it come from? Maybe there is a little bit of tin here and there, but I can't find anything on the internet that tell me where there was historical tin mining. It is also suggested that there is a large amount of tin in Wisconsin... I can't find any source for that! Instead, beyond the rare discovery of a small source of tin, the Mississippians will probably instead learn how to make arsenical bronze or silver bronze. That in itself will be expensive to make, so the Mississippians won't be fielding armies of soldiers wearing bronze breastplates and bronze swords, but it could probably sustain the kind of manufacturing, construction, and industry that relies on bronze implements. Apparently there's some tin in the Rocky Mountains... the Mississippians couldn't conquer that area, but they could trade for it. That would likely encourage bronze-working among the Pueblos, which could be very interesting.

How long would it take for the peoples of Wisconsin to develop iron smelting? The Thule were already using meteoric iron by 1000 CE, and ITTL they might move beyond just cold-hammering it, if knowledge of copper-working and bronze-working reaches them. As for Wisconsin... it looks like the Hittites had bronze-working for two thousand years before they even began experimenting with iron smelting, and it took the peoples of the Middle East another thousand years before it became anything beyond a rarity. However, it seems it took only a couple of hundred years after iron smelting was mastered by the Middle Eastern people to spread throughout Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and the Near East. Perhaps it takes a long time for iron smelting to be perfected, but once it is, it spreads very quickly? In Africa it seems iron-working was developed independently, and also more quickly than the Europeans, taking only a thousand years after they developed copper smelting. It looks like, to retain plausibility, the Wisconsin peoples will need about a thousand years after they are introduced to arsenical bronzes to figure out iron-working. Even if they remain independent into the 19th or even 20th centuries, they won't have enough time to develop smelted iron on their own. If they do discover iron-working, it'll be because of European influences. As for the Andean cultures, well, if they retain their cultural attitude that metals should only be used to make ornamentation, there's no way they'd put to use the abundant iron ores in the Andes.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

So, does anyone else have issues with the *Arawaks/Barano as they stand? What should we cover from here? The development of the *Aztecs/Tlon/Tlantec and the rest of Mesoamerica? The *Mississippians? The *Chesapeake? The *Muisca?

I think I'll go ahead and redo the *Floridans/*Timuchan. I gave a shot at it in 2009, now I'll go back and moderate that piece a bit. I want the Bronze Age Americas to be completely detailed by the time we bring in the Spanish and other Europeans. I'd like to follow the original timeline as much as possible, but we'll no doubt find complications here and there. For example, the Florida Amerindians were in OTL a very martial society, and in the original BANW they were portrayed as a defenseless population whose only redeeming feature were their beautiful dancers. Ponce de Leon made short work of them. In v2.0, they might put up much more of a fight.

It looks like the Mississippians won't have much in the way of tin bronze... in the original BANW it was suggested that the Mississippians use their large network of rivers to extract tin ores in small amounts from various locations, but where does it come from? Maybe there is a little bit of tin here and there, but I can't find anything on the internet that tell me where there was historical tin mining. It is also suggested that there is a large amount of tin in Wisconsin... I can't find any source for that! Instead, beyond the rare discovery of a small source of tin, the Mississippians will probably instead learn how to make arsenical bronze or silver bronze. That in itself will be expensive to make, so the Mississippians won't be fielding armies of soldiers wearing bronze breastplates and bronze swords, but it could probably sustain the kind of manufacturing, construction, and industry that relies on bronze implements. Apparently there's some tin in the Rocky Mountains... the Mississippians couldn't conquer that area, but they could trade for it. That would likely encourage bronze-working among the Pueblos, which could be very interesting.

How long would it take for the peoples of Wisconsin to develop iron smelting? The Thule were already using meteoric iron by 1000 CE, and ITTL they might move beyond just cold-hammering it, if knowledge of copper-working and bronze-working reaches them. As for Wisconsin... it looks like the Hittites had bronze-working for two thousand years before they even began experimenting with iron smelting, and it took the peoples of the Middle East another thousand years before it became anything beyond a rarity. However, it seems it took only a couple of hundred years after iron smelting was mastered by the Middle Eastern people to spread throughout Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and the Near East. Perhaps it takes a long time for iron smelting to be perfected, but once it is, it spreads very quickly? In Africa it seems iron-working was developed independently, and also more quickly than the Europeans, taking only a thousand years after they developed copper smelting. It looks like, to retain plausibility, the Wisconsin peoples will need about a thousand years after they are introduced to arsenical bronzes to figure out iron-working. Even if they remain independent into the 19th or even 20th centuries, they won't have enough time to develop smelted iron on their own. If they do discover iron-working, it'll be because of European influences. As for the Andean cultures, well, if they retain their cultural attitude that metals should only be used to make ornamentation, there's no way they'd put to use the abundant iron ores in the Andes.

Don't know about tin ores, specifically, although I will say that I know they're rare in general. Note that classical civilization sailed all the way to Britain to get tin....

As I understand it, if you have a good supply of bronze (as I gather the Andeans did), then iron is pretty useless (until you've had that 1000 years of practice). I would imagine that within the Andes (and part of Mesoamerica?) bronze would be kept as the standard tool-metal, and it's only elsewhere, where they have to make do with copper that they start experimenting with iron.

If you wanted to 'cheat' a wee bit, you could have a surviving boat of random Phoenicians/Norse, whatever, show up and have the shipwrecked survivors show the locals how to smelt iron.

Surely the odd castaways showed up in North America iOTL for ages before Columbus.

 

[Hnau]

Yeah, Darthi, I better just keep the Americas like the timeline says they'll be: Bronze Age. Even getting civilizations to that point is hard as it is, I'll stay away from iron-working. The only thing I'll say is this: the first native culture to discover it, if they ever do, will be the Wisconsin.

---

Instead of working on *Florida I instead went to a region that didn't interest me all that much at first.

*Venezuela

*Venezuela was the ancestral birthplace of the *Arawak civilization that proved so influential ITTL. After all, it was near the Orinoco River delta that the outrigger canoe was first invented. However, as the *Arawak civilization spread further and further out, the center of their civilization drifted further north into the Antilles. It didn’t take long before the peoples of the Orinoco River basin were no longer considered cousins, but potential slaves. This distinction grew wider when the Orinoco *Arawak began to be displaced by the more aggressive Caribs migrating northward. The Caribs of the Orinoco were raided excessively and exported throughout the Caribbean islands. They even married into *Arawak families, to the point that by the collapse of the *Arawak thalassocracy, most of the lower and middle classes had significant Carib ancestry.

As the *Arawak civilization collapsed, the population of the Caribs began to gradually increase, as they no longer had to defend from constant slave raids. Setting up a permanent village and farming the land was no longer dangerous. With a growing population, eventually the Caribs expanded outward to explore the devastated coastlines of the former *Arawak civilization. Already having been exposed to outrigger canoes, the Caribs began re-inventing the old *Arawak navigational package. While their ships would pale in comparison to the great sailing catamarans of the Beforetime, they still using cotton sails and rigging made out of plant fiber. *Arawak survivors on the Venezuelan coastline and the Lesser Antilles were contacted and then absorbed into new Carib colonies. On the northern coastline of Venezuela the old irrigation systems were refurbished and old bronze, copper and obsidian tools were used to reconstruct the various agricultural earthworks. Fortunately, the mainland *Arawaks weren't so overspecialized in their agriculture, so the majority of their crop package could be recovered. The Caribs began to grow the old food crops: cassava, squash, beans, peppers, peanuts, pineapples, tobacco, pumpkins, cacao beans, goosefoot and maize. Wild turkeys were also found and domesticated once again. In the 15th century, *Muisca and even *Tlantec traders re-established contact with some of the coastal Carib settlements and brought the first new bronze tools that the Venezuelan Caribs had seen since the *Arawaks had collapsed.

By the time of European contact, Venezuela is home to two closely related cultures. The Caribs of the northern coast bear some resemblance to the former *Arawaks because of intermixing with the survivors. Their farms are irrigated and productive, and they do a lot of fishing in outrigger canoes with large square sails. Politically they are separated into various coastal chiefdoms that respect but are not ruled by a high chief who commands a large fortified city at OTL Caracas. In *Caracas the stone towers and cement plazas have been rebuilt, expanded upon and there are some impressive earth works that the *Arawaks never built there. Metal tools are rare, but amate paper is being produced again and the priestly class of the local religion has picked up numbers and writing once more. As many 8,000 people inhabit this new city. At OTL Lake Valencia irrigation has provided a large surplus of food that supports an even larger population: as many as 12,000 people. The small amount of gold being extracted by slaves at the old *Arawak mines in nearby Yaracuy provide the people here with an exportable commodity that is traded for bronze tools. If it weren't for the fact that the settlements there are divided into a number of small chiefdoms, the high chief at *Caracas would be very wary of the recent rise of the cities on *Lake Valencia. He's been more confident ever since his fleets have taken complete control of the pearl oyster industry at the islands of OTL Nueva Esparta, which pearls the occasional Tlantec merchant will trade highly for.

In the Orinoco River basin, permanent villages with sustainable agriculture are on the rise. Nomadic hunting-and-gathering is finally on its way out and the population is growing quickly. There's some new crops in the forests that weren't there in OTL, along with some interesting earthworks and the occasional metal tools and weapons. However, not too much is different than OTL other than the higher population. The people here still remain largely unclothed and illiterate.

There could be some interesting divergence here once the Europeans show up. It's not as different as say, the Mississippians, but the area will appear wealthier, with larger coastal settlements, pearls, gold. In OTL it took a few decades for the Europeans to discover the Yaracuy gold mines and put them into production, here they'll follow the gold trail straight to them. It won't be productive as OTL, though, since ITTL the *Arawak and the Caribs have been extracting gold for generations. What will be productive is the cacao bean, which ITTL is already being grown extensively here. In OTL, if I'm not mistaken, it had to be brought to Venezuela and the industry didn't take off until the 18th century. Here, the Spanish will be able to exploit Carib cacao plantations right from the start. It could also get really interesting if the German Fugger bankers still get interested in the region and actually succeed in returning some serious profits, prompting a serious colonization effort. They'd probably fail in the end but... who knows?

 

[Hnau]

Where should we start with the Andean civilizations?

The POD finally effects them once the *Arawaks begin colonizing Lake Nicaragua and the adjacent Pacific coastline in the 9th century. They don't go to this region pursuing the Pacific trade, but eventually they come into contact with traders from the the Manteno civilization that have been trading as far as Western Mexico since the 8th century. First contact between these two cultures must have been very interesting. They might have met at sea. The tattooed *Arawak sailors would have stood intimidatingly in their catamarans, hefting obsidian macuahuitl-style swords and long obsidian knives, shaded by large square cotton sails painted with the emblem of their trading company. The Manteno would have much more room on their balsa rafts, and the small deck house would have seemed to the *Arawak like a floating house. They would have been armed with axes and spears with heads made of crude arsenic bronze and might have sported feathered necklaces and piercings of gold and silver.

The Manteno had commodities the *Arawak might appreciate: the beautiful Spondylus conch and their bronze implements. So did the *Arawak: their obsidian tools and weapons and perhaps a few slaves that helped with rowing. Both cultures had a sophisticated merchant class... trade would have picked up very quickly. Who knows, maybe the *Arawak would start building Manteno-style rafts to float obsidian down the San Juan river, and certainly they'll recognize the advantages of triangular sails. Likewise, the Manteno would have picked up writing. Obsidian would have been swapped for arsenic bronzes. What's more important is that trading on the Pacific coastline would have picked up considerably, especially once the Mesoamericans start building their own ships and making tin bronze.

Bronze tools, armor, and weapons from Mesoamerica would inevitably arrive in Ecuador, but because of the Andean cultural stigma against metallic tools and weaponry they wouldn't penetrate further south. The Manteno were at based a highly-organized league of merchants and probably wouldn't put bronze tools to great use. There will be no large pyramids or canals in Ecuador, so the Andeans won't realize what they are missing out on. The same goes for writing: the Andeans have quipu and that's good enough for them. What might eventually get traded are domesticated animals: the Mexican turkey, the Chihuahua, the Mexican Hairless dog, even the Muscovy duck. In return the Inca would send the llama, the alpaca, and the guinea pig. When would such a transfer happen?

If the Manteno traders were sailing from South America to North America in OTL up until European contact, why didn't the potato ever arrive? Or the guinea pig? They are easy enough to bring along. Obviously, trading was just too sporadic IOTL. Here it won't be. So as to not disturb the timeline too much in North America, let's have the guinea pig and potato arrive in Mesoamerica around the time that the *Arawak begin to collapse: the 14th century. The llama will come next, followed shortly thereafter by the alpaca in the 15th century. They'll likely spread quickly in the Mexican highlands.

Following this same logic, turkeys, dogs and ducks would arrive in Ecuador by the 14th century and filter down to the Andeans by the 15th, along with what, cacao beans and amaranth? That's not enough to change society as much as say, bronze-working or writing, but it will cause butterflies.

Simple butterflies could actually create the most change in this region. How ASB was Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui in 1438, right? While all the other city-states remained stagnant and sleepy, he took the Kingdom of Qusco and through genius and force of will conquered a multi-ethnic empire ranging from Ecuador to Lake Titicaca. He was a Great Man that I think would most likely be butterflied away in this timeline. There's something to say of Qusco... it seemed to be technologically and politically advanced compared to the other kingdoms, and it had a population surplus that could be shipped off to other regions to cement imperial control, and it didn't produce just one Genius King, but also Tupac Inca Yupanqui and Huayna Capac, all formidable rulers in their own right. They might have gotten a lot of it from dear old dad Pachacuti and might have been riding on previous victories, but if Qusco didn't have the right intellectual environment the conquests of the Inca might have ended with Pachacuti.

So what will it be? Should we butterfly away Pachacuti and keep the Andes dominated by small kingdoms and city-states? Or should we have another Great Man rise to unite them? In any case, the Manteno will be slightly more difficult to conquer, being much stronger in this timeline.

 

[NothingNow]

It's all very good so far, and as interesting as I remember the original being.

I think I'll go ahead and redo the *Floridans/*Timuchan. I gave a shot at it in 2009, now I'll go back and moderate that piece a bit. I want the Bronze Age Americas to be completely detailed by the time we bring in the Spanish and other Europeans. I'd like to follow the original timeline as much as possible, but we'll no doubt find complications here and there. For example, the Florida Amerindians were in OTL a very martial society, and in the original BANW they were portrayed as a defenseless population whose only redeeming feature were their beautiful dancers. Ponce de Leon made short work of them. In v2.0, they might put up much more of a fight.

I could provide a bit of help with that regarding useful crops, soil types and things if you need it. There's plenty of good soil and water here too, and some weird things you'd never guess. Like the occasional drought being exacerbated by a Muck fire.

So you could get a pretty intensely farmed place full of warlike people really easily, and then one year following a drought, have a whole region go up in smoke, if tornados don't do them in.

Where should we start with the Andean civilizations?

So what will it be? Should we butterfly away Pachacuti and keep the Andes dominated by small kingdoms and city-states? Or should we have another Great Man rise to unite them? In any case, the Manteno will be slightly more difficult to conquer, being much stronger in this timeline.

A great unifier or two creating some larger feuding kindgoms up the chain, dealing with both their Lowlander neighbor states, and traders seems interesting. I say keep Pachacuti.

 

[Hnau]

Kingdoms of the High Crest Mountains (Part One)

Some time in the 800s CE there was a chance meeting on the cold western ocean that would affect civilizations on two continents. The Sea People had conquered the western shores of the Obsidian Country a generation ago. Only the aged warriors, their tattoos distorted on sagging old flesh, remembered when they had first taken the land for their own. They had fought their way up the rapids of the Obsidian River, built their naval craft amid the dangers of the Obsidian Lake, and with torch, spear and atlatl had burned down every native village they could find. The Sea People had become rich here, their warriors sported long knives, fearsome swords and quivers full of spears and atlatl darts that would make the most fearsome slaver of the Home Islands quiver in fear. The cow-like natives of the region had all been enslaved to build new villages and roads and boats, each bearing the painted flags of the Sea People. A new kingdom was being built.

A new kingdom with more slaves than freedmen needed food. The Sea People knew where they could get enough of it. Food would come from this new ocean they had discovered. Though tree trunks of the right size and quality were hard to find in these parts, fishing catamarans were necessary for civilizing these wild shores and so they were built. With nets of grass rope and obsidian harpoons the tattooed conquerors of the Sea People took to the Western Ocean month after month, each voyage bringing in hundreds of fresh, fat, flopping fish. The Obsidian Country was a bounteous land.

One day, sailing farther west than usual in order to impress his crew, a ship captain beheld a strange sight on the horizon. A house floated upon the waves! It was accompanied by what seemed to be two large white sails, though nothing like what the Sea People made. These were triangular sails, not square! Superstitious as ever, it was assumed that the crew had stumbled onto the lair of a sea witch. That didn't keep them from approaching. Instead of finding a witch, the tattooed fishermen found themselves as the first people of their civilization to encounter high sea merchants of the League of the Conch Coast.

The Conch-folk were much farther from home than the Sea People. They had been traveling the waves on their balsa raft northwards for weeks and, as they always did, provisions were running low. They would be more than rewarded when they made it to their clients that resided in the Sapote Nation, they would eat and drink like kings, for their ornaments and conchs fetched a high price there. Now, however, many showed signs of the onset of scurvy and dehydration was taking its toll. The Sea People looked fearsome to the Conch-Folk, indeed, they could be pirates, but the temptation of food and water lured them to bring their raft next to their strange ship. The raft master, dressed in a bright feathered head-dress and a feathered necklace, piercings of gold and silver on his face, wielding a greening bronze axe, presented himself to the tattooed strangers, and bowed.

The Sea People could have taken them all as slaves that moment, could have sunk their floating house after a short scuffle, but the craft was so extraordinary and its crew so gallant that the fisherman-captain that it seemed like it would be an offense to the gods to destroy it all. Instead the crews of each ship inspected the craft of the other, they poked and tested the rigging and masts of the other that were so alien. Despite the fact that they could not understand each other's tongue, they were fascinated by new methods and materials. A razor obsidian sword was traded for a bronze axe. A feathered necklace traded for a bone flute. Drinking water was given to the parched sailors. And the Conch-folk insisted on visiting their home port in order to meet their chieftain. They worked together to catch a load of fish and came into the nearest village laughing, arms around shoulders, though they could not understand a word the other spoke.

The merchants did sell their conchs to the Sapote Princes on that voyage for many treasures. They also returned home on the Conch Coast with beautiful obsidian knives with stories of an exciting new trading partner. Within a generation the Conch-folk were visiting the Obsidian Country on almost every journey north. It isn't long before the Sea People fall in love with the covy and start raising them for their own use, or before the Conch-folk start using Sea People letters to keep track of their cargo. The beginning of this cross-cultural trade had only just begun.

 

[Hnau]

Kingdoms of the High Crest Mountains (Part Two)

It's now more than 1300 years since the birth of the messiah known as Jesus Christ. The Obsidian Country has changed significantly. The warrior-conquerors of the past are now legendary... there are few tattoos displayed on bare flesh these days. Various merchant families have established themselves as the ruling oligarchy of the many villages that dot the land. Obsidian swords and arrows are still plentiful, but they aren't as fearsome as they used to be. Instead, every warrior or trader wants a bronze-tipped spear or bronze knife, and there's little in the Obsidian Country to interest foreign producers even if they could contact with them. There are strange tales coming from the east, stories of entire cities spontaneously erupting in flame, of fish-people rising from the ocean to devour coastal villagers, of farmers suddenly turning to ooze in their fields. No one is allowed to travel up or down the Obsidian River any more, all strangers are shot on sight by orders of the High Chieftain of the Lake. The People of the Obsidian Country are no longer the Sea People. They have created their own dialect, mythology, and culture. Slavery has become uncommon. Even the diet of the people here has changed. Small, hardy potatoes have spread from the Conch Coast, and while they don't grow everywhere in Obsidian Country, it does supplement their food supplies. It's eaten with the beans, squash, cassava, plantains and pineapples native to the region, along with covy meat. The small pig-like covies are found on virtually every farm-hut, eating mainly waste and turning it into delicious if stringy meat. On the sea, the Obsidian People have largely copied the sea vessels of the Conch-folk, they use triangular cotton sails and now build rafts made of local materials.

Meanwhile, in the League of the Conch Coast, merchant houses have been making profits for centuries with no real dark age. Life has only become better and better. The Conch-folk are healthier, wealthier, and more organized than ever before. It is perhaps the most meritocratic society that can be found in the Americas. There are no chieftains, no aristocratic lineages, no state-supported priest class. The heads of the various houses in the League communicate with a version of the Sea People syllabary, sending letters to one another on paper made from various plant life. Bronze-working techniques has continued to progress, and many tools and even weapons are made from arsenic and tin bronzes. The Conch-folk build brick houses, stone towers and travel by cobblestone roads. They are excellent weavers and makers of ornaments and jewelry. Ceramics are as advanced as they can get without the invention of the potter's wheel. Turkeys and ducks are being bred for their meat, and small dogs from the Sapote People have become popular pets. It is a rich land, and its influence and culture is spreading. The balsa rafts of the Conch Coast travel up and down the coastline of the Americas for thousands of miles in either direction. Bronze coins minted here are used as currency among cultures the Conch-folk have never actually encountered [1].

To the immediate south of the Conch League is the Sican. The Sican rule a collection of small cities on the coast, and while they are not traders like the Conch-folk, they are impressive metallurgists. The Sican are major producers of objects made of arsenical bronze, and numerous alloys of gold, silver and copper. Their cities feature large pyramid temples and extensive canals to irrigate their farms. The Sican are highly religious, it is the main force for cohesion in their country, and as such their society could be called a theocracy. Though they have a tradition of ancestor-worship mixed with worship of their Moon God, all rituals of which are tightly controlled by the elite priestly class, in recent generations the people have turned back to the old nature gods. This rise in "neo-animism" has led to societal destabilization with which the Sican priesthood are greatly concerned. Dogs, ducks, and turkeys have recently been introduced and have led towards a slight increase in population. Knowledge of how to produce bark paper and writing has spread from the Conch League, but is utilized almost solely by the priestly class.

One competitor of the Conch-folk are the people known as the Chimu. Their capital, the adobe city of Chan Chan (population 30,000), located south of the Sican theocracy, is hundreds of years old. It features impressive stonework and a large network of canals to irrigate their farms. Though copper isn't exactly inexpensive, the Chimu have large-scale smelting operations, producing a large array of bronze ornaments and even tools like needles, tweezers, and small hatchets [2]. The Chimu use spindles to weave complex cotton textiles. Beans, sweet potatoes, papaya, amaranth and cocoa beans are grown in their farms. Commoners raise llamas, turkeys, ducks for food and also enjoy having dogs as pets. From Chan Chan there operates a powerful centralized bureaucracy which has its goal the creation of a Chimu empire which would spread up and down the South American coastline. There is a great amount of competition with the Sican, and it seems that at any time war will break out with their state. Chan Chan is separated into various districts ruled by certain walled fortresses, each of which is controlled by a specific guild: the Potter's Guild, the Fisherman's Guild, the Metalworker's Guild [3], and they are highly competitive towards one another, leading to numerous feuds and power plays. The Chimu has lately been growing in power and wealth.

At the southern fringes of the Chimu are the city-states of Chancay, known for amazing textiles and ceramics, and Ichma, known for its many stone pyramids. In the highlands they are bordered by the warlike Huanca clans, who are agricultural and sedentary but otherwise looked down upon as barbarians by all of their neighbors. They launch regular incursions into the Chimor empire and the territory of other kingdoms to raid and loot what they can [4].

Farther to the east in the highlands is the isolated Kingdom of Qosco. Relative newcomers, immigrants from Lake Titicaca, the people of Qosco are intrepid and cultural innovators. They consider themselves the most civilized of nations in the world, having codified a set of laws to govern their kingdom and having abolished human sacrifice. Their Solar Cult has become incredibly popular as of late and has shown itself as a good form of social control, though religious freedom has been codified into a law [5]. Their population is constantly growing thanks to the intelligent bureaucratic management of their resources. Aqueducts, canals, and roads are constructed rapidly, efficiently and maintained with great organization. Qosco has the most organized, well-trained military of any of its neighbors and even a system of public education [6]. They raise llamas, make bronze, are excellent with textiles and ceramics, and keep records through knotted strings called quipu. Recent military conquests have brought an era of prosperity for the Kingdom of Qosco and its citizens [7].

Surrounding Lake Titicaca and spreading through the High Crest Plains and down the western coastline to the southern deserts are the numerous Aymara kingdoms. Culturally somewhat related to the people of Qosco, these used to be very rich polities hundreds of years ago in the age of the Tiwanaku empire. They have organized governments, they use irrigation and terraced farming to maximize food output, and are generally civilized people, but they do not have any large cities like Chan Chan or Qosco and are constantly divided between one another. Metallurgy is advanced, but not as much as the other Andean cultures. Hostile nomadic invaders are sometimes a serious destabilizing problem that is one of many that keeps this area from returning to its previous golden age.

This was the state of affairs for the polities west of the High Crest Mountains during the 14th century CE, already shifting and changing and headed for radical transformation. With the ascent of Amaru Yupanqui [8] to the position of Inca, king of Qosco, the region would never be the same.

--

[1] The Manteno were already producing bronze axeheads to be used as currency, and it wouldn't be long in OTL before the Chimu would start making bronze coins themselves. Because of their energized economy, the Conch League produces bronze coinage first and advances their minting techniques beyond what the Chimu ever achieved.

[2] The usage of bronze implements as tools and weapons hasn't caught on among the Chimu as much as it has among the *Manteno (the Conch League), but they are on their way. Even by the 1500s they won't get to Tlantec levels of using bronze weapons and tools, but they'll get close.

[3] The Chimu didn't have a formalized guild system in OTL, but they did have highly-competitive groups of artisans. I feel they were on their way to developing something like the guilds of Medieval Europe, and here increased Pacific commerce could definitely encourage that happening sooner.

[4] Not much difference in these cultures yet.

[5] Religious freedom was never codified into law in OTL Qosco. This is a butterfly. Religious freedom was ensured to all tributary peoples once the Incas began expanding, so I don't think its that much of a leap to provide religious freedom right from the get go. I think this will make the alt-Incas into one of the more interesting peoples in the Americas, as religious freedom in primitive societies was very uncommon. BTW, there is still a state-supported priestly class devoted to the Sun God, and you're going to be frowned upon if you worship different gods, but you can't be officially punished by the state for your religious beliefs. One thing that religious freedom often creates in history is obviously increased religious competition, which leads to the evolution of more functional, more attractive religions. Here, the Incas might streamline their religious institutions quite a bit more than IOTL.

[6] The development of an Incan system of public education here is simply a butterfly, and mirrors the one used by the Aztecs in OTL. A lot of what is learned is poetry, law, and other cultural aspects of the nation, but there are schools that offer training in writing, astronomy, theology and military strategy. The Incas were already instituting mandatory schooling for the young nobility, so I don't think it would be that hard to expand it to most of society, and in the future it might just stick to the immediate region. This leads to an even richer, energetic culture in Qosco, as well as one with a little bit more military prowess.

[7] Much as in OTL, as in these years their population was growing rapidly and they were able to pacify the numerous hostile tribes that surrounded them. Mesoamerican animals and crops have only barely been introduced to the region, and aren't catching on very well, so Qosco is missing out on the slight population boom that is going on to the west.

[8] This is not Amaru Yupanqui of OTL, the older son of Pachacuti the Earth-shaker, but he does have the same name. His lineage is composed of completely different individuals and his personality is completely unique from any other leader. He comes to power in 1424 CE.

 

[Hnau]

Map of the Andean Kingdoms in the 1300s CE

The colored areas represent the polities that were discussed in the most recent installment. Just because there is empty space does not mean that there is some culture located there. Most of these, however, are nomadic semi-agricultural peoples. The pink area representing the Aymara kingdoms is a very diffuse cultural area... its wide expanse does not mean that every single mile is part of some civilized kingdom or confederacy.

 

[Hnau]

Kingdoms of the High Crest Mountains (Part Three)

It's only as we get into the 15th century CE that turkeys, dogs, and ducks, along with amaranth and cocoa begin to filter into places like Qosco and the Lake Titicaca area. These species have been adapting since they were introduced to the climate of the High Crest Mountains by the Conch-folk, and it allows them to be adopted more easily by neighboring cultures. The modest population growth spurred by these introductions thus begins to effect the peoples in this region as well.

The population boom affects both the Kingdom of Qosco and the Chanka, one of their principal enemies, at the same time. The Chanka are llama farmers, potters, silversmiths, and also ruthless barbarian warriors. They made cups out of the skulls of those they kill on the battlefield, and skinning, scalping, and ritual torture is very frequent. The Chanka have raided the frontiers of Qosco for generations and are the reason Qosco has one of the most organized armies on the entire continent. They've also started raising turkeys and dogs, which has improved their diet and allowed them to put more warriors into their campaigns. It's in 1424 that the Chanka mount an all-out invasion of Qosco itself, intent on taking the city and the surrounding kingdom all for themselves [1].

Fortunately, there is a new Inka on the throne, the twenty-two year old Amaru Inka Yupanqui, who only rose to power four months ago when his father Ninan Inka was mysteriously poisoned. For as young as he is, he is the oldest of his brothers, as his father was young himself (40) when he died, and there is no dispute that he is the man to lead the Qosco at this critical time. While civilians flee the city, Amaru seizes the army and has them establish defensive positions. They not only resist the Chanka invasion, but valiantly pursue them when they retreat, slaying their men all the way back to the Chanka homeland [2]. When he returns to Qosco he demands that his people mount an offensive to destroy the Chanka. The wars that thus began gave Amaru his new nickname: Amaru the Bloody.

But as much as many school books in the future will want to portray Amaru Inka as something between Vlad the Impaler and Alexander the Great, he's a rather efficient ruler. He cuts down on corruption among the priesthood, promotes fair civic law, and the citizens are better-fed and have a higher quality of life than ever before. It's just that he wants conquest, and keeps the uniformed army of Qosco constantly on the move. His motivation isn't love for his country, or some religious self-absorption [3], he just really likes winning battles. That's why he targets all of his weak pseudo-agricultural neighbors and the nearby barbarian tribes instead of polities with an organized military like his own. It's all about winning to Amaru the Bloody, and winning he does over the next fifty-five years, against the Chanka, against the Wanka, and against the peoples of Lake Titicaca, after repeated and ruthless offensives [4]. Qosco is agriculturally productive enough that it doesn't take long to replace fallen soldiers for a new campaign, and the armies are eventually led by an extremely experienced class of veteran officers which gives them an important advantage. They've also learned tons of new tricks on the battlefield, like how to wrap sling stones in pitch-soaked cotton so that they will light on fire in mid-air. Or how to dig a "spider hole" for guerrilla warfare. Phalanx formations, defense in depth, mastery of flanking and pincer movements, even a version of Morse code communicated through repeatedly revealing and concealing again a lamp, Amaru Inka's legions have it all and more, generated by his unyielding enthusiasm towards new military innovations.

By 1479 the Qosco legions are fighting the Sachapuya, the People of the Clouds, who reside in the highland forests. The Sachapuya are as intelligent as warriors come, they build stone fortresses and effectively manage refugees and alliances with other neighbors for support. Amaru the Bloody finally meets his match on the battle field, though this is more because of the fact that his supply lines are long and not well established. Many improvements have been made to the armies of the Kingdom of Qosco, the most important of which was that innovation was encouraged and promotion was as based on skill and bravery rather than religious beliefs or ancestry. But there simply isn't enough food coming in to sustain the armies. It becomes legend that Amaru Inka, now very old and never leaving his tent, dies after he starts refusing to eat any of his meals lest one more soldier go hungry. The generals know there is no reason to continue the invasion of the Sachapuya: the great conqueror is dead, and with him, the dream of endless warfare. They can finally go home.

There is a good reason to go home. Amaru Inka was an aggressive leader, and in the last few decades had expanded Qosco's influence greatly, but left Qosco without any friends. Rebellions are frequent. Amaru might have known how to expand his territories, but he had no idea how to manage it [5]. Now the generals need to put their tired soldiers to the task of maintaining the gains they have made. They are fortunate that the next Inka is fully supportive of these plans.

Topa Inka Yupanqui was one of the few sons of Amaru the Bloody, who didn't really get around much with his sister-wives or mistresses. Topa's name means "noble accountant", and indeed, after 1461 he left his father's side at the front and insisted that he take up management of internal affairs of the kingdom at Qosco. He began with the rebuilding of the capital city, ordering the construction of new aqueducts, bridges, plazas, and roads. Then Topa focused on keeping the supply lines carrying enough food and arms for the soldiers, which meant integrating captured territory into the kingdom. Conquered peoples, as reluctant as they are, are taxed, provided with certain benefits like the construction of new roads, warehouses, aqueducts, and terraces [6]. Citizens from Qosco are subsidized to begin new lives in former enemy territory. Topa is not a conqueror, he isn't a diplomat, he is a bureaucrat, and he does his job well. One of the most important decisions he makes during his reign is to abandon the northwestern conquests when the Empire of Chimor aligns with the Sachapuya to eliminate Qosco influences on their frontiers. It just isn't worth the trouble, so Topa orders the armies to take all the valuables and retreat, burning everything else behind them.

When he isn't filing quipu knots or holding scheduled meetings with various aristocrats, Topa Inka enjoys the many women that his kingdom provides its ruler. There aren't many sister-wives to go around, thanks to his father's lack of interest in procreation, but he has a harem numbering hundreds. Topa indulges in the desires of his sons, paying for one to refurbish the newly conquered ports on the southern coast and build a merchant fleet, and for another to lead an expedition to the northern forests [7]. For as much as he is obsessive about the management of the kingdom, Topa Inka doesn't give much thought to the future of it... he can't decide on a successor, he just likes too many of them. Might as well as let the gods decide. In 1491, he dies of old age, and the many princes declare war against one another.

--

[1] IOTL it was in 1438 that the Chanka invade. The slight population surplus makes this happen sooner.

[2] He is not as... lucky? as Pachacuti was. There's no myth of stone soldiers rising up to massacre the Chanka, it's just an average military victory.

[3] Yeah, that thing that Pachacuti came up with, that the Inkas were the literal descendants of the Sun? That's so not Amaru's style. He's just a down-to-earth tactician-king. If he lived in modern times he'd be an obsessive, unmarried wargamer.

[4] Pachacuti was brilliant, he'd send messengers to neighboring peoples declaring that he was a god sent to earth, and would shower them with gifts of precious metals and foodstuffs in return for allegiance to the empire. Then, he'd have engineers from Qosco build improvements in the area, roads and aqueducts and bridges and such. Only after all of that would he start heavy taxation. Not to mention that he had people deported from one part of the empire to the other in order to weaken his tributaries and homogenize the population of Tawantinsuyu. Amaru is only modestly talented in one thing: military tactics. He prefers to go in to a valley with legions marching shoulder-to-shoulder and flags waving, giving his enemies one chance to surrender before attacking. He also kills enemy chieftains and kings immediately in order to set up his own satraps, and is more worried about taxes and provisioning his troops than improving the land of his tributaries. He's a tactless tactician, so while the Inkan armies are much more impressive than IOTL, he actually conquered less than Pachacuti.

[5] What improvements were made to conquered territories are roads. Roads on which legions of soldiers can travel. Other than that there isn't much benefit to conquered peoples of being in the Kingdom of Qosco. However, because Amaru never played complex power games like Pachacuti, more of his enemies were depopulated and replaced with colonists from Qosco. The center of the kingdom is more homogenous, ethnically and culturally, than IOTL.

[6] Topa actually accomplishes what Pachacuti did IOTL a generation earlier, bringing the best of Inkan technology to its newly conquered territories. He has less territory to work with though.

[7] Remember how Amaru Inka preferred fighting weak savages to other organized militaries? That means they've expanded more quickly into the Amazon, leading to sustained contact and trade with what we know as the Beni.

 

[Hnau]

I'll probably do one more installment on the Andean nations featuring the kingdoms other than Qosco, and then one detailing historical events in the region preceding Spanish contact (such as a civil war in Qosco and Beni-Inka commerce). There'll be one more map, too.

By the way, I'm really interested in how Martin Luther burning at the stake in 1521 will affect Europe. I'm also thinking that the potato, while introduced earlier to Europe, is never sponsored by any government like it was by Frederick the Great, which could create some interesting population divergences by keeping the spread of the potato in Europe to its purely natural course. That would go with our theme of keeping European populations lower.

I'm also excited about divergent Portuguese colonialism! I've planned on an installment with the Portuguese conquering a pretty advanced Amazonian state, and I can't wait to see how their colony in South Africa turns out later in the timeline. Without Cabral or the Treaty of Tordesillas I think the brazilwood trade would start up much later and weaker, allowing for some foreign incursions to actually succeed. How does a French or Dutch Brazil sound?

 

[Hnau]

Update on some developments:

- I've discovered some posts on soc.what-if (go here to read BANW: A Woman's Touch, the last of six installments written by Tzintzuntzan on an alternate conquest of the Incas) that convince me that some if not most of my refurbishing of the Andean portion of this timeline is redundant. As such I'll be redoing that, keeping it more in line with the original BANW and incorporating only my favorite ideas I've developed.

- These ideas include the Conchfolk League which were actually featured in the original BANW as the "Manta". I think the imperial structure of the original should be changed to a Hanseatic League-esque state, but it won't matter as I'll keep Pedrarias wiping them out almost entirely. Inka-Beni trade, Manta bronze coinage, Inka religious freedom and public schooling I'd like to keep, though it'll have little difference on how things work out eventually.

- I'm feeling like I need to repost everything I've done so far from the beginning in a more concise format? Perhaps with more pictures and maps to make it interesting? As it is there seems to be little interest with what I'm producing so far.

I love this ATL that Doug Muir and other great writers created, and if I need to make this my sole AH project I will. In fact, it seems like a project I could spend the next few years on. Though I will work on this regardless, I'd like some response from the community on how I'm doing. What do you like, what do you not like, what would you like to see, etc. etc.?

 

[Hnau]

Bronze Age New World
(version 2.0)

The Rise and Fall of the Arawaks
​

Around the beginning of the Common Era, a group of what IOTL were called the Arawak Indians develops the outrigger canoe. With improved carrying capacity and stability, these Arawaks expand outward from Venezuela and colonize the entirety of the Antilles islands. The Arawaks become excellent slavers, as they need all the labor they can get to fell enough trees in the Orinoco River basin to sustain their fleets. Cotton plantations sprout up quickly on Hispaniola and are used to weave large square sails for their canoes. By 500 CE the Arawaks are piloting double-hulled sailing catamarans throughout the entire Caribbean Sea. While they invent bowlines and masts, the Arawaks never develop advanced ship hulls, keeping dugout old-growth tree trunks as ship hulls for the duration of their civilization.

​

The Arawaks grow more than cotton. Their civilization on the Caribbean islands is fully agricultural, though it is almost completely dependent on slave labor to work the plantations. They grow beans, calabashes, cassava, peppers, peanuts, pineapples, squash, sweet potatoes, squash, and tobacco in addition to cotton. Hunting and to a larger degree, fishing, is also very important to feeding their people.

Beginning in the mid-5th century, Arawak pirates take to the seas in force and raid Mesoamerica during an era of drought and famine. They raze the great city of Teotihuacan to the ground and are one of the reasons that the Mayan and Totonac cultures collapse in the 700s. After centuries of piracy and slaving in Mesoamerica, the Arawaks bring back to their island homes knowledge of advanced stone architecture, amate paper production, and obsidian weapons. A Mayan syllabary is adopted and streamlined for Arawak use. They build cobblestone roads, cement plazas, and round stone towers in their cities and ports. Star maps are mass-produced so that Arawaks can navigate easily from the Chesapeake Bay to the Amazon River. The Arawaks play bone flutes at community barbecues, spectate at terraced ball courts and are huge fans of elaborate tattoos. Sculptures are carved and poetry is written. Amaranth, avocados, cocoa beans, maize, pumpkins, and tomatoes appear in Arawak plantations. Turkeys are kept as livestock and dogs are pets as well as sometimes food.

In 1100s, the Arawaks pick up a useful technology that is revolutionizing Mesoamerican civilization: bronze-working. When they can’t trade for it, tin is mined in the Colombian highlands and copper comes from Cuba. Bronze weapons replace obsidian ones. Though Arawak bronze is crude, the technology is disseminated throughout the Caribbean basin and beyond. And there are a lot of colonies, the northernmost at Bermuda and the southernmost at the mouth of the Amazon.

​

The Arawak civilization, widespread but never stable, begins to collapse in the 1200s. The price of old-growth tree trunks for making catamarans has been rising due to deforestation. The Arawaks were never big on conservation. The soil on the Antilles islands has been depleted over the centuries by inefficient agricultural practices. The Arawak population, at 3 million persons, is higher than the region’s carrying capacity. Slave revolts lead to the destruction of many important colonies and ports. The Arawaks have never been very advanced politically, they have remained quite anarchic over the centuries, operating only as a loose confederacy, and as such their administrative elite is inadequate to deal with these various crises. Maybe something could have been done if it were not for one more disaster: the tloggotl outbreak.

The Tloggotl virus is a cousin of the OTL Mapucho virus which can be found among certain Bolivian rodents. It resides also in the guayazi monkey population of northern Brazil. Unlike in OTL, the guayazi has become a luxury pet and has spread widely throughout the Antilles. The chaos and malnourishment throughout the Arawak civilization allows the perfect conditions for the virus to jump species for the first time in the last decades of the 13th century. Though usually tloggotl would have a death rate of only 20%, by the middle of the 1300s the Caribbean islands have lost 90% of their populations. Some smaller islands are completely emptied of humanity.

Survivors move into the interiors of the islands, abandoning the stone cities. Without access to tin, bronze-working is forgotten. The educated upper classes destroyed, no one remembers how to write. Eventually in the 1500s traders from Mesoamerica pass by Cuba and Jamaica on their voyages to Colombia or Florida, spurring the rediscovery of the outrigger canoes and cotton sails among some coastal communities, but they are still savages compared to other nearby cultures in 1492, when Christopher Columbus sails the ocean blue.

 

[Hnau]

Mesoamerica and the Tlantec Empire
​

By the year 800 CE, Mesoamerica had definitively entered a dark age. The Mayan kingdoms, the great city of Teotihuacan, the Totonacs, and many other vibrant cultures had experienced famine and warfare for generations, and some disappeared completely. It is difficult to rebuild in the aftermath, but one city-state makes an attempt: Tula, to the north of Lake Mexico. The Tula have the difficult task of defending a city of 30,000 people that is located in the middle of a war-zone. Luckily, some peoples from the north allied to the Tula develop tin bronze in the 850s. The material is quickly put to use to make knives, spearheads, arrowheads, and eventually swords, helmets, and breastplates. Bronze is used to make tools as well: chisels, hand-axes, and shovels. With this new technology, the Tula build pyramids, huge statues, roads, and canals. They never manage to build an empire, the region is too chaotic for that, but they trade with everyone and their culture influences the entirety of Mesoamerica. Unfortunately, when tloggotl breaks out in the late 1200s religious mania caused by the appearance of Halley’s Comet compounds the problem and the city is destroyed by social unrest.

The Tlantec peoples located around Lake Mexico are the ones that seize control following the tloggotl pandemic. They are newcomers, having migrated from northwest Mexico a century before, but they are ambitious and are skilled in warfare and administrative ability. When other peoples in the Valley of Mexico come to them for protection, the Tlantec are able and willing. Through intermarrying and outright conquest, the Tlantec unify the Valley of Mexico in a single generation. Two of their cities become the twin capitals of a new empire: Oquictlan, the City of the Dead, on the east coast of Lake Mexico, is the principal commercial and religious center; Uqanco, the City of Snakes, on the west coast, is the military and administrative center.

The Tlantec have two major advantages in the war to dominate Mesoamerica. The first is the Tlantec military. Hoplites have standardized weaponry and armor: a bronze short sword, a bronze helmet, a round bronze shield. They have ranks, the march in line, they attack when the commander gives the order. Officers have full bronze armor and relay instructions from army commanders who communicate long distances by waving large colored flags. The Tlantec employ spy rings to get the right information from their enemies, and post runners to get that information back to headquarters quickly. Most importantly, though the Tlantec appreciate heroic duels, they aren’t afraid to kill and massacre to expand their borders. These advanced military techniques are much better than anything else Mesoamerica can offer.

The second advantage of the Tlantecs is that their culture and religion is very inclusive. Anyone who learns the language and obtains sponsorship from a recognized clan can become a Tlantec. Their gods don’t demand human sacrifices, though they are pleased when it is done voluntarily. It is a relatively pleasant civilization to join. By the year 1450 they’ve conquered all of Mesoamerica excepting the Mayans, and by 1500 they’ll have taken the Yucatan as well. Roads follow conquest, cultural homogenization follows roads.

Trade with South America causes several important developments. Potatoes arrive in Mesoamerica in the 1200s and flourish on the Mexican Plateau. By the year 1400 the population of the region has tripled, from 20 million to 60 million, and most of that increase can be found in the highlands. Guinea pigs are raised as an edible pet. Llamas carry trade goods if not human riders. With so many people in their empire, the Tlantec are able to afford gargantuan public works projects. There’s a towering library in the center of Uqanco to rival the one that used to be at Alexandria. There’s also a giant cathedral made of human bones at Oquictlan. The Tlantec build impressive border forts to match the kind the Romans had. Fleets of catamarans with triangular sails conduct trade with the Chumash and the Inka. Musicians build stages for wild concerts on the shores of Lake Mexico and the masses gather frequently to watch ball games comparative to rugby.

In the early 1500s before European contact, the Tlantec Empire is enjoying relative peace and prosperity. Unfortunately, some astronomers and scholars have deduced from the stars that the Third World is coming to an end. Tlantec religion is rather morbidly apocalyptic, and one of the central beliefs is that the world is locked into a cycle of destruction and renewal. The apocalypse has already happened twice before, and some say it is due to happen again. Refugees from the Caribbean islands and strange diseases will soon feed into this fatalistic mania.

 

[Hnau]

The Floridan Confederacies

​

The Arawaks expanded always with their demand for slave labor, which eventually brought them to the peninsula that would be called Florida, the Flowery Land. From 800 to 1000 CE the Arawaks terrorize the natives of the peninsula to the same degree as Colombia and Venezuela. Coastal settlements are burnt to the ground and natives migrate in fear to the interior. This causes inter-tribal warfare and then cooperation and ethnic mixing centered on the Everglades region. By the year 1000, the Chobee arise as the dominant culture of the interior of Florida. Outrigger canoes are used to fish Lake Okeechobee. Canals are dug to drain pestilent wetlands; mounds are built to reclaim arable land. Artificial ponds, eel farms, and huge fish weirs are used to increase food output even further. A single sun-worshiping religion is popularized; whose priests take an oath of nudity for life.

In northern Florida resides the Timuchan. They are some of the most terrifying peoples the Arawaks have slaved: universally tall and covered with spiraling tattoos. But the Arawak captain that can bring back Timuchan slaves is always highly regarded, so slaving continues throughout the region. The Arawaks found several colonies on the Sea Islands by the year 1000, mainly bases for slave raids. In response to the constant attacks, the Timuchan build their villages on top of mounds and invest in large wooden walls. Ritual dismemberment, always important in their culture, becomes even more prevalent. The heads and limbs of slain Arawak slavers adorn pikes mounted on the riverside.

​

During the collapse of the Arawak civilization, the colonies on the Sea Islands suffer repeated slave revolts until they are finally razed and abandoned. Ex-slaves radiate across Timuchan lands, bringing tloggotl, but also new crops like cotton and tomatoes, writing, and bronze. Fear of the sea eases off after a couple of generations, and soon sailing outrigger canoes ride the waves off the Floridan coasts. The Chobee and the Timuchan trade potash soap, peat, limestone, tea leaves for bronze tools, at first solely with the *Chesapeake but later with the Tlantec and even the Mississippians. Alligator hide, in the form of belts and moccasins, also proves a valuable trade good.

The Chobee pick up Timuchan tattooing techniques after increased cross-cultural contact. The Timuchan begin making their own canals and weirs based on Chobee designs. Relations are relatively peaceful for practically Neolithic cultures… only occasional warfare breaks out. The Chobee, consisting of ten chieftains, unifies into a confederacy ruled by an elected king. The Timuchan, in their turn, also unify into a confederate structure, although their king is hereditary. There are other developments before the year 1500: the Timuchan develop remarkable forms of dance and song. In religion, they develop a sort of proto-Confucianism which governs moral behavior. The Chobee invent levees, dikes and start building planned communities, displayed most evidently in their largest settlement built around OTL Tampa which houses 6,000 inhabitants. Timuchan also have something of a capital city at OTL Jacksonville, with a population of 7,500.

 

[Hnau]

​

One of the largest Chesapeake cities located around OTL Alexandria, Virginia
​

Cities of the Chesapeake

​

The Arawaks make contact with the Algonquians of the Chesapeake Bay around the turn of the millennium. Trading and slaving is much more infrequent here than further south, mainly because of how the Arawaks disdain the colder climate. At the height of the Arawak civilization, a trade fair is thrown at the mouth of the Chesapeake every few years. Through these interactions the Algonquians begin growing amaranth, pumpkins, sweet potatoes and tomatoes as well as keeping turkeys as livestock and dogs as pets. Pre-contact Algonquians numbered perhaps 50,000… within the next few centuries their population grows by a factor of twenty to a million persons between the Appalachian Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay. Their architecture is not as impressive as the Mesoamericans or Mississippians, as their structures are mostly wooden, but they also build mounds, palisade walls, and cobblestone roads. By the year 1500 there are thirty towns with around 2,000 inhabitants and ten cities with as many as 8,000 persons.

The Chesapeakes aren’t very warlike, but their city-states bicker constantly and ritual warfare is popular. Chesapeake religion is relatively benign, they believe in a Great Spirit who created the earth and the lesser spirits who govern nature, an Evil One who seeks to do harm to humanity, and an afterlife for those that do good and follow the traditions. Chiefs are elected by councils of tribal elders who have can always check executive power. Writing using the Arawak syllabary is popular, providing a cultural climate that encourages artwork, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, poetry, and song. The Chesapeakes are talented metal workers, getting their own tin from southwestern Virginia near OTL Shenandoah, and their pottery is the best on the eastern seaboard ever since they developed the potter’s wheel. Wandering shamans travel the cities reciting traditional stories and poems that unify the Chesapeake civilization. With catamarans of their own the Chesapeakes trade honey beer and sweet tobacco north for whale oil and south for alligator hide. Their cities are prosperous and their people well-fed.

Fortunately for the Chesapeakes the Spanish conquistadors will leave them alone in the 16th century as the Arawaks did centuries before. Instead, the Chesapeakes develop a relatively peaceful relationship with English traders after John Cabot makes first contact with their city-states in the year 1500.

 

[Hnau]

Colombia and the Muyska Empire

The natives of Colombia and the Magdalena River valley are hammered by slave raids as soon as the Arawaks develop the outrigger canoe. Attacks on various tribes on the coast and up the valley increase with every century, especially once the Arawaks start building sailing catamarans and pick up obsidian weaponry. There is a brief period, from 800 to 1000 CE where the Teyuna people rebuff the Arawaks in the region by building a massive fortress in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It is razed to the ground by an Arawak army by the turn of the millennium, throwing the region once again to anarchy.

Colombia becomes quite depopulated with so much slaving, but people are always filtering in from the south looking for greener pastures to grow crops and raise families. It is never entirely emptied. When the Arawaks learn how to make their own bronze tools and weapons, it isn't long before slavers discover numerous deposits of tin in the mountain ranges of the Magdalena River valley. The 12th century sees the establishment of several important Arawak tin mining colonies in Colombia, as Colombia becomes the principal source of tin for the Arawak civilization. The Muyska and other local ethnic groups are enslaved and made to labor in the mines as much as they are used as middle-men to trade for it.

With the collapse of the Arawak civilization the mining colonies were abandoned. Tloggotl burned its way through the Colombian mountain valleys. But in the aftermath the Muyska were finally given the opportunity to flourish. Population doubles and triples with every generation thanks to the impressive Arawak agricultural complex, and with the knowledge of bronze-working and writing many advanced societies were soon established. With the unification of two competing kingdoms in the Colombian highlands by Zique Mechechuka in 1418 the Muyska Empire is declared.

Mechechuka, First Zique of the Muyska Empire
​

Based from their capital city of Bakata (on the OTL site of Bogota), the Muyska quickly conquer the majority of the Magdalena River watershed. Their style of conquest is a mix of the Aztecs and Incas of OTL: sometimes expansion is done through gift-giving (mainly emeralds and salt), sometimes by military victory and subsequently demanding tribute. The Muyska are more ethnically homogenous than the Aztecs, however, because their traders and farmers colonize the length of the Magdalena River all the way to its mouth where a luxurious port-city is built named Betibo. The Muyska build with stone imitating the Arawaks more than the Mesoamericans: round stone towers, but also aqueducts and bridges and sewers. They have a holy city, Sogamuxi, built around a temple to the Sun God Xue, that half a million pilgrims visit each year. Tejo, a game where one throws metal discs at distant targets, is the national past-time, followed by ball games imported from Mesoamerica and wrestling.

The Muyska are excellent makers of luxury items from gold and silver, but their bronze isn't as good as those of the Tlantec. They make up for this by having more of it, thanks to richer tin deposits than can be found in Mesoamerica. The average hoplite in Colombia wears a bronze breastplate, for example, and the Muyska can afford making bronze-tipped arrows and spears. However, their armies are not as organized as the Tlantec, structurally they resemble those of the OTL Aztecs.

On the periphery of the Muyska Empire are a few polities of note. The Muyska trade and export their culture as far as Costa Rica and Venezuela, but included in this zone are the independent kingdoms of Sontoco, Teyuna, and Zenu. The Sontoco are the Muyska's most powerful rival, controlling all but the lower fifth of the Cauca River. Their ocarinas are famous and they are the best goldsmiths of the Americas. The Sontoco have maintained just enough of a military to resist the Muyska for generations and frequently do combat with them. The Teyuna inhabit the Goajira Peninsula and despite the fact that they've adopted agriculture only recently and have no knowledge of how to make bronze, they are fierce warriors and impressive architects. Even their villages have sewers and stone-paved roads. The Zenu live on the western coast of Colombia, from OTL Tolu to Panama, and have a large city in OTL Monteria that has been ruled by a high priestess-queen since its foundation.

When Rodrigo de Bastidas sails into the port city of Betibo in December 1499, the fifteen million inhabitants of Colombia have no idea that he has initiated a century of disaster and ruin...
​

 

[Hnau]

This is the first draft of a map I'm working on showing the entirety of the Americas in BANW before European contact.

The dark teal that covers Alaska, much of Canada, California and Argentina are pre-agricultural areas. The lighter tannish green that fills in the gaps here and there, including much of Arizona, New England, Sao Paulo are regions where agriculture has already been introduced amongst the inhabitants. The other colors show areas that may or may not be agricultural societies.

The Tlantecs are in Mexico, obviously, with the lighter yellow surrounding it as their zone of influence (agricultural).

The dark green in the Mississippi basin are the Mississippians directly-ruled empire, while the lighter green surrounding it is their zone of influence.

The Haudenosaunee are dark grey, the other Iroquois tribes falling in their zone of influence are in the lighter grey surrounding them.

The Chesapeake are in the dark pink around Chesapeake Bay, the lighter pink surrounding them is their zone of influence.

The oranges and golds in South Carolina between the Chesapeakes and the Timuchan are minor kingdoms that were there in OTL.

The dark grey areas in the Caribbean are the former Arawak territories that have been left quite post-apocalyptic. The slight purple shade in Cuba and Jamaica depicts those Arawaks that are recovering civilization, picking sea travel up again.

The brown in Wisconsin are the Ho-Chunk. The gold to the west of them are the Dakota. The purple to the north of them are the Chippewa. The dark pink covering lower Michigan depicts the Potawatomi which may or may not include the entirety of the Council of Three Fires (OTL pre-Columbian Amerindian alliance, relatively unchanged by the divergences).

The Chumash are there in southern California, mostly OTL.

The Muyska are that brownish gold color including most of the Magdalena River. The lighter color is their zone of influence. The Zenu is that small state on the western coastline, the brown following the Cauca River is the Sontoco.

The darker green on the Venezuelan coastline are the Carib-Arawaks that I detailed on an earlier page. The lighter green there are the more primitive Orinoco River Caribs.

The Amazon is a bit complicated. The Marajoara cover Marajo island and nearby territory. The Arawak state that developed from the Belem colony is shown in dark pink. The brown state is the Santarem Empire, the gold dot shows their capital. The other browns upriver show other Amazonian kingdoms and confederacies, though the westernmost light brown depicts numerous Amazonian polities that are more advanced than simple agricultural natives (I have to polish that area up a bit more). The reds and purples around the Xingu may be cultural zones or actual polities (probably just confederacies of tribes) and are only slightly divergent from OTL.

The dark green in Bolivia is the Beni. The other greens are daughter cultures. The dark pink in Peru is alt-Tawantinsuyu, the lighter pink is their zone of influence (the Aymara kingdoms). The purple is the Chimor. The grey-blue is the Chachapoya. The dark red in Ecuador is the Manta.

Like I said, its a work in progress. Right now I'm working on the Pueblo peoples in New Mexico. But I think now that we are talking about all of these different cultures in more detail a map would be helpful to locate everything.

 

[NothingNow]

Awesome, and I like the Map.

Just to ask, are the latest updates from an In-universe perspective?

But the Timuchan sort of centering on *Jacksonville makes sense from a whole lot of angles. The St. John's River is the easiest way to get access anywhere inland on the peninsula IOTL, although there's probably a fairly wealthy trade route along the Suwanee and St Marys through the Okefenokee swamp (which is a weird place to live with the Peat Batteries and everything.)

Incidentally, has boatbuilding developed at all since the Arawaks collapsed?


The Timuchan and Chobee are actually kinda lucky since they've got some nice stands of S. mahagoni, Southern Live Oak, Southern Red Oak, Cypress Black Cherry and really a crap ton of good Timber species right on top of each other.

It'd be a shame if they didn't end up developing some sort of Punt or Pirogue for inland use, since they can't build birch bark canoes, and outrigger canoes, Proas and Catamarans are really bad in constricted waterways.

Developing (reinforced?) Butt joinery to strengthen the hulls would be a nice development as well (it's actually kinda weird no-one developed it or plank construction in the Americas IOTL, when it's a pretty logical follow-on from simple construction like Chickees.)

 

[Hnau]

No, the updates aren't in-universe. I don't want to make up original names and if I kept it only in-universe I wouldn't be able to use OTL names to make it easier to understand. It's directed towards an AH audience, pure and simple.

I imagine that boat-building has picked up somewhat in the Caribbean since the Arawaks collapsed, especially in Jamaica and parts of Cuba, the Bahamas, just sailing outriggers nothing fancy. The Tlantecs, the Mayans, the Chesapeakes are all trading with catamarans that are blue water capable... nothing like those of the Arawaks. The Muyska have trading catamarans as well, as do some Amazonian and Andean cultures which I have yet to detail.

I'm working on the Mississippians right now. They are way misrepresented on the map... their civilization isn't that extensive (they haven't had enough time). The problem is that their expansion probably caused all kinds of changes around the interior of North America, pushing Amerindian tribes outward which push against other tribes, etc. etc.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

 

[NothingNow]

No, the updates aren't in-universe. I don't want to make up original names and if I kept it only in-universe I wouldn't be able to use OTL names to make it easier to understand. It's directed towards an AH audience, pure and simple.

Ah. Yeah.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

No problem. It's something I find very interesting.