How big could the Inca have gotten?

[mikegold]

Presuming, for whatever reason, a delayed European contact, how large could the Inca Empire have reasonably grown with another century? That is, with OTL Inca levels of technology and any reasonable developments they might have made.

Was the OTL empire at or near its geographical peak? Or was there a wave of expansion left in it? If so, where - north toward the Caribbean, or south into the Pampas?

 

[CandyDragon]

Presuming, for whatever reason, a delayed European contact, how large could the Inca Empire have reasonably grown with another century? That is, with OTL Inca levels of technology and any reasonable developments they might have made.

Was the OTL empire at or near its geographical peak? Or was there a wave of expansion left in it? If so, where - north toward the Caribbean, or south into the Pampas?

IIRC, the Inca had just hit their stride. They had a lot left to do, but I am by no means an expert- I'm not even an informed amateur.

 

[NothingNow]

Presuming, for whatever reason, a delayed European contact, how large could the Inca Empire have reasonably grown with another century? That is, with OTL Inca levels of technology and any reasonable developments they might have made.

Was the OTL empire at or near its geographical peak? Or was there a wave of expansion left in it? If so, where - north toward the Caribbean, or south into the Pampas?

It could likely expand further along the Andes, but I think the Darien Gap and the general nature of the Amazon and it's inhabitants might prevent expansion eastward, although trade likely occurred. That said, to the north in between those two you've got the Muisca, and a few other statelets and tribes in modern Columbia and Venezuela.

EDIT: Not to sure about the South though. The Mapuches were particularly fierce, and well, had already stopped the Incans cold by the time of contact.

 

[KingByng]

Northward to the gold using cultures in OTL Colombia, as NothingNow said. They were already stonewalled in the south and the east, north is the only way to go. Although, if/when the north has been conquered, a new Sapa trying to make a name for himself might be willing to try where others failed and make a new attempt at expanding south or east. How successful that would be? I dunno.

There's a slim chance that with an extra century they may have come into contact with the Maya or some other Mesoamerican civilization during movements north. That's a long shot though, much like Polynesian contact was a long shot.

 

[mikegold]

Northward to the gold using cultures in OTL Colombia, as NothingNow said. They were already stonewalled in the south and the east, north is the only way to go. Although, if/when the north has been conquered, a new Sapa trying to make a name for himself might be willing to try where others failed and make a new attempt at expanding south or east. How successful that would be? I dunno.

There's a slim chance that with an extra century they may have come into contact with the Maya or some other Mesoamerican civilization during movements north. That's a long shot though, much like Polynesian contact was a long shot.

Are we talking seaborne contact? Were Inca seafaring capabilities good enough to reach Maya city-states, even given a port in the region of OTL Northwest Colombia?

 

[Beedok]

Are we talking seaborne contact? Were Inca seafaring capabilities good enough to reach Maya city-states, even given a port in the region of OTL Northwest Colombia?

There were people in Ecuador apparently trading with people in Mexico.

 

[smjb]

The Inka were already pushing their limits by the time the Europeans showed up; everything outside their borders was a completely alien environment from the one they were used to.

 

[Malta]

Their still quite a few City-States in Equador they definitely could have gobbled. The Inca Civil War was a result of the Sapa Inca and his heir dieing from Smallpox and disease, despite Anathaupa's own creativity this likely would have been butterflied. Therefore it does seem likely they would have arrived on the scene in Colombia and come into contact with Mayan traders around the Panama.

If they are able to mobilize and lengthen their legendary road system then theirs wouldn't be any large enough political power to stop them.

 

[Winnabago]

The problem with the Incas is that much of their income went to supporting the cults of dead emperors, so an emperor had to conquer more to have his own cult.

Sure, the Incas could have grown, but the tribes would have gotten sick of the drain on everyone’s income after awhile.

What I’d really like to see is something involving the voyage of Topa Inca Yupanqui, which made it to two different islands (the Galapagos? No idea). A naval Inca would just be super awesome, assuming the voyage even happened.
“There arrived at Tumbez some merchants who had come by sea from the west, navigating in balsas with sails. They gave information of the land whence they came, which consisted of some islands called Avachumbi and Ninachumbi, where there were many people and much gold. Tupac Inca was a man of lofty and ambitious ideas, and was not satisfied with the regions he had already conquered. So he determined to challenge a happy fortune, and see if it would favour him by sea…The Inca, having this certainty, determined to go there. He caused an immense number of balsas to be constructed, in which he embarked more than 20,000 chosen men…Tupac Inca navigated and sailed on until he discovered the islands of Avachumbi and Ninachumbi, and returned, bringing back with him black people, gold, a chair of brass, and a skin and jaw bone of a horse. "

 

[KingByng]

Are we talking seaborne contact? Were Inca seafaring capabilities good enough to reach Maya city-states, even given a port in the region of OTL Northwest Colombia?

Kon-tiki showed the Inca were at least capable of reaching Polynesia (whether the expedition under Tupa Inca Yupanqui actually happened or where they got to is up for debate). Snaking up the coast to Mesoamerica is possible.

 

[M79]

I think it depends on the timeframe we're using. Let's presume that Columbus and his men get to the new world, land, but do not get back. Disease runs rampant but the Native Americans have two generations to recover before perhaps Portugal discovers the modern area of Brazil about 1530-1550. This might be enough time to recover much of the lost population and immunize them from further diseases, and might let some people adapt to tecnologies and animals of the outsiders. Horses might become more plentiful with time, especially in Mexico and the Plains. I think while Mesoamerica will collapse into warring city-states, the Inka will move into eastern Bolivia, northern Argentina, the river valleys of Peru (not the whole of the jungle but near tbe banks), Ecuador, and Colombia. They will eventually move out of the mountains with the Pampas before them and the chance to move into the Rio Plata area I think they have plenty of room to expand. They have the wheel and were starting to develop metallugrical techniques of their own, there is evidence of trade between Jalisco and Ecuador well before Columbus. Eventually the Inka naval tradition will permit smaller trading vessels to make contact and improve communication though by 1580-1600 I doubt they are dramatically more advanced than they are when the Spanish arrive. But if their numbers and territories are doubled while there is no civil war to fightthen they become a formidible opponent. Savvy Inka will realize that the white man's lust for gold and mercury can be used to their benefit and they might learn quite a bit from the "gold-eaters"

 

[EMT]

Agreed that a sea-traversing Inca Empire sounds awesome, and is actually viable. Whether the voyage actually happened is, as said, questionable, but Pizarro encountered his first sign of the Inca aboard a trading vessel. That has to give some credit to the idea of the Inca having some naval capabilities.

 

[Admiral Brown]

By, land, they might get to the colombian highlands if they're lucky, and that's it. No way they can get to the Colombian, coast, let alonte through Panama's ithsmus.

That's all, at least by land. To the west they have jungle, and to the south the cold forests of chile, and to the southEast, the Pampas. They could go there, of course, but they wouldn't, cause they tended to conquer lands already settled by agricultural peoples culturarly similar. They'd have no use for nomad hunter gatherers of the pampas, and they wouldn't settle there either, since their crops wouldn't grow there, at least at first. Well, potatoes do grow there now, but between the andes and the fertile pampas there's a desert, and the Incas won't have much incentive to cross it.

I think, however, that the Inca's would conquer, eventually, all the civilized parts of northwesten, Argentina, which might encourage some peoples who had maize and/or llamas to move Esat into the Pampas, eventually spreading agriculture or llama hearding there (there's no reason, I think, why llamas cannot survive in the Argentine plains)

But, in all, the Incan empire wouldn't expand much more than IOTL, I think. It might eventually split in two or free short after conquering Colombian highlands.

By sea... not sure. They did get to Panama IOTL: Panamenian indians told the spaniards of peope from the south who had sails as their own, lots of gold, and pack animal (which the Spanish mistook for donkeys). I think, however, that currents make it harder to get to the "civilized" areas like Mexico or Northern Central America.