Pre-Columbian civilization on the Atlantic coast of South America

I'm new here, I do not know if this scenario fits here, but, come on.
I was thinking of a scenario in which an indigenous empire, at the same level of development as the Incas, developed along the coast of Brazil, from the mouth of the São Francisco river, in northeastern Brazil, to the estuary of the Rio Plate, in the argentina and uruguay, going up the Paraná river amd Paraguay river.
The empire would have a population of 10 million, how could it have arisen and developed, and how would it be related to the arrival of the portuguese on the Brazilian coast?

The map is only a sketch to get a sense of the locality of the Empire.
map1.png
 
From what I've read, there was more advanced culture along the Amazon River.
Maybe they would come up there and migrate to the coast?
 
What was agriculture like in pre-columbian Uruguay/buenos aires area? Iirc, the natives of that area were hunter-gatherers when the Spanish came, but I could be wrong.

Perhaps a Mississippian-type development of temperate weather tolerant maize could boost agriculture and get numbers high enough to support an inca-type civilization. It's technically an evolutionary pod, but it's not asb since it already happened in North America.
 
What was agriculture like in pre-columbian Uruguay/buenos aires area? Iirc, the natives of that area were hunter-gatherers when the Spanish came, but I could be wrong.

Perhaps a Mississippian-type development of temperate weather tolerant maize could boost agriculture and get numbers high enough to support an inca-type civilization. It's technically an evolutionary pod, but it's not asb since it already happened in North America.

Humanized%20landscapes-big.jpg

By 1492 people in this area were living in farming villages. But agriculture came relatively late, not sure when. At least in 1000 BC it was all hunter gatherers.
 
From what I remember, when the Portuguese arrived in Brazil, the main group they encountered were the Tupi. While the Tupi were a distinct linguistic, ethnic, and cultural group they were divided into multiple tribes and seem to have lacked a sense of overarching identity. Interestingly, the Tupi are thought to have originated as an Amazonian people who migrated from the Amazon Basin to the Brazilian Coast where the Portuguese encountered them. Additionally, they had a developed agricultural system based on, IIRC, cassava. They used a slash-and-burn system where they moved their villages every 20 years or so to a new area where they could make use of fresh unexhausted land while the areas they had previously cultivated were allowed to go wild and rejuvenate for eventual reuse. This system was apparently quite productive as the Tupi population has been estimated at around 1 million upon Portuguese arrival.

I know that there was interesting stuff done in the Amazonian forests were the native people aided the growth and propogation of trees that produced edible fruits, to the point where large portions of the rainforest today have a skewed distribution of species-fruit trees constitute a significantly larger portion of the total than they should without human intervention. However, I'm not sure if that extended into Tupi populated areas.
 

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A Tupi Empire seems like a really interesting concept. I imagine their biggest rivals could end up being the Guaranis in the south.

Maybe the Incas establish chain of roads and trade networks through the Amazon, deeply influencing the tupi on a tecnological and cultural level. That added to a big population boom, and maybe some empire makers unifiyng the tribes, could be enough to establish a empire.

If it reached Inca levels of development, and extended through all the highlighted area, the portuguese would be screwed.
 
The Inca's advance into the south was stopped by the Mapuches along the Pacific coast and by the harsh Chaco region in the southeast. So chances of contact are very few and mostly through intermediaries.

But a Portuguese contact has the same potential pandemic angle that the Inca's suffered from the Spanish with population dropping by over 60% in less than a century.
 

raharris1973

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But a Portuguese contact has the same potential pandemic angle that the Inca's suffered from the Spanish with population dropping by over 60% in less than a century.

But with more prestigious residual native culture, history and tradition left over.
 
What about the Marajoara culture? It seems related to the Amazonian cultures, but having develloped earlier with a mixed diet of corn and fish.
I don't know why they didn't develloped from this, but they apparently formed an ensemble that lasted from Ist millenium BCE to the XIVth century (not unlike Mississipi cultures, arguably).
 
What about the Marajoara culture? It seems related to the Amazonian cultures, but having develloped earlier with a mixed diet of corn and fish.
I don't know why they didn't develloped from this, but they apparently formed an ensemble that lasted from Ist millenium BCE to the XIVth century (not unlike Mississipi cultures, arguably).
The descendants of the Marajoara culture actually continued in Marajo Island until the 18th century (they were called the Nheengaibas). The Portuguese fought with them a lot until they were assimilated in the 18th century.
 
Indians from the Brazilian southern coast were connected with the Inca empire. Or least they knew where they were. As early as the 1520's both the Portuguese and the Spanish knew a path to reach Cuzco from Southern Brazil, look for the Caminho de Peabiru.
 
A Tupi empire could work as long as you have agriculture. Maybe contact with the Incas could inspire several Inca-like states in Brazil. Of course, they would be killed by smallpox.
 
I think that all you really need is contact with a civilization that already has agriculture, which was the most common method of diffusion IOTL. Contact with the Inca occurs far too late, and wouldn't allow for any actual development in the region. It would need to occur quite early, before 2nd millennium even.
 
A Tupi empire could work as long as you have agriculture. Maybe contact with the Incas could inspire several Inca-like states in Brazil. Of course, they would be killed by smallpox.

Yes, but at least they would have a larger population base to climb back from.
 
The thing is, even if they have the São Francisco/Paraná basin to work with, why would they be a more consistent empire? What would make the Tupi/Guarani people evolve to this? Wouldn't it be more like the Mississippian peoples in North America with culturally related (but politically distant) polities along the rivers? And then what evolves them to a more complex state than the OTL Tupi/Guarani?

And we know the OTL peoples there traded with the Inca and other Andeans, since yerba mate (semi-domesticated by the Guarani) was known amongst the Inca and the very word "mate" comes from Quechua.

The most complex problem seems to be to spreading this civilisation to the Rio de la Plata. The São Francisco river could host a more complex civilisation than OTL.
 
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