1220 AD: In the Yucatan, the city-state of Mayapan rises to prominence. Although its rise to power was partly based on increased military might, Mayapan under its leader 3 Deer Cloud laid the foundation for a powerful empire. His first action was the construction of a road network centered on Mayapan. Copied from the Tu’un Davi, 3 Deer Cloud was the first Mayan leader to try to create a road system for the entire region, rather than one for his own small city-state. The creation of the road system strengthened the Yucatan trade network and increased contact between cities. 3 Deer Cloud also created a sort of lobbying system to allow the leaders of other cities to ask for aid in building irrigation systems. If the city was in favor and there were resources to spare, Mayapan would organize labor armies to aid them. Thus, Mayapan conquered the Yucatan by sword and kept it by shovel.
1260 AD: The stone-raiser metallurgy resurgence begins. The discovery of tin and copper in the southeast allowed the independent manufacture of bronze tools in the area, allowing the southernmost chieftainships to break free of the Mayan bronze monopoly. Mayan knowledge-irrigation and writing as well as bronze metallurgy-began to spread from these chieftainships across the stone-raiser area of influence, allowing the population to grow and organize. The fact that there was no more Mayan merchant metallurgy monopoly forced Caribbean traders to look further for new and exotic goods to trade. It was this that drove the Caribbean merchants to take their rafts up and down the Mississippi river, reaching the Oneatan and even the southernmost Algonquin speaking areas of the Stone-Raiser network. It also drove them to make perilous journeys into the fracturing and increasingly violent Tu’un Daavi confederation to find new goods to sell. This was how potatoes, llamas, and guinea pigs were introduced to North America.
1255 AD: The Moche equatorial settlements are attacked by Chimu forces. Looking to control the Pacific trade routes, the emperor of Chimor Blessed By Apec wanted to destroy the competition. Several of the settlements were destroyed, many of the inhabitants fleeing to Pisisi. Although unable to subdue the Mochihicans, Blessed By Apec’s armies manage to disrupt the Pacific trade.
1262 AD: The Cañari respond to Chimor aggression (and their loss of access to their Mochihican allies) by invading the equatorial colonies themselves. They expel the Chimu and are greeted as liberators by the Mochihicans. Stalking Puma, the general of the Cañari armies, decides to move on to attack the Chimu Empire as a retaliatory measure. His campaign is successful beyond his wildest hopes when Blessed By Apec attempts to meet him to negotiate peace. Stalking Puma has him captured, gaining de facto control over the entire Chimu sphere of influence.
The Cañari leader of Guapondelig, Noble Watcher, offered his eldest daughter to Stalking Puma in marriage. Accepting this offer made Stalking Puma heir to the Guapondelig throne.
This was how the Guapondeligua, or Cañari Empire, formed.
1270 AD: Stalking Puma conquers the Inca peoples after the largest and most powerful Inca city, Cuzco, falls. The Incan resistance was strong, but their morale was broken after the king of Cuzco surrendered to the Cañari. Their victory was made possible, ultimately, by the turkeys they had begun raising more than two centuries ago. By keeping intense cultivation, the Cañari had finally raised a critical mass of turkeys that created a reservoir of influenza. Marching southward, Stalking Puma’s armies had brought with them a particularly virulent form of the virus which killed 10% of the population of Cuzco and weakened many of the Incan soldiers defending the city.
The Inca surrender was facilitated by the generous terms the Cañari offered. Inca officials who helped build roads and improve the bureaucracy in the empire were given titles of nobility, and existing Inca nobles who would conquer land for the Cañari would be given lordship over that land. With Incan engineering, brains, and military support, the Guapondeligua would expand far. Although officially decentralized, with landlords controlling their territory autonomously, excellent roads and an improved bureaucracy that used the widely-spoken Quechan languages would allow the city of Guapondelig to maintain control over its far-flung empire.
1260 AD: The stone-raiser metallurgy resurgence begins. The discovery of tin and copper in the southeast allowed the independent manufacture of bronze tools in the area, allowing the southernmost chieftainships to break free of the Mayan bronze monopoly. Mayan knowledge-irrigation and writing as well as bronze metallurgy-began to spread from these chieftainships across the stone-raiser area of influence, allowing the population to grow and organize. The fact that there was no more Mayan merchant metallurgy monopoly forced Caribbean traders to look further for new and exotic goods to trade. It was this that drove the Caribbean merchants to take their rafts up and down the Mississippi river, reaching the Oneatan and even the southernmost Algonquin speaking areas of the Stone-Raiser network. It also drove them to make perilous journeys into the fracturing and increasingly violent Tu’un Daavi confederation to find new goods to sell. This was how potatoes, llamas, and guinea pigs were introduced to North America.
1255 AD: The Moche equatorial settlements are attacked by Chimu forces. Looking to control the Pacific trade routes, the emperor of Chimor Blessed By Apec wanted to destroy the competition. Several of the settlements were destroyed, many of the inhabitants fleeing to Pisisi. Although unable to subdue the Mochihicans, Blessed By Apec’s armies manage to disrupt the Pacific trade.
1262 AD: The Cañari respond to Chimor aggression (and their loss of access to their Mochihican allies) by invading the equatorial colonies themselves. They expel the Chimu and are greeted as liberators by the Mochihicans. Stalking Puma, the general of the Cañari armies, decides to move on to attack the Chimu Empire as a retaliatory measure. His campaign is successful beyond his wildest hopes when Blessed By Apec attempts to meet him to negotiate peace. Stalking Puma has him captured, gaining de facto control over the entire Chimu sphere of influence.
The Cañari leader of Guapondelig, Noble Watcher, offered his eldest daughter to Stalking Puma in marriage. Accepting this offer made Stalking Puma heir to the Guapondelig throne.
This was how the Guapondeligua, or Cañari Empire, formed.
1270 AD: Stalking Puma conquers the Inca peoples after the largest and most powerful Inca city, Cuzco, falls. The Incan resistance was strong, but their morale was broken after the king of Cuzco surrendered to the Cañari. Their victory was made possible, ultimately, by the turkeys they had begun raising more than two centuries ago. By keeping intense cultivation, the Cañari had finally raised a critical mass of turkeys that created a reservoir of influenza. Marching southward, Stalking Puma’s armies had brought with them a particularly virulent form of the virus which killed 10% of the population of Cuzco and weakened many of the Incan soldiers defending the city.
The Inca surrender was facilitated by the generous terms the Cañari offered. Inca officials who helped build roads and improve the bureaucracy in the empire were given titles of nobility, and existing Inca nobles who would conquer land for the Cañari would be given lordship over that land. With Incan engineering, brains, and military support, the Guapondeligua would expand far. Although officially decentralized, with landlords controlling their territory autonomously, excellent roads and an improved bureaucracy that used the widely-spoken Quechan languages would allow the city of Guapondelig to maintain control over its far-flung empire.
In any case though, I can't say you've done wrong with their government. OTL's League of Mayapan had it so that the lords of the provinces would live in Mayapan for the most part and take part in deliberations there I'm sure. They also had representatives. Lobbying I'm sure happened, though a lot of it had a decisively religious flavor. And a geeky flavor. Like when they argued over calendrics to see whose city would be labeled Ziyan Can (Born of Heaven) and therefore get tribute rights and prestige.
