The Sons of Inti and Huitzilopochtli
Reader Submission 3: The Sons of Inti and Huitzilopochtli
The Inca Empire's claim on the Topa Islands[1] was based on their assertation that the second of the great Sapa Incas, Topa Inca Yupanqui, had visited the island during the late 1400's. The evidence of this claim is dubious at best, but nobody really arose to dispute it. Seafaring knowledge had not been one of the major commodities traded with the Portuguese, but it eventually trickled through. The French would take a long time to break through the jungles of New France, and by the time reliable trade along the Pacific was achieved by the French Cusco's claim on the islands was absolute.
They remained a backwater, only visited by the occasional mission searching for some exotic animal to please the Sapa Inca. That is until Tupac Yupanqui II, Sapa Inca from 1878 until 1907. One of the longer serving Sapa Incas Tupac Yupanqui II is best known for reforming the Inca succession. Rather then the previous system of "bloody palace coups and occasional fratricidal civil war" the Sapa Inca would appoint a son before his death. This was not exactly a perfect system, purges still often followed succession, but it did help stabilize the Empire in a changing world.
But the succession system of the Inca Empire is not what our tale care about right now. No, our focus is that Tupac Yupanqui was a great lover of the sea, and the Topa Islands are surround by the sea. Tupac Yupanqui established his own little boating retreat on the islands, the first permanent residence on the remote chain. This of course came with all the trappings of the Inca Court. Great damage was done to the environment as the complex of a royal retreat sprung up from nothing. Soon Tupac Yupanqui was taking holidays in the islands. The Emperor of an absolute monarchy taking holidays in a remote island chain is not the best for running said Empire, but Tupac Yupanqui didn't particularly care. Neither did his son Manco III. The development of instant communications like the telegraph and telephone would end this issue.
The Topa Islands enter our tale in 1919, when Manco's son Titu Amaru held a conference there. Titu had been an advocate in his father's court for war with France, hoping to rexpand the Empire North. Titu's father had demured however, and kept the Inca above the war. By the time Titu Amaru became Sapa Inca in 1918 the war had ended. France had been defeated. The opportunity was lost. So Titu arranged to make a new one. In a lucky break the Mejico Officer's Revolt also occurred in 1918.
For years the Empire of Mejico had been ruled by the descendents of Altamiranos, though by this point they were Nahua in all but name. A mixed race Hispano-Nahua elite ruled over the natives, with the crucial exception of the Tlaxcala, a native group who had helped the original Altamirano overthrow the previous dynasty. Those not of the previously mentioned elite were lorded over, often forced to work in resource extraction. Oil in particular was a growing industry in Mejico.
Juan-Montezuma IV had hoped to change that. He'd been tutored by elite European scholars, and had been instilled with values common amongst the intellectuals of Europe. He was of a Republican bent, believing that freedom of trade and personal liberties would strengthen his nation. He believed that all Mejicans should have a voice in Government and sought to bring the rural peasants into the nation's perceived prosperity. While Europe burned he implemented the Juanist Reforms, which loosened restrictions on free speech and press. In 1918 he promulgated the Mejican Constitution a Republican inspired document that granted suffrage to all Mejican Men over 20, and called for an Assembly to help the king run the country. This was the last straw.
The traditional elites of Mejico could not stand by and let an absolute monarch destroy his absolute power. The army was angry that they couldn't bash peasants anymore, the nobility was worried they'd lose power and the priests were afraid the reforms soon provide for freedom of religion. July 7th 1918, the day before the Emperor was set to give a speech outlining the electoral process Tlaxcala army units marched into Tenochitlan and seized the palace. It was swift and relatively bloodless Juan-Montezuma reluctantly signed away his Empire to his 2 year old son Pedro-Tizoc II who was spirited into a gilded cage. A Tripartite Regency was formed from the nobility, priesthood and military. Since his men controlled the capital General Maxixcatl Pizzaro soon dominated the New government. Pizzaro was a strong Localist Protectionist (a term for traditionalists who weren't protecting European culture), and sought to strengthen Mejico's international position. He would institute industrialization reforms aimed at strengthening Mejico's military. He also took Titu's hand in friendship, and sailed to the Topa Islands to meet with his southern counterpart.
The Topa Islands Conference saw the formalization of a Inca-Mejico alliance. A mutual defense pact was arranged, along with an exchange of officers and navel and aircraft technology. Plans were drawn up for a war that would tip the balance of power in Vescupia in their favor. One of the Inca's previous sources of power was control over the supplies of ships crossing the Pacific. But the Los Angeles Canal had changed all that. So the Mejico-Inca Alliance planned to nullify it. The canal was well positioned, but it could be out competed by a canal in the United States of Centrovescupia. So Titu and Pizzaro approached President Raul de la Cruz for a military alliance against the VFS and New France. However Cruz and the USC were the descendents of pure blooded Spanish settlers, and the President turned down the offer from two "subhuman" rulers. So the two empires turned to two groups who opposed the USC's government.
Since the beginning the northern USC had been plagued by the Mayan Insurgency who sought to establish an independent Maya state. Traditionally they had been enemies of Mejico as well, seeking to claim the Yucatan. But now Pizzaro changed the tune, and began to funnel weapons to the insurgents.
The other group was the Liberty Party, since independence the Liberty Party had fought for land redistribution and personal liberty, but restrictive voting laws kept them in a permanent minority. Nowadays they were divided into Unitarian and Republican wings, united only by their hatred of President Cruz. In a series of secret talks the Mejican ambassador convinced the PL that Mejico would support them in revolution. Mejico also arranged for the Mayans to leave their homelands to fight for the PL, in exchange for autonomy under a new regime. Mejico had no intention on following through with these promises, instead planning to betray their new allies as soon as possible.
While Mejico scammed the Inca planned. New France had not been devastated like her mother had been. She straddled coast to coast. The Dominion would be a tough nut to crack. The Inca's primary concern was retaking Quecha speaking lands just north of the border, so they prepared a strategy of an initial all out assault to take their targeted regions, followed by trench warfare to hold the lands until the New French were exhausted. To do this they needed the border armies to be withdrawn. Here President Cruz played right into their hands.
The Maya-PD alliance was making gains in the north against USC forces, and Cruz was getting increasingly desperate to end the civil war before he either lost or he was deposed by a military revolt. He first turned the the VFS for support but found little enthusiasm. The VFS was content with their own canal. The country was too enamoured with the first ever Basketball World Championship[2] So Cruz turned to New France, who proved friendlier to an alliance.
In exchange for a promise that New France would be given favorable trade deals and an oath never to buikd a USC run canal New France began to send supplies in Centrovescupia. By late 1919 the bloody civil war began to turn in favor of the rebels, as Mejican planes have valuable intelligence to the Maya-PL forces. Cruz's popularity was crumbling. The people still remembered the French Occupation, and everyday more New French officers and advisors poured in. New France began to fly it's own intelligence missions for the government.
Tit for tat. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
The Fires of Europe had not burned Vescupia down. But that meant that there was still plenty of kindling left.
-----
1: Galopagos
2: It would not be a Lithuania TL if Basketball isn't the world's sport
The Inca Empire's claim on the Topa Islands[1] was based on their assertation that the second of the great Sapa Incas, Topa Inca Yupanqui, had visited the island during the late 1400's. The evidence of this claim is dubious at best, but nobody really arose to dispute it. Seafaring knowledge had not been one of the major commodities traded with the Portuguese, but it eventually trickled through. The French would take a long time to break through the jungles of New France, and by the time reliable trade along the Pacific was achieved by the French Cusco's claim on the islands was absolute.
They remained a backwater, only visited by the occasional mission searching for some exotic animal to please the Sapa Inca. That is until Tupac Yupanqui II, Sapa Inca from 1878 until 1907. One of the longer serving Sapa Incas Tupac Yupanqui II is best known for reforming the Inca succession. Rather then the previous system of "bloody palace coups and occasional fratricidal civil war" the Sapa Inca would appoint a son before his death. This was not exactly a perfect system, purges still often followed succession, but it did help stabilize the Empire in a changing world.
But the succession system of the Inca Empire is not what our tale care about right now. No, our focus is that Tupac Yupanqui was a great lover of the sea, and the Topa Islands are surround by the sea. Tupac Yupanqui established his own little boating retreat on the islands, the first permanent residence on the remote chain. This of course came with all the trappings of the Inca Court. Great damage was done to the environment as the complex of a royal retreat sprung up from nothing. Soon Tupac Yupanqui was taking holidays in the islands. The Emperor of an absolute monarchy taking holidays in a remote island chain is not the best for running said Empire, but Tupac Yupanqui didn't particularly care. Neither did his son Manco III. The development of instant communications like the telegraph and telephone would end this issue.
The Topa Islands enter our tale in 1919, when Manco's son Titu Amaru held a conference there. Titu had been an advocate in his father's court for war with France, hoping to rexpand the Empire North. Titu's father had demured however, and kept the Inca above the war. By the time Titu Amaru became Sapa Inca in 1918 the war had ended. France had been defeated. The opportunity was lost. So Titu arranged to make a new one. In a lucky break the Mejico Officer's Revolt also occurred in 1918.
For years the Empire of Mejico had been ruled by the descendents of Altamiranos, though by this point they were Nahua in all but name. A mixed race Hispano-Nahua elite ruled over the natives, with the crucial exception of the Tlaxcala, a native group who had helped the original Altamirano overthrow the previous dynasty. Those not of the previously mentioned elite were lorded over, often forced to work in resource extraction. Oil in particular was a growing industry in Mejico.
Juan-Montezuma IV had hoped to change that. He'd been tutored by elite European scholars, and had been instilled with values common amongst the intellectuals of Europe. He was of a Republican bent, believing that freedom of trade and personal liberties would strengthen his nation. He believed that all Mejicans should have a voice in Government and sought to bring the rural peasants into the nation's perceived prosperity. While Europe burned he implemented the Juanist Reforms, which loosened restrictions on free speech and press. In 1918 he promulgated the Mejican Constitution a Republican inspired document that granted suffrage to all Mejican Men over 20, and called for an Assembly to help the king run the country. This was the last straw.
The traditional elites of Mejico could not stand by and let an absolute monarch destroy his absolute power. The army was angry that they couldn't bash peasants anymore, the nobility was worried they'd lose power and the priests were afraid the reforms soon provide for freedom of religion. July 7th 1918, the day before the Emperor was set to give a speech outlining the electoral process Tlaxcala army units marched into Tenochitlan and seized the palace. It was swift and relatively bloodless Juan-Montezuma reluctantly signed away his Empire to his 2 year old son Pedro-Tizoc II who was spirited into a gilded cage. A Tripartite Regency was formed from the nobility, priesthood and military. Since his men controlled the capital General Maxixcatl Pizzaro soon dominated the New government. Pizzaro was a strong Localist Protectionist (a term for traditionalists who weren't protecting European culture), and sought to strengthen Mejico's international position. He would institute industrialization reforms aimed at strengthening Mejico's military. He also took Titu's hand in friendship, and sailed to the Topa Islands to meet with his southern counterpart.
The Topa Islands Conference saw the formalization of a Inca-Mejico alliance. A mutual defense pact was arranged, along with an exchange of officers and navel and aircraft technology. Plans were drawn up for a war that would tip the balance of power in Vescupia in their favor. One of the Inca's previous sources of power was control over the supplies of ships crossing the Pacific. But the Los Angeles Canal had changed all that. So the Mejico-Inca Alliance planned to nullify it. The canal was well positioned, but it could be out competed by a canal in the United States of Centrovescupia. So Titu and Pizzaro approached President Raul de la Cruz for a military alliance against the VFS and New France. However Cruz and the USC were the descendents of pure blooded Spanish settlers, and the President turned down the offer from two "subhuman" rulers. So the two empires turned to two groups who opposed the USC's government.
Since the beginning the northern USC had been plagued by the Mayan Insurgency who sought to establish an independent Maya state. Traditionally they had been enemies of Mejico as well, seeking to claim the Yucatan. But now Pizzaro changed the tune, and began to funnel weapons to the insurgents.
The other group was the Liberty Party, since independence the Liberty Party had fought for land redistribution and personal liberty, but restrictive voting laws kept them in a permanent minority. Nowadays they were divided into Unitarian and Republican wings, united only by their hatred of President Cruz. In a series of secret talks the Mejican ambassador convinced the PL that Mejico would support them in revolution. Mejico also arranged for the Mayans to leave their homelands to fight for the PL, in exchange for autonomy under a new regime. Mejico had no intention on following through with these promises, instead planning to betray their new allies as soon as possible.
While Mejico scammed the Inca planned. New France had not been devastated like her mother had been. She straddled coast to coast. The Dominion would be a tough nut to crack. The Inca's primary concern was retaking Quecha speaking lands just north of the border, so they prepared a strategy of an initial all out assault to take their targeted regions, followed by trench warfare to hold the lands until the New French were exhausted. To do this they needed the border armies to be withdrawn. Here President Cruz played right into their hands.
The Maya-PD alliance was making gains in the north against USC forces, and Cruz was getting increasingly desperate to end the civil war before he either lost or he was deposed by a military revolt. He first turned the the VFS for support but found little enthusiasm. The VFS was content with their own canal. The country was too enamoured with the first ever Basketball World Championship[2] So Cruz turned to New France, who proved friendlier to an alliance.
In exchange for a promise that New France would be given favorable trade deals and an oath never to buikd a USC run canal New France began to send supplies in Centrovescupia. By late 1919 the bloody civil war began to turn in favor of the rebels, as Mejican planes have valuable intelligence to the Maya-PL forces. Cruz's popularity was crumbling. The people still remembered the French Occupation, and everyday more New French officers and advisors poured in. New France began to fly it's own intelligence missions for the government.
Tit for tat. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
The Fires of Europe had not burned Vescupia down. But that meant that there was still plenty of kindling left.
-----
1: Galopagos
2: It would not be a Lithuania TL if Basketball isn't the world's sport
