It took me a while to realize that this was a graphic of South America and not just a stylized Inti.
The Sons of Inti Shall Not Perish
- Thread starter King of the Uzbeks
- Start date
Chapter 2.2 The Woes of the Welsers
Damn it Bartholomew I'm a banker not a landed aristocrat!
They were not a landed family originally. They were not known for their martial power. They were not men of the church more so then anyone else. They had a fine sounding lineage, but nothing more recent then the long dead Byzantine Empire. People feared the Welser family, even Kings and Emperors feared the Welser family. But they did not fear the sword, they feared the money. They did not fear the nonexistent rich lands of the Welsers, they feared the cold numbers of the family’s finances. Banking was where the Welsers had made their fortune, and banking was where they had stayed.
Until now.
In 1528 the Welsers had been granted Venezuela by Charles V in lieu of debt payments, and it was son given the German title Klein Venedig. In the two decades of Welser little had been done. Some settlement had occurred near the coast and some slaves had been imported for sugar plantations, but many had Germans had died of tropical diseases while mining for gold. Thus, the main industry of the Welsers in South America remained looting native American tribes and looking for the mythical city of El Dorado.
In short nothing in the history of the Welser family had in any way prepared them to run their new holdings. Kito was an ancient city, with a long history of central rule. Before the war it had been the seat of power for the most influential group in the empire. And now the armies that had served Quisquis so faithfully were disbanded, their soldiers sent home across the north.
Philipp von Hutten and Bartholomeus VI. Welser were optimistic however. They named their new territory Kleine Alpen or “Little Alps”. As Hutten was already Governor of Klein Venedig Welser, age 36 and heir to a powerful fortune, was named Captain-General. Still concerned about a possible Spanish incursion into Klein Venedig Hutten left as soon as possible once the new order was set up in Kito aboard a Spanish ship. He promised Welser that he would send new troops as soon as possible, either by sea or via the overland route in Columbia the pair had forged. With that promise Hutten departed and left Welser in charge.
Welser had the self-awareness to realize that his situation was tenuous and so appealed to the tribes that lived on the fringes of Kleine Alpen, in jungles that were decidedly not alpine. In exchange for gold and military support he offered them near complete autonomy and freedom to do as they pleased. These tribes in general were fine with paying tribute to Kito, but were reluctant to actually leave their homes to assist Welser’s rule.
These actions, while a stabilizing on the frontiers alienated the heart of Kleine Alpen: Kito. They saw this moves as a deep betrayal from a ruler who had only come into power by treacherously backstabbing Quisquis, a well-respected figure in the area. Welser also immediately seized the gold in Kito and began melting it down. His men invaded temples and desecrated holy sites. Men were forced to bow to a strange foreign cross. All in all, very standard actions for Europeans who had just humbled a mighty native empire.
But the people of Kito had not been humbled. Their leaders had been murdered and in the ensuing chaos they had been occupied. Kito had been occupied before by Europeans, but they had soon been expelled, and even if no help from the south was going to come there existed a strong feeling of superiority amongst the people.
Poma would never live a peaceful life again
Then someone found a mummy. In June 1551, the height of the Andean winter, reports began to emerge from just south of Quito of a rabble rouser called Poma. This was almost certainly not his real name, Poma being the term for Panther, but he still began attracting a large group of followers. Poma was a veteran of the wars that had preceded the division of the Tawantinsuyu. Reports indicate he fought the Spanish several times as well as fighting against the Mapuche before ending up in Quisquis’s army. Like most of said army he was sent home when his side was defeated, but only after having developed a strong sense of loyalty to men like Quisquis and Atawallpa. Under normal circumstances he would have returned home to a quiet life, but the world was changing. Exact records are nonexistent but he probably returned home to find it devastated. His speeches claimed it had been burned by the Welsers, which is very probably false, but he likely found it infected with a few deadly European diseases, many which he might have recognized as uncurbable. Whatever happened there was nothing left for him at his home and he became a wanderer.
Unheard of in the well-ordered days before contact a small but growing number of migrants took to roads of the Tawantinsuyu and Poma joined them, wandering around Kleine Alpen in search of…something.
He found (or made) a mummy.
Mummified remains of rulers held a special position in the faith of the Tawantinsuyu. Even as civil war had raged Atawallpa’s body had been carried unhindered to Qusqo for the process.They retained their old palaces in Qusqo and were periodically borught out for festivals and offered food and drink. Extreme reverence was given to them, and they were an important link between past glories and the present.
And Poma claimed to have found Ninancoro’s. Never mind the fact that Poma had probably had never been back to the site of Ninancoro’s since he had been ordered home. Never mind that the Welsers would have just buried the would be Sapa Inka and that a body switch would have been near impossible. What mattered was that the angered men of the north now had a symbol to rally around in resistance to Welser rule.
What no one, not even the man himself, knew was that in Poma they had found a man who could turn this resistance into something dangerous.
It has been over a year but I finally got a plaque for the Turtledove this TL won
Thank you to all the readers of this timeline. It wouldn't have gotten this for without you.
Thank you to all the readers of this timeline. It wouldn't have gotten this for without you.
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It has been over a year but I finally got a plaque for the Turtledove this TL won
Thank you to all the readers of this timeline. It wouldn't have gotten this for without you.
Beautiful. What happened to this year's Turtledove Awards though? Is it a biannual thing or was it simply cancelled?
Uh, I mean the 2018 one. Maybe it's still too early. The last one was held in March-April. Congrats, regardless. :3
No like the nomination threads are being put up as we speak. They're just not stickied yet
Oh, ok. I was wondering why it hasn't shown up. I'm guessing we're not allowed to nominate you again?
Not for Sons of Inti. My other works are still open (if you've read them) as are Characters and Quotes from Sons of Inti when those nominations go upOh, ok. I was wondering why it hasn't shown up. I'm guessing we're not allowed to nominate you again?
EDIT: All nominations are now up.
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If this TL doesn't end with Huguenot-Mamluks on the Andes, I'm calling out all moorish America TLs and send them here to raise shit up.
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Sons of Inti meets Minarets of AtlantisIf this TL doesn't end with Huguenot-Mamluks on the Andes, I'm calling out all moorish America TLs and send them here to raise shit up.
Sons of Inti meets Minarets of Atlantis
By all that is holy, I love that TL. The very first that got me interested in alternate America scenarios, actually.
It was this one for me, though honestly that was my gateway into alternate history in general (but reading that made me realize how much I loved native TLs!).
Though my real 'first' was before I even heard of alternate history, much less this website; it was one of my own timeline ideas. I've researched for it off and on when I have the time, and I'm still not done...it's influenced my anthropology major. To this day I wonder if I think I'll ever be 'ready' to write it.
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Chapter 2.3: The Long Walk to Kito
A mummy being revered
A mummy cannot make a rebellion, at least not a long lasting one. A symbol can rally, but it cannot give direction. No matter the religious convictions of the locals the alleged mummy of Ninancoro could not actually organize a rebellion on its own.
However, Poma was a more then capable speaker. He spoke in a frenzied manner about how the gods demanded that the land be returned to the sons of Inti, not some foreign men with a foreign god. He claimed that the Welsers, having betrayed Ninancoro, would fall first before the Spaniards were swept out of the lands. Poma likely said that because he correctly ascertained that the Welsers were a weaker enemy then the Spanish. Politics aside however his religious fervor spoke to a society that was being torn apart at the seams. Plague, famine, foreign invasion, Poma offered a single enemy as the cause.
Poma first gained traction in the southern reaches of Kleine Alpen, where Tawantinsuyu customs had sunk in the strongest. He soon had a small band of followers rallying around his radical cause. When two horsemen from Welser arrived in a village demanding taxes one lost his head and the other his horse. But for now, Welser was dealing with minor disturbances elsewhere, murder made Poma’s actions a minority, but not the only exception.
Poma leveraged this incident into more followers. He spun a tale of Ninancoro’s mummy driving off the invaders, and the dead man’s blood being the first in what would soon be a river.
There were not many Christians in Kleine Alpen, some missionaries had gone that far north illegally when the Treaty of Cajacamara was still in force but for the most part they had remained in the south and the Welsers were not as enthusiastic about conversion as the Spanish. Nonetheless the chaos of a changing world made a few natives turn towards this new faith whose god was powerful enough to bring down sickness on them all. Most missionaries could not stay long, but they could often leave behind dedicated new Christians, who despite having no training in theology were often eager to spread their faith. In most places they failed utterly, but in some places they formed small communities.
One such place was in the town of Mullihambato nearby to where Poma had driven of Welser’s men. A particularly brave Spanish priest had converted a few men before fleeing south to escape local authorities. A few seemingly miraculous recoveries from normally deadly diseases occurred among the converts and soon Mullihambato had a relatively large population of Christians. Only a few had even ever met a European, the rest had learned of the faith through the half-remembered tales told by those who had met the priest. Little is known of their practices, but they were certainly jumbled and featured syncretism between Christianity and local beliefs. A European would likely not have recognized them as Christian and they certainly never would have been accepted into communion by the Catholic church.
But that did not matter to Poma.
On May 12 his small band of rebels descended on the town with clubs and axes. Poma himself bore a sword he had stolen from the dead man sent out from Kito. There were no real guards there, just a few peasants with farming equipment. They were quickly overrun and soon Poma was rounding up all the Christians he could find, along with a good number of non-Christians. He then brought forth the Ninancoro mummy and demanded that they revere it as befitting a king. The non-Christians and a few Christians did so and escaped, though they still were likely beaten. Those Christians who did not resist were brutally beaten and hacked to death by Poma’s men.
Localized violence against Christians was not rare in the Tawantinsuyu after the Spanish began missionary efforts. Atawallpa had certainly made it as unwelcome as possible. But Poma made his actions well known and not cloaked in any sort of diplomatic pandering to the Spanish, which appealed to many in Kleine Alpen. Ex-soldiers, sent home by the Welsers left their homes to join the rebellion. The growth of Poma’s army and the brazenness of the massacre placed the Mummy Rebellion (as it was becoming known as) at the forefront of Weler’s to do list.
He dispatched 27 men and some local allies to quell the rebellion when Poma gathered his forces along the Guyas river[1], away from the mountains in late May. However, the local allies proved less then loyal and Poma knew of their arrival. He left his position seemingly open to attack and the Germans charged, only to find a group of rebels exploding from some reeds along the river into their flank. Then the local allies abandoned any pretense of alliance and attacked the Germans, slaughtering them to a man. Though history would remember the Massacre of Mullihambato more the Battle of the Guyas proved that the rebels could face the enemy and attracted more support for the Mummy Rebellion then the massacre.
Poma’s followers swelled in numbers, now numbering in the tens of thousands, joining him as he returned to the mountains. They remained disorganized in general but were far better organized. They ambled north, Poma spoke of a new empire that would be established in Kito then turn south and roll over the Spanish and the traitors in Qusqo. Slowly but surely the rebels marched towards Kito, living off the land. Sometimes they found willing donors of food, but sometimes they made raids. Poma tried to maintain some semblance of order, but even his considerable charisma could not keep his peasant army contained.
Experienced Soldiers formed the core of the rebellion
Poma settled for figuring out who the good soldiers were rather than trying to train any new ones, mainly out of fear that harsh discipline would scatter his army. Recognizing the key role they had played in his victory at the Battle of the Guyas Poma placed the battle hardened veterans of the Tawantinsuyu Army at the center of amorphous force, leaving the untrained majority around them. It was not well organized.
To the north Welser was growing desperate. Most of his allies were abandoning him. They lacked the organization amongst themselves to challenge him in Kito, and few were eager to join the Mummy Rebellion, which they saw as “beneath them”, but it still meant Welser’s already narrow support base was crumbling. Northern groups like the Cayambe and the Otavalo remained loyal, but also refused to aid Welser in his defense of Kleine Alpen.
By July Poma was just over 30 miles south of Kito and Welser was desperate enough to act.
Poma ambled north and Welser laid a trap for him at the town of Machachi. Machachi is not low by any stretch of the imagination, it is over a mile and a half above sea level, but it is a low point amongst its surroundings. It is surrounded by 8 volcanoes of varying degrees of activity, each towering above the village. It is here that Welser rolled the dice.
He bribed, he cajoled, he threatened, he even begged, but he managed to scrape together 3,000 native allies to ride alongside the 100 or so Europeans he brought from Kito, well over half of his overall presence in Kleine Alpen. They waited for Poma’s main force of around 25,000 rebels to enter the town looking for food, then charged down the slopes of Pasochoa in an attempt to end the rebellion in one crushing blow.
As was by now normal Welser’s allies proved less than reliable, all of them showed up and fought for his side, and news of his plan leaked to Poma. However, word never got out the shifting masses that made up most of the rebels, and when the charge came early on July 14 there was panic in the rebel camp. Poma’s army had literally a handful of European weapons, and none of them were in the outer line of defense, the defenders were more hungry peasants seeking protection then warriors. The attackers cut through them easily, with Welser leading the charge personally. The charge soon got bogged down in looting however, the German soldiers being more experienced in pillaging then actually defeating an enemy. The surprise was lost and soon eager young men were mobbing the attacking Europeans, hoping for the glory of killing a foreigner.
Still the casualty count was lopsided in the extreme, as modern weapons cut down the defenders, who often had no better than bronze farm hoes. A few native allies fell here and there, but the Europeans remained just as numerous as they had been when they started the day.
The more experienced of the rebels began to advance on the Europeans, who were having a hard time advancing towards Poma’s himself through the mobbing melee. The veterans began to hurl stones and fire arrows at the enemy. This action probably killed more allies then it did enemies, but it did begin to thin the ranks of Europeans.
Welser saw that the initiative was lost and that sooner or later sheer chance would end up killing everyone he had brought with him and called a retreat. His men’s retreat was fairly orderly, but the rebel pursuit was a complete mess. Men were trampled and fights broke out over who got to kill the Germans. The chaos felled more Europeans and most of the native allies.
The Battle of Machachi killed 61 Germans, about 2,000 Welser allies and between 8,000 and 10,000 rebels. Welser survived, but returned to Kito is despair, his credibility with his allies was gone after he had led them to be slaughtered and the road to Kito seemed open. Yet Poma was also hesitant to make a move.
The victory had cost him dearly in terms of manpower, and he needed all the men he could get to take Kito. So, he was forced to wait for thousands of stragglers to catch up with him before advancing. He also faced a morale problem, Machachi had been the first real bloodshed most of his army had seen and many were now feeling homesick and less enthusiastic about the war. Thus, Poma took the time to give a series of speeches invoking the Mummy and the power of the native gods. And he also began to train his men, believing that while sheer numbers had won the day this time but that skill would be needed for future battles. This all took time. Time for Welser to think.
The devastation as Machachi wiped clean any memories of the massacre at Mullihambato in Kleine Alpen, but to the south it was provoking a crisis between Qusqo and Tumbez.
1: Near Palestina, Ecuador
Spanish forces will need to march if they intend to keep Quito in European hands at this stage, despite the technological advantage, Welser has lost between a third to half of his men given the numbers presented, he presides over a spent force. If de Castro is the one to send troops up north, he risks weakening his own position to Manco Capac's troops, which he may or may not be aware of. He is however aware that his political rivals might make a grab for the Kleine Alpen if he does not preempt them.
There should be an update by the end of the week. Sorry for the delay. Vacation, writers block and my other TL (which you can see in my sig) conspired to slow it down.
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