Chapter 2.9: A Southward Path
Recruitment
In 1551 Philip von Hutten had left Kleine Alpen aboard a Spanish Ship, seeking out reinforcements for thr fledgling colony. He returned to find Klein Alpen burned, and the restored Kingdom of Kito restored. He had spent about 3 years traveling to Klein-Venedig of which he was technically still governor. He found it still under his rival turned uneasy ally Juan Pérez de Tolosa as "Mayor of Coro". Hutten was pleased to find de Tolosa had refused the authority of everyone except the Emperor, keeping Klein-Venedig independent from the Viceroyalty and free from Spanish political domination. He was less pleased with what de Tolosa had done. De Tolosa had used the colony's relative independence to turn it into a hub for various groups unwelcome in New Spain, namely smugglers. And he had used this status to substantially enrich himself. Hutten, a career loyalist to the Wesler family, found this quite a distasteful fate for a colony he had worked hard to create.
Nonetheless after checking De Tolosa's records (and then the actual records secretly kept by some Germans) Hutten was satisfied that money continued to flow to the Wesler family and set about organizing another expedition to Quito. He found himself with a shortage of recruits however. The German settlers had no desire to uproot themselves yet again for a far off land. The Spaniards were a wretched lot of criminals, all of the promising ones having left for better things. Hutten's efforts to shop around the Caribbean also me with failure, the Spanish holdings seeming a more promising opportunity then Kleine Alpen. He gathered up what troops he could and sent word to Europe.
Fortunately word had already spread in Europe of the Welser conquests, and so months later Hutten found himself at the head of a motely force of Germans and Spaniards who, for whatever reason, felt their chances were better under the Welsers then the Hapsburgs. Some had experience in the various wars that peppered Germany, and those formed the core of Hutten's force. Many however, were virtually untrained, but Hutten still took the bet that they could learn on the fly and so departed. He had decided that he had been away for long enough.
The vast majority of his men were good Catholics through and through. However there was small group, probably just shy of 5% of the 700 odd men he brought, who were not. They were listed as Catholics, as that had been a requirement to sign up, but they were in fact Protestant. Hutten likely knew that they existed, and gambled that they were worth the trouble. And he was right, the Protestants among his men kept quiet; and if they did attempt any conversions their churches were indisgunishable from the Catholics in a land where syncretism reigned and the Pope was an ocean away.
On December 30th, 1553 Hutten made landfall near where Pedro de Alvarado had years ago and immediately marched south for Kito. At first when he heard tell of a King in Kito he became destruaght, believing that it meant that Wesler and his forces were dead, but soon he heard tell that white men still held power and redoubled his efforts to reinforce Kito, and arrived in mid-January.
Kito marches to War
Since Poma's force had been bloodily repulsed at Kito the rebellion had been in a stalemate, Welser was unwilling to risk his tiny force by leaving Kito, and Poma was unwilling to bloody his army again with a direct assault. This state of affairs favored Welser in the end. Poma's army, never the best at retaining soldiers, began to fragment in the face of their inactivity following their first true defeat. Some went home, others turned from revolution to simple banditry. Meanwhile Welser received reinforcements from northern tribes and, crucially, Hutten himself.
Arriving in Kito Hutten paid "homage" to the king and then embraced his protege. Whatever their original relationship, the pair were now close friends. They discussed the situation at length and decided on a course of action. The combined forces would march south and smash the traitors while they remained encamped, thus ending the threat once and for all. So they departed for Machmachi, where Poma still sat.
Poma got word and roused what men he still had to defend his camp. They still vastly outnumbered the royal force, having some 14,000 men to the 2,200 Welser and Hutten commanded. But Poma no longer bore the reputation for invincibilty he once had, and disease was sweeping his camp. All of this led to a plummeting of morale amongst the men who had stayed with him. Meanwhile the Kitian forces were buoyed by reinforcements and a general sense that the tide was turning. A calvary charge opened the engagement and shattered the rebels lines, while Hitten had brought cannon and powder, forcing Poma to face sustained bombardment for the first time. Then the main infantry advanced, plowing into Poma's force. It was a bloody affair, and many of Hutten's men were surprised by the resistance they found, but Poma and his mummy were pushed back bit by bit. As the day ended, the rebels were pushed to the far southern end of the valley where Machachi was located, and were very clearly near defeat. On the morning of February 5th, Poma attempted a daring escape South before dawn. However Welser learned of this plan and blocked the armies retreat, personally marching some of his men to block the road south. The rebels were forced onto the edge of the dormant Volcano Rumiñavi[1] and were again attacked. On the slope sharing the name of the legendary enemy of the Europeans, the rebels were smashed against the mountain. Poma was forced to flee for his life and his mummy was captured and burned in full view. It was not the end of the rebellion, but it was the end of it being a threat to Kito proper and over the next few months it would cease to be a threat to the long term threat to the general stability of the kingdom.
While the Tawantinsuyu and Spanish delt with the ramifications of the new Spanish territory, Hutten and Welser marched steadily southward, smashing attempts by Poma to reform the rebellion. Faith in Poma sunk to an all time low as time after time his efforts to gather together a new army were smashed. He was soon reduced to hit and run raids in the south, which was where he had started off. The last known report of Poma was in 1562, although the last confirmed one was in 1558.
As they went about crushing the rebellion Welser and Hutten went about establishing the restored Kingdom of Kito as an actual form of government. Overall it took a feudal structure, with king Tupac Tomay at the head (under the regency of the Welsers) and various native allies and prominent Germans being granted their own lands as they saw fit. Certain things, most notably the army remained under the sole control of Kito, but this meant that the status of those living in the Kingdon varied wildly. Some rulers recreated the traditional Tawantinsuyu style with collective labor and storehouses, others took a more hands off approach and many, mostly Germans, ran their lands as their own personal source of income, brutally exploiting their subjects.
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An unpleasant system if there ever was one.
Much like the Spanish to the south mines were established to search for gold as well as Coca plantations to finance the boom in Europe. Unlike the Spanish to the South the slave trade also boomed. There was enough land in the south to exploit the natives there, but many in Kito were nervous about rebellions after the Mummy Rebellion, and so sought to sell their "excess" subjects. Strictly speaking this was illegal, but enforcement was so lax as to be non-existent. Some were sent to Klein Venedig, with its loose application of all laws. Many were simply shuffled around in Kitian territory. Some were sent north.
Those who were forced to go north disproportionately found themselves in the Yucatan, in particular Gutamaula. A massive rebellion in the 1540s had left the local authorities nervous about native labor and so willing to pay for some under the table slaves. Some died quickly from mistreatment and disease, some lived out their lives as slaves. Others fled south. Not back to their homes, but into the jungle. The lands of the Peten Itza, who refused the might of Spain and preformed the ancient rites of the Maya. The fleeing slaves brought a great many tales to the Kan Ek', tales that he found...informative.
Elsewhere in South America, Castro was pleased to hear that the Mummy rebellion was crushed, as it removed a possible threat from the north. He was less pleased to see the Welsers asserting power, viewing them as a competitor. Quisipe-Tupac wallowed in indifferent sadness at the news, as was becoming his habit. To Manco Yupanqui it was ill news, as it added another European led state to the continent. His occasional plans to try for an alliance with Poma had never risen to anything above idle, but that did not make his defeat good news.
But none of these men had time to linger on these thoughts for long. In mid-April 1554, men loyal to Quillota in the far south spotted a ship of foreign design. That was odd enough, as the Spanish never came that far south. But it came from the south, not the north. And it bore a new flag.
A flag that no man from the Tawantinsuyu had ever seen, but one the Spanish knew all too well.
1: It was from this mountain that our old friend Rumiñavi got his name not vice versa, so the name remains the same.
