The Sons of Inti Shall Not Perish

[King of the Uzbeks]

The Nobles of Qusqo​

Quisipe-Tupac hemmed and he hawed. He was aware of just how damaging accepting Castro’s offer would be to his position as Sapa Inka and to the empire as a whole. His court, normally divided amongst itself was unanimous in recommending a refusal of the terms presented to Castro. But the question was how to avoid war while rejecting the demands. There were competing viewpoints on how to do this.

One group, comprised mostly of those dabbling in Christianity behind the scenes or those sympathetic to the dabblers, advocating accepting the religious demands while rejecting the demands about Spanish enforcement. They contended that the real threat was Spanish encroachment, not any foreign religion. This group noted that the Spanish used Christianity to support their empire and said that Quisipe-Tupac could do the same. With no Spanish oversight he could turn Christianity into a cult in his favor.

The other group was more nebulous in composition and more nebulous in proposed response. They rejected acceptance of Christianity and any Spanish encroachment. They proposed vague compromises to appease Castro while maintaining independence. It was from this group that young Titu Cusi made his first foray into the politics of his cousin’s court. He gave a stirring attack on creeping Christianity in the empire and made thinly veiled insinuations that his father would not allow it. He then turned towards the Spanish representatives and gave the same speech in Spanish. It was a bold statement of defiance that signaled that Manco Capac was emerging from the south.

Despite the theatrics Quisipe-Tupac did not refuse the deal with promises of concessions. Neither did he accept the Christianity demands from Castro. This was probably for the better, neither option truly presented a viable way to avoid war with Spain. Neither offered a capitulation that would truly offset the lost gains for Spain from a rejected deal. Quisipe-Tupac did find a way to reject the majority of the ultimatum, while averting war with Spain. It was not a pretty solution.

Quisipe-Tupac took a page out of his father’s book and promised massive amounts of precious metals to the Spaniards. Bribing the Spanish to go away had worked for Atawallpa and Quisipe-Tupac was determined to make it work again. He, through gritted teeth, offered an annual tribute to the Crown of Spain. Enough Gold to fill a liter and enough Silver to fill a ship. Every year for the foreseeable future. Little mention was made of the actual demands put forward by Castro in the response.

Castro did not accept the offer. He legitimately sought to protect and expand Christianity in the Twantinsuyu. He was however open to the idea of loosening his demands in exchange for concessions in other fields. However, Gold and Silver was not enough, he claimed that the shipments were too easily stolen or tampered with. Castro wanted something more substantial. He wanted land.

The Spanish returned in mid-July with Castro’s reply. The prospect of giving up more land was not met with much enthusiasm by the court, and some suggested simply raising the amount of gold promised every year. But the Sapa Inka did not have an endless supply of gold, his empire was rich in the metal, but did not have the capacity to mine it in the huge quantities needed to appease Spain’s lust for gold. The monopoly imposed by generations of Sapa Inkas had guaranteed that Quisipe-Tupac had a large on hand supply of gold, but even that was depleting. Years of trade with the Spanish, who invariably set extremely high prices, had begun to put a dent in the Sapa Inka’s gold. It was nowhere near to being gone, but it could not sustain years of being shipped endlessly to Spain. The Tawantinsuyu had plenty of silver on hand and was unknowingly sitting on an entire mountain of it, but it was not as appealing to the Spanish as gold, and Castro would still object to not getting any land.

So Quisipe-Tupac sent forth his reply, accepting the loss of territory, along with a reduced tribute. Castro was delighted and prepared the final terms of what would come to be known as the Cessation of Faith. He took a method from the Treaty of Tordesillas and used an arbitrary line on a map to determine the new borders, though in this case it was latitude instead of longitude. The 12th Parallel South would now be the barrier between the Tawantinsuyu and the Spanish Empires, though actually drawing the line would take some time. In addition, Qusqo immediately began stalling for time because the Tawantinsuyu had only a limited understanding of latitude and longitude and needed time to figure it all out to avoid being cheated out of land by the Spanish. A ship’s worth of treasure, an assortment of silver and gold, would be given to the Spanish by the Tawantinsuyu every year starting in 1553. As for the religious issues, which had precipitated the crisis in the first place, a compromise was reached that would not have been possible save the extreme concessions given by Quisipe-Tupac. The Spanish would have the right to defend missionaries and try those accused of attacking Christians, however they would have to gain permission from the Tawantinsuyu to enter and make arrests, permission that was widely understood to be impossible to obtain except for extreme cases.

Peace had been preserved. However, Qusqo rumbled at the territory lost, the enemy was now dangerously close to the capital, and they saw little gain. And the Cessation of Faith unintentionally began to tip the balance of power inside the empire.

Since the conquests of Pachacuti there had been four suyus ruled from Qusqo[1]. Chinchasuyu in the Northwest, Antisuyu in the Northeast, Kuntisuyu in the Southwest, and Qullasuyu in the Southeast. At the time they had been of equal size but as the Empire had grown in size Chinchasuyu and Quallasuyu had grown larger, while the two had stagnated in terms of territory. Bu the 1500’s Chinchasuyu and Qullasuyu were afforded double the representation at any gathering of the nobles compared to the other two suyus, though Qusqo still had a sizable, and more influential under Quisipe-Tupac, contingent. However, the Spaniards had come form the north, and the loss of territory reflected that. Chinchasuyu had been reduced by over half. This was decent politically for Qusqo as it got rid of the troublesome northerners who had backed Atawallpa, but it was a substantial loss of wealth and manpower. It also left Qullasuyu the only large province in the empire.

The same Qullasuyu that Manco Capac currently controlled.

Manco Capac shared his name with the mythical founder of his people. SYMBOLISM ALERT​

Manco Capac had come south with an army and largely been left there to keep him out of the way. The soldiers he had kept under his control were northerners and had nowhere left to go. The nobles of Qusqo had sold their homes away to invaders. Manco Capac had done his best to integrate them into the new lands conquered from the Mapuche and had gained loyalty. Local nobles kept their privileges from before Manco’s arrival, so long as they remained loyal to him. Outside observers were not exactly welcomed into Manco Capac’s residence in Quillota but if they had been they would have noticed that he was acting much more like an emperor organizing his empire then a loyal governor ruling a province in the name of his nephew. Since Quisipe-Tupac’s rise Qullasuyu had technically been as open as any other region to the Spaniards but in practice those who wandered too far south found themselves imprisoned and declared “killed by bandits”. Castro was aware that this was likely not true he seems to have assumed that this was Manco Capac turning a blind eye towards local violence, not a campaign to stamp out foreign influence. These captives were helpful in finding sites with a high possibility of iron, and sure enough some of the sites did in fact have iron.

Soon there were iron mines sending their products to Quillota, where the process was quickly discovered for making iron weapons. Steel proved a much harder invention to find, with many captured Spaniards knowing how to work steel, but not how to make it. By 1553 Manco Capac had steel, it was not very good steel and would not stand up to Toledo steel, but it was a start and better then plain bronze weapons. Attempts to unlock the power of gunpowder met with mixed success, Manco Capac’s men found ways to make some small pops and crackles and even some nice-looking explosions. But it was not consistently produced and was not very good at propelling the shot needed to be used in guns or cannons. So, like his brother before him Manco Capac was forced to carefully conserve captured European powder, his hostility towards any foreigners leaving preventing any mass purchases from the Spanish.

With his new weapons and the sting of the Cessation of Faith spurring him on Manco Capac began more or less openly flouting any and all treaties with Spain. Missonaries caught in Qullasuyu were dumped into other provinces if they were found. Spaniards with things of more immediate value were brought to Quillota and were only released with exorbitant ransoms in steel weapons or gunpowder. Under the Cessation of Faith, the Spanish appealed to Quisipe-Tupac, who ordered those responsible turned over to the Spanish. Manco Capac refused. Despite having Titu Cusi as a nominal hostage Quisipe-Tupac did nothing more, out of fear for provoking his uncle’s wrath. Despite his provocative actions Manco Inca still dutifully sent taxes north, and Quisipe-Tupac thus had no reason to trifle with a man whose army was now the most powerful native force on the continent. Quisipe-Tupac did grant the Spanish authority to go and retrieve the accused, but this would have required a full-scale expedition.

Castro for now held off on challenging Manco Capac. He was far to the south and Castro was trying to appease the various factions under his control with land.

And his forces were better served looking to the north, where the Mummy Rebellion entered a new phase of violence after a brief lull.

1: Four being Tawa. Suyu being region. Tawantinuyu being the four regions.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

Kito, Chinchasuyu
Neu Augsburg, Kleine Alpen
August 23, 1553

Bartholomew VI. Welser spoke quietly with the messenger, nodded, and then sent the boy on his way. He turned towards the assembled soldiers he had summoned to him. He was 41, and looked older, but he did have a drive to survive and that counted for much to Hans.

“The reports are true. The Mummy moves north. Our reprieve is over gentlemen. We will face a battle soon.” Welser said clearly.

“We should flee to the coast, wait for Hutten.” One man cried.

“Why wait? Herr Castro stands ready to the south.”

“God will keep us safe from the pagans.”

Cacophony reigned in the hall of the former palace until Welser yelled for silence.

“We will hold the city. Retreat is out of the question. To lose the city is to lose Kleine Alpen. And we have invested so many men that losing Kleine Alpen would be to lose Klein Vendig, and my father would not approve of that.” The room stiffened noticeably. “No, we will hold the city, and without the help of Castile. I do not trust them.”

“Our emperor is their king!” A voice cried out. Welser narrowed his eyes.

“So was Martin Luther, yet I would not trust him. We will have to manage. Send for some messengers, I will make an appeal for the northern tribes to come south. United we can defeat this rabble.”

Hans nodded his head, but the dissident voice called out again.

“You would have us ally with barbarians who will not aid us before our compatriots?”

“I will do as I please. I am the duly appointed Governor of Kleine Alpen and you will be silent.” Welser waited, then continued. “Parties will be sent out to delay the advance, while others will build our support in the city and in the north. We have had our months of preparation, just as the enemy has. Now we will see who has spent their time better. Do I have any volunteers to delay the advance of the barbarian?”

No one spoke.

“And will anyone kindly stay here to assist in my preparations?”

A great clamor erupted, much to Welser’s frustration.

“Very well, I will decide who goes to the front by tomorrow. You may go now.”

As the crowd dispersed Welser grabbed Hans’s arm.

“I saw you nodding along with me. Find me those troublemakers, they will be sent south.”

“Of course, sir.” Hans replied.

“That is good. Do that and you can stay here, and I might even have another job for you.”

Hans sprinted out of the room.

…

Neu Augsburg, Kleine Alpen
August 30, 1553

Hans’s expectations of the New World had been varied. He had expected gold at times. Sometimes there had been his own farm with some Indians working the fields. At times he had expected to die gloriously in battle. Other times he had thought he was doomed to die from the stifling heat of the equator.

He had never expected to be playing governess to a bunch of children.

Hans had spent the last week searching the city for a “perfect looking child”. Welser had described what he had meant by that, but he had forbidden it to be written down for fear of discovery. Hans had no idea what Welser was doing. His current theory was that the child was to be a curiosity for the Emperor back in Europe.

Hans had wrangled five children, some were orphans found running in the streets, some had been given willingly by the fearful parents. One had to be taken by force, an experience that, for all his best efforts, still left Hans feeling more than a little guilty. Now they were all in one place, and the trouble became keeping them out of trouble. Two were squabbling over a little toy cart while another seemed attracted by some strange force to stairs that he would then fall down. Hans spoke only German and a little Spanish, and the children spoke nothing but their native tongues. Although he suspected that he would have trouble controlling them even if they could communicate.

As of now he was trying to separate the two fighting. The one on the right was surprisingly strong, refusing to let go of the cart. Hans had to yank with all his might, while the one on the left began to cry loudly. Hans set them both down, believing their fight to be over. But they were immediately at each other’s throats yet again. Hans picked up the crying one and plopped him down onto the other side of the room.

“Now stay there and stay quiet.” He ordered. The Boy started crying again. Hans heard a loud thunk and ran over to help the boy who had just fallen down some stairs. He was unhurt and laughing. It was then Welser walked in, much to Hans’ relief.

“I see you have gathered the children.” Welser said.

“Yes sir, all five of them are here. I’m still not entirely sure why yo…”

“You had told me that there were six.”

“One of them was coming down with smallpox when I returned to collect him.”

“A shame.” With that comment Welser began to walk around and examine the children, as if he were inspecting meat before a long voyage. He shook his head at the crying one. He shook his head at the pair who had failed to do anything since they had arrived. He neither shook his head nor nodded at the giggling one who often fell down the stairs. He paused at the surprisingly strong one, now happily playing with the cart toy he had taken from the crying boy.

“This one does not look much the description I gave you. He looks far more northern then the rest.” Welser observed.

“He has some features, look at the nose. Looks like a Qusqon. Must have gotten it from his father. His mother is a northerner.”

“Kitan?”

“No from further north, one of those border tribes that are stubbornly refusing aid.” As Hans replied Welser gave a slight smile.

“The mother is still alive?”

“Last I saw her.”

“Good. Bring her here. We have much to do.”

…

Neu Augsburg, Kleine Alpen
September 1, 1553

“It is a well-known fact that things change. Empires rise and fall. Kito fell to Qusqo, and now Qusqo falls to Madrid. Here, in this city, we know this. We have seen it happen. Atawallpa led this land to glory, but the three sons he brought south were not worthy of the mantle. Niancoro was a fine enough man, until Castro’s treachery felled him.” Welser said to a crowd of nobles, both local and from the north. The crowd bristled at his twisting of events, but he raised his hand. “I was as surprised as anyone, his agents had infiltrated my army, and before I could defeat them we were in the hands of Castro, but fear not those agents have been dealt with. Now Ninancoro marches once more to war, more inspiring in death then he was in life. But he cannot rule, instead the rebels are directed by some raving commoner.” The crowd calmed a bit, all those who openly supported Poma were now gone from the city. Welser continued.

“He promises a return to the old days of glory. I cannot promise you that. But I can promise you something else, something that will unite the two great pillars of this realm. The north,” Welser nodded to the northern nobles, who had brought armies who would not fight until ordered. “And the south,” He nodded to the Kitans. “I present to you Tomay.” The young boy was brought forth from behind Welser, along with his calm mother. “He mother is from a proud line from the north, ancient and just. And his father was Atawallpa.”

The crowd erupted. The northerners distrusted those who had tried to conquer them. The Germans were afraid this meant treason. Others had simply done the math and found that the boy was far too young to have ever been Atawallpa’s son. Welser again raised his hand for calm.

“Rest assured, he does not claim the Tawantinsuyu. He cares not for the line of Sapa Inka’s. However, remember, Atawallpa’s mother came from a Kito, came from the royal family in fact. So, he has a claim to Kito. Better then that of any from Qusqo, or Spain, or Germany. So, I, by the power vested in me by the Lord our God, and with the assent of the assembled, do solemnly declare Tupac Tomay King of Kito. His realm is, and forever shall be, free from the power of the Kings of Castille. And, after much deliberation, the King has decided to accept the protection of the Holy Roman Empire, and Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Fifth. Now I ask you, do you stand loyal to your King?”

Neu Augsburg, Kleine Alpen
Kito, Kingdom of Kito
September 1, 1553

The crowd stood silent. Then began to cheer, even the skeptical northerners

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

Glory to the New King​

The Coronation of a Kitan King was a bold move by the Germans in Kito and projected an image of far more power than they actually possessed. But it did begin another phase of the Mummy Rebellion. Modern scholars, and indeed most contemporary sources unaffiliated with the Welsers, agree that Tupac Tomay was not in any way related to the Tawantinsuyu Royal Family. He was simply too young to have been the son of Atawallpa. However, Welser sold the boy king well and managed to convince those nobles still in Kito to back his cause. While he could not promise them the glory of the old days he could promise them more power than Poma (who viewed them as traitors), the Spanish (who would have happily discarded them for a more pliable group), or Quisipe-Tupac (who had no love for Kito). Far more important were the northern tribes that Tupac Tomay’s heritage brought south. Despite the fact that his mother (baptized as Francesca) was not, as Welser claimed, a local princess, the presence of a Great King from the north brought many local leaders to Kito, along with their armies. They were a diverse lot ranging from the Secoyas of the jungle to the Chachi of the mountains, to the Tacames on the coast. This was a diverse array of “relatives” for the new King. As best as historians can tell the mother of the King was likely from a mountain tribe, but Welser was quick to suppress any notion of her true origins, up to and including her birth name before baptism. Francesca quickly developed a convoluted family tree that conveniently included the most powerful leaders Welser needed to appease. Welser backed this all up with substantial bribes in gold and promises of European weaponry. Welser had taken advantage of the lull in the fighting well, rebuilding an army and solidifying his position in Kito.

Meanwhile Poma had been attempting to train his rebels into something more formidable that a large mob. He had stopped his march towards Kito after the appalling casualties he suffered at the Battle of Machachi. Poma was trying to avert such bloodshed by reorganizing his men along the lines of the old Tawantinsuyu Army. This had some positive benefits, he could now command parts of the army separately, and it allowed him to strategically select where to use his best men. However, the lull had uncovered cracks in the rebellion. Many had joined during the initial euphoria of victory and had happily been carried in the tide marching north. The pause led many to reassess their situations, and some began to trickle back to their home villages. This trend was heightened as a measles epidemic swept through the rebel camp. To cap it all off Poma’s organization had created rivalries, largely surrounding the hoarding of captured weapons, and created officers who had been higher ranked then Poma in the Tawantinsuyu Army and thought themselves better leaderships. Poma’s religious zeal and control of the Mummy ensured his continued power, but other personalities had emerged. Poma’s pause had not destroyed his chances, but the Welser cause had advanced more than the rebel one had.

By September 19 Poma’s army was approaching Kito proper, sitting beside the great volcano Pichincha. It was there they first heard the news of the coronation. There had been rumors before, but nothing that truly explained what had transpired in Kito. The herald declared that Kito was now under the rule of Tupac Tomay, heir to Atawallpa, and that no treason against the Kingdom of Kito would be tolerated. The herald announced a general amnesty to those who laid down their arms peacefully but promised death to those that opposed the King. The declaration shattered much of the unity inside the rebel army. Some outright defected to the enemy, seeing a living heir to Atawallpa as being better than a dead one. Others stayed on with the rebels, with the express goal of freeing Atawallpa’s heir from the evil Germans, which was not at all what Poma had in mind when he had started the rebellion. However, the most numerous group of the factions that emerged as the rebels approached Kito were the deserters. The threat of impending death reminded many of the rebels just how far they were from home, and a great number of rebels took up the amnesty offer and left. Poma still had far more men then the defenders of Kito, but he now led a divided army, demoralized by the massive losses it has sustained before the battle had even begun.

In defense of Kito ​

Nonetheless Poma ordered the army to attack Kito on the 24th of September, and the army for the most part obeyed. The army marched towards Kito and began to fling stones and shoot crossbow bolts at the defenders. The defenders responded with their own hail of projectiles, from longbow arrows to cannon shot. While Poma had gunpowder, he had barely any left and proved unable to effectively use this. So, his troops were the only ones to truly feel the brunt of guns and cannons. The defenders had given themselves the high ground, and used it full effect, blunting the rebel assault. The first charge failed to make any headway, and the cannon shot panicked the inexperienced soldiers, whose retreat swamped those more experienced troops. Poma did not attempt another attack on the 24th, rightly seeing that there would simply be more bloodshed. The next day he approached with a different strategy, rather than a mass charge he had his best and most experienced troops concentrated at a singular point on the defensive line. He hoped that they could break through, and then be used to allow the main portion of the army to flow into the gap and destroy the enemy. Unfortunately for Poma the defenders quickly figured out his plan and began to concentrate fire onto the points of attack, inflicting heavy casualties without losing many of their own. Fearing the loss of best troops Poma quickly withdrew back to his camp, another day lost.

And Poma did not have unlimited time. The northern leaders had come south with some force already, but as the battle was fought orders were sent north summoning more men south. When these new men arrived, it would make it much harder for the rebels to capture Kito. It would take a few weeks for them to arrive, but it did leave Poma with an urgent need to capture the city quickly. After a day’s rest for his men Poma personally led another targeted assault on the defenses, this time focused on a section made up of defectors from the rebel army. This was partially done for revenge and partially in the hopes that some would defect back. This strategy failed again, the superior firepower of the Kitian forces winning the day (Welser and Hutten had wisely brought large stockpiles of gunpowder into Kito). The next day Poma attacked again, this time attempting to surprise the defenders by attacking the German contingent. This predictably failed.

These defeats had a demoralizing effect of the rebel forces. The lack of an easy victory led to another wave of desertions and called into question Poma’s leadership abilities. Dissention swept the ranks and many began to think that they knew better how to defeat the invaders then Poma. Unauthorized attacks grew more common and proved even less successful then Poma’s attacks. The rebel armies bled men as hothead young men threw themselves against the defenders. These rebellions forced Poma to lower the frequency of his own assaults, as attacking alongside another would imply some level of approval. The days stretched out into weeks. On October 11th the first soldiers from the far north arrived, and Welser made a bold move, he extended his defenses onto the slopes of the volcano Pichincha itself, which had previously served as an unofficial boundary of the battle. The move was a gamble, Welser had exploited the relatively narrow battlefield to bolster his defenses, even with the reinforcements he was thinning his defenses substantially. There was also the inherent risk of placing forces onto a steep mountain that occasionally spewed fire. Yet his ploy worked, and he began to outflank Poma’s force, despite still being horribly outnumbered. On the 13th Poma made one last desperate charge, personally marching with the mummy beside him. But it was not enough to defeat the defenses. Again, the guns fired, and again Poma was forced back. With more allies for Welser streaming into Kito, Poma made the difficult decision to retreat. Some refused to go, refused to abandon the attack. Leaderless they were surrounded and faced a massacre. Those who survived were enslaved. A disproportionate number would be sold to Spaniards in Guatemala, a fact that future officials in Santiago de los Caballeros would curse a thousand times over. However, the focus now remained on Poma’s retreat.

Welser, fearing overextension, did not pursue very far south. Poma attempted to regroup in Machachi again, despite his army rapidly disintegrating. The firebrand had lost none of his charisma and swore that the fight was not over yet. And he was right. Rebellion still burned across the Kingdom of Kito. But the tide had shifted, and Philip von Hutten was sailing south with the reinforcements Welser needed to take the fight to Poma.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

The Spanish awkwardly trying to avoid praising incest without offending the Sapa Inka
​

As Poma tried and failed to take Kito, Quisipe-Tupac had reason to celebrate. His chief wife, also his sister, was pregnant. An heir was hopefully on the way, one that the Empire could unite around. It was also one of the few pieces of good news for the parts of the Tawantinsuyu that still were run from Cusco. This period of Quisipe-Tupac's rule was marred by stagnation and decay. He failed to properly manage the dwindling food supplies of his empire, leading to famine that was exacerbated by the fact that his laborers kept dying of disease. The Cessation of the Faith had seriously damaged his religiously centered power over the population and his own nobles. Quisipe-Tupac was also uneviably caught in between his uncle and the Spanish, fearing (quite correctly) that offended either one could strike a death blow unto his authority. A more deft politician might have charted a moderate course in order to slowly restore authority, but Quisipe-Tupac was not a deft operator. He had plotted for years to gain the throne, but he had only gained it through luck and strong allies. Instead of playing power games in his court, he retreated into a depression and drink. The birth of his son Tupac Yupanqui roused him a bit, as did the birth soon thereafter of Cura Asarpay, his daughter whose importance was not yet realized.

For their part the Spanish were disgusted, for however inbred European monarchs could get, sibling marriage was still well outside the norm. However Castro was not particularly concerned with the pregnancy, preferring instead to focus on integrating the newly acquired lands into the Spanish realm.

In a pragmatic attempt to try and spread out his enemies he gave much of the property gained to those ill deposed to his rule, with the added bonus of staving off any resistance with his donations. This was somewhat successful. Many quickly embraced the fine art of absentee landholding, meaning his efforts to spread out potential rebels had limited effect. However the bribe, for lack of a better term, of more land mollified the discontents for the time being. Independent trade between the new lands and the Tawantinsuyu was still technically forbidden, but Castro had little way of enforcing this. A low level black market emerged, although most cross border contact remained between peasants on both sides. Plague and occasional outbursts of violence meant that many fled back and forth across the border, attempting to find some semblance of safety.

This era saw the mass introduction of the Papa to Europeans​

The estates now mostly established, the Spanosh turned towards the actual act of extracting wealth from the land. Some were lucky enough to find rich deposits of mineral wealth in their new lands, and immediately began exploiting the natives of the land. Taking a page from the book of the Tawantinsuyu they began requiring labor from those living in their property and sent them to work in the mines. Despite Castro trying to enforce the New Laws, which attempted to tone down abuses and as such were unpopular amongst colonial land holders, conditions were still brutal and death rates remained high. Disease swept through, a terrible constant, and kept killing. In regions where local landowners got too greedy crop failures occured as men were sent from the fields to the mines. This naturally lead to famines, which killed even more people. Of course not every Spanish landowner lucked into land with a valuable substance underneath, and so had to find some other way. Some took the route of growing foodstuffs to feed the colony. Tawantinsuyu food stores had been depleted by years of chaos, with little opportunity for restocking. There was also the growing markets of Tumbez and San Miguel, which had little in the way of food supply. The merchants of Panama hiked up the prices on food, hoping to assert some semblance of control over Nuevo Oaxaca, leaving landowners with an opening to sell their products. Said products ranged from European crops to native plants such as the Papa[1].

Another native plant also caught the attention of ambitious Spaniards, although it was not a food. For centuries natives had chewed the leaves of the Coca plant and made tea with them. It served as a natural stimulant that helped ease exhaustion and hunger, as well as helping with altitude sickness for those subjects that were not acclimated to hights. Early Spanish explorers condemned it as the tool of satan, but it was low on their list of priorities. When peace was initally forged Atahualpa sent Charles V a sample as a gift. The Holy Roman Emperor had found the supply enjoyable enough, helping a tiny bit with the enormous stress he was under. He requested another batch, which was duly retrieved and would enjoy it on occasion, although it would not spare him from the events that conspired against him. The emperor's (frankly overstated by many) taste naturally inspired a bit of a trend amongst the nobles of the various realms he ruled, which produced even more demand. Even as the initial clamor of court moved to other things Coca still found a place in European markets as nobles became acquainted with its effects and found it appealing.

Natives had used Coca well before Europeans arrived​

Coca had been grown in large quantities among the Andean peoples before, but the increased demand combined with Coca production falling due to chaos meant that there was an open market for the leaf. Soon enterprising Spaniards were seizing every tree they could find to produce the stuff. Most were novices and relied on native help, almost always involuntary, to get their plantations going. A great many found it to be unprofitable, having little to no business acumen, and the rush to sell raised supply well above demand, as despite its modest popularity Coca had not yet come spread across all of Europe and the quality of a leaf greatly deteriorated over the course of the large trans-Atlantic. The most successful "Comedores"[2] were those who did not immediately invest totally in Coca, but instead established enough other agriculture that they could feed their plantations without dipping into the profit from Coca. This gave them a far stabler base and so it was these prudent men who came to dominate the trade. The Comedores found a market in the native populations of San Miguel and Tumbez, tying them far closer to Castro then they had expected prior to being granted the lands.

Having pacified his opposition internally Castro now enjoyed a powerful position, that even the efforts of the Audiencia of Panama could not tear down, and indeed the rise of Coca helped tame their rampant lust for control over the south. Unlike gold, royal authorities had not yet exerted full control over the commodity, which gave the merchants who dominated Panama something to sell. They still desired a more pliable man then Castro in charge of Neuvo Oaxaca but, no longer desperate for immediate change, relaxed their efforts to strangle the colony.

Of course all factions agreed that mass conversion of the natives was needed, and landowners of all types heavily pushed Christianity onto their new subjects. The chaos of European contact and failure of the theoretically divine Sapa Inkas to protect the people did grant them an opening, but all too often attempts to force religious uniformity backfired. The most conversions ended up sticking where syncretism was allowed, but these places were far and few between. In general Spanish efforts to spread the gospel moved slowly in Neuvo Oaxaca, a direct contrast to what was happening in Buen Ayre.

...

1: Known to OTL as the Potato.
2: Shortening "comedores de hojas" or "eaters of leaves", which is not at all descriptive of their activities, but such is the way of things.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

Mapuche, some of whom are showing off new Spamish influences ​

Since the arrival of the Mapuche into the the Rio de la Plata basin the exiled group had been allied with the Spanish of Buen Ayre. Both were newcomers to the region and so naturally allied with one another to protect from and expand at the expense of existing tribes in the area. Relations between the Mapuche and the Spanish in Asunción were frostier, there was less common interest and the first meeting between the two had been marred by bloodshed. That said, contact was limited and so this rocky start was easily papered over.

The Spanish settled in small settlements, heavily fortified, much in the way of Buene Ayre, which was still the only town worth naming. The Mapuche settled in a matter that was quite similar to how they had in their old home. They built earthen homes for their families and farmed papas and chickens. But, inevitably this cultures began to cross. Wheat was introduced by the Spanish, and the Mapuche mastered the art of the horse and began to discover metalworking.

And, inevitably, the issue of religion came up.

Decimated by disease, the Spanish had initally been in no position to demand that the Mapuche accept Christianity. Even as the situation stabilized a lack of trained priests meant that missionary activity along the river was limited. However as new arrivals from Spain began to trickle in pressure for missions to the Mapuche increased. The Spaniards found a mixed ground as far as potential converts went. For some the expulsion from their homelands had shattered their faith, but for others it hardened their beliefs. A lot of this depended on their Machi. Each Mapuche community had a Machi, typically an older woman, whose duty it was to cure disease, bring rain, ward off evil spirits, and generally care for the spiritual well being. In communities where the Machis had been effective leaders, faith in the complex web of spirits and gods that had sustained the Mapiche for generations held firm. In areas where the local Machi was judged to have failed, the Gospel spread more readily.

The religious fragmentation of the Mapuche was accompanied by a political one. Toquis, war leaders, had led them through the wars with the Tawantinsuyu, and a general desperation had kept them united across the desert. But now the traditional Mapuche style of loose local confederations reasserted itself, a world view that incorporated the Spanish. To many Mapuche, especially those who did not settle near Spanish holdings, the strange men who had Tawantinsuyu style weapons were simply another group to trade with. As such they saw no particular reason to retain political unity, having developed a healthy distrust of it after war with the Tawantinsuyu. Those closer to the Spanish also happened to generally be friendly with the Spanish, thus political unity amongst the Mapuche was nominal at best. That is not to say that the Mapuche became hostile to one another, just that there was no cohesive unity of purpose.

Amongst the Spaniards, there was little initally little push towards any sort of attempt at dominating the Mapuche. The survival of Buen Ayre still hung in the balance, and picking a fight would not have advanced this goal. Later, new arrivals to the colony would resent the peaceable relations with the "savages" but be stymied by a local elite who favored trade over war. A series of lacksadasial governors stewing in the indignity of being left in a backwater had meant that, until the late 1540s, the government had not been driving for expansion any more then the citizens. As for the Crown itself, it initally was more concerned with the Tawantinsuyu then the Mapuche of the Rio de la Plata.

However by 1546 the Charles (or more likely his advisors more engaged with the Americas) had heard enough to decide that some change was needed on the Rio de la Plata. It was decided that Spanish control was too loose, and that a more engaged governor was needed to assert Spanish authority. In addition there was the possibility of recreating the Mapuche Exodus in reverse as another route towards the Tawantinsuyu. The idea had been floated since the Mapuche had first arrived, but it was now met with the royal stamp of approval.

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and Domingo Martínez de Irala the most powerful Spaniards in the Rio de la Plata area​

To achieve these twin goals two men were dispatched to the Rio de la Plata. Juanes de Ávila was appointed as Governor, while Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, who had explored large parts of Northern New Spain, was dispatched to cross the "Mapuche Desert" and open trade with the Tawantinsuyu over that route. The pair arrived in Buen Ayre aboard the same ship and were greeted by the previous governor, who took that same ship back to Spain. This became a problem as Ávila soon became ill and died, leaving the colony without a head.

It was de Vaca who stepped in to fill the vacuum, claiming that he was the rightful governor, being a representative of the Crown. In Buen Ayre this was met with a shrug, irregular but not unacceptable. De Vaca was as good as anyone, and it meant that he would be too busy governing to drag any of them into a march across the desert. In Asunción it was less well received, they had been hoping to be the end point of a hypothetical overland trade system. Despite this there was no formal resistance, as while it was irritating, irregular transfers of power were quite common. De Vaca's administration was marked by good relations with the Mapuche, even by the standards of the Buen Ayre. In his journeys in New Spain he had often been the only Spaniard present, and had gained a certain respect for the natives, and this transferred over to the Mapuche. He formed close bonds with Mapuche leaders, and traveled extensively in their lands, which raised eyebrows everywhere. Trade was one thing, but personal visits were another thing altogether.

Of course the self proclaimed governor had his own motives for his friendliness. He still harbored dreams of a great March west, and that required Mapuche guides. For reasons that should be self evident the Mapuche had a knee-jerk reaction of "no" to these sorts of requests. So De Vaca settled in and began playing a longer game, hoping to eventually pry away enough support for an expedition. In this goal he found support from some in the Mapuche youth. The new generation, smaller then previous ones because of disease and the harsh desert crossing, had only memories of the hardships of war and no idea of the good fortune they had found in the Rio de la Plata region. They sought revenge on those who had wronged them. To this end De Vaca began to grant gifts to the young up and coming Mapuche, swords and good horses, with the occasional gun for those he favored the most. He was not so foolish as to arm them to the extent that they had more firepower then the Spanish, but his actions still made others nervous, especially in Asunción. There, a group consolidated under longtime resident Domingo Martínez de Irala who had been present since the founding of Buen Ayre. They began to pressure De Vaca to either stop coddling the natives or get on with his expedition. It was all very neat, and it was all very orderly. Not a hint of rebellion, just pressure. And it seemed that De Vaca was listening, although it is unclear what his choice would be it seems he was close to one by September 1550.

Enter one Louis Bertrand.

Hello. Want some Jesus​

Louis Bertrand was a young Spanish priest, a Dominican in fact, who had long dreamed of coming to the new world and preaching to the natives. He had acquitted himself well preaching in Spain and caring for the sick. As such he was dispatched to Buen Ayre to head up a missionary push. Some grumbled that he would better serve the church in the Tawantinsuyu, or somewhere were he could displace the pompous Jesuits. In the end however, his youth worked against him and he was sent to the Rio de la Plata. He arrived bearing a paternalistic attitude towards the natives, believing them in need of the benevolent protection of the church. On the other hand he was a follower of the ideals Bartolome de las Casas and did not view his targets for conversion as subhuman, which is more then can be said of many. Upon his arrival he went out into the Mapuche and began to preach.

Young Louis was nothing if not a capable evangelist, and soon developed a following. At first it was among the remaining natives of the region, still s majority but repressed by the twin invaders. Then however he struck upon support from the young Mapuche. They had no care for the native spirits of their homeland, they had never seen the southern islands that had been carved as Trentren Vilu and Caicai Vilu[1] fought for the fate of the land. And so they drifted towards Bertrand, and his faith.

In the far distances of the future the Catholic Church would canonize Louis as Saint Louis, citing example of miraculous healing reported and his general ability for mass conversions. The Spanish chroniclers likely overstate his effect, claiming the conversion of 6,000 in one village is unrealistic for many reasons, but he was the most successful missionary on the Rio de la Plata yet. This was a combination of arriving at the right time, being the first missionary to actually be enthusiastic about his destination, and of course his own skill at spreading the Bible. Even accounting for propaganda he was still by far the greatest solider for Christ the region had ever seen.

This naturally made some Mapuche leaders nervous, they were used to Spanish missionaries yelling about Jesus for a bit and then leaving when they realized not many people were interested, not a concentrated effort that worked. So a few began attempting to quash down on the growing Christian community, which naturally attracted the enmity of even the most friendly Spaniard. In an attempt to drive him away from one community, the locals threw Papas at him and shot their guns into the air.

This provoked anger from not just the Spanish, but also from Bertrand's growing clique of Mapuche followers. An attempt to brand themselves apostles had earned them an angry rant about how he was not even comparable to Jesus, but they followed him still. One, a driven young man named Lautaro, took the incident as an excuse to form a loose knit group dedicated to protecting the Christians of the region. This group, nicknamed by the Spanish "indios de dios"[2], were ridiculed by some who believed that the Mapuche could never understand Christ, but De Vaca, sensing an opportunity, showered then with gifts of horses, steel, and guns.

But unknown to De Vaca, their contact with Bertrand had introduced then to an idea. An idea that was so dangerous, that if it spread it could turn all of the New World upside down.

The idea that Christians should be good people who are kind to others, no matter their differences.

Lautaro was baptized as Esteban, but was often called by his given name. ​

One day, in June 1554 Lautaro was riding near Asunción a few days ahead of Bertrand when he heard a story. A group of Spaniards had raped a girl, an occurence that was sadly still common even in the relatively peaceful river valley. The girl was from the Viela culture, one of the numerous groups subjugated by the Spanish. As she was not Mapuche and nor near the Mapuche heartland, which was further down the river, this would normally have merited no response from the Mapuche. But the rumors, the truth is still unknown, said that she was a Christian convert and that one of the rapists was a priest in Asunción known for a lack of morals.

Lautaro, spurred by the many stories of Christ critiquing hypocrites, rode straight for Asunción. He and his men were not barred from entry, or even stripped of their weapons. Asunción was not home to many Mapuche, but they were well aware of who these natives wearing crosses were. On the 23rd Lautaro then marched into the Church, which was not, as is commonly decepted in fiction, holding mass at the moment and seized the priest. In fiery if broken Spanish he condemned the violation of a fellow Christian[3] and the abandonment of oaths of chastity. Men from Asunción surrounded the church and demanded that Lautaro and his men surrender the church or face a fight. The Mapuche instead drew their own weapons and reminded the Spanish that they were not the savages.

The stand off was diffused by Bertrand himself. He convinced Lautaro to release the priest on the condition that he was shipped back to Spain for punishment[4]. But the damage was done.

De Irala sent a letter to De Vaca, signed by the majority of the important men in Asunción. It cited that, in the colonial charter, King Charles had given the colony to elect its own acting governors, a clause that had never been invoked until now[5]. De Irala reminded De Vaca that his rise to power had not been regular in the slightest, and could quite possibly be annulled. He advised De Vaca to do something about these troublesome Mapuche, or else.

So De Vaca, under pressure, made a mistake.

__________


1: An earth snake and the water snake respectively
2: Indians of God
3: Less so the actual, you know, rape and more the fact that the victim was Christian.
4: No punishment was ever given.
5: Unlike IOTL, were the much more dire circumstances of the colony led to more governors dying in office.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

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.

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.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

The Eastern Spice trade affected Portuguese policy in the Americas ​

The Portuguese had known about the Tawantinsuyu for a long time. Indeed, before Fransisco Pizzaro even departed for his last expedition Aleixo Garcia had mounted his own exploration up from the South, an ominous sign considering the events in the Rio de la Plata. Nothing had come of Garcia's efforts and they were largely forgotten. When word got out about the great empire in South America that had slaughtered hundreds of Spaniards, it was the Portuguese who had been the first to hear it, their sailors being amongst the most numerous in the various fleets of Europe. They were not, however, particularly interested. Portugal was, with the notable exception of their Brazilian holdings, a nation oriented towards the eastern spice trade. Besides the Tawantinsuyu firmly fell on the Spanish side of the line drawn by the Treaty of Tordesillas, making it theoretically illegal to interfere.

But the times were changing. The Treaty of Zaragoza in 1529 had theoretically created a line opposite the Tordesillas one marking their spheres of influence. The Spanish however had flouted this line as of late, interfering in the Philippines and elbowing into the Portuguese spice trade, calling into question the whole idea of the divided globe. The Portugese also found themselves in need of silver, lots of silver, in order to trade with the Ming Dynasty, and with the Spanish entering the fray, they found Mexican silver in short supply. The Tawantinsuyu were rumored to have vast reserves of silver that could pay for Portugal's purchases. The rise of Coca also intrigued the spice merchants, who wanted in on the lucrative trade. And so it was resolved in the halls of Lisbon that someone should be sent to seek out the mysterious Tawantinsuyu.

4 ships were dispatched, bearing weapons both for protection and trade as well as various goods such as Chinese porcelain and silk, beads, iron pots, kettles and a tiny bit of spices. Heading up this expidition was António Mota, a novice when it came to leading such a fleet. Mota, by the accident of a shipwreck, came to be one of the first Europeans to land in Japan, introducing them to guns and Christianity. He was a novice in terms of leading such a large expedition, and left much of the day to day affairs of his group to his captains. His qualifications lay in his perceived ability to negotiate with the natives upon his arrival in the Tawantinsuyu.

Mota, as portrayed by the Japanese. ​

His voyage got off go an inauspicious start. One ship was in terrible shape from the very beginning and inclement weather only accelerated its decay. It was forced to turn back while still crossing the Atlantic. The other three ships safely made the journey to Rio de Janeiro, where they got word of rumors of a powerful Spanish presence on the Rio de la Plata[1].

Skirting the edge of the Rio de la Plata basin and managing to avoid being seen, Mota plowed southward, towards the fabled Straits of Magellan. Mota, or more accurately his captains, had scoured records of Magellan's crossing, attempting to chart a safer course. They did not find one. Instead the three ship cautiously followed thr route Magellan had taken, pausing only to kidnap some local natives as guides, which did not help them at all. They emerged unharmed from the straits, but in his joy at escaping the passage Mota moved with far to much haste northward. His flotilla headed straight into the treacherous islands that dot the south western coast of South America.

There, one of his ships struck a submerged rock, and sunk. The sinking was slow, and the crew and goods aboard were safely evacuated, with the exception of 3 men and some silk. But it cramped the men in the other two ships, and caused the captains to take extreme caution as they continued north. The last portion of the voyage was done at a maddeningly slow pace in claustrophobic conditions. So it must have been a relief when they entered what they termed the Bay of Saint George for the patron saint of Portugal. In the bay they were met by balsa rafts bearing men from the Tawantinsuyu. Miming managed to indicate that they wanted Mota to stay put at sea until others arrived. Mota, desperate to get ashore, ignored this and went ashore, establishing a camp. Had the local Tawantinsuyu commander been more hotheaded, being accustomed to smashing the remaining Mapuche, that might have been enough to end the adventures of António Mota. But order was kept in the Tawantinsuyu camp, and runners were sent up to Quillota to alert Manco Yupanqui of the development. In the meantime a few speakers of very basic Spanish were scrounged up and sent to talk with Mota.

Inital reactions from the Portugese were mixed. Many, like Mota, had been to the East. They had seen the Ming and other states like it, powerful enough to stand against Europe wholesale. To them the Tawantinsuyu was disappointing, not living up to their expectation of a new China. It was this disappointment that led to the term "Lesser Cathay" being used for years when referring to the Tawantinsuyu in Europe. On the other hand, they found the Tawantinsuyu far more accommodating then the Chinese or Japanese were. The translators inquired, at the behest of Quillota no doubt, into the health of the King as well as the status of things in Europe. Mota was happy to oblige, seeing no harm in doing so.

As Mota's men took shifts ashore, causing a new burst of disease, Manco Yupanqui considered the situation. His first dilemma, before even deciding what to tell the newcomers about the situation, was where to accept them. Leaving them far to the south lengthened communication time, and risked alienating them. Yet, well aware of the dangers Europeans could pose, he hesitated. Access to Quillota was a precious commodity and bringing them north would hasten Spanish knowledge of their arrival. So he he invited Mota north, and the Portuguese obliged. They sailed to a port Mota termed the Baía das jangadas[2] for the numerous rafts that greeted him. He was told to stay there, and await the coming of the Apu.

Manco Yupanqui's personal banner was his brother's with an additional black snake added ​

Manco Yupanqui made his entrance a grand affair, marching in full force from Quillota to personally meet with the Portuguese. He spoke in broken Spanish by way of greeting, before switching to a Quechua to Spanish to Portuguese string of translators that was more effective, if still cumbersome. Manco Yupanqui immediately pressed the question of a joint offensive against Spain. Peace and caution had brought the Apu much, but in his heart he yearned to sweep the invader out before he died. Mota rejected the proposal out of hand, he was here to trade and remind the Spanish that they were not the only ones who could meddle abroad. He was certainly not here to start a war. Disappointed, Manco Yupanqui turned to the subject of trade. Mota was far mor accommodating on this front. The Apu took great interest in the goods Mota brought. The silk and porcelain were examined, but set aside. They would be purchased, Manco Yupanqui said, when more useful items had already been acquired.

Gunpowder was of the most interest, the stockpiles seized from Spaniards had quickly dissipated, and local made variations were inconsistent. Transporting powder was difficult, but Mota had made an effort based on rumors he had heard, and, crucially, he had no compunctions about revealing the methods used for creating gunpowder. Manco Yupanqui also wanted swords and steel, which Mota was happy to sell as well, although he was less well versed in the actual production of them. Mota had not even brought enough horses to sell any, which did assure Manco Yupanqui that no invasion was coming.

By way of payment, Mota of course received gold and silver, as was the custom. Manco Yupanqui had gone against the long held policy of all gold being controlled by Cusco, and so had the bullion to make his purchases. Mota also expressed interest in Coca, for which the south was not as ideal a growing site. However, being self respecting Tawantinsuyu, there was still plenty to be given. Manco Yupanqui immediately sent north for more.

Mota was satisfied enough with his haul to consider longer term trade. Manco Yupanqui was eager to encourage such trade. He offered generous terms to the Portugese in terms of trade, and hinted at more should they eventually come around to war with Spain. He also allowed them to establish a "factory" on the Baía das Jangadas. An idea stolen from the East Indian slice trade, the Portuguese were allowed to establish warehouses for goods and houses to live. But it was made clear that this settlement was a gift, and building even a stockade was forbidden. For the Portuguese this was an acceptable start to a trading relationship, and the proposal was accepted.

Balsa rafts ferried men back and forth between the ships and shore​

In just over a month Mota had accomplished an amazing amount alongside Manco Yupanqui. He entertained dreams of heading further north, to where the Coca grew, but was dissuaded by Manco Yupanqui. The Apu explained that the "ill counsel" of the Spanish had poisoned the Sapa Inka against Portugal and led to a ban on foreigners in the north. This was accurate, although Manco Yupanqui failed to note this ban technically applied to the south. As it happened, Castro had sent orders to his men in Cusco to investigate reports of Portugal's arrival in the south. So there was indeed pressure coming for Mota to leave.

On May 23rd Mota, having selected his men for his factory, sailed south to return to Portugal. As they departed Manco Yupanqui gave coca leaf and a vicuña hair cloak as gifts for King Joao, a replication of his brothers gifts to Charles V. Mota's return would be less eventful then his arrival. He did not lose any ships, braving the southern autumn and returning to Rio de Janeiro with his treasure laden ships. He had proved that it was not just the Spanish who could reach the Tawantinsuyu.

The Portuguese left behind were subjected to a comedy of errors as Manco Yupanqui shunted then around his lands to keep them out of the sight of Castro's agents. They evaded capture, and were returned promptly to their factory, but Castro discerned the truth. And so Manco Yupanqui and Castro both prepared for a confrontation that would shake the balance of power in South America.

A confrontation neither of them would see.

*****

1: Enough Spanish ships have passed by for the settlers in Rio to know something is up down south.
2: near otl Valparaíso

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

December 25, 1554

The Sun rose in the east, as it wont to do.

It was the Birthday of Christ. Yes, the true date was probably in March, but that did not matter. Today was the day the church recognized. Today the was the day of celebration. Today was Christmas.

To most in Asia this meant little, another day of the year. Men and women from the frozen wastes of the north, to the deserts of the far south rose and worked, lived, and died as they otherwise might have. A man in might-have-been Australia picks up a yam and considered it. It was a rather small yam, disappointing. A fleeting image passed in his mind of a larger yam, one that was inexplicably red. He shrugs and continues on digging. A minor functionary in China discovers that it is some barbarian holiday from some rowdy foreigners. He wishes them well and moves on quickly. Across the rest of the Middle Kingdom the state trundles unward, not caring what the Spaniards and Portuguese celebrate.

These Europeans find it a joyous day, a day outside the drudgery of a strange land far from home. A chance to escape the discipline of the captains and enjoy themselves. A handful of converts join them, a bit confused but happy to be a part of the celebrations.

The sun moved west.

Central Asia and India were much the same as the far east, a few local celebrations but nothing sweeping. In Goa the Inquisition noted those who did avoided the services in favor of Hindu rituals. The native Christians, who could trace their lineage to Saint Thomas, shifted uncomfortably.

The Muslim lands saw more celebrations. The Christians of the region could celebrate openly, so long as they paid the right taxes. In some places the Muslims joined the celebrations of the birth of the Prophet Isa, in some the Christians were met with cold glares. In Bethlehem a few brave souls paid respect to their God at a variety of sites claiming to the manger. Far to the north the Kremlin awoke. Ivan rose and began his day. The others scurried away, but the Czar was not at his worst today. The first printing presses in the east lay silent for the holiday, but the traditional orthodox still glanced warily at this western intrusion.

The west was more jubilant. All throughout Europe men and women rested from their labors. In Lithuania the nobles rested from their efforts to fight the encroachment of Russia and Poland. They ate, they drank, they were merry. For a brief moment, it all seemed alright. In Vienna young Archduke Maximilian took mass, then retreated into contemplation with his personal priest. His priest suspected of Protestant tendencies. Many a quill went into a flurry over that particular incident. In Leipzig a small family welcomed a newborn boy into the world but wondered if he could be fed without his mother.

The Lutherans of the empire celebrated the coming departure of Charles from the halls of power, while the Catholics wondered whether Maximillian was the real deal. In Rome a guard tossed coins to a beggar, enough for bread, enough to live. Clement VIII gave mass for the powers that were, and they too quietly toasted the impending departure of Charles. No more would the Emperor be inclined to interfere in their affairs. The French ambassador rose and gave a toast to the independence of the papacy. It was a very long, and very insistent toast.

In France proper the mood was jubilant. Charles was leaving for good, and it seemed as if Protestantism was on the upswing in the Empire. The King and Queen had three healthy sons, the House of Valois was secure. In La Rochelle a Hugenot congregation came to church, only to find their minister's tongue had been removed for heresy. They wept and wondered if Vice-Admrial Durand's plans were so bad after all. Across the channel the mood is awkward. The King is in one of his moods. Mary has seen fit to spend Christmas away from London, and even Elizabeth and Katherine are growing uncomfortable. He spends dinner lamenting about how all the savages in the new world have only heard the Catholic Gospel. Someone he says needs to teach them the true word of God. Then he expresses doubt about his arranged marriage to a French princess. She was afterall a Papist.

Not all men stopped their work to mark the Messiah's birth. On the shores of Africa Spaniards and Portuguese alike loaded their ships to the brim with slaves. Ripped from their homes the slaves were crammed together in hellish conditions. They were to be sent to their death in the new world.

By the time the sun rose over the Americas, it had set in the far east.

Christmas mass on the Pampas took place in the summer sun. Masses of converts participated, many for the first time. Armed Mapuche stood guard, although no trouble emerged. Cabeza de Vaca announced a great assembly of chiefs to be held in the coming year. Protests immediately emerged, and before the day was done some Christains were even writing a letter to the Pope. More traditional leaders, still following the old ways, made plans for protests of their own.

In the heart of the Amazon basin a boy caught a fish. His family cooked it and ate it, enjoying their time together No one there had ever heard of Jesus Christ. They had never seen a cross.

In Kito a boy King heard tales of the birth of Jesus. The Welsers and native leaders not see eye to eye on the manner of religion, In Tumbez Castro took the holiday in his professional way. He did not work, but he did not allow the revelry to distract him from the task at hand: the final subjugation of the Tawantinsuyu. In the streets a teenage girl died of the measles, without anyone but tbr dead to hear her cries. Just outside of town a group of particularly zealous Spaniards forced church attendance. Those that resisted were beaten. A family hid in a gully, desperate to keep their faith.

In Cusco Quisipe-Tupac drank. He drank and he drank and he drank. Despite being a pagan he had been given yuletide gifts, and he found European alcohol a fine way to escape the pain of seeing his own fall from power. Titu Cusi took note of it. He sent word to his father, and began to ask the paragons of Cusco what they truly thought about the last son of Atahualpa. To the west a mob arose, angry at public displays of a foreign faith. They decended upon a small village. A family hid in a gully, desperate to keep their faith.

Manco Yupanqui's day was like any other. He stockpiled men and arms, readying the south for the day when he would deliver the Tawantinsuyu from the enemy. There were no Christians in the south. Well, almost alone. Four Portuguese men left by Mota celebrated alone, in one of the loneliest Christmases in history.

In the Caribbean Spaniards toasted and cheered. Another year unchallenged as masters of the sea. In Brasil Salvador sang, and the Jesuits took the opportunity to baptize all the souls they could. In Mexico a boy was flogged for stealing corn. On the Yucatan the Spaniards held boisterous parties while their Mayan subjects looked on in confusion.

The final part of the sun's journey was mostly over open ocean. In Hawaii a women knawed at some old pork, wondering what the day would bring. Further east, the fading glory of the Tui Tonga held court.

The world had seen another Christmas. At different times, at different places. Some had not even known what it was, some did and did not celebrate. But it was altogether, a decent enough day as days go.

The Sun set in the west, as it is wont to do.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

The Spanish Gather​

Both Manco Yupanqui and Cristóbal Vaca de Castro considered a war inevitable. The arrival of Portuguese merchants forced the hand. If Castro waited Manco Yupanqui would be able to build up an army capable of fighting the Spanish for as long as he wanted. And if that happened, the Portuguese might involve themselves more directly, which could doom the whole venture. But Manco Yupanqui was not inclined to wait. He had waited too long he felt, the time was now. He overestimated the skill of his smiths and powder makers. Advisors counseled patience. There was still work to be done in the South. The conquests of Rumiñavi needed to be connected to the road system, the armies needed training, the storehouses replenishing. From Cusco his son sent cautiously optimistic messages. Give me time, he said, and I will deliver the nobles of Cusco to you. But Manco Yupanqui felt he had waited long enough.

He found ample support from his armies. Enough time had passed that the forces at Manco Yupanqui's disposal could no longer be truly called "northern". But they retained an undeniable desire to strike back at the Spanish. The Tawantinsuyu would have their own again, no matter the cost.

Castro also prepared. He stockpiled food and weapons for his men, requisitioning all he could. His reports were curt. War was coming. If it was won Spain's position as master of the new world would be unassailable. If it was was lost, and Castro was not so foolish as to believe it could not he lost, there would be more trouble then before. The merchants of Panama grumbled, as did the traders of Coca. War would be disruptive, and so they were ill disposed towards it. The Portuguese were concerning yes, but they saw Castro's escalation as unwise. Their reports told of a greedy man, desperate for blood to be shed. Castro continued unabated. The Chimu and Cañari received word. The time would come soon when they would need to march into battle once more.

In Cusco the nobles shifted about nervously. Their lands would be the focal point of any war between the powers to their north and south. This would be destructive certainly, but it would also be humiliating. Cusco, the navel of the world, a mere pawn between Quillota and San Miguel? Unacceptable. Quisipe-Tupac stewed in his cups, unable to bring himself to throw himself into the arms of the Spanish, yet unwilling to risk rising against them. And so the Sapa Inka’s once stalwart support in the capital began to falter. They had backed him so that they would be the true power in the empire, not some puppets. They could not turn towards the Spanish, and so found themselves, against their better judgement, towards Manco Yupanqui's camp.

They were aided in this transition by Titu Cusi, Manco Yupanqui's 26 year old son, technically a hostage but in reality more of an ambassador from Quillota. He assured the nobles that his father would happily relocate from Quillota to Cusco, and that his current residence was a matter of circumstance. For those few who still remembered his father’s betrayal of the Machu Picchu rebellion, he either ignored or donated generous bribes.

In another country, it might have been a time when knives were being sharpened, and when Manco Yupanqui would have been preparing his own accession to the throne. But thoughts of regicide were still anathema to the Tawantinsuyu, the Sapa Inka was still a living god. Perhaps he had some treacherous Spanish advisors, perhaps he drank a little to much, but he was still a God. And unlike their Spanish counterparts, the Tawantinsuyu did not see the death of a god as a thing to be revered. The plots made were more centered around “convincing” the Sapa Inka to shift the political center of gravity towards his uncle. No murder just...alterations to policy.

Such “alterations” would still necessitate violent conflict, so the thinking went. It would be a final clash between the two men who had dominated the empire for the the past few years.

So the thinking went.

It was an inevitable clash of titans, until it wasn’t.

In February 1556 Charles V, or, as he was known in Spain, Carlos the First, abdicated the throne in favor of his son Philip[1]. While widely known in Europe as imminent, the decision was a mere rumor in the Americas when Philip was crowned King. Castro, better informed than most, nonetheless made sure to send Philip various notes of praise and marks of greatness. This was not out of any true commonality with the young king, the pair almost certainly never met. But Castro served the Crown of Spain, and in his eyes the best thing for the Crown of Spain was for him to continue as Governor. The confirmation of Philips ascension to the throne likely delayed preparations for an southern invasion.

The Uncrowned King​

It was during this delay that Manco Yupanqui died. Smallpox, the king of European diseases, swung through Quillota, and ravaged the quasi-capital. Manco Yupanqui was not immune to the plague. He fell ill in late February, and died on March 10. He had resisted the encroachment of Spanish power for nearly his entire life, and died before he could initiate his final grasp for power. It was, some historians have noted, quite the anti-climax. However while the man was dead, his family was not.

It was common knowledge that Manco Yupanqui wanted Titu Cusi, easily his most able son, to succeed him. Although it was not exactly clear what the young man was to inherit. The title of Apu of Qullasuyu could not simply be inherited, that must be granted by the Sapa Inka. And Manco Yupanqui’s vague authority as chief opposition to the Spanish had no formal title to go with it.

Titu Cusi did have one advantage, being the first to know his father was dead. Word was quickly sent via rider, a rare luxury this far south, from Quillota to Cusco informing Titu Cusi of the death. He was the first in Cusco to know, and word would not reach the Spanish strongholds in the North for some time. It was the perfect time to slip out of the city, head south, and take a seat at his father’s court. There was surely no way he would remain in Cusco, where he was technically a prisoner, on the eve of war with the Spanish.

Yet Titu Cusi did not think it was necessarily to flee, and he did not think the Tawantinsuyu were on the verge of war with the Spanish.

1: As in OTL the stresses on running an Empire have made Charles decide to put down the burden and retire. These burdens fell heavier than IOTL, and so he leaves 10 months earlier as a butterfly.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

A later drawing of Titu Cusi​

Titu Cusi was a personable man by nature. Even those who opposed him tooth and nail for his entire life could not deny that the man had a certain charm about him. He had been sent to Cusco as a prisoner in all but name. And yet he had wormed his way into the good graces of the court. Men who still seethed over the betrayal of Machu Picchu found themselves in the company of the son of the man who had done it.

The Spanish did not care for him, and he did not care for the Spanish. However, he was not as confrontational as his father had been. Titu Cusi thought time was on the side of the Tawantinsuyu. The Portuguese were just the beginning, soon Europeans of all stripes would be coming to trade. Meanwhile the nobles of Cusco began to resent their former allies, and as mentioned previously, were aligning towards him. So there was no need to rush into a war the empire might lose. There were counterweights to this argument. The Portuguese had concluded that the Tawantinsuyu were worth repeated visits, but would not be sending anything to rival the great treasure fleets Spain sent to the end of the world. And from a demographic perspective all native populations in the Americas were in a downward spiral of death, and waiting would not stop that. And every day the Spanish occupied the land they held, they gained familiarity with the terrain and the populace. They were not gaining many friends, but not everyone was as ready to jump ship as the nobles in Cusco were. Regardless, Titu Cusi had deemed it unnecessary to make war on Castro, and the armies of the south paused, but did not disperse. Titu Cusi was taking a different tack, but he was no fool.

Having been at court for years now, Titu Cusi knew that many dismissed Quisipe-Tupac. They could not admit it, not about the Son of Inti, but the fact remained he was not what anyone had hoped to be. He was too dependent on the Spanish for his throne to stand stalwartly against them. But he was too tied to the nobility, and aware of how such an action would look, to fully embrace being a puppet Sapa Inka. Lacking the acumen to remove himself from the situation he simply slipped into a spiral of depression and lethargy. His discovery of foreign alcohol did little to combat this trend. Yet, he still was the Sapa Inka, emperor of the largest empire forged my men of the Americas. He was a living god to the great masses of the Empire, and his word was law. When forced into regular contact with his less than impressive current state, many in Cusco had forgotten that.

Titu Cusi had not.

Titu Cusi had not been ignored by Quisipe-Tupac during his time, it would not do to ignore a cousin. But he had not exactly been welcomed with open arms. A cordial relationship, blemished only by the implicit threat of Titu Cusi’s execution should his father rebel. Nothing to suggest that Titu Cusi had the ear of the Sapa Inka.

And yet the very night Titu Cusi heard of his father’s death he went to Quisipe-Tupac, to tell him the news personally. In doing so he threw away any chance of a stealthy escape south. History does not record what else he said, but it must have been a convincing argument. Titu Cusi walked out of the meeting affirmed as Apu of Quallasuyu and as Inkap rantin. The former was the rank his father had held, and conferred upon him power over the largest province in the empire. The later was something else entirely. The Inkap rantin was a high level position within the imperial administration, with authority that covered all lands ruled over by the Sapa Inka. It was tradition for the position to be given to the Sapa Inka’s brother, but that custom had broken down recently. Seeking to quickly advance his sons Atahualpa had appointed Illaquita to the position, an action that had offended Titu Cusi’s father. Quisipe-Tupac’s brothers were all dead, and his only son was too young to even ceremonially fill the spot. So the office had floated from nonentity noble to nonentity noble until Titu Cusi talked Quisipe-Tupac into granting him the position.

The appointment was puzzling, from several perspectives. As mentioned previously, there was no real prior relationship that pointed towards Quisipe-Tupac appointing his cousin to the position. Such a move, combined with the fact that Quisipe-Tupac had in essence affirmed Quallasuyu’s de facto autonomy, would surely irritate the Spanish, which Quisipe-Tupac was always hesitant to do. Finally there was no evidence that Titu Cusi had any of the administrative skills required to actually utilize the position effectively, having never actually ruled or run anything before. And indeed while Titu Cusi had extreme skill in the realms of court politics and diplomacy it was in such administrative duties that his weaknesses lay. Why then did Quisipe-Tupac make the appointment?

Efforts were made to calm relations between the Spanish and Tawantinsuyu​

For one, it balanced out Spanish expansion. The Spanish had been quite obviously planning a push south. Perhaps it was a method of deterrence against their advance. Maybe Quisipe-Tupac hoped that by appointing his cousin to such a position he could forestall a hypothetical invasion from the South. And the impact of Titu Cusi’s personal charm cannot be discounted. Very few people were stroking the ego of Quisipe-Tupac at the time, and so any flattery by Titu Cusi would have stood out to the Sapa Inka.

Titu Cusi took his new appointment as license to redefine, at least temporarily, the relationship between the two great powers of Pacific South America. The position of Inkap rantin offered no such authority, but few protested the move. He soothed tensions via a series of generous donations to the crown of Spain. Gold and Silver were obviously sent, but so was Coca. He coaxed Quisipe-Tupac into reaffirming his eternal friendship with Spain. In his capacity as Apu of the Qullasuyu he swore eternal hatred for alliance with Portugal.

Castro took this news cooly. He was smart enough to recognize that this new policy was not simply bending to Spanish will. Titu Cusi still held the south free of Spanish encroachment, and forswearing alliances did not extend to forswearing trade with the Portuguese when they arrived. Still, peaceful trade had its advantages, and like Titu Cusi he felt time was on his side. There was some opposition to his cautious acceptance of the descallation. There were of course those who opposed his decision. The merchants of Panama, already sworn enemies of Castro, decried it as treason, even if it would help them. There were of course those who demanded conquest now, both the fortune seekers who flocked to the New World and from those determined to convert all of the empire to Christ. The most prominent critic was Pedro de Valdivia, an adventurer who had recently arrived in Cusco. His was not necessarily one based solely on an immediate reaction against Castro. He reasoned that Titu Cusi’s apparent new influence over the Sapa Inka was more trouble than it was worth, as it raised the very dangerous possibility that the capital could be wrested from Spanish influence. Castro dismissed such objections, but did not dismiss Valdvia. The complaints had been well constructed, and Castro did not want to alienate such an insightful source in the capital. But Castro’s policy found support elsewhere. Merchants based in Neuvo Oaxaca though new sources of trade were a capital idea, and not having war suited the Coca farmers just fine.

And so an uneasy peace settled in over the empire. Titu Cusi was free to try and impose his vision on what remained of the Tawantinsuyu, and Castro was free to turn a profit for the crown of Spain.

It would be a peace that would be informative and transforming for all those involved. But it would not last forever.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

Titu Cusi saught to replace old bronze weapons with more European style replacements​

Titu Cusi’s power waxed and waned, depending on where in the empire one was. Obviously those in lands no longer ruled by the Tawantinsuyu were not under his sway, but even amongst those lands still under the authority of Cusco, he did not wield total power. As Inkap rantin he did hold power in all of the empire, but this power was mostly in the form of administering the decrees of the Sapa Inka, not crafting his own reforms. In what remained of Chinchaysuyu, Antisuyu, and Kuntisuyu he would face local powers. The three suyu did not have the de facto independence Quallasuyu did from imperial power, and years of rule by Cusco meant that they were not inclined towards resisting top-down pressure. But these suyus still had their own Apus, and other officials with direct lines of communication to the emperor. And, although Titu Cusi was a master of kissing up to Quisipe-Tupac, they could often be quite convincing when pleading to the Sapa Inka. In addition, while Titu Cusi sought to restablish imperial power everywhere he also wanted to ensure said power remained in his hands, and so was reluctant to do anything that would threaten Quillota’s status as the heart of the imperial revival. So Titu Cusi’s efforts must be assessed in pairs, what happened in the Quallasuyu and what happened outside of it.

Military modernization had been a key goal of the Tawantinsuyu ever since they had first captured the Spaniards. By the 1550s Spanish advantages in warfare had not been neutralized, but that had been normalized. Any man who was in any way trained for battle would not run at the sound of gunfire, and did not think Horses anything more than mere beasts. The issue was now quality and quantity, not mere knowledge of the European weapons. Horses had proliferated through the Tawantinsuyu and even beyond the empire’s borders. The Spanish still more and better horses, but the Tawantinsuyu had enough that no longer were they a precious resource to be jealously guarded at only one site. All horses in the empire were naturally the sole property of the Sapa Inka, but many were used for transport or as beast of burden instead of solely cavalry. Said cavalry was a focus of Titu Cusi’s reforms in the military. Intense training was required to ride, and still the Tawantinsuyu cavalry was inferior to the Spanish. Rectifying this would prove difficult. There was very little natural terrain for training, and there were no lands where men had been with horses since birth. Titu Cusi did his level best in training and did make some progress. He found that those Mapuche who had remained in their homeland following the conquest remained had adapted horses to suit their homeland, and so reluctantly recruited them into his forces, although he never would fully trust them and with good reason. In time Titu Cusi advanced the cavalry of the Tawantinsuyu to new heights, but they were not yet on par with any of their European counterparts. The breeding stock was lesser, they did not have years of tactical experience with fighting on horseback, and the wave after wave a plague decimated the cavalry just as it did everything else in the empire. The effects of his efforts were generally equitable over the entire empire, seeing as how there were horses everywhere. However, the best cavalry would indeed be found in Quallasuyu.

When Europeans had first arrived in the region, the Tawantinsuyu had been in an age a bronze, and since that time iron and steel had been some of the most valuable items in the empire. Indeed, the invasion of the Mapuche had been nominally aimed at securing iron deposits for the Tawantinsuyu. Such efforts proved unnecessary, as the iron deposits cultivated by the Apus of Quillota had almost entirely already been in the Empire. Several important mines were established in various locations. One was established along the coast, near beaches where a colony of dolphins often swam, and so earned the nickname “phujpuri”. Another was established further North, and was called “thalthal” after local claims of birds in the night. Finally one was established somewhat near the Maule river. A local legend soon emerged, that the mine was at the site of the famed Battle of the Maule River, which had defined the Southern border of the empire for years. This legend was almost certainly false, but it did earn the mine the nickname of “maqanakuy” for the battle that had supposedly taken place there. Finally one mine was established in Kuntisuyu, again on the coast, and not given a name save for the name of the suyu it sat in[1]. The mines were mostly manned by mita laborers, paying their debt to the Sapa Inka by way of their work, and marked the first real application of the mita system to mining in the history of the Tawantinsuyu. In theory this was only supposed to be seasonal, but in practice they were worked year round, removing worthless copper[2] and mining out the valuable iron ore. The mines were under the strict control of Titu Cusi in his position of Apu. Even ore mined in Kuntisuyu was sent South for smelting.

The Bloomery was the backbone of Tawantinsuyu iron and steel production​

By decree of the Apu, all iron and steel production was to be done in Quillota. The river nearby, the Aconcagua, would be the source of power for the bloomeries that emerged, the water wheels turning and turning ore into iron. Men and women toiled, creating iron from the ore. Again and again iron was thrown into the furnaces. If steel was needed, and it often was, yet more work was required. Captured Spanish, then voluntary Spanish, then voluntary Portuguese had granted a base of knowledge, and the Tawantinsuyu had, through trial and error, begun to produce iron and steel of reasonable quality. It was not as good as in Toledo, and it was indeed quite limited in scope and quality by European standards particularly in terms of steel. The Tawantinsuyu lacked knowledge of blast furnaces, which made production far more efficient in Europe. Nonetheless, when a soldier in the imperial army drew a blade, it would not be copper and tin, but iron and sometimes carbon. But the average man would not get a true blade. Captured blades had long been a status symbol among the nobility, and Titu Cusi, ever the people pleaser, was hesitant to displace those who had been favored previously. And, desperate to maintain a monopoly, Titu Cusi remained extremely selective about the distribution of forged weapons, to the point of harming the effectiveness of his army. There was also the matter of smithing. The Tawantinsuyu could smelt and smelt and smelt, but they had no true experts in working iron and steel into swords or other weapons. The well trained gold and copper workers could fashion weapons well enough, but the quality again remained low. If a piece became unworkable it would be refashioned into a club or mace.

Quillota was also home to the powder mills of the Empire. Very few Europeans knew the formulas commonly used for gunpowder, and fewer still the process for refining the saltpeter needed. Acquiring charcoal was easy enough, Titu Cusi ordering swaths or threes felled and burned in the jungles of the east. Sulfur too could be found easily. The slopes of Tacora, an ancient volcano in north-central Quallasuyu, had plenty and was sent south to Quillota.

No the problem was saltpeter.

Even among Europeans the methods of producing saltpeter were kept secretive. Gunpowder was a lifeblood of war, and those who controlled the supply could at the very least turn a profit, if not strangle their opponent's ability to wage war. In the days of Titu Cusi’s father some saltpeter had fallen into the hands of the Tawantinsuyu from captured Spaniards, but little of that remained. Half heard tales from Europeans and trial and error had led to a small nitrary being established. Human and animal waste was packed in with plant matter and left. If they were lucky, it would then produce a product that could be scraped up and boiled to make the saltpeter. It was slow process, and with no experience in the process whole batches were often lost to mistakes. So the Tawantinsuyu had a very limited supply of gunpowder to start with[3].

And it wasn’t always very good gunpowder either, often containing lower amounts of saltpeter then was needed. In his everlasting bid to garner support Titu Cusi would often show off the power with displays of explosions and fire, but failed to mention that the powder used was useless in the barrel of a gun. What little useful powder existed was kept in the hands of the Apu, for use by his gunmen or artillery. The weapons themselves were either captured from the Spanish or bought from the Portuguese for extremely high prices, Titu Cusi deciding that with what little powder he had manufacturing guns locally would not be worth it. Even with the low number they possessed the guns of the Tawantinsuyu were still filled mostly with European powder, at this point in history purchased either from enterprising Spaniards or enterprising Portuguese.

The great mass of men armed with modernized weapons was based in Quillota, as was to be expected. While Titu Cusi lived in Cusco, his base of power remained in the South. The men entrusted with the city in his absence were a cadre of nobles who had actually originated in what was now the Kingdom of Kito and who had followed the army South and ended up being stranded there. A few guards were naturally posted in Cusco, it would not do for the Sapa Inka not to have power over at least some guns, and various important figures were given the “honor” of owning a gun. But the real power remained in Titu Cusi’s control and stashed in Quillota. At least for now.

In early 1557 crews of laborers broke ground some five mile northwest of Cusco on a new mountain fortress. With the loss of Tumbez all those years ago the most modern fortifications of the Tawantinsuyu had been lost, and the Cessation of Faith had given the Spanish land well into the mountainous interior. No longer could invaders simply be stopped in the foothills, and with the border now closer to Cusco then in living memory, it was time that the capital got a strong defense once more. This first fort was situated along the road leading towards Spanish territory, and would theoretically serve as a bastion that protected the capital from all threats. Titu Cusi hoped to follow it up with another fortress on the roads headed towards the coast. However, the fortress would never be as grand as he had hoped.

Firstly Titu Cusi, in his rush to emulate the newest of modern tactics, ordered that a star or bastion fortress be built. Such fortresses were useful in the flatter and more costal regions of Europe and, while not useless in the mountains, were not as necessary when an attack was likely only coming from one side. Secondly, star forts were manned with a complex set of batteries that engaged in covering fire of blind spots with precision being needed to defend effectively, a tactical expertise that no gunners in the Tawantinsuyu had yet developed. And Titu Cusi did not have enough heavy guns or powder to man the fortress either, especially when the Spanish raised a ruckus about what they saw as an aggressive move, and which Quisipe-Tupac, not wanting to be surrounded by his cousin’s forces, agreed with. So Titu Cusi agreed to “voluntarily” limit the number of men and guns in his new fortress. This left the builders building a fort that was much larger than it needed to be. It would be several years before it was completed, and by the time the expensive project was over, Titu Cusi was forced to abandon any hope of more fortifications.

During the years of peace that followed 1556, Titu Cusi’s military achievements were generally successful when they were continued from previous Tawantinsuyu efforts, but failed to present any great leap forward against the Spanish.

...

1: The Mines listed above are near or at the towns of La Higuera, Taltal, and Romeral in Chile and the Marcona district in Peru respectively.

2: This is not really accurate, bronze (and thus copper), is still the backbone of Tawantinsuyu metallurgy and are still widely used.

3: The irony here is that, being into control of OTL Northern Chile and the coast, Titu Cusi is in possession of some of the best gunpowder making material the world has to offer. Wars were fought over it IOTL. But at this point in history Nitratine has not been identified as a viable source, and while guano is known to certain people near certain caves it is not a widely sought after source. So for now, the Tawantinsuyu struggle to produce saltpeter, while atop a mountain of it.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

Today the Peruvian National Team is playing in their first Copa America final sine 1975. One of their nicknames is "Los Incas" and that is just too good for me to resist. You shouldn't take this update as a future set in stone, indeed it ignores butterflies to the extreme with Football/Soccer still existing. It's just a bit of fun. Tunr in tonight for your regularly schedules update to the narrative.


The Match

The sound from the stands was like thunder. Eighty thousand voices rained down upon the field, baying for blood.

They came from far and wide, these fans. Some from the far north, from the isthmus and the sea coasts. Others came from the hot deserts of the south, flying up into the clouds to see their team. Some came from the frozen islands of the farther south, departing the shores of their homes to cheer in Cusco. Some were from the mountains themselves, for them it was not so great a journey, but it still felt grand. In normal times these people would be mortal enemies. Those from Quillota would have stuck those from Cusco over a missed call long ago. The northerners would have screamed obscenities at the southerners for having the gall to defeat them in last years cup. But not today, today they are one.

There are other visitors of course, from outside the empire. Some are simply here for the spectacle. Others bought tickets expecting to see their teams arrive at the final, only to be disappointed. And then, there is the enemy.

Under normal circumstances, relations between the Tawantinsuyu empire and Denmark are cordial. The two countries have never been great friends or allies, but neither have they clashed in any way before. Most people in Cusco would have trouble finding Denmark on a map, and vise versa. But not today. Today Denmark is the most vile land on Earth. Copenhagen is a mire of scum and villainy unrivaled in human history. The Danes are hated beyond description. Nevermind the fact that all of the Empire cheered them as they defeated the hated Spanish in the quarterfinals. The Tawantinsuyu stands united against this forign invader. But still, the Danish come. Their love for their team is as fervent as the Tawantinsuyu. They come despite the distance, despite the cost, and despite the threatening glances thrown their way. This has not been the most violent of World Cups, but football can make men mad it is known. The sudden hostility from the locals has not dampered their spirits however. This is the farthest the team has gone in decades, and they get to witness it first hand. Their cheers are drowned out by the boos of the home crowd, but they are still there.

The President of the organizing committee, a greasy, gruby man dodging corruption allegations, stands in the center circle with a microphone. He gives a short speech praising the tournament and praises both teams. The crowd cheers. He praises the honest and fair refereeing. The crowd boos, each man remembering a different mistake made. He closes with a solemn bow to the royalty present. The Sapa Inka stands and gives a show wave. He is a tall man with broad shoulders. Every inch the ideal Emperor in the eyes of his people. His counterpart, although a mere king, sits beside him. His blond hair long ago went grey but he still stands with ease. Sensing the moment he does the clap that his subjects have adopted for his fans over the course of the tournament. They crowd, even those rooting against Denmark, cheer. The Sapa Inka laughs and shakes hands with the King. They wish each other good luck, but not too much good luck. The Prime Minister and Inkap Rantin also give small waves to the camera’s broadcasting the moment to billions worldwide.

Then the players arrive.

The cheers dwarf any given to kings or Emperors. The Danes wear white on red, while the Tawantinsuyu have rich golden jerseys. Earlier in the tournament they made a splash with rainbows on their jerseys, but for the final they have returned to the norm.

Some of the Danish look tired already. Their earlier games have taken them from Tumbez to Quillota and back again. And at some 2,400 feet above sea level, the air here is the thinnest they have ever played in. The Tawantinsuyu, by contrast, have played all of their games in the mountains, entirely coincidentally of course. They line up, the anthems play, and they prepare to begin.

All around the world, last minute bets are called. Food is procured in front of televisions. Great screens have been erected around the empire and in Denmark, so that the populace can watch from the streets. In the center of Cusco, before the great Temple of the Sun a massive crowd has gathered.

The referee, a tall Scotsman, flips the coin. It lands heads up. The Tawantinsuyu looks up at the sun and considers the wind. He decides that his team will take the opening kick-off. The Danish captain chooses his goal. They shake hands and the teams trot off into their final huddles. From there the teams line up. Goalkeepers in the back, all the way up to the forwards. Simple as that.

The Tawantinsuyu forward carefully places the ball on the ground, turning it bit by bit to get just the right angle. The referee blows his whistle, and the forwards passes to a teamate.

The game has begun.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

Abandoned Terraces were a common sight in this era. ​

While Titu Cusi strove to put the Tawantinsuyu on equal military footing with Spain, he was also trying to keep the empire knitted together in a period of unprecedented chaos. The population of the empire was in a complete downward spiral, and would remain so for far longer than anyone could live[1]. The mass die off unleashed social changes that Titu Cusi and his successors in power would have to reckon with.

Less people in the empire did mean less mouths to feed, but that did not stop famine from sweeping the land. Agricultural production plummeted as farms lay untended and crops rotted in the fields. When men went off to war, or were sent to the mines farms lost much of their labor supply. The women of the Tawantinsuyu were not inexperienced in farming, but the farms still had lost nearly half of their labor force, before even accounting for deaths due to the diseases that swept the realm. Traditionally the Tawantinsuyu kept all surplus food in great storehouses, to be distributed to the people in times of great need, or passing armies. The storehouses had been emptied, mostly to feed armies far to the North of the current borders, yet the times of great need remained. Fields grew covered in weeds, preventing any further crops from being grown for the time being.

Famine swept the land.

Titu Cusi has been accused of not caring for his people. And indeed, such care would not have been expected of an Apu, his true service being to the Sapa Inka and the gods. However it would be wrong to state that he left the people of the realm to die. Action was taken to try and alleviate the food shortages. The traditional Andean model of total control over the economy proved helpful here. Families were (forcibly) relocated, consolidating farmland and ensuring that no hands were idle during the harvest. Food was transported as rapidly as possible from areas of relative plenty to locations where the famine hit hardest. Llamas made superfluous by mules were put to the sword. When not on active duty soldiers were sometimes sent to find and slaughter cuy to be fed. Human sacrifices were offered which can be considered evidence that Titu Cusi was concerned with ending the famine while simultaneously being horrifying and ineffective.

The Breakfast of Champions
​

So the tales of Titu Cusi callously abandoning his people to their fates are myths. But such tales did not arise from nowhere. For one, the relief efforts were heavily biased towards Quallasuyu, in part because that was because he had the most power and authority but also because the Apu looked out for his own. While the bad harvests continued Titu Cusi insisted on planting coca trees in every viable field he could find. He had heard of European demand, and sought to make a profit selling the leaves to the Portugese. Of course, when this occurred as hundreds of thousands were on the brink of death it became quite callous. As did his insistence that his grand plans for progress continue. The mines were kept open, the fortresses built with no thought for the declining population. The effects were particularly harsh on those Mapuche who remained in the Empire. The longstanding practice of forcibly removing resistive populations to different regions of the Tawantinsuyu[2] had been disrupted by earlier events, but Titu Cusi would not allow his southern flank to be compromised, particularly with the still independent Moluche clinging to life on the border of the Empire.

The forcible relocation of most of the remaining Mapuche killed most of the remaining Mapuche. Disease had thinned their numbers, and they did not get the aid that others received. And so they starved. Some fled to the Moluche, or attempted to make the dangerous crossing to the river valleys that others had fled to, but these numbers remained low. Most were forced to move north, with most ultimately aimed at Antisuyu. Many perished along the path, and unfamiliar with the land more died upon their arrival. Within a few decades the Mapuche within the empire had more or less been destroyed as a distinct group. In their place various groups from around the Empire would be settled. The south would still be a hotbed of discontent and a mishmash of culture, but there would be no great rebellions at the moment.

New administrators were appointed frequently ​

As Apu Titu Cusi asserted a heretofore unseen level of independence. When selecting local leaders he kept his own council, raising and lowering men through the ranks with abandon. This irked the lower level officials, who often held hereditary offices and typically managed their own affairs. While Titu Cusi never technically upset the order, he raised certain men to prominence in a way that left everyone else feeling left out. And when local bloodlines died out, he acted unilaterally in replacing them. Titu Cusi was personally quite able in terms of interpersonal relations, and, being a serial flatterer himself, was no susceptible to brown nosing. However, in order to fuel his micromanaging he often relied on the testimony of others, and not everyone was as immune to flattery. On the balance Titu Cusi raised energetic men of good birth to prominence, and brought the government of the Quallasuyu behind his efforts. However, his rampant micromanaging and demanding of loyalty to him strained the bonds between the people and the government.

In the upper echelons of the Quallasuyu as well as his personal followers in Cusco Titu Cusi favored men from a specific group. Men from what was now the Kingdom of Kito who had come south during the conquest of the Mapuche and never returned home. Many had summoned their families South rather then return to a now occupied homeland. The heads of provinces came nearly exclusively from this bloc. This alienated locals in the South, but on the other hand it ensured Titu Cusi maintained a monopoly on force inside Quallasuyu.

Had Quisipe Tupac not been on the throne, these actions might have offended the Sapa Inka. But Titu Cusi was able to smooth out any issues with his cousin with grandiose declarations of loyalty. He garnered support from the Cusco nobility by granting them positions of power within the city itself and the three other suyu. Most had already finagled their way into the higher levels of government via Quisipe Tupac’s pro-Cusco stand. But Titu Cusi, taking a cue from himself, allowed unprecedented power in local affairs. This earned him more power and influence, but also shattered the traditional mold of governance in the empire. Tawantinsuyu government had always been centralized, but it had always had local born leadership at the lowest levels. In his haste to unite the empire behind his vision Titu Cusi had shattered this balance. The general chaos in government contributed to famines, as the near constant shake ups often paralized response to the crisis.

Using his new found power Titu Cusi made moves to increase the efficiency of the empire. Waystations were fitted with stables for horses and mules, not just llamas and alpacas. Where it was possible roads were widened to allow for cavalry and carts. It was Titu Cusi, a great believer in the power of words, who built up the first collection that could really be called a library in the Tawantinsuyu Empire. And it was officials working under him who first began to create a written Quechua. Said officials were among the few who were literate in Spanish. Their methods were somewhat crude. They used the letters of the Latin alphabet, found sounds and used them to recreate the Quechua word. The result was an extremely blunt script. No silent letters, no odd pronunciations, just the words sounded out. The script was also extremely inconsistent. Spanish has multiple letter combinations that can create similar sounds, and so every man had different spellings of various words. At the moment these developments remained isolated to a miniscule number of men in Titu Cusi’s entourage. For the moment literacy in Quechua required literacy in Spanish, which limited its uses. The Quipu remained the preferred method of communication in the empire for now, as far more people were able to utilize knots then paper.

The Tawantinsuyu that emerged from the decade following Titu Cusi’s ascent to power was one that had seen much change. The Inkap Rantin would have two sons in the interval. His eldest, born in 1558 was named Amaru Capac, and another in 1562, Tupa Marachi. Cusco celebrated the births, and looked happily towards the future.

But the world did not stand still during these years of peace. And it would be these changes that led Titu Cusi to end them.
......
1: I will freely admit that I am taking a low estimate of the percentage of Andeans killed by disease alone as my basis. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t in a spiral of depopulation and death.


2: It’s ethnic cleansing folks, no two ways around it.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

An embellished representation of the coyag ​

With tension in the river valley rising, Governor Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was faced with a delicate balancing act. His efforts to promote Christian Mapuche had backfired rather spectacularly. Now there was a clique of colonists in Asuncion threatening his removal unless he reigned in his nominal allies. But the zealous converts did not see themselves as under his authority. They were armed to the teeth, and the sympathy of one of the few Dominicians in the region. And who knew where the vast masses of Mapuche who kept their old religion would fall if it came to blows? This was a situation that called for finesse.

There existed in the Mapuche tradition, something called a coyag. It was a great meeting of leaders, typically called in times of war. The man would meet in some place of note and discuss and debate who should lead and what they should do. The Spanish translated the term as “parliament” although it more resembled a diplomatic conference then any institution the Spanish recognized, a fact that Cabeza de Vaca would stumble over.

The trouble started with the summoning. First of all, if there was one thing that united all Mapuche, it was the belief that they were not being ruled by the Spanish. This was not some great national resistance, quite the opposite, very few had any idea that the Spanish were even claiming any sort of dominion. The Spaniards were simply the strange people who lived in the towns not some aspiring conquerors. So the fact that a Spaniard was trying to summon an assembly that he had no real authority to summon was shocking and quite infuriating to them. Then there was a method of summoning. Cabeza de Vaca had heard that a red arrow was used to summon a coyag, and so ordered them distributed. However, while it did serve to call a coyag, the main point of the red arrow was to call the Mapuche to war. Instantly the valley was thrown into a panic. Who was the enemy? Where were they? The Mapuche armed themselves, which sent the Spanish into a panic, and several armed clashes followed. Eventually word got around of the truth, but the damage had been done.

They gathered. The site selected was near Buen Ayre, further south and over a tributary to the Rio de la Plata[1]. Men from across the Pampas. There were a few Spaniards present, and none from the groups that had lived in the region for generations. It was the Mapuche who dominated, which was not unexpected.

Only about two thirds of the men Cabeza de Vaca had expected arrived in December 1555. The Outlying chiefs sent few, mostly being traditionalists who would not acknowledge his authority in the slightest. Those who did attend were now predisposed to oppose his initiatives. His attempts to impose some sort of European procedure on them failed miserably. The coyag granted the Spanish the hitherto unheard of right to participate in the proceedings as if they were Mapuche, but refused anything else. Religious ceremonies were those of the traditional Mapuche religion, only those already converted attended the blessing of the assembly Cabeza de Vaca had arranged. Lautaro and his merry band of converts attended, but did little to help the cause. He was distrusted by the traditionalists, and his actions were what had provoked the Spanish in the first place.

Suggestions that the assembled Mapuche submit to the authority of King Philip were laughed off universally. Cabeza de Vaca retreated and proposed that they simply accept him as their protector. This idea had some merit. The converts were aware they were a minority and thought perhaps that the move could afford them some security. However, despite Cabeza de Vaca’s warnings, other Spaniards pressed too far in demanding tribute and trade concessions. Many of the converts had done so for the closer ties it afforded them to the Spanish, and this fact caused many to withdraw their support. In any event, the non-Christians rejected the motion out of hand. At this point the traditionalists began to leave. They had been summoned illegally and under the false pretense of war. Now the Spanish were trying to impose their rule on all the Mapuche. They mounted their horses and left. This left the Christians. A rump assembly that could not command any authority. Cabeza de Vaca, acceding to the facts, old them to leave. They did, but not before dealing him one final embarrassment.

Bertrand delivered his messages to various sailors leaving the region​

Louis Betrand had missed most of the coyag, traveling North to preach in the region on the other side of the river. But he returned just as the rump Christian coyag sat smoldering about the Spanish interference in the proceedings. A group of older chiefs were planning something, and they requested his aid.

With Betrand’s aid they wrote a letter to Pope Clement VIII. It criticized Cabeza de Vaca’s actions, and Spanish efforts to dominate their fellow Christians. It told the “Most Holy Father” of the honest faith present across the ocean, and how great work was being done there. The letter lamented the interference of the Spanish. “If the men of Spain did try to seize the lands of their Christian brothers in France, would he not intervene?”[2] They wrote. They formally asked the Pope to mediate between them and the Spanish to “preserve Christian brotherhood”. Betrand also wrote personal notes to the Papacy and the head of the Domincans, praising the faith of the Mapuche, although he was cautious to avoid any direct criticism of the Spanish. Betrand translated the document into Latin, and edited it to be a little less strident while doing so. Cabeza de Vaca was furious but his authority was spent. He would resign the governorship in February 1556 rather than await a recall from Spain, better to try and get ahead of the stream of complaints heading home.

It was a victory for the Mapuche, but it had cost them the Spaniard most willing to work with them. King Philip, although happy to hear that Catholicism was spreading abroad, was going to find someone far more committed to standing their ground.

.....

1: Near the banks of the Matanza river.

2: This is a bit of a sly move by Betrand. Clement is the former Ippolito II d'Este, and France’s biggest fan in Italy.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

Kito's transition was much less smooth than this​

The Kingdom of Kito was, in many ways, a deck of cards. It was a mask. The young King had no real power and no real claim to the throne. At the moment the strings to the puppet were in the hands of Wesler and Hutten. But the German adventurers still were atop a shaky pyramid. The tribal leaders who had supported them against Poma had not done so out of the goodness of their hearts and sought power for themselves. Their faith remained unpopular inside the Kingdom, and the Spanish surrounding it remained wary of their intentions. And they had made a very dangerous gamble.

When Welser had declared the Kingdom of Kito, he had accepted the protection of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. He had very pointedly not accepted the protection of King of All Spains Charles I. As an imperial citizen, originally, it made sense for Welser to pay his respects to the Emperor. It also made more sense for a King to submit to an emperor than to submit to another King. And finally, it was a sly way to avoid the Spanish colonial bureaucracy that despised his family. He reported directly to Charles, not some Spanish viceroy. All in all, a clever stratagem.

Indeed, too clever by half.

The plan had been to take advantage of the fractured nature of the Hapsburg realms to game the system, but Welser had not counted on Charles V giving up the ghost and splitting his empire between his son and nephew. Now claiming the protection of the Holy Roman Empire left them isolated. And the Spanish did not recognize any “Kingdom of Kito”, they only recognized land granted to the Welser family by Charles, in his capacity as King of Castille. It had been possible to skirt by while Charles reigned, but Philip was not going to put up with these shenanigans.

Not taking any of this B.S.
​

With his dominions focused on Spanish holdings, Philip cared far less than his father did for the whims of some German banking clan. He was still in debt and did not see any reason to purge them in particular, but they would not have a free reign. Nor was he pleased to hear of another King in what was nominally his land. The Welsers back in Europe tried cajoling the King, and Hutten and Welser tried to rationalize their way out of the situation. They ludicrously argued that Charles V had not abdicated the position of “protector of the Kingdom of Kito” but to no avail. Philip stood strong, and the Welsers were forced to bend. Philp would maintain ultimate authority over what parts of America were claimed by Spain. He acknowledged that the private holdings of the Welsers were not Spanish domains, and he affirmed that the family had the right to manage their grants as they saw fit. But he did require any disputes between the Welsers and other governors to be directed to the Viceroy of New Spain and insisted on his royal fifth of all precious metals Hutten and Welser skimmed all they could, but the royal coffers looked just a bit more full. In official correspondence to Europe, King Tomay became a Prince but was still acclaimed as King in Kito. All was not lost on the imperial front either, as Welser’s cousin Philippine was on the verge of marrying the Emperor’s brother.

The forces inside Kito did not particularly care what King Welser paid homage to. They cared about how the Germans would run their petty kingdom. How would their allies be rewarded? How would they prevent the King from seizing actual power when he came of age? What would they do about religion?

Prior to the desperation of the Mummy Rebellion Welser had been undertaking a policy of letting local authorities do as they pleased, and he continued this policy. If tribute in the form of precious metals kept coming, and political submission maintained, local leaders could rule over their land as they saw fit. But Welser had learned from his mistakes and made sure that any local leaders disloyal to him were removed. In the North natives largely maintained control, but as one progressed south, more and more European leaders emerged, given vast tracts of lands for their loyalty. These new lords were most often brutal in their methods, seeking to offset the demands of the Crowns in Kito and Madrid with huge profits. In an age when the Spanish were trying to impose royal control and erode the power of individuals, Welser and Hutten were eagerly embracing a more feudal model.

The Kitan model of religion was also very loose. All those granted land by Welser and Hutten were required to be Christian, the nominal religion of the King. However, no one made any effort to enforce this provision. Local leaders mostly kept to their own faith, only entering churches when in Kito to meet their overlords. The Europeans were of course uniformly Christian. They varied in religious tolerance. Some were brutal in demanding catholicism, others were more hands-off on the matter.

The years of calm were ones of cautious growth for Kito. Like most places, the population was in a downward spiral, not helped by a generous and largely illegal slave trade up into the Central American holdings of Spain. In human terms, Welser rule was a disaster on par with all colonization efforts. But for its proprietors, it was going well. For the first time since they had entered the sphere, the New World might be profitable for the Welser colony.

And another opportunity soon arose. Castro had never been all that enthused about a neighbor to his north outside of his influence, but he was a pragmatist. He had grievously offended the local elites in Panama, and they had endeavored to make his life difficult, slowing shipments back to Spain, spinning lies about his governance, and other insults. He wanted to strike back. A deal was struck. Ships carrying good from Kito began to dip further south, and certain goods entering Panama under Welser protection often smuggled with them goods Castro send North. In return, Castro sent word to the king praising the Welsers, and the Germans granted a percentage of revenue earned from the transaction. Emboldened, they began to consider an ambitious project to send men to Klein-Venedig overland, although this would be stymied by hostile leadership in Bogota.

Against all odds, it seemed as if Welser and Hutten had righted the ship. And they had. When the peace hovering over the Andes departed, it would not come from them.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

The Portuguese ship leaves the factory gracefully, on a warm spring day. It is filled mostly with silver, with a bit of gold and dry coca leaf to round out its stores. It is accompanied by a few others. No great treasure fleet, but assuming they all survive the journey, one that would be profitable. There is talk among the higher-level officers, and a factor returning home after years of service in the far west, of crossing the Pacific on a future journey. The Spanish are considering sending some to the Philippines, and with Macau the Portuguese could hook their new silver supply directly to China.

Their passenger listens intently.

They head south at a quick pace. Skirting along the shore mostly, quickly leaving the lands of the Tawantinsuyu behind them. A land filled with hard willed Mapuche who clung to the edge of existence rather than flee east. The ship does not stop here.

It plunges further south, towards the desolate islands that form the bottom of the New World. These are treacherous waters, but they are the ones the ship takes. None dare go further south, to face the unknown seas (or was it lands?) of the bottom of the world. They snake through the passages needed to go from one ocean to the next. At night when they look off the ship, they see the fire of the natives. There is less of it now. Again the officers meet with the factor, and some of the other captains come aboard. Their passenger is not invited. They discuss the possibility of establishing some sort of way station here, to ease the passage. But no one wants to risk winter here and none will stay.

As they depart, their passenger politely asks if he might see one of those fine maps the Portuguese have, so as to better understand the journey they have just taken. The sailors, who are as protective of knowledge as anything else, politely refuse his request.

The trip up the eastern coast is uneventful but tense. There is no doubting it now: the Spanish are entrenched along the Rio de la Plata along with their native allies. Being forced ashore would leave them in hostile territory. The common sailors spread a rumor: The Mapuche are cannibals. The passenger hears the name and quickly ties some knots on his rope, much to the confusion of his hosts. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief when they pass into what are nominally Portuguese waters.

The ship arrives in Salvador with little fanfare. Some coca is unloaded for sale, and some supplies for the long voyage ahead are put on board. The Passenger does not get much of a chance to explore the colonial town. He is, however, thoroughly unimpressed with the natives who live there. Another ship pulls into the harbor nearby and unloads its cargo of slaves. The Passenger has heard that some of the foreigners from Spain are black. He had not realized that the Portuguese had them as well. Another knot on the rope. Another scribble on the paper in a part Spanish, part Quechua combination.

The Atlantic Crossing is rough. Although it has taken months for the ship to round South America, it is still the Southern fall, and so the crossing is made in the middle of a Northern spring storm. Gales blow the ships back and forth, and the Passenger, who has been struggling with seasickness the entire way, mostly stays below deck. Another ship in the flotilla is badly damaged, but the ships limp their way to Lisbon.

The Passenger unloads from the ship and is presented to the royal court. The King, all of 6 years old, is very impressed. The Queen-Regent, locked in a losing battle with her brother-in-law, is less so. As the Passenger becomes the Guest, the captains and the factor pass on a warning to some minor court officials: this man is slippery, do not talk too much. The court does not listen.

In many ways, the Guest’s position is not that different from other natives brought to Europe. He is paraded about as an exotic toy, told to do native dances and to dress up in costumes that bear no resemblance to his clothes. His strange habits are tolerated, the current theory is that rope is some kind of delicacy in his homeland and he keeps sending them it to eat. But the sailors know that in Lesser Cathay men will pay well for the robes from Lisbon. He learns a great many things, sending back a map of Europe that was given as a gift by an amused Duke.

Two years in he dies of smallpox and is buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Lisbon, uncared for by anyone, save for the loss of entertainment he provided.

His name was Qury and he was in his late twenties or early thirties. Little is known of him, only that he had a gift for languages, and that he was of low birth. Nonetheless, his abilities gained him notice, and he wound up doing mita labor for Titu Cusi in the form of translations. We do not know is he volunteered or if this was a punishment. The first Tawantinsuyu to truly “write back” reports of Europe, although his vantage point was suboptimal. He provided greater clarity on some things and revealed other truths yet unknown to the Tawantinsuyu. It is perfectly possible to overstate his importance, but not very easy.

Yet Titu Cusi, for all the knowledge gained, was not satisfied. He had sent an observer, a spy less charitably who had never had the opportunity to enter the true halls of power.

Next time however...he would send someone different.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

San Miguel was the largest European style city in South America.​

Nuevo Oaxaca was a curious beast, as far as Spanish colonies in the New World went. No other colony was forced into a situation of true diplomacy they way it was. Others may have had intermittent relations with neighboring native groups, most notably those in the Rio de la Plata region. But none had to deal with two other relatively powerful nations on their borders. It was also isolated from other colonies, and the closest one was actively hostile to the leadership of Nuevo Oaxaca.

All of this considered, Cristóbal Vaca de Castro had done a very good job. Nuevo Oaxaca had been established and maintained. It had good relations with the Welsers to the North, and although recently Spanish influence in Cusco had started to slip recently, the Tawantinsuyu were firmly contained. With alliances with the Cañari and Chimu, the Spanish had the native auxiliaries need to keep the colony afloat as they entrenched themselves.

Still, he wanted out.

He was getting old, and not just for a conquistador. He had served the Kings of Spain ably for many years, but he felt his time had come. He had set up a profitable enterprise for the crown in South America and had stabilized it. Now was as good a time as any for him to bow out. Beginning in 1558 he had begun subtly hinting that he was ready to return to Spain.

As the bureaucratic wheels began to turn, Castro set about preparing Nuevo Oaxaca for his inevitable departure. A crucial point in this was the strengthening of the Audiencia. When Castro had arrived in South America, Spanish presence had been limited to just one city, and the Audiencia had largely been a formality. Throughout his time in power, he had maintained a large amount of power for a Spanish leader in the colonies. Nonetheless, the Audiencia was a part of Spanish administrations, and Castro deemed it necessary to have a functioning one in San Miguel, filled with notables from around the colony. He more firmly articulated the rights of the Chimu and Cañari. It is a matter of some debate as to whether he did this out of a sense of honor, or a desire to set up a framework that would subject these groups to Spanish law, thereby ensuring continued Spanish control.

Either way, it was soon apparent to those within the colony that Castro was preparing for something. There was a finality about his actions that could not be denied. Rumors swirled, and for once rumor based consensus proved right, Castro was retiring. For some, this was greeted with apprehension, but most saw it as just another change in power, as was fairly common in Spanish possessions. The question now turned to his successor, a question that would soon also vex the Spanish court of Philip II.

Philip had always valued the service of Castro, and would not have removed him, but saw the impending retirement as an opportunity. It was generally agreed upon that the Governorship of Nuevo Oaxaca was not quite no important as the Viceroyalty of New Spain, but the potential revenues from the province meant that the decision on a new governor was considered of vital importance.

What Philip wanted, no needed, above all else was someone who could extract revenue from the province. Financial troubles had been the bane of his father’s later years, and although the mines of Mexico still were extremely productive, Spain still faced a massive amount of debt. And Philip had ambitions to advance the stumbling Hapsburg cause in Europe, ambitions that required money. The untapped wealth of South America might help pay for a reasserting of Spanish influence in Europe, and help crush Protestant advances.

There is a tale, although a disputed one, that Philip proposed sending Martin Cortes, son and heir of Hernan to San Miguel to serve as Governor. Cortes had served in the Spanish army along with Philip, and it seems the King had grown to trust the man. However, his advisors balked at the idea, and with good reason. They were terrified of granting the great Ecomendero landholders of Mexico more power, and appointing one to the most potentially profitable holding was just that sort of danger. And, in time they would be justified in this fear.

The new governor ​

The man instead selected was a man who was not the traditional conquistador, instead being an administrator. Melchior Bravo de Saravia y Sotomayor was a native of Soria who had cut his teeth in Naples and then Grenada as a judge, before accepting a transfer to the New World as a member of the of Audiencia in New Grenada, before being reassigned to Santo Domingo, where he wound up as President of the Audiencia. Santo Domingo, although one of the birthplaces of the Spanish Empire, was now a backwater. But Saravia acquitted himself well enough, and more importantly, emerged from his time there as a neutral figure. He was a loyal figure, and not tied to the web of alliances and rivalries that affected the mainlanders. It was agreed by Philip II and the Council of the Indies that he would make a good Governor for Nuevo Oaxaca. So the order was dispatched that Saravia would be sent to San Miguel, and Castro was relieved of his duty.

His departure was greeted with apprehension by those who Castro had allied with and glee by those whom he had alienated. He advised Chimu and Cañari leaders to accept the new governor as their overlord and tried his best to prepare the great landowners for the coming of a new Governor. He even tried to make headway with the merchants, although he was little loved there. While on the way back to Spain, he was pelted with rocks in Panama City[1].

The new and old governors never did meet in person. Castro departing on September 5, 1559, a few days before Saravia arrived, as was relatively common in Spanish colonies.

Saravia’s tenure is office would be a fraught one, and ultimately Philip would probably not have appointed him again.

But that was in the future, and there remains one more loose end to tie up.

It's amazing how well not automatically assuming victory works. ​

Cristobal Vaca de Castro was a brutal man willing to cut deals when it was needed. He forcibly imposed European rule onto native populations, and dismembered various groups that imposed him. Yet he was a competent man, who knew when to fight and when to talk. He was not blinded by faith, or lust, or greed. He had served the Kings of Spain with as much honor as a conquistador could have. He was not a good man. But he was something better, at least in the eyes of Kings, he was a competent one.

His reward would be a cushy and obscure retirement in Spain, eventually dying in 1565.

1: Just to jog your memory Castro has a long-standing feud with the Panamanians because he refused to let them take what had previously been their illegal cut of the trade.