What if a hidden Inca stronghold was discovered in Peru, like in Tintin?

I'm not sure how realistic this is, so if this is ASB then I ask it to be moved to the proper forum.

In Hergé's The Seven Crystal Balls, Tintin, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus encounter a gang of modern-day Incas who are out to avenge the defilement of the tomb of the Inca Rascar Capac by an archaeological expedition. In the course of the events, they also kidnap Calculus because he unknowingly put on a bracelet of the Inca and thereby committed sacrilege. This leads our heroes to Peru in Prisoners of the Sun, where they eventually find out that there is a whole mountain fastness in the Andes - The Temple of the Sun - where a large group of Inca have survived until modern times, led by an Inca. It is also strongly implied that this Inca commands the allegiance of a large number of Indians in Peru, thereby forming a hidden society unknown to the Peruvian government. In addition, it is shown in the stories that the Incas regularly interact with the outside world, with a high-ranking member working as an assistant to General Alcazar in his music hall knife-throwing act, and Huascar, a high priest of the sun, moving about in towns in modern clothing. Also, it's apparent that pretty much all of them from the Inca downwards speak Spanish or a related language, since Tintin and Haddock are able to freely communicate with them, and I don't think they'd know Quechua.

So my question is this: what if in 2011 it was revealed that there were surviving Incas hiding in the Andes, led by an Inca, with large numbers of Peruvian citizens secretly obeying the Inca, thereby essentially forming a rival government to Lima? How would the Peruvian government react? Would there be bloodshed, or could a peaceful acommodation be reached? Granted, if this were a hundred years ago bloodshed would be the most likely response (no doubt the reason why the Incas in Hergé's story behaved as they did), but in 2011 it's, well, "uncool" to practice genocide and go all Andrew Jackson on the native populations. Of course, any deal would undoubtedly include a ban on human sacrifice and the like.:)
 
So, you're asking what would be the consequences if a plot from a kiddies comic book were true? :rolleyes:

I think that you already know the answer and that you already know this is the wrong forum.
 
So, you're asking what would be the consequences if a plot from a kiddies comic book were true? :rolleyes:

I think that you already know the answer and that you already know this is the wrong forum.

I was going to post this in the ASB forum, but I just couldn't be sure. Take away the minor supernatural aspect of the story, and it's about a group of people who have remained hidden for centuries. There are still tribes being found in the Amazon to this day who have previously had little to no contact with the outside world, for example. To my mind this turns into an unlikely, but at least remotely possible, concept.

And I resent the implication that Tintin is just a "kiddie's" comic book. I still like them now as much as I did when I was a kid. So apparently does Steven Spielberg.:)
 
It all depends on what exactly are the Inca have at their disposal, and what do they want to accomplish. For example, if they have WMDs, they can successfully negotiate independence or at least autonomy from the Peruvian government, or stay and get to be an influential part of the political elite.
OTOH, if they are just low-tech primitives with some imported AKs, they should be happy if there's no genocide.
 
I was going to post this in the ASB forum, but I just couldn't be sure.

Simply PM a mod and ask them to move it. This topic would do very well in the ASB forum.

There are still tribes being found in the Amazon to this day who have previously had little to no contact with the outside world, for example.

And those tribes haven't had secret agents active worldwide, speaking modern languages, and seamlessly blending in for centuries either.

So apparently does Steven Spielberg.:)

Spielberg's "taste" in potential movie properties holds no water with me. He's a judge of what makes a good movie and not of what makes for plausible alternate history.

After all among other things, he's the man who had Indiana Jones riding the outside of a submerged submarine from the coast of Egypt to an island in the Aegean. :rolleyes:
 
Don, you're a smart guy, but there's no need to go so strongly out of your way to be an asshole.

To answer seriously, it seems extremely unlikely. The closest OTL analogue to your situation was Machu Pichhu, an Inca complex built in a remote part of the Andes roughly 1450 and abandoned approximately 1570. It seems likely that most of the population died of smallpox with the survivors leaving. The ruins or 'lost city' of Machu Picchu was never reoccupied, but was also undiscovered by the Spaniards or subsequent Peruvian government until somewhere between 1874 through 1905 when references to it seemed to show up, and 1911 when it was formally visited.

A major factor which left Machu Picchu undiscovered was that it was uninhabited. No visitors, no people coming in, none going out, no smoke fires, no lands devolted to agriculture. Had it been occupied, it would have produced an environmental footprint - farmlands would have been needed to support the urban population, wood gathering, quarries, pottery, etc. So it would have had an impact on the countryside. Neighboring communities would have become aware of it, the news would have percolated.

1911 was about the latest a lost city of that type could have remained obscure in any event. After that we had aircraft, and long after that satellite photography. Odds of discovery would increase exponentially.

And you have the problem that the Andes in Peru are not really terra incognita. Half the population of Peru resides in the hills and valleys of the Andean highlands. That's a lot of people, and its pretty much all explored and mapped.

Maybe 5% or less of the Peruvian population lives beyond the highlands, in Peru's portions of the Amazonian rain forest. But even there, it's not really thinly populated. The population may be more spread out, but they travel, they're aware. The Andes would be a terrible place to locate a hidden civilization. The Amazon rain forest, being more difficult to access, might be slightly better. But still not very good. There's also the problem that the Inca never really did penetrate into the Amazon forests.

So the scenario is extremely, extremely unlikely. It's possible that you could get a traditional Inca community, but it would have to be relatively small, be extremely isolated and inaccessible, eschew or have guarded relations with its neighbors, etc. Even then, the word would get out.

The odds of maintaining any kind of secrecy are long, and by 1920, with aircraft, newspapers and radio communication, motor vehicles etc., they become impossible. By the 1920's, the whole world would know about them.

Mind you, if there was such a hidden culture, it might be relatively culturally valuable, depending on what they've managed to hang onto, the secrets of the quippo knotworks, for example.
 
I'd think that a better and more likely place than Machu Picchu would be Vilcabamba. It seems the OP basically wants Vilcabamba to remain both populated and hidden. Hidden is possible, as it was discovered later than Machu Picchu was (the guy who found Picchu was actually looking for Vilcabamba), but populated might be harder. And by might, I mean will. But on the other hand, Vilcabamba's history fits the OP quite well, as that place was the final refuge of ol' Manco and his people. Now, it might be ASB, but if Vilcabamba did remain both populated and hidden until now, it'd be more than relatively culturally valuable, it'd be the find of the century, or the past several centuries. It's the Sapa Inca's hidden fortress and it is still run by the heir to Manco's legacy.

Tirion: I wouldn't think any violence against them to be likely, let alone enough to say that they're lucky not to be genocided. It's the 21st century.

Anyways, as unlikely as it is, someone needs to get Hollywood on the line as this'd make a damn good pulp adventure movie taking place in the 1910's/20's.
 
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