Name: Tawantinsuyu
Government Type: OTL inca style. Society is divided into Ayllu (sort of like clans). There is a lot of Bureaucracy. The Inca is the head of state but there is some weirdness where dead relatives have power, etc.
Area: Peru, Northern Chile, Southern Ecuador, Western Bolivia
Major Cities: Qosqo, Arequipa, Chanchan, Tiwanaku, Chimú, Guayaquil, Quito, Puno, Caral, Coquimbo, Iquitos, Cochabamba
Armies: The standing army is based around mandatory military service and training for adults of the appropriate age. The largest soldier type is in fact the skirmisher. Well suited to the terrain of Tawantinsuyu (mountains and jungles), they are perhaps the best such force in the world. They are armed with rifles and light mortars. Cavalry is almost nonexistant. Line regiments are very rare, and are primarily garrison troops in forts and marines for the navy. Artillery are common, primarily staffing the many fortresses throughout Tawantinsuyu.
Air Force The Andes make the most efficient form of travel from East to West the airship. Driven by steam engines (which turn windmill-like turbines), they range from small observation craft to massive transports. The army uses the smaller craft like helicopter gunships - carrying small numbers of soldiers and sometimes able to provide some fire support with small arms, swivel guns, and sometimes small cannon. Transports are much larger, and the largest are able to carry entire regiments. The navy also utilizes ship-borne airships for scouting and communication, as well as skirmishing and raiding. Tawantinsuyu also possesses a significant fleet of non-military airships, used to transport goods and people throughout the empire. Private airships are also common, and many merchants use airships to fly from city to city.
Navy: Though there are a few traditional ships of the line, the majority of the fleet of Tawantinsuyu is made up of swift cutters, barques, and frigates. Tawantinsuyu is known the world over for the quality of their sails, and consequently their light craft are extremely fast and maneuverable. Though the heavy ships are armed in the standard manner, with masses of traditional cannon, the light ships use howitzers and rifled cannon to full effect, dancing around the enemy and disabling them with accurate shots from extreme range and finishing the job with explosive shells from the howitzers.
Stability: Despite the large size of the Empire, excellent. Several hundred years' worth of crushing rebellion and resettling nasty folk have left the empire surprisingly stable due to the similarity of culture and religion. The bureaucracy and strong government only help this.
Religion: Traditional Andean religion. Though the Inca is a powerful religious figure, the empire has grown more and more secular after modernizing.
History: (WARNING: POINT OF DIVERGENCE INCOMING) After ending the civil war with his brother, the last of the "Isolated" Inca, Atahualpa, made all of the other royal houses pledge ultimate fealty to his own (look up Inca government - basically after an Inca died, people took care of them and they had some political power. in otl Atahualpa destroyed all of the other houses, making the Inca hard pressed to provide a well-led opposition to the Spaniards after his capture). As in OTL, Francisco Pizarro arrived in 1532 to find a desolate country. However, Atahualpa surrounded the meeting place and brought several thousand elite troops to the meeting as a bodyguard. Though Pizarro successfully sprung his ambush, the initial rout of Atahualpa's forces was countered by the surrounding troops pressing in. After running out of ammunition and having suffered 75% casualties (as well as having killed thousands of Atahualpa's men), the Spaniards surrendered. The prisoners from the battle were ordered to divulge all they knew of the mysterious and advanced weaponry they carried in exchange for minor noble titles. Armed with their new knowledge of iron and gunpowder, the reinvigorated Tawantinsuyu pushed heavily for modernization. By 1600, they had reached parity with most European powers, though were still largely unknown and looked down upon across the Atlantic. Nowadays, the Inca are starting to be noticed again as they have been brought into contact with Europeans during fighting against the Cambeba Empire, an Amazonian state closely tied to the colonies in eastern Brazil.
)
