das
Regeneration In Process
OOC: I decided to do this bit about Transoceania separately, as its not very connected with the events in the rest of the world. Or is it?
Btw, this thing is (I suspect) difficult to read with a historical atlas handy, or, at least, a good encyclopedia. Wikipedia will probably do, I suppose...
IC:
In 1539, during the Navarrese War in the Pyrenean Peninsula, a butterfly was scared away by the charging troops and thus flapped its wings in a somewhat different time and space than it probably would have otherwise.
That random fact, however, scarcely matters apart from a crackpot theory that said butterfly had inadvertly (or purposedly?) doomed the Aztec Empire, as indeed in the next year a rainstorm damaged further the Aztec morale and the accuracy of their archers in the vital battle at Teloapan, allowing the Michoacanese (from hereon, Tarascans as they were called by most European peoples) to carry the day; but admittedly, even without that storm the Aztecs were not exactly likely to win the battle; had they won the battle, their chances to win the war with the Tarascans were still negligible; and even had they defeated the Tarascans, the general trends of the time were against the Aztecs.
Indeed, the 16th century was a time of much turmoil and chaos in Transoceania. From Mississippi to the Pampas, cultures, civilizations and empires alike struggled, rose and fell, and the map of the megacontinent changed dramatically in the wake of lots of violence and bloodshed. But as usual, chaos would be replaced by order; and the "dark age" of the 16th century would be followed up by a Transoceanic renaissance in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. However, I am getting ahead of myself. Lets begin with 1502 - the year of Montezuma II's ascension to power in the Aztec Empire, his reign, despite the underlying weaknesses ofhis empire, being the zenith of Aztec power. Hs reign was not too long, but neither was it, by Aztec standards, too short - 25 years. During this time, Aztec forces greatly expanded southeastwards fighting the various natives and the remaining south Mayan city-states such as Utatlan, a Tlaxcallan rebellion was defeated closer to home and in Tenochtitlan itself, the blood sacrifices had reached their apogee in 1524, when a pretender's coup d'etat was defeated AND Mayan prisoners of war finally reached Tenochtitlan. This was also in part encouraged by the extraordinary piety of Montezuma II. Great temples were built under him, as was, by the way, the infrastructure. Other various public works were also undertaken, and the buerocracy was overhauled. Tenochtitlan was bigger than ever, and the treasury was never more full both with loot and with trade income. The Aztec Empire was rich. It also had many enemies to begin with. And it was increasingly overstretched and stagnant... no wonder that when Montezuma's brother and successor Cuitlahuac died after four years of a reign marked with desperate attempts to improve the Aztec foreign situation, the Tlaxcallans, the Teotitlans, the Mixtecs and the Mayans all rose up, while the Tarascans, the Yopitzincos and the northern Mayans soon followed this up with (uncoordinated, most probably) invasions. Axayacatl II was a pretty mediocre ruler, hardly up to the challenge of saving an empire in its worst days, but fortunately his brother, Montezuma, at first proved a good, reliable advisor and general for Axayacatl, and later - in 1535 - succesfully overthrew him, becoming Montezuma III. By the time he did so, although he had personally routed the Tlaxcallans at Coatepec and albeit Axayacatl's spies managed to steal the secret of copper weaponry from the Tarascans, the empire was in dire straits, with rebellions, decimation of the eastern trade, supply and communication routes and, ofcourse, the Tarascan-Yopitzincan armies having captured Teloapan, the center of Aztec power in the southwestern provinces.
At this point it must be said that the Aztec armies, even with over a century of experience - and of victories - that they have gained since their first defeat at the Tarascan hands, even with the new copper weapons, were still no match for the Tarascans, who still had more sophisticated weaponry, who much more often fought to kill than to capture in contrast to the other Mesican armies, and who, under Tangaxoan II who ruled at the time, have further reorganized and strenghthened their armies to better face the Aztecs. Though good merchants and builders, the Tarascans were a martial nation that has defeated the Aztecs before, not to mention numerous lesser threats. Tangaxoan II also devised ingenius new siege equipment, which allowed him to capture Teloapan, to Montezuma III's dismay. Diplomatically, after a while he had succesfully become the informal leader of the Aztec coalition. Said coalition, despite the Tlaxcallan and Mixtec defeats, was doing quite well. The eastern Aztec provinces were already lost to the Mayan rebels and invaders (though the latter soon withdrew from the war, instead attacking the former), and the superprofitable trade with the far eastern province of Soconusco was eliminated, as was Soconusco itself. Yet immediately upon Montezuma's ascension, the Aztec armies were reorganized and re-trained, and, to the consternation and uproar amongst the priesthood, was ordered to adapt the Tarascan ways of war. To fight to kill, against the Tarascans anyway (amongst other things). As for the priests, they soon shut up - Montezuma was quite an intimidating man, and so were his guards.
For a while it seemed that this - and the second, crushing Tlaxcallan defeat in 1536 at Hueyotlipan that forced the Tlaxcallans to give up and once more accept Aztec hegemony - was the turning point. Even the Tarascans were, though at large price, defeated at Cuernavaca. The eastern provinces, Montezuma III realized, were lost for good, but they could always be retaken later if the Aztec Empire survived and if it didn't, then, well, it didn't. The Tarascans and their local allies were more important. As for the trade income, to lose it was a shame but there was nothing he could do about that for the moment, except raise taxes, which he did, and greatly so. A conspiracy against him followed, and its members were first tortured publically, very painfully but not lethally, and then sacrificed to the gods. That teached them.
As Tangaxoan II prepared his forces for a new campaign, Montezuma III decided to deal with the rebels. Teotitlan was pacified, as was the small northern state Meztitlan that seemed extraordinarily suspicious. A Yopitzincan and Mixtec army that linked up at Ayutla to besiege the southernmost large Aztec city left was also routed (by Montezuma III personally) before the Tarascan reinforcements could arrive; the Mixtecs wisely gave up like the Tlaxcallans did before them, the Yopitzincans, also wisely, agreed to become a Tarascan vassal state in exchange for greater military assistance. Anyway, with the Mayans still busy fighting each other, Montezuma III only had to worry about the Tarascans - and betrayal from the Tlaxcallans and the Mixtecs of which he was quite confident, and also confident that it would only come if he seemed weak enough. Despite the worsening economical situation in the Aztec Empire, its army was bigger than ever before after the various levies and the Tlaxcallans and the Mixtecs being forced to provide extra troops (in part, ofcourse, as hostages). That certainly didn't seem weak.
And weak it wasn't. Only, the Tarascan army amassing at Teloapan was stronger. Though lacking in quantity as compared to the Aztecs, the Tarascan quality was overwhelming, especially with the weapons out of a brand new metal alloy - bronze. It was even stronger than copper. Ofcourse, the Tarascans hadn't the time to reequip their army properly, but what they had was enough. They also brought along Yopitzincan reinforcements and new levies. And finally, they prepared a small reserve army.
The Aztec army confronted their enemies just to the north of the city, having secured a good position overlooking the battlefield. A sudden rainstorm prevented them from exploiting this fully, as it damaged both the accuracy of their archers and the lethality of their poisoned arrows. It also obscured vision just enough for the Tarascan reserve army to sneak into place despite some unexpected delays. Meanwhile, the Tarascan main force had to disperse somewhat to avoid the arrows and lure the Aztecs into charging them. Montezuma III collaborated with his enemy's plan, starting an all-out attack before the enemy could regroup properly, further encouraged by the enemy's evident wavering and attempts to get cover. The Aztecs cut into the reorganizing Tarascans, and, despite the unpleasant surprise provided by the bronze weapons of Tangaxoan's own guard that he had personally led into the battle, at first seemed likely to win with sheer numbers alone.
Then the Tarascan reserve army struck the Aztec flank, causing a rout despite Montezuma III's desperate attempts to rally his troops. Though eventually, he rallied them, by then he had to be on the defensive and his numerical advantage was far from overwhelming now that most of the levies and the "allies" had fled or even turned against the Aztecs. Montezuma III himself evidently died in battle. His army was utterly annihilated, and the Aztec Empire soon collapsed as Tlaxcallans and Mixtecs resumed their rebellions, as the countryside and the subservient cities rose up as well and as Tenochtitlan itself was taken over by the priests, everybody else who could take power being already dead or killed just now. Only, Tacuba and Texcoco - the other two members of the Triple Alliance, alongside Tenochtitlan though in last few decades increasingly overshadowed by it - were not too eager to accept their new rulers, and promptly dismissed the Triple Alliance. A local three-side civil war in the region of Lake Texcoco ensued, with the neo-Toltec empire of the Acolhua people triumphant. The new empire's capital, naturally, was Texcoco. Tenochtitlan and Tacuba were looted. The nucleus of the fallen Aztec Empire was all taken over by the Acolhuas. The rest of the Aztec Empire was torn apart between them, the Tarascans, the Mixtecs and the Tlaxcallans. Needless to say, the Tarascans emerged as the strongest power, having taken over the south-western fourth of the Aztec Empire and added it to their already impressive one. To that they later added the Mixtec lands, and, under Uruaxoan I in the 1550s, eliminated the short-lived First Acolhuan Empire and the restored city-state of Teotitlan. Tlaxcalla eventually was defeated and also became a vassal state, like in the old days though the Tarascan reign was lighter.
Yet Tzintzuntzen - the Tarascan capital - was not as well-positioned at Texcoco, Tula or, even moreso, Tenochtitlan to rule Mesica; the Tarascans, also unlike the Aztecs, were foreigners, foreign of language and culture alike. Though not above operating through local collaborators, they constantly tried imposing their culture (not in the Tlaxcallan lands, ofcourse), even attacking such practices as human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism. Their empire faced enormous problems of rebuilding the infrastructure and communicating across the mountains. Finally, their primitive (when compared to the Aztec one, ofcourse) buerocracy was incapable of properly controlling Mesica. Uruaxoan's attempt to move the capital to Texcoco caused an outrage and a near-rebellion back at home, and most Tarascans preffered to lose their empire than to accept cultural assimilation, the signs of which they sometimes noticed. So after the death of Chixoan I in 1556, the empire promptly was lost as a civil war begun in Tarascan Michoacan, which, however, retained some of the westernmost Mesican territories. Elsewhere in Mesica, Tlaxcallans briefly took over, but failed to hold on to their gains; by 1570, they and Michoacan were but two of the myriad Mesican states, most notably the Second Acolhuan Empire, Teotitlan, Tlapan (around Ayutla) and Tlaxcalla itself. All of them were, ofcourse, in the Bronze Age.
Further southeast, though the southern Mayan city-states remained divided, weak and stagnant, further north renaissance and recovery begun. In the southern Yucatan, the city-state of Tayasal relived in part the glories of Tikal, the previous hegemon "Lowland-Mayan" power. Further north in Yucatan the revival took more time, but eventually the coastal city of T'ho (OOC: in OTL on its spot Merida was built) led the way and other northernmost cities followed as the Carribean sea trade slowly begun to appear and strenghthen, with the rise of the Arawak seafarers, the revival of southern Mississippi and northern Orinoco cultures and, ofcourse, by the rise of the Chibcha Empire in South Transoceania.
Centered in the city of Bacato (OOC: which in OTL became Bogota), the Chibchas were not at first a seafaring people at all, nor were they particularily mercantile even in their imperial days, instaed relying on the Arawak seamanship. Already in the 15th century, Chibcha states, particularily those around Bacato and Hunza, were rising. Neither the Incan Empire nor the savage Carib cannibals from the north managed to crush the Chibchas, nor did the numerous inter-state feuds and internal civil wars prevent the eventual emergence of a greater Chibcha state under the Bacatan ruler Zipa and his son Borchipa, "the Uniter of the Valleys". The Carib invasion of the 1540s sped the process up further, as did the North Incan incursions. The Chibcha Empire, though at first quite decentralized due to its primitivity and problems of infrastructure, held out and its rulers proved to be fast learners, establishing a buerocracy and a road system along Incan lines, though the Chibcha Empire still remained somewhat less united. After losing a war with the North Incans in the 1560s, the Chibchas were forced out of their Pacific Ocean protoports, and instead concentrated on the Carribean ones. Having already started some trade with the Central Transoceanian peoples, and even with the Mayans, in the western coast, the Chibchas now operated in the eastern, mostly through Arawaks. With their immense wealth, they managed to buy all sorts of goods that they then sold to the North Incans, stimulating them to also increase their commercial activities in the west coast (these have been started back when the Incan Empire was one; in fact some suspect that the Tarascans got their bronze from the Incans).
By the way, the Incan Empire was divided (much like the Roman one in its time) in 1539 with the death of Sapa-Inca Huascar, having become simply too unwieldy. Tupac Amaru I got the north (actually, more like the west - anyway, the two north-western suyos were his, as was the northern capital, Quito), while Paullu got the south(-eastern two suyos and Cuzco). Both states remained, de jure at least, bound by an alliance, and expanded into opposite directions. However, by 1580 both ran out of directions to expand into, and a war to reunite the Empire seemed to be quite inevitable. Which might be considered slightly ironic if one remembers what happened on that year in a different land, though I'm afraid that this is but an inside joke for historians specializing in the discovery of Transoceania and the immediately preceding events...
Btw, this thing is (I suspect) difficult to read with a historical atlas handy, or, at least, a good encyclopedia. Wikipedia will probably do, I suppose...
IC:
In 1539, during the Navarrese War in the Pyrenean Peninsula, a butterfly was scared away by the charging troops and thus flapped its wings in a somewhat different time and space than it probably would have otherwise.
That random fact, however, scarcely matters apart from a crackpot theory that said butterfly had inadvertly (or purposedly?) doomed the Aztec Empire, as indeed in the next year a rainstorm damaged further the Aztec morale and the accuracy of their archers in the vital battle at Teloapan, allowing the Michoacanese (from hereon, Tarascans as they were called by most European peoples) to carry the day; but admittedly, even without that storm the Aztecs were not exactly likely to win the battle; had they won the battle, their chances to win the war with the Tarascans were still negligible; and even had they defeated the Tarascans, the general trends of the time were against the Aztecs.
Indeed, the 16th century was a time of much turmoil and chaos in Transoceania. From Mississippi to the Pampas, cultures, civilizations and empires alike struggled, rose and fell, and the map of the megacontinent changed dramatically in the wake of lots of violence and bloodshed. But as usual, chaos would be replaced by order; and the "dark age" of the 16th century would be followed up by a Transoceanic renaissance in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. However, I am getting ahead of myself. Lets begin with 1502 - the year of Montezuma II's ascension to power in the Aztec Empire, his reign, despite the underlying weaknesses ofhis empire, being the zenith of Aztec power. Hs reign was not too long, but neither was it, by Aztec standards, too short - 25 years. During this time, Aztec forces greatly expanded southeastwards fighting the various natives and the remaining south Mayan city-states such as Utatlan, a Tlaxcallan rebellion was defeated closer to home and in Tenochtitlan itself, the blood sacrifices had reached their apogee in 1524, when a pretender's coup d'etat was defeated AND Mayan prisoners of war finally reached Tenochtitlan. This was also in part encouraged by the extraordinary piety of Montezuma II. Great temples were built under him, as was, by the way, the infrastructure. Other various public works were also undertaken, and the buerocracy was overhauled. Tenochtitlan was bigger than ever, and the treasury was never more full both with loot and with trade income. The Aztec Empire was rich. It also had many enemies to begin with. And it was increasingly overstretched and stagnant... no wonder that when Montezuma's brother and successor Cuitlahuac died after four years of a reign marked with desperate attempts to improve the Aztec foreign situation, the Tlaxcallans, the Teotitlans, the Mixtecs and the Mayans all rose up, while the Tarascans, the Yopitzincos and the northern Mayans soon followed this up with (uncoordinated, most probably) invasions. Axayacatl II was a pretty mediocre ruler, hardly up to the challenge of saving an empire in its worst days, but fortunately his brother, Montezuma, at first proved a good, reliable advisor and general for Axayacatl, and later - in 1535 - succesfully overthrew him, becoming Montezuma III. By the time he did so, although he had personally routed the Tlaxcallans at Coatepec and albeit Axayacatl's spies managed to steal the secret of copper weaponry from the Tarascans, the empire was in dire straits, with rebellions, decimation of the eastern trade, supply and communication routes and, ofcourse, the Tarascan-Yopitzincan armies having captured Teloapan, the center of Aztec power in the southwestern provinces.
At this point it must be said that the Aztec armies, even with over a century of experience - and of victories - that they have gained since their first defeat at the Tarascan hands, even with the new copper weapons, were still no match for the Tarascans, who still had more sophisticated weaponry, who much more often fought to kill than to capture in contrast to the other Mesican armies, and who, under Tangaxoan II who ruled at the time, have further reorganized and strenghthened their armies to better face the Aztecs. Though good merchants and builders, the Tarascans were a martial nation that has defeated the Aztecs before, not to mention numerous lesser threats. Tangaxoan II also devised ingenius new siege equipment, which allowed him to capture Teloapan, to Montezuma III's dismay. Diplomatically, after a while he had succesfully become the informal leader of the Aztec coalition. Said coalition, despite the Tlaxcallan and Mixtec defeats, was doing quite well. The eastern Aztec provinces were already lost to the Mayan rebels and invaders (though the latter soon withdrew from the war, instead attacking the former), and the superprofitable trade with the far eastern province of Soconusco was eliminated, as was Soconusco itself. Yet immediately upon Montezuma's ascension, the Aztec armies were reorganized and re-trained, and, to the consternation and uproar amongst the priesthood, was ordered to adapt the Tarascan ways of war. To fight to kill, against the Tarascans anyway (amongst other things). As for the priests, they soon shut up - Montezuma was quite an intimidating man, and so were his guards.
For a while it seemed that this - and the second, crushing Tlaxcallan defeat in 1536 at Hueyotlipan that forced the Tlaxcallans to give up and once more accept Aztec hegemony - was the turning point. Even the Tarascans were, though at large price, defeated at Cuernavaca. The eastern provinces, Montezuma III realized, were lost for good, but they could always be retaken later if the Aztec Empire survived and if it didn't, then, well, it didn't. The Tarascans and their local allies were more important. As for the trade income, to lose it was a shame but there was nothing he could do about that for the moment, except raise taxes, which he did, and greatly so. A conspiracy against him followed, and its members were first tortured publically, very painfully but not lethally, and then sacrificed to the gods. That teached them.
As Tangaxoan II prepared his forces for a new campaign, Montezuma III decided to deal with the rebels. Teotitlan was pacified, as was the small northern state Meztitlan that seemed extraordinarily suspicious. A Yopitzincan and Mixtec army that linked up at Ayutla to besiege the southernmost large Aztec city left was also routed (by Montezuma III personally) before the Tarascan reinforcements could arrive; the Mixtecs wisely gave up like the Tlaxcallans did before them, the Yopitzincans, also wisely, agreed to become a Tarascan vassal state in exchange for greater military assistance. Anyway, with the Mayans still busy fighting each other, Montezuma III only had to worry about the Tarascans - and betrayal from the Tlaxcallans and the Mixtecs of which he was quite confident, and also confident that it would only come if he seemed weak enough. Despite the worsening economical situation in the Aztec Empire, its army was bigger than ever before after the various levies and the Tlaxcallans and the Mixtecs being forced to provide extra troops (in part, ofcourse, as hostages). That certainly didn't seem weak.
And weak it wasn't. Only, the Tarascan army amassing at Teloapan was stronger. Though lacking in quantity as compared to the Aztecs, the Tarascan quality was overwhelming, especially with the weapons out of a brand new metal alloy - bronze. It was even stronger than copper. Ofcourse, the Tarascans hadn't the time to reequip their army properly, but what they had was enough. They also brought along Yopitzincan reinforcements and new levies. And finally, they prepared a small reserve army.
The Aztec army confronted their enemies just to the north of the city, having secured a good position overlooking the battlefield. A sudden rainstorm prevented them from exploiting this fully, as it damaged both the accuracy of their archers and the lethality of their poisoned arrows. It also obscured vision just enough for the Tarascan reserve army to sneak into place despite some unexpected delays. Meanwhile, the Tarascan main force had to disperse somewhat to avoid the arrows and lure the Aztecs into charging them. Montezuma III collaborated with his enemy's plan, starting an all-out attack before the enemy could regroup properly, further encouraged by the enemy's evident wavering and attempts to get cover. The Aztecs cut into the reorganizing Tarascans, and, despite the unpleasant surprise provided by the bronze weapons of Tangaxoan's own guard that he had personally led into the battle, at first seemed likely to win with sheer numbers alone.
Then the Tarascan reserve army struck the Aztec flank, causing a rout despite Montezuma III's desperate attempts to rally his troops. Though eventually, he rallied them, by then he had to be on the defensive and his numerical advantage was far from overwhelming now that most of the levies and the "allies" had fled or even turned against the Aztecs. Montezuma III himself evidently died in battle. His army was utterly annihilated, and the Aztec Empire soon collapsed as Tlaxcallans and Mixtecs resumed their rebellions, as the countryside and the subservient cities rose up as well and as Tenochtitlan itself was taken over by the priests, everybody else who could take power being already dead or killed just now. Only, Tacuba and Texcoco - the other two members of the Triple Alliance, alongside Tenochtitlan though in last few decades increasingly overshadowed by it - were not too eager to accept their new rulers, and promptly dismissed the Triple Alliance. A local three-side civil war in the region of Lake Texcoco ensued, with the neo-Toltec empire of the Acolhua people triumphant. The new empire's capital, naturally, was Texcoco. Tenochtitlan and Tacuba were looted. The nucleus of the fallen Aztec Empire was all taken over by the Acolhuas. The rest of the Aztec Empire was torn apart between them, the Tarascans, the Mixtecs and the Tlaxcallans. Needless to say, the Tarascans emerged as the strongest power, having taken over the south-western fourth of the Aztec Empire and added it to their already impressive one. To that they later added the Mixtec lands, and, under Uruaxoan I in the 1550s, eliminated the short-lived First Acolhuan Empire and the restored city-state of Teotitlan. Tlaxcalla eventually was defeated and also became a vassal state, like in the old days though the Tarascan reign was lighter.
Yet Tzintzuntzen - the Tarascan capital - was not as well-positioned at Texcoco, Tula or, even moreso, Tenochtitlan to rule Mesica; the Tarascans, also unlike the Aztecs, were foreigners, foreign of language and culture alike. Though not above operating through local collaborators, they constantly tried imposing their culture (not in the Tlaxcallan lands, ofcourse), even attacking such practices as human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism. Their empire faced enormous problems of rebuilding the infrastructure and communicating across the mountains. Finally, their primitive (when compared to the Aztec one, ofcourse) buerocracy was incapable of properly controlling Mesica. Uruaxoan's attempt to move the capital to Texcoco caused an outrage and a near-rebellion back at home, and most Tarascans preffered to lose their empire than to accept cultural assimilation, the signs of which they sometimes noticed. So after the death of Chixoan I in 1556, the empire promptly was lost as a civil war begun in Tarascan Michoacan, which, however, retained some of the westernmost Mesican territories. Elsewhere in Mesica, Tlaxcallans briefly took over, but failed to hold on to their gains; by 1570, they and Michoacan were but two of the myriad Mesican states, most notably the Second Acolhuan Empire, Teotitlan, Tlapan (around Ayutla) and Tlaxcalla itself. All of them were, ofcourse, in the Bronze Age.
Further southeast, though the southern Mayan city-states remained divided, weak and stagnant, further north renaissance and recovery begun. In the southern Yucatan, the city-state of Tayasal relived in part the glories of Tikal, the previous hegemon "Lowland-Mayan" power. Further north in Yucatan the revival took more time, but eventually the coastal city of T'ho (OOC: in OTL on its spot Merida was built) led the way and other northernmost cities followed as the Carribean sea trade slowly begun to appear and strenghthen, with the rise of the Arawak seafarers, the revival of southern Mississippi and northern Orinoco cultures and, ofcourse, by the rise of the Chibcha Empire in South Transoceania.
Centered in the city of Bacato (OOC: which in OTL became Bogota), the Chibchas were not at first a seafaring people at all, nor were they particularily mercantile even in their imperial days, instaed relying on the Arawak seamanship. Already in the 15th century, Chibcha states, particularily those around Bacato and Hunza, were rising. Neither the Incan Empire nor the savage Carib cannibals from the north managed to crush the Chibchas, nor did the numerous inter-state feuds and internal civil wars prevent the eventual emergence of a greater Chibcha state under the Bacatan ruler Zipa and his son Borchipa, "the Uniter of the Valleys". The Carib invasion of the 1540s sped the process up further, as did the North Incan incursions. The Chibcha Empire, though at first quite decentralized due to its primitivity and problems of infrastructure, held out and its rulers proved to be fast learners, establishing a buerocracy and a road system along Incan lines, though the Chibcha Empire still remained somewhat less united. After losing a war with the North Incans in the 1560s, the Chibchas were forced out of their Pacific Ocean protoports, and instead concentrated on the Carribean ones. Having already started some trade with the Central Transoceanian peoples, and even with the Mayans, in the western coast, the Chibchas now operated in the eastern, mostly through Arawaks. With their immense wealth, they managed to buy all sorts of goods that they then sold to the North Incans, stimulating them to also increase their commercial activities in the west coast (these have been started back when the Incan Empire was one; in fact some suspect that the Tarascans got their bronze from the Incans).
By the way, the Incan Empire was divided (much like the Roman one in its time) in 1539 with the death of Sapa-Inca Huascar, having become simply too unwieldy. Tupac Amaru I got the north (actually, more like the west - anyway, the two north-western suyos were his, as was the northern capital, Quito), while Paullu got the south(-eastern two suyos and Cuzco). Both states remained, de jure at least, bound by an alliance, and expanded into opposite directions. However, by 1580 both ran out of directions to expand into, and a war to reunite the Empire seemed to be quite inevitable. Which might be considered slightly ironic if one remembers what happened on that year in a different land, though I'm afraid that this is but an inside joke for historians specializing in the discovery of Transoceania and the immediately preceding events...
Not to mention the whole Transoceania thing...
(stupid limit)
Please include more about me then just "Chinese Fanatic and peacemonger" and is slighly subservient to certain nesers 
