Wankarani Wagons

Inspired by conversations with Rob Schmidt.

 

Three thousand years ago, hunter-gatherer societies settled into agriculture in the highlands of central South America. While the Chiripa culture dwelled nearer Lake Titicaca, the largest lake on the continent and one of the highest major bodies of water in the world, the Wankarani peoples settled nearer to Lake Poopo, a saline lake to the southeast. They were mound-builders, erecting houses atop mounds and burying their dead beneath the family homes. A heavily agricultural community, they raised llamas and alpacas while farming quinoa and potatoes.

The legend goes that man had lost an arm in his youth when it was crushed by a stampeding llama. Though he survived to adulthood and excelled working with animals, he found difficulty in contributing to the harvest being able to carry only a portion of what others could even with woven baskets. Upon seeing a child pull along a clay toy that had been made with wheels on a wooden axle, the man decided to make his own wagon. Clay proved too heavy and delicate to be effective, so he used wooden wheels cut from the trunks of trees. His two-wheeled cart was a marvel, and neighbors soon duplicated it for their own benefit.

Agriculture improved among the Wankarani, and soon four-wheeled versions of the wagon were appearing throughout the region often pulled by llamas. The Tiwanaku people on the other side of Lake Titicaca became the dominate culture, growing with their effective use of mound-gardens surrounded by shallow canals that allowed for abundant harvests. As the Tiwanaku’s influence expanded, the Wankarani felt threated. They were not a warlike people, as shown in the archeological digs with few weapons and no village walls outside of llama enclosures, so they began to drift eastward out of the Antiplano that held the highland lakes.

Once across the hot Gran Chaco highlands dividing the middle of the continent, the Wankarani found the wide plains of the Pampas perfectly suited to their herding lifestyles. Through centuries of breeding, they grew up enormous llamas capable of pulling heavy wagons and lithe alpacas towing high two-wheeled carts for speedy passenger travel. As their population expanded and grew, turmoil increased with local natives. The Wankarani created a defensive confederation, linking their villages with leveled roads and amassing a force of llama-drawn chariots for battle. Dominating the region and creating a surplus of food through plow agriculture, the Wankarani established cities and trade networks for metals and luxury goods.

The overland trade routes connected up the slopes to the Incan Empire, which became a supply line for metals. The Wankarani flourished in a rival civilization along the Parana River, building bridges and roadways rivaling Incan engineering. Wars broke out as the Inca attempted to expand, but the Wankarani chariots proved able to beat back any Incan infantry force. The two would ultimately become allies against the waves of onslaught by European expansionists.

The Wankarani first made contact with Europeans may have been Amerigo Vespucci, but it was Juan Diaz de Solis who came ashore at the Rio de la Plata on the eastern end of the Wankarani lands to establish relations. The Wankarani were eager to find another supply of metal, but they became wary of the Spaniards greedily seeking gold and silver. Word traveled up to Cusco about the gold-hungry visitors in strange dress, prompting the emperor Huayna Capac to arrest and execute most of Francisco Pizarro’s expedition upon its arrival in 1526. Plagues from the disease exchange devastated native peoples; nevertheless, fresh troops shared between the Inca and Wankarani enabled them to maintain independence while their populations recovered. Wankarani later built relations with the English and Dutch to supply firearms and became the first native peoples to manufacture their own gunpowder.

Following the colonial era, South America continued as a continent split into fourths with Portuguese Brazil, Spanish Colombia, Andean Inca, and the Wankarani Confederation. Horses were imported in small numbers, but llamas continued to be the major beasts of burden for transport until both creatures gave way to steam and internal combustion engines. Seen as its own corner of the world, South Americans trade freely with each other but offer only a few global markets for exporting luxury fleeces.

 

--

In reality, the Wankarani culture was eclipsed by the growing Tiwanaku culture from the northwest as it expanded its influence from the Lake Titicaca region. The Tiwanaku would eventually decline, likely due to climatic change, and the power center of the area shifted to the Inca in the Andes. The Inca would be conquered by the Spanish Empire, but numerous archaeological sites and descendants carry on the culture of the area, such as llama herding. While there are numerous examples of ancient wheels in the Western Hemisphere, such as wheeled toys in Mesoamerica, wheeled vehicles were not seen, arguably because they lacked large domesticated animals such as horses and oxen.

December 27, 1530 – Pizarro’s Lost Expedition Leaves Panama

For hundreds of years, no one was quite certain what happened to the hundreds of men under the command of Francisco Pizarro y González. Pizarro seemed an apt commander and loyal Spaniard, but many theories have arisen about failures in battle, overwhelming armies of Punians, or the Spanish going native and joining the Inca’s court to deliver them with firearms and horses. After much contention, the truth has gradually been assembled by historians piecing together Spanish chronicles with legend recorded by the Incan Nation.

The initial biographical information about Pizarro is clear beyond his questioned birth date. A somewhat distant relative of Cortés, conqueror of the Aztecs, Pizarro sailed to the New World along with Governor Nicolás de Ovando and some 2,500 colonists. He traveled with Balboa on the explorer’s trek across Panama and was one of the first Europeans to see the Pacific Ocean. His loyalty to Spain was displayed as Pizarro later arrested Balboa for his trial and execution. In good position with the government and spurred by stories of Cortés’ success conquering the Aztecs, Pizarro made company with the priest Hernando de Luque and the soldier Diego de Almagro to explore south and conquer the great wealth of an empire rumored to be there.

Their first expedition went out in 1524, but it quickly returned due to harsh weather, failing supplies, and battles with natives. 1526 saw another attempt, this one twice the size of the first and sailing much farther south. While Pizarro explored jungles, a ship sailed on past the equator and captured a native raft loaded with trade goods of pots, textiles, and, most importantly, gold and jewels. They explored further, but they found new hostilities in a land recently conquered by the Inca and decided to turn back. Pizarro stayed with thirteen men and awaited more provisions. A ship arrived to evacuate them, but Pizarro and his comrades pushed on in exploration, eventually coming across friendly natives at Tumbes and continued south. Finding irrefutable proof of the wealth of the empire to the south (as well as discovering llamas), the explorers returned to Panama to prepare for a third expedition.

The governor refused to allow it, so Pizarro sailed for Spain and returned with the Queen’s signature on the Capitulación de Toledo approving conquest. Pizarro left that December of 1530 and sent back further treasure to Almagro, who was gathering more recruits. Almagro would leave to join him, as would conquistador Hernando de Soto, the only man to return from the expedition. De Soto came back to Panama three years later, sunburned and sporting numerous battle scars, and told vague stories of the Inca attacking and overwhelming the conquistadors without provocation. Others assumed he escaped from a military defeat before reaching the Inca or leaving the expedition once it had changed allegiance to Atahualpa. While his word was debated, de Soto encouraged Spain not to waste human life by sending explorers south again.

From Incan records, it is told that the emperor Atahualpa, newly secured to the throne by defeating his brother Huascar, feared what white-skinned interlopers might do. He gathered survivors of the Battle of Puná and anyone with knowledge about the Spanish while Pizarro was away. Studying their tactics and the tales of conquest in the north, he determined that they were hardly demigods, clearly mortal though greatly powerful. When they appeared at his city of Cajamarca, Atahualpa invited them to feast and then killed the Spaniards in a great ambush, calling out, “My lands shall be no man’s tributary!” It is suspected that de Soto was sent back to Panama as a warning to the Spanish.

With conquest out of the question, the Spanish largely turned east and north, securing the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico as well as moving around Portuguese land in Brazil to Argentina. Trade with Europe would build with the Inca, first in secret as the smallpox plague swept through the empire and then marginally promoted by Atahualpa’s descendant Túpac. It is with Túpac that Francis Drake would make a treaty during his circumnavigation of the Earth in 1578. Trade blossomed, exchanging gold and exotic flora for weapons and manufactured goods, eventually turning the west coast of South America into an economic dependency under English influence as had been seen in parts of India and East Asia.


–

In reality, Atahualpa underestimated his opponents. Agreeing to an audience with Pizarro, Atahualpa was ambushed and captured. The Spanish demanded a roomful of gold and two rooms of silver as ransom and, receiving it, still had Atahualpa executed as murderer of his brother. Placing puppet-emperors upon the throne, Pizarro effectively conquered the Inca and added yet more land and riches to the growing Spanish Empire.