The South American Republics, Part 2 of 2Dawson, Thomas Cleland
History
The South American Republics, Part 2 of 2
Dawson, Thomas Cleland
South America -- History
From the year 1300 the Cara traditions gather more clearness and
precision. By a law handed down from immemorial times each Shiri was
succeeded by his son, or if he had no son by the son of a sister,
daughters and other female descendants being absolutely excluded. The
eleventh Shiri, whose reign corresponded with the last years of the
thirteenth century, had no male heir, and he asked the general council
of the nation for permission to name as successor the husband he might
choose for his daughter. Each one of the different chiefs, hoping to be
selected, voted for the proposition, but the Shiri diplomatically went
outside of his own dominions and proposed to the monarch who ruled in
Riobamba that his eldest son, Duchisela, marry the Princess Toa. The
proposition was accepted and the Quito kingdom doubled its territory and
power.
Duchisela reigned seventy years, and upon his death was succeeded by his
son Autachi, the thirteenth Shiri. This monarch raised the Cara power to
its highest pitch, extending his dominions south over the plateaux of
Alausi, Canar, Cuenca, Jubones, Zaruma, and Loja, and thence far beyond
the present Ecuadorian boundary over the Peruvian provinces of
Huanacabamba, Piura, and Paita. This vast increase of territory was due
more to treaties of confederation and alliance than to conquest. None of
the new provinces were ever thoroughly incorporated into the Cara
confederacy, and their allegiance to the Shiri in far-away Quito sat
lightly upon them. By the end of the fourteenth century the Cara
influence was dominant along the Andean plateau from the first degree of
north latitude to the sixth south, and extended to the arid coast plain
of northern Peru. The humid and forested coast region north of Guayaquil
remained in the hands of barbarous tribes, nor were the Caras ever able
to extend their power down the wooded eastern slopes of the Andes into
the Amazon plain.
Cara expansion was suddenly checked by the Incas. In the latter part of
the fourteenth century these fierce and indomitable Islamites of the
western continent under the lead of Tupac Yupanqui conquered the coast
nations from Lima to Paita, and the ruder tribes who lived in the
mountains from Cerro de Pasco north to the Ecuadorian border. Tupac did
not respect the southern confederates of the Caras, and the Shiri
appears to have made little resistance when his allies were rapidly
reduced. The Inca system was the far better adapted for conquest. The
emperor could equip and lead to invasion armies numbering tens of
thousands, well disciplined, blindly obeying their generals, marching
over carefully prepared roads, and supplied by an admirable
commissariat. The Caras had contented themselves with treaties of
alliance; they were only the chief tribe in a confederacy, and warlike
as were the members they could not combine to offer any effective
resistance to the first onslaught of the great military empire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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