Chile Forum

Anybody know why the Incas were so interested in getting to Chiloe?
From what I read, they got so beat up by the Mapuches on the plain, they started travelling along the mountain ridges to get down there. In the highlands near el volcan Tolhuaca there is a stone rectangle that is thought to be the foundation for a fort. Maybe Chilote mythology held something for them . . .

the molle and diaguita indian tribes i the fourth region where the last in the cahain of the incan empire. It was towards the end of the incan empire that they began to come south...the molle and diaguita are the last ribes before they got to the mapuches.....there is alot of influence of the inca way of doing things in the molle and diaguita but it isn't "deep" enough for them to believe that the incas had conquered them for that long.....in the third and fourth regions there is the belief that the incans sent down a chief form machu to guide the locals in the new way of doing things....well eventually he died as well as others that took his place. The incans at this point had the tradition to bury the local heavies on the closest and highest peak they could find....so they have been looking for awhile for the burial mounts of these guys in the 4th region and with no sucess as of yet.

i hadn't heard that the incans had encountered the mapuche...never occurred to me but the traditional foot messsenger tradition for the incans along the ridges makes sense...and to have a chance to beat out the mapuche you would have to go at least that far to get anywhere...



p out

There are lot of legends on Inca Empirem but the truth is that they never entered too far down south of Chile:

"Once the Inca armies had secured the Titicaca basin, they pressed south through the altiplano into northwest Argentina and Chile. Beginning with the conquest of the Guasco and Coquimbo, the Inca then engaged the Chiriguanos and Zuries, east of the Andes, along the southeastern frontier. Finding the rough eastern terrain difficult, the army doubled back to the high country and crossed over to Chile in pursuit of gold and mineral wealth at Porco, Tarapaca and Carabaya. Pressing further south, the Inca army reached as far as the Santiago region. However at this point the advance was halted, with the records telling of either Thupa Inka Yupanki's desire to return to Cuzco or resistance from the allied Mapuche and Araucanian forces being the reason."

See at http://trailingincas.info/empire.php the complete story