History of Aucuria

The history of Aucuria extends across nearly 15,000 years. One of the world's cradles of civilization, the Pativilkas civilization - the first civilization in Asteria Inferior - emerged in what is now Aucuria in 3,700 BCE. Potatoes, cassava, quinoa, coca, common beans, and the chili pepper species Capsicum baccatum and Capsicum pubescens were all domesticated in ancient Aucuria. After the Pativilkas civilization came a string of successive major indigenous cultures, including the Kiljakoljas, Tirakvas, Piura, and Kulkinčas; the Marai civilization also had a presence in Aucuria during its peak.

The League of Five Cities, commonly known as Cutinsua, was formed in 1324 in response to the rapid rise of the Kingdom of Oruras. Cutinsuan armies subsequently conquered Oruras in 1336, and came to control the bulk of northern Aucuria through a mixture of diplomacy, assimilation, intimidation, and conquest by the start of the 1500s. While its five founding city-states were nominally coequal members, power quickly became centralized in the city of Andavaila, whose monarchs were the de facto rulers of Cutinsua as a whole. By the time that Euclean explorers arrived in the Asterias, Cutinsua was the largest polity in Asteria Inferior, a major player in Medasteria, and one of the most advanced and most powerful states in the Asterias.

Cutinsua was conquered by the Ruttish in 1530. The Ruttish subsequently established a colony in the region; this colony was officially dubbed Aucuria in 1561. Reports of the colony's mineral and agricultural wealth led to an influx of Euclean settlement and the expropriation & exploitation of the country's indigenous inhabitants, as well as the importing of enslaved Bahians. Aucuria was declared a co-equal part of a pluricontinental monarchy, the United Kingdom of Ruttland and Aucuria, in 1693; however, the Ten Years' War saw Aucuria transferred to Rudolphine control in 1721. Unpopular Rudolphine policies led to the outbreak of the Aucurian Revolution in 1786. Werania recognized Aucurian independence in 1793.

Following independence, Aucuria endured several swings between republic and dictatorship, defeat in the War of the Arucian, the Aucurian Civil War, and the occupation of the country by the Entente during the Great War. In spite of these difficulties, the country attracted immigrants throughout the late 1800s & 1900s and developed both economically & culturally. The military regime established by the 1949 Aucurian coup d'etat was overthrown in 1980 by the Velvet Revolution; Aucuria has had a democratic government since.

Pre-Cutinsuan Aucuria

Paleo-Asterians in Aucuria domesticated several species of plant and animal.

Prehistory

Human remains and stone tools in the Čiklajus valley dated to 12,500 BCE, located in the state of Bendrieji Laukai, provide some of the earliest known evidence of human habitation in Asteria Inferior. Archaeological finds at sites such as Amotapas, Kotošas, Kupeniskvė, Mojekvas, and Senakelios attest to the presence of a series of lithic and preceramic Paleo-Asterian cultures in the area between the 12,000s BCE and the 3,000s BCE.

Potatoes and cassava, which would remain core staple crops in the region for millennia, were domesticated in Aucuria some time between 8,000 BCE and 5,000 BCE. Llamas, alpacas, and guinea pigs were domesticated in Aucuria in the 6,000s BCE; the domestication of quinoa, ullucu, mashua, and oca took place in Aucuria in the 2,000s BCE. The cultivation of corn and cotton spread to the region from Asteria Superior between 5,000 and 4,000 BCE. The growing of calabashes also emerged during this timeframe, though how the calabash arrived in the Asterias is a matter of debate. These indigenous populations spun and knit wool & cotton, and practiced basketry, but were aceramic and thus did not make pottery.

The arrival of cotton cultivation appears to be associated with a general shift towards sedentism in Aucuria's coastal regions and the valleys of the Vaskaranas Mountains, with the establishment of small villages based around varying combinations of farming, fishing, and herding. Marquez et al speculate that the weaving of cotton allowed for the creating of fishing nets and textile bags, which enabled agriculture and both riverine & ocean fishing; other archaeologists have found remnants of what might be early irrigation canals from this period, which could further suggest the growth of communal organization.

Pativilkas civilization

Main article: Pativilkas civilization

The Pativilkas civilization existed in what is now the states of Chucisaca and Kunturiri from 3,700 BCE to 1,500 BCE. It is the oldest civilization in Asteria Inferior and in the Asterias as a whole, predating the Tetuolmec civilization (the first civilization in Asteria Superior, which emerged in the 1,600s BCE) by more than 2,000 years. The civilization began to expand in the 3,100s BCE, and reached its peak around 2,200 BCE.

The first urban site associated with the Pativilkas civilization, located near the village of Čukekiravas, emerged in the 3,500s BCE; the largest site and the site for which the culture was named, at Pativilkas, emerged in the 2,600s BCE. The main site at Pativilkas spans nearly 60 hectares and is home to seven pyramidal platform mounds, several smaller mounds or terraces, and two large sunken plazas. It was also divided into an "upper half" and a "lower half", with most monumental structures concentrated in the "upper half" & residences in the "lower half" being smaller and simpler, and middens suggesting that diets were simpler in the "lower half" than the "upper half". Pativilkas sites are also often marked by the presence of menhir, irrigation systems, and terraced farms. These all suggest complex social organization and stratification, as some form of societal organization would be necessary for construction projects and class distinctions on such a scale. Sites associated with the civilization have also yielded knotted strings which some archaeologists have argued could be early examples of khipu, potentially indicating the existence of a system of writing or proto-writing; subterranean ventilation ducts; and cornetts and flutes made of deer, llama, & bird bones.

The remnants of a Pativilkas step pyramid and menhir.

Studies of middens at Pativilkas sites have suggested that the diet of Pativilkans was dominated by domesticated plants such as potatoes, quinoa, maize, squashes, and beans, supplemented by mashua, oca, ullucu, lucuma, guava, avocado, achira, pacay, and sweet potatoes. Meat remains found at Pativilkas settlements are almost exclusively from land or riverine animals - unsurprising given the civilization's location in the Vaskaranas Mountains - but some middens contain remains of anchovies, suggesting that they were caught by coastal populations, preserved, and traded with the Pativilkas inland.

Pativilkas sites show some marked differences with those of !mesopotamia & !egypt in Rahelia and the Bashurat Valley civilization in Satria. Most notably, the Pativilkas civilization was still preceramic. While pottery-making began to spread to Aucuria from neighboring Satucin in the 2,000s BCE, it did not reach those areas of Aucuria outside of the Sythe basin until after the collapse of the Pativilkas civilization; crops were cooked by roasting and bags woven from reed, wool, or cotton remained the predominant way of carrying objects. Pativilkas artifacts and sites also exhibit a strange lack of visual art, which researchers have struggled to explain; Girėnas suggested that Pativilkas religion might have been iconoclastic, but no hard evidence for this exists.

While the nature and degree of centralized authority within Pativilkas cities is unknown, Stulginskienė postulated that authority was likely religious in nature, with a focus on religious ceremony; Cornelis de Vries speculated that this sacred authority was bolstered by wealth from trade with other preceramic populations in Aucuria's coastal and highland regions. There is a distinct lack of evidence of defensive architecture or signs of warfare at Pativilkas sites, indicating that the increase in social complexity was not driven by conflict and that authority was not derived from military leadership.

After its peak in the 2,200s BCE, the Pativilkas civilization entered a protracted decline, which accelerated after 1,800 BCE. The reasons for this decline are disputed; some have suggested that it might have been caused by climactic changes which led to population movement away from Pativilkas cities, while others have proposed that Pativilkas was simply overshadowed by other areas with more fertile soil and greater proximity to the coast. By 1,700 BCE, the site at Pativilkas itself had been abandoned; the Pativilkas civilization had faded away entirely by the 1,500s BCE.

A Kiljakoljas gold ornament depicting a condor or eagle.

Kiljakoljas culture

Main article: Kiljakoljas culture

The Kiljakoljas culture, which existed from 1,300 BCE to 300 BCE, dominated much of Aucuria's central coastal and highland regions, stretching from what is now New Ruttland in the west to modern-day Suduva in the east. The Kiljakoljas culture was the first major Aucurian culture to use ceramic pottery and to work copper, silver, and gold; they also developed more refined techniques for masonry, weaving, and irrigation.

Modern understanding of Kiljakoljas society is restricted by the lack of any known written language. Archaeological evidence suggests suggests that social organization was heavily based around religious authorities and rituals; large and ornate temple complexes tend to be found in the center of Kiljakoljas sites, surrounded by plazas, sunken courts, and stone galleries, suggesting that these buildings played a key role in public life. Some of these complexes would have required extensive landscape alteration to faciliate their construction, and many are seemingly deliberately made of non-local stone. They were commonly decorated with intricately carved stelae and reliefs depicting complex iconography. Mortuary complexes, typically located near temples, reveal that the Kiljakoljas buried their dead with grave goods; variation in these grave goods suggests a rigidly stratified social hierarchy, likely dominated by the priesthood.

Given the Kiljakoljas culture's proximity to the coast when compared to the Pativilkas, it is unsurprising that seafood appears to have played a much larger role in the Kiljakoljas diet; however, staple crops such as potatoes and corn, domesticated animals such as llamas and guinea pigs, and wild game were also common. The Kiljakoljas... [given position closer to the coast, bigger role of seafood in diets but also strong role of staple crops, livestock (llamas/alpacas, guinea pigs), game (deer, wild birds); strong hierarchy, social differentiation and specialization; some sites on the fringes of kiljakolkas areas show military stuff, suggesting conflict, but it's rare at core kiljakoljas sites]

[art in sculpture, metalwork, ceramics, and textile; artistic style - depiction of animals (sacred?) and humans, religious motifs, but also depictions of life suggesting the use of coca and psychotropic plants; complex iconography, contour rivalry]

[evidence suggests social upheaval at many kiljakoljas sites beginning in the late 500s BCE; scientific evidence suggests this was possibly due to droughts and earthquakes, leading to the partial or total abandonment of kiljakoljas sites and the collapse of the civilization]

Sythe-Juoda culture

[500 BCE-1000; more than 450 geoglyphs found in 2017 due to deforestation in aucuria and satucin suggest there was some sort of culture with many planned & fortified ceremonial gathering sites, possibly connected by roads, in the sythe-juoda basin; very mysterious, little corresponding artifacts, not much known]

Tirakvas and Piura cultures

Main articles: Tirakvas culture and Piura culture

[during the period from 100 BCE to 800, aucuria has two major civilizations in the vaskaranas, the tirakvas on the coastal side and the piura on the inland side]

[tirakvas - ]

[piura - ]

[reasons for collapse unclear; probably climate, with evidence suggesting floods followed by droughts and possible volcanic disruption]

Marai in Aucuria

Main article: Marai peoples

[100-800 - when the marai civilization peaks, marai cities in satucin establish colonies along the aucurian coast; these colonies engage in both trade and conflict with the tirakvas]

[as the marai pass their peak (and tirakvas and piura collapse), colonies sever their ties with the mainland and eventually collapse entirely; nonetheless, tribal marai populations remain well-established in coastal aucuria until the arrival of eucleans]

Kulkinčas culture

Main article: Kulkinčas culture

[800-1200 - descended from the tirakvas after their center of power and ethnic core shifted westward amidst the 9th century tumult]

Oruran nobles were buried in funerary towers known as chullpa.

Kingdom of Oruras

Main article: Kingdom of Oruras

[1252-1300s - aymara polity which begins to rise very quickly under a string of competent rulers, some of whose names are preserved by oral tradition, distressing nearby populations]

[by the 1300s, with control over their southern flank secure, the oruran king Čukivankas turns to look at establishing control over the quechua city-states to his north]

Cutinsua

Mankojupankis was the first hanan qhapaq of Cutinsua.

Main article: Cutinsua

Formation and early consolidation

[1324-1336 is initial formation and conquest of oruras]

[until 1417 - mankojupankis is the dynamic first ruler, tupakvalpas is unremarkable]

[atokjupankis v javarvakakas, the consolidation of andavailan hegemony]

The royal fortress of Uskulvilkas symbolized Cutinsuan royal power.

[minor expansion under sinciankas, tupakukumarkis]

Reform and later expansion

[1417 to 1525 - the wars of ljokeamaras; his sidelining]

[the conquests and reforms of capatipomas sinčijačekas]

[maitakapakis, ljaktakusaris, and the early years of javarjupankis]

Colonial Aucuria

A 19th-century depiction of Jurgis Leikauskas capturing Javarjupankis.

Ruttish conquest of Cutinsua

Main article: Ruttish conquest of Cutinsua

[conquest, summarized]

Ruttish Aucuria

Main article: Ruttish Aucuria

[initially relies more heavily on local collaborators, kasikai and kurakai]

[beginning to do away with this in the 1590s leads to the 1608-1612 great cutinsuan revolt]

[as institutions created and strengthened, increasingly uniquely aucurian identity]

[ruttland depends on aucurian crops and the profits thereof, so to guarantee its continued connection to ruttland, it decides to create the UKRA]

United Kingdom of Ruttland and Aucuria

Main article: United Kingdom of Ruttland and Aucuria

[further strengthening of local institutions due to the elevation of aucuria to equal status w/ ruttland; equal stature also sees aucuria granted the same rights to trade freely as ruttland itself, a boon for the local economy]

[ten years war in aucuria]

Rudolphine Aucuria

Main article: Rudolphine Aucuria

[change in control not popular, some resistance to the shift by colonists but nothing super coordinated; abortive indigenous rebellion tries to take advantage of chaos only for its leaders to get killed]

[reduction back to colony, unpopular tariff policy, suppression of ruttish language, and promotion of weranian settlement stokes anger]

War of Independence

Main article: Aucurian Revolution

[course of the war]

Aucurian Republic

Early republic

[first republic - agrarian devolutionists vs. commercial centralists, w/ conservative monarchists mostly sidelined]

[second republic - dabrauskas]

[third republic until 1883 - (semi-)liberal modernists vs. moralistic conservatives, w/ smaller civilist and radical factions]

Arucian War through the Great War

Main articles: War of the Arucian, Aucurian Civil War, and Great War (Kylaris)

[war of the arucian]

[aucurian civil war]

[fourth republic - (semi-)liberal modernists vs. moralistic conservatives vs. progressives and socialists]

[great war]

Postwar period

[fifth republic - liberal modernists vs. social democrats vs. very unhappy conservatives vs. socialists and ethnic groups]

Military dictatorship

Main article: Years of Lead (Aucuria)

[sixth republic - military dictatorship, years of lead, sugar crash and sugar high]

[velvet revolution]

Redemocratization into the present

[seventh republic]