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Charka

Senior Aymara lordship of the southern altiplano whose Sacaca and Chayanta mallkus ranked among the foremost lords of Qullasuyu.

Submitted to the Crown at the founding of La Plata in 1538-40; its mallkus retained noble status but their commoners were drafted into the Potosí mita, and the nation dissolved into the peasant ayllus of northern Potosí.

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Borders over time

The atlas holds 2 border frames for Charka — the shape you scrub through changes in 1150 · 1540.

Moments from the Chronicle

• 1460 The Inca cross the Desaguadero Pachacuti and Topa Inca subdued the Aymara federations of the southern altiplano — Carangas, Killaka, Soras, Charka and Qaraqara — binding their mallku lords to Cusco through marriage, mit'a labour and the mineral wealth of the south.
• 1538 Charka and Qaraqara lords meet the Spanish At the founding of La Plata (Sucre, 1538-40) the mallkus of the Charka-Qaraqara confederation submitted to the Crown; their warriors had aided Pizarro, but within a generation their men were marched to the silver mines of Potosí under the mit'a.

Further reading

• The Conquest of the Incas John Hemming · 1970

  Hemming's standard history covering the Aymara lordships of Qullasuyu like the Charka and their submission to the Crown.

• The World Upside Down: Cross-Cultural Contact and Conflict in Sixteenth-Century Peru Susan E. Ramírez · 1996

  Ramírez on the upheaval of 16th-century Andean society, context for the Charka's dissolution under the Potosí mita (broad context).

Sources

• Charca people — Wikipedia