Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia 979 CE

What is happening in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia in 979CE

In the Andes region, the Wari and Tiwanaku empires continue to flourish, but two coastal powers have also emerged: the kingdoms of Chimor, centred on the impressive city of Chan-Chan, and of Lambayeque, with its capital at Batan Grande.

Chimor seems to unite elements from both the coastal and the highland traditions of Andean civilization. Like the empires of Wari and Tiwanaku, based in the high Andes, it is a centralized state, dominating subject areas through state fortresses and military colonies. Like earlier coastal cultures, on the other hand, its economy is based on large-scale irrigation agriculture in the fertile valleys of the Pacific coast. Taking over the canals and dykes built in previous centuries, the Chimor enlarge and develop them into the largest irrigation systems of Pre-Columbian South America.

Lambayeque, to the north along the coast, is the largest and most powerful of Chimor’s neighbours. It is apparently less centralized than Chimor, functioning more as a confederacy of cities than as a unified state. It too has a large canal-based irrigation system, and is centred on a large city.

Next map, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia in 1215