(Question for Ecuador, Perú and Bolivia) Why people from the Andes/Inca Empire were not so involved in colonization?
(Yeah I know the Inca Empire colonized other regions, my question is regarding the three hundred years of Spanish dominion)
So, in Mexico the west and the north of the country was basically populated by large contingents of Mesoamerican peoples under the command of the Spanish (Mexicas, Acolhuas, Purépechas, Otomís, Huastecas and the famous Tlaxcaltecas who enjoyed higher privileges), initially as "settled armies" to protect from Chichimeca attacks but over time as force of labor in ranches, haciendas or mines.
So even before the modern era when of course immigration in all directions in Mexico became more common, by the end of the colonial period territories not originally included in Mesoamerica became inhabited by these peoples and their culture became widespread (just eating with tortillas alone is a good example lol), so while there was (and still is) a strong sense of regionalism, Mexico is somewhat connected, and as a result of course Mexicans today mainly descend from ancient Mesoamericans plus some European, African and "Chichimeca" admixture.
But why is South America not like that? I know people from Pasto, Colombia, are also "Andean" with connections (I guess) to the Inca Empire, and some regions in Argentina like Santiago del Estero has sizeable Quechua populations who I guess the Spanish brought, along with some parts of Norte Grande in Chile including Andean peoples (although in this case mostly because those regions belonged to Peru and Bolivia), but not much more. Keep in mind that today a majority of states in Mexico lay outside of ancient Mesoamerica (without considering the "West" and "North" parts of Mesoamerica which lacked complex societies in the contact period).
I guess Andean peoples also helped populate the Amazon territories of Ecuador, Bolivia and Perú but that mostly happened after independence iirc.
My main theories are:
In the north (current Colombia), the colonization happened mostly from the Caribbean, and the peoples they encountered were not so hard to pacify as the Chichimeca from northern Mexico so just the Spanish and some allies were enough. However some zones like up to Cali and Popayán were conquered from the south and for this I don't know why the peoples there are not mostly Andean.
In the east, as I mentioned, the jungle made difficult to expand beyond the Andes for a long time.
In the south there was a combination of geographical and historical reasons. If we divide the Southern Cone into the ways it was colonized, it's mostly three: Chile, western Argentina (from Jujuy to Mendoza, sometimes known as "El Tucumán") and "La Plata" formed by eastern Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Originally Chile was separated from the main settlements of the Inca Empire by the Atacama desert, and so the colonization of Chile happened mostly by sea and was somewhat separated from mainland Perú. Even if the expeditions that first entered Tucumán came from Bolivia along the eastern edge of the Andes, Chile disputed these zones and was finally awarded after an arbitration with the crown and the Viceroy. This lead to only limited settlement from the Andean/Inca peoples (Quechua, Aymara, etc.) since the cabildo of Santiago regulated this, and some time later it was given to Buenos Aires.
Also considering the fact that Mesoamerica has always been more densely populated, might be another reason as to why Andean peoples could not be so expendable in colonization enterprises.