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PRE-COLUMBIAN CIVILIZATIONS
The American continent has been populated for 20,000 years ago, approximately. By the moment Columbus arrived (the late XV century), the peoples who had been living there had developed prosperous civilizations and empires (Aztec, Mayan, Incan), that we know as pre-Columbian civilizations.
These civilizations were polytheist, used stone as their basic material and lived from agriculture and farming. They did not know the wheel or had draught animals. However, their advanced cultural level allowed them to develop unknown things for the Europeans: number zero, very exact calendars, corn, tomato, cocoa and potato crops, new building systems and new irrigation systems.
THE MAYAS
The Mayan civilization spread out from Yucatán peninsula to its South (Central America) form the III to the XV century. Their main economic activity was agriculture, specially corn farming, and they were organized in independent city-states.
They had an advanced astronomy and mathematics knowledge and had developed a hieroglyphic writing system. They also built impressive temple-pyramids, burials and palaces for their governors. By the time the Spanish arrived, Mayan civilization was in crisis and their cities had become depopulated.
Some important archeological sites of this culture are Palenque and Chichén Itzá.
THE AZTECS OR MEXICAS
The Aztec Empire (or Mexicas) dominate the fertile Mexico valley from 1200 to 1519, the year when the Spanish arrived. They were a bellicose people. They conquered a big empire spread out Central and Southern Mexico, whose capital was in Tenochtitlán (nowadays Ciudad de México). The Emperor hold the political and religious powers.
Agriculture and trade were their main economic activities. They also developed a prosperous urban civilization. They built big temples with the shape of step pyramids. We can highlight the pyramids of the Sun and the Moon in Teotihuacán.
THE INCA EMPIRE
The Inca Civilization was developed in the South of the Americas, at the Altiplano in the Andes (Andean plateau). From 1100 to 1532, when it was conquered.
The Incas created an Empire whose capital was in Cuzco and it was spread out up to Quito in the North and up to Chile in the South. Its population had become more than 12 million inhabitants. They were advanced farmers, who cultivated with innovations such as terraces or aqueducts, due to their difficult topography of sharp mountains.
They were ruled by an Emperor, that was considered a god (son of the Sun) and whose name was Inca. They built impressive cities in the middle of the Andes, like Machu Pichu.
