The peoples of America: Maya, Aztecs, Incas

Scholars believe the first people crossed to America from northern Asia over what is now the Bering Strait during the last Ice Age, at least 15,000–20,000 years ago (scholars still debate the exact time), and that the process was long. Most tribes lived by hunting and fishing, but in the mountain areas of Central and South America farming developed: maize, potatoes, sunflower, tomatoes, cacao and tobacco were grown, crops unknown to Europeans that later spread across the world. The continent had few domesticated animals (in the south the llama, among birds the turkey); iron, the plough and the wheel were unknown, and tools were made of stone, bronze and wood. The Maya lived on the Yucatan peninsula; in the first millennium CE they formed city-states, each ruled by a ruler. The Aztecs came from the north and founded the city of Tenochtitlan on islands in a great lake (the traditional date is 1325); they built artificial dykes and made “floating fields” from mud of the lake bed, and their main crop was maize. The tlatoani, elected from the ruling tribe, was the supreme ruler and chief priest. The Incas lived in the high valleys of the Andes in South America, speaking Quechua; their capital was Cusco. They subdued neighbouring tribes and ruled a territory stretching from the Andes to the Pacific. The state was ruled by the Sapa Inca, regarded as “Son of the Sun”. On slopes they built stone-walled terraces for fields; the main crops were potatoes and maize; crafts (gold, silver, pottery, weaving) thrived. Stone roads thousands of kilometres long linked the capital with the provinces, with a runner-messenger post.