After the settling of the Americas, various cultures developed in North America, some of which were culturally very sophisticated. Predominantly hierarchically organized empires developed in Central and South America, each of which took over the political and cultural leadership of the region for a certain time. These included the empires of the 1 Olmec and Toltec as well as the Maya and Aztec in Central America and of the Chimu, Chavin, Moche, Nazca, and finally the Inca in South America.
 

1 Colossal stone head depicting an Olmec god

North America

A large number of diverse American Indian cultures characterized the northern continent.

Nomadic Stone Age hunter-gatherers moved into North America toward the end of the last ice age, roughly 13,000 B.C., across a land bridge that existed at the time between Asia and America. They spread out over the entirety of the Americas in the course of the following millennia.

Around 300 B.C., members of the Hohokam cultures migrated northward from Mexico and settled in villages whose agricultural areas wrere irrigated by large-scale canal systems. The various American cultures flourished from the beginning of the Christian era until the eighth century.

The 6 cliff-dwelling 3 Anasazi culture devel oped around 500 a.d. in the American Southwest.

6 Cliff dwellings of the Anasanzi culture, ca. 1200

3 Beautiful art works of the Anasazi culture.

They were settled agriculturalists who dwelled in multistory stone houses and are the predecessors of the 5 Pueblo Indians, who were then conquered by the Spanish in the 16th century.


5 Settlement of the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico


The Mississippian culture unfolded about "so around the city of Cahokia, near modern St. Louis, in which close to 50,000 inhabitants lived. The cultivation
that many Indian cultures met. Tribes on the northwest coast existed by fishing, pursued trade with northern Asia, and held potlatches—complex gift-giving rituals which distinguished many of them. They arc also known for their wood carvings, particularly their totem poles.

Central and South America
 

Sophisticated state-building civilizations developed in Mexico and Peru, some of which covered vast territories.

The nomadic hunter-gatherer communities of Central America became settled agrarian societies about 8000-9000 years ago. The Olmec formed the first advanced civilization; they left behind temple complexes and palaces from about 1200 B.C. The Olmec culture was dominant on the Mexican east coast until about 400 B.C. This culture was long considered to be the oldest in the Americas until 2001 when a city dating back to around 2700 B.C., and testifying to a sophisticated society that built pyramids as old as those of Egypt, was discovered in Caral, Peru.

Approximately 2000 years ago, a nation developed around the city of Teotihuacan not far from modern-day Mexico City, and it dominated Mexico from 450 to 700. The city at times had more than 100,000 inhabitants and a widespread trading network.

It housed 11 sun and moon pyramids as well as numerous colorfully painted temples lining  a wide thoroughfare.


11 The 213-foot (65 m) high sun pyramid in Teotihuacan

Between 400 and 1200 A.D., the Toltec formed a militarily organized empire in the interior of Mexico, the first in Central America to use an army to subjugate its neighbors. In the twelfth century their empire fell, and the rise of the Aztec began in the ensuing decades.

The Maya peoples had been laying out settlements on the Yucatan Peninsula since 1200 B.C. Between 300 and 900 A.D., the Classic 13 Maya period, numerous 12 city-states ruled by 8 priest-princes formed on the peninsula.

 

13 Mayan vessel showing a palace scene, decorated clay

8 Head of a Maya prince, Tuff, ca. 700

8 Mayan  sculptures



12 Ruins of the city Tikal, Guatemala


For reasons unknown, these were given up in favor of the cities of the Postclassic Period, which were situated further north.

In South America almost 3000 years ago, the Chavin culture emerged in Peru. It lasted into the third century B.C. and was replaced by the Mochica or Moche in the north and in the south by the Nazca. The latter, famous for the sixth or seventh century.

Between 300 and 900, the civilization of the 9 Tiahuanaco dominated the region around Lake Titicaca, which was possibly developed from the earlier Chavin culture and which influenced the Huari empire that ruled Peru from the seventh to eleventh centuries.


9 Stela with Gateway of the Sun from the Tiahuanaco culture, Bolivia


The 7 Mochica built temples and pyramids that are among the largest in the Americas and created characteristic pottery that occasionally depicted human sacrifice.


7 Moche portraits vessel in the shape of a head, clay, first ñ. â.ñ.-sixth ñ. A.D.

They gave up their cities at the beginning of the eighth century. The Chimu, who had an intricate irrigation system, succeeded them about 200 years later on the Peruvian coast. Their empire and its capital Chan Chan, which had around 50,000 inhabitants, was conquered by the Inca in 1470.

The 10 Amazon region was first settled by humans in the third millennium B.C.

The people occupying the southern tip of South America nearly 10,000 years ago were almost completely eradicated by colonization and epidemics.

10 Indians from the Amazon region wearing traditional garments