Contents
Environmental Factors Shaped the Development of Societies in the Americas
Main idea
The Americas north/south alignment and lack of domesticable animals prevented the development of transcontinental political powers and limited the development of trade networks.
Unique environmental characteristics in the Americas resulted in civilizations and relationships between societies that differed from those in Afro-Eurasia. While the Americas did develop many complex and technologically advanced societies like the Mississippian people, the Maya, Aztecs, and the Incas, nowhere in the Americas did a trans-continental power like the Abbasid Empire or a trading empire like the Song dynasty develop.
Geographic alignment
North and South America are on a north/south alignment. This alignment meant that more climatic variations separated early American civilizations. These climatic variations made it harder to move across the landmass that separated early American civilizations. East/west land alignments, such as Eurasia, have fewer climatic variations because they cross fewer lines of latitude.
Lack of domesticable animals
The Americas also lacked animals that could be ridden or used to carry goods. As a result, the growth of travel and trade was difficult. There were no camels or horses, horses, or oxen like in Afro-Eurasia. The lack of domesticable animals also made it challenging to increase agricultural production as animals were unavailable for agricultural use. People in South America around the Inca empire did manage to domesticate llamas. However, llamas could not carry the heaviest loads and had difficulty operating as work animals outside the mountainous climate zone in which they evolved.
Impacts of environmental factors on American state formation
While there are exceptions and variations across the Americas, the following were common features of state systems in the Americas. Notice how the environmental factors above resulted in smaller governments and less economic exchange.
Smaller State Systems
Chiefdoms, city-states, and tribal governments (exception Inca) either did not have formal governing structures or had small bureaucracies.
Smaller Populations
The total population in the Americas was around 30 million out of a global total of approximately 400 million.
Less urbanization
While the city of Cahokia in North America was larger than London and the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan had nearly 200,000 residents, most American civilizations were tribal and not urbanized.
Lower trade volumes
Trade volumes in the Americas were much lower than in Afro-Eurasia. While trade networks did exist, there was no network like the Silk Roads or Indian Ocean exchange networks.
More political fragmentation
Without formalized bureaucratic structures, governments in the Americas remained smaller. As a result, more leadership structures controlled smaller pieces of territory.
Tribal Systems Were the Most Common State System in North America
Main idea
North America developed complex societies with tribal governing and social structures.
Before the arrival of Europeans, North America had a wide diversity of tribal societies. Some tribes were nomadic or semi-nomadic, while others built permanent structures and settlements. Tribes such as the Inuit in the far north of North America hunted and gathered, while the Mississippians grew agriculture. Tribes engaged in low-volume trade both with neighbors and across longer distances. Natives also produced beautiful works of art and monumental architecture, such as the Pueblo cave dwellings at Mesa Verde.
A few common characteristics of North American societies included:
Tribal leadership consisted of elders or religious leaders who made decisions for tribal groups of various sizes.
Most tribal structures lacked large bureaucratic systems.
Tribal governance lacked written legal and tax collection systems.
Tribal economies consisted of hunting and gathering and agriculture with small trade volumes.
The Pueblo (Chaco Canyon)
The Pueblo flourished in the American Southwest between the 9th and 12th centuries. Their name comes from the communal pueblos dwellings that the tribes lived within. Traditional American depictions of natives are of nomadic societies that lived in teepees. The Pueblo proves that stereotype to be incorrect. While the Pueblo migrated during specific periods, they lived within their pueblo structures during other periods. Chaco Canyon and the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde are the most well-known Pueblo archeological sites.
Pueblo governance was
- Tribal
- Led by over 70 tribal councils
- Decentralized
- Lacked formalized bureaucratic systems.
The Pueblo people had an agricultural economy.Â
- Women traditionally farmed maize and cotton in irrigated riverbeds.
- Men hunted for meat and animal hides.Â
- Small-scale trade was a feature of Pueblo society. Trade connections went to the California coast and through Mexico toward Aztec lands.
- Commonly traded goods included ceramic vessels, stones to make tools, precious stones such as turquoise to make jewelry and ornaments, and feathers to make blankets.
- Trade between Pueblo tribes took place in markets where Pueblo tribes would gather during specific times of the year.
Scholars believe that the Chaco Canyon Pueblo civilization diminished following climatic changes in the 12th century. The Spanish conquered what remained of the Pueblo civilization in the 16th century. In the 19th century, the American government placed the remaining Pueblo tribes on reservations in the American Southwest.
The Mississippi River Valley Civilization
The Mississippian people emerged in the Mississippi River valley between the 8th and 16th centuries. Like the Pueblo, their society was a collection of various smaller tribes. Together, these tribes were the largest North American civilization before the arrival of Europeans. The largest city was Cahokia in present-day Illinois. In 1250, the population of Cahokia numbered 40,000 people–at the time, it was more populated than London.
The Mississippi valley civilization was a federation (allied grouping) of decentralized tribes.
- Individual chiefs called Sun Gods ruled over their independent chiefdoms that usually consisted of a small village and the surrounding territory.
- Groups of upper-class nobles and priests supported tribal chiefs.
Agriculture was the main economic activity in the Mississippi River valley.
- Commonly produced items included beans, corn, squash, and tobacco.
- Across the region, several important commerce centers developed in both large cities like Cahokia and smaller villages.
Residents abandoned Cahokia around 1450, with smaller cities emptied over the next 150 years. Scholars continue to debate the reasons for the decline of the Mississippian people. Some scholars believe the fall resulted from diseases introduced by the Europeans. Other theories emphasize climatic changes that made the continuation of old ways of life and social structures difficult.
Explore the city of Cahokia below.
Latin and South America Had More Extensive and Formal State Systems
Latin and South American societies sometimes had larger formalized government and social systems like those in Afro-Eurasia.
A few common characteristics of Latin and South American societies included:
Some states had larger governments and some bureaucratic systems.Â
Theocratic monarchs governed and were also religious leaders.Â
Scholars understood advanced mathematical and scientific concepts.
Higher trade volumes than North America, but trade volume was lower than in Afro-Eurasia.
Notice that America’s leaders also connected their rule to religion. Just like many societies in Afro-Eurasia, leaders were also religious figures who claimed God wanted them to rule.
The Maya-city states
The Maya was an intellectually and technologically advanced urban civilization in Southern Mexico and Northern Guatemala. At its height, the Maya population numbered in the millions.
The Mayan civilization was a collection of independent and semi-independent city-states. Each city-state maintained its independence from the other Maya city-states.Â
- City-state governments were theocratic (run by religious authorities) and run by a ruling class of priests and kings.
- Mayan rulers ran their city-states from urban centers. The largest of which was Tikal in present-day Guatemala.Â
- Warfare was a continuous feature of Mayan political life. City-states were often at war with one another.Â
- Despite attempts to create a unified Mayan political system, no city-state successfully united the Mayan people together.Â
The Mayan economy was agricultural. There was a small class of artisans who made products sold within Mayan city-states and around Latin America. Long-distance trade in manufactured and finished goods was not a substantial part of the Mayan economy.Â
The Maya was a scientifically advanced civilization.
- The Maya had an advanced form of pictorial writing known as Maya glyphs. Experts have deciphered the Maya writing, helping us better understand their civilization.Â
- The Maya left behind beautiful architectural masterpieces such as the Temple of El Castillo.Â
- Advanced Mayan architecture was possible because they understood complex mathematical concepts, including zero.Â
- Mayan knowledge of astronomy was also far more advanced than many places in the world at the time. The Maya had correctly calculated the 584-day cycle of the planet Venus. They had also accurately calculated the movement of the earth, the moon, and the timing of solar and lunar eclipses.
- The Maya kept meticulous historical records noting what earthly events happened on days with major astronomical events. Religious and political leaders viewed these records as valuable guides for the future.Â
Mayan society likely collapsed following the onset of extreme drought after 840 CE, which prevented the production of enough food resources. The fragmented government of the Maya city-states stopped a unified response to the drought’s challenges. As conditions worsened, warfare between the city-states increased, further weakening Maya city-states.
The Mexica (the Aztecs)
The Aztecs were a semi-nomadic group that moved into Southern Mexico and established themselves on a small island in the middle of Lake Texcoco at the start of the 14th century. Over the next few hundred years, the Mexica people built up an empire through a series of marriage alliances and military victories over neighboring civilizations. At its height, the Aztec Empire numbered between 5 and 6 million inhabitants.
The Aztecs developed a state-based system in Latin America of a loose collection of city-states of conquered peoples.
- The Aztec government was a theocracy run by a king who was both the political ruler and the chief religious authority.Â
- Aztec leaders allowed conquered people’s rulers to stay in power if they submitted to Aztec authority and paid the required tribute.Â
- Tribute payments included labor to the Aztec state, agriculture and animal products, and manufactured products like paper, jewelry, and military equipment.Â
- The Aztecs would station warriors and Aztec government officials in different provinces and cities to ensure conquered people followed Aztec rules.
The Aztec economy was the most commercialized in the Americas. The Aztecs traded cloth, cacao, and rubber balls for shells, feathers, and precious stones. They engaged in significant trade between Aztec city-states. They also maintained long-distance trade between areas from California to the North and Costa Rica to the south.
Like the Maya, the Aztecs were a scientific and culturally advanced civilization.Â
- The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, modern-day Mexico City, continued the Maya tradition of building elaborate pyramids around planned cities.Â
- The Aztecs supplemented agriculture grown in areas outside the city with crops grown hydroponically on floating platforms on lake Texcoco.
Aztec society collapsed following the invasion and subsequent takeover of Spanish conquistadors in 1519.
The mathematical and scientific knowledge in some Latin and South American societies was as advanced as in the Song dynasty or Abbasid caliphate.
The Inca
The Inca empire was the largest native state system in the Americas. At its height, Inca territory stretched 2500 miles along the Pacific coast of South America. By 1525 the population numbered approximately 10 million individuals.
The Incan government was the largest in the Americas.
- Like the Maya and Aztecs, the Inca government was a theocratic monarchy run by a king that was also a religious leader.Â
- Inca rulers divided the empire into districts managed by high-status men loyal to the Inca emperor.
- The Inca maintained an extensive centralized bureaucratic system.Â
- The Inca government required people to pay yearly taxes by providing labor to the state through the Mita system—Mita required Inca citizens to give the state a specified number of workdays each year. Workers farmed agricultural lands, provided military service, or built public infrastructure like roads.
Agricultural production was the foundation of the Inca economy.Â
- Most families were subsistence farmers who worked to produce agriculture for their own family’s needs.
- Farmers turned over a portion of their produce to the state as tax revenue. The government used these crops to feed the small non-farming urban and governing classes and stored some for use during famine times.Â
- Common staple crops included coca, peanuts, potatoes, maize, squash, and tomatoes. The Inca traded less than the Maya and Aztecs.Â
- There were small volumes of trade across the empire, but it was not a substantial portion of the economy. The government managed and regulated trade activity.
Like the Maya and Aztecs, the Incas were scientifically and culturally advanced.Â
- The Inca based their calendars on astronomical observations.Â
- Inca astronomers understood equinoxes and solstices.
- The Inca produced monumental architecture such as Machu Picchu and the Temple of the Sun. The construction of these structures required the use of advanced engineering techniques.
The Inca empire fell following a multi-decade conflict with the Spanish and their native enemies between 1532 and 1572. The Spanish incorporated the Inca’s lands into the Spanish American Empire.