Geography: the Aztec homeland The origins of Aztec civilization lay in the large mountain-rimmed Valley of Mexico. This was a huge basin whose floor was some 2,500 feet above sea level and surrounded by high mountains reaching up to 6,000 feet. Much of the land was unsuitable for farming, but by intensive and innovative agriculture what […]
American history
Latin America: the Colonial Era
European background: Spain and Portugal The Reconquista In Medieval times, Spain and Portugal experienced a quite different history from the rest of Europe, as most of their territory had been conquered by Muslim armies in the early Middle Ages. The centuries-long Christian Reconquista of these lost territories lasted for the rest of the medieval period. The Reconquista was […]
The Native Americans of North America – II
Section 1: Early contacts with Europeans The coming of the Europeans to the Americas was a catastrophe for the Native American peoples. This can be seen in something as basic as population figures. In pre-contact times estimates of total numbers of Native Americans vary from just under one million to as much as ten million. […]
Canada
The First Nations The first peoples to settle what is modern-day Canada were Paleo-Indians who had crossed the Bering Straits (at that time dry land, with sea levels lower then today during the last Ice Age) from Siberia sometime between 35,000 BCE and 10,500 BCE. These groups specialized in hunting the giant mammals (“megafauna”) such […]
The United States of America – I
The American Revolution Background The Great War for the Empire, 1754-1763 (otherwise known as the French and Indian War, or in Britain as the Seven Years’ War) eliminated French power from North America and extended British power to all territories east of the Mississippi river. Ironically, the completeness of the British victory set the scene […]
Colonial North America
Early colonization The Spanish had long been in control of Mexico, and claimed a huge swathe of territory reaching from high into what is now the USA, by the time the first English colonies were being planted on the eastern seaboard of North America. At the same time, the French were installed along the banks of […]
Pre-Columbian Civilizations of America
The Two Heartlands of Pre-Columbian civilization Two regions in particular of America developed great Pre-Columbian civilizations. Central America produced several major Pre-Columbian civilizations, including the Olmec (fl. c. 1500-500 BCE), the Maya (c. 100-1000 CE) and the Aztec. In South America, the Pacific coast and Andes highlands of Peru, and later Ecuador, Columbia and western […]
The Maya civilization
The Maya Civilization
Inca Empire
The Incas conquered a huge empire in ancient South America, starting in Peru and expanding into Ecuador, Bolivia, Chia and Argentine, just before the Spanish conquest