The Andes and North America
In South America's Andes and across North America, peoples built remarkable societies adapted to very different environments.
Early Andean civilisations
The Andes saw a long sequence of civilisations: Caral (about 2600 BCE), Chavín, the Nazca (known for giant lines drawn on the desert), the Moche (with fine pottery and metalwork), and the Wari and Tiwanaku empires. Andean peoples domesticated potatoes, quinoa, llamas, and alpacas, and built terraces to farm steep slopes.
The Inca Empire
The Inca, based in Cusco, expanded rapidly in the 1400s under rulers such as Pachacuti, building Tawantinsuyu, the largest empire in the pre-Columbian Americas, stretching about 4,000 km along the Andes from modern Ecuador to Chile, with perhaps 10 million people or more.
Inca administration
The Inca built about 40,000 km of roads with suspension bridges and relay runners (chasquis) who carried messages. Without a writing system in the European sense, they recorded numbers and possibly other information on quipus, knotted cords. Instead of money, they used a labour tax (mit'a) and stored goods in warehouses for redistribution.
Machu Picchu and Inca engineering
Machu Picchu, built around 1450 as a royal estate, shows Inca skill in precisely fitted stonework without mortar, which withstands earthquakes. Agricultural terraces, irrigation, and freeze-dried food (chuño) helped feed a large population in a harsh mountain environment.
The Spanish conquest of the Inca
When Francisco Pizarro arrived in 1532, the Inca had been weakened by a smallpox epidemic and a civil war between the brothers Atahualpa and Huáscar. Pizarro captured Atahualpa at Cajamarca, collected a huge ransom of gold and silver, and then executed him in 1533. Inca resistance continued until 1572.
North American societies
North America held diverse societies. Ancestral Puebloans in the Southwest built cliff dwellings and the great houses of Chaco Canyon (about 850-1150 CE). The Mississippian culture built large earthen mounds; Cahokia was its largest city. In the Northeast, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy united five, later six, nations under the Great Law of Peace.
Adapting to environments
North American peoples adapted to many environments: Arctic Inuit hunted seals and whales; Pacific Northwest peoples harvested salmon and cedar, holding potlatch ceremonies; Plains peoples hunted bison; Eastern Woodlands peoples farmed the 'Three Sisters' (maize, beans, and squash), which complemented each other in the soil.
Worked example
The Three Sisters show Indigenous agricultural knowledge. Maize provides a stalk for beans to climb; beans host bacteria that add nitrogen to the soil; squash's broad leaves shade the ground, keeping moisture in and weeds down. Together they yield a balanced diet of carbohydrates, protein, and vitamins from one plot.
Key takeaways
Andean civilisations from Caral to Tiwanaku domesticated potatoes and llamas and built terraces. The Inca built the largest pre-Columbian empire in the 1400s, with roads, quipus, labour taxes, and warehouses. Machu Picchu shows their engineering. Pizarro conquered the Inca, weakened by smallpox and civil war, from 1532. North American peoples included Ancestral Puebloans, Mississippians, and the Haudenosaunee, adapting to diverse environments.
Flashcard
Giant desert drawings in Peru
Check your understanding
How did the Inca keep records without a writing system like the alphabet?