Mesoamerica before 1492

Mesoamérica antes de 1492

c. 1500 BC–1492. Mesoamerica, from central Mexico to Honduras, saw three thousand years of cities before the Spanish arrived.

Draft: not yet checked against its sources.

What happened

Mesoamerica, from central Mexico to Honduras, saw three thousand years of cities before the Spanish arrived. The Olmecs of the Gulf coast (c. 1200–400 BC) carved colossal heads and set patterns that later peoples kept: planned ceremonial centres, the ball game, calendars and writing. Teotihuacan was one of the largest cities in the world around AD 400. The Classic Maya of Guatemala, Chiapas and Yucatán (c. 250–900) built Tikal and Palenque and wrote in the most complete script of the Americas; their southern cities were abandoned in the ninth century. In the Postclassic the Mexica founded Tenochtitlan (traditionally 1325) and, with Texcoco and Tlacopan, built the empire the Spaniards met in 1519. Nahuatl and Maya languages gave Spanish words such as chocolate, tomate and cigarro.

Its events

1. c. 250–900: The Classic Maya: Tikal, Palenque and the collapse

Sources

1. Olmec Civilization — World History Encyclopedia
2. Teotihuacan – M. del C. Solanes and E. Vela — Arqueología Mexicana (Editorial Raíces)
3. Maya Civilization — World History Encyclopedia
4. Tenochtitlan — National Geographic Society – Education
5. Aztec Civilization — World History Encyclopedia