Before 1492

Antes de 1492

15000 BC–1492. For thousands of years Iberia and the Americas had separate histories.

What happened

For thousands of years Iberia and the Americas had separate histories. In Iberia, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Visigoths and the Muslims of al-Andalus each left their mark, and Latin slowly became the Romance languages, Castilian among them. Across the Atlantic, peoples such as the Maya, the Mexica and the Inca built cities, states and calendars of their own. These are the two pasts that 1492 brought together.

Within it

• Mesoamerica before 1492 (c. 1500 BC–1492)

Its events

1. c. 12th century BC–400 BC: The Olmecs, Mesoamerica's first cities
2. c. 250–900: The Classic Maya: Tikal, Palenque and the collapse
3. between 100 BC and 650: Teotihuacan, city of the gods
4. c. 1325: The Mexica found Tenochtitlan
5. 1428: The Aztec Triple Alliance