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

• The Andes before 1492 (c. 900 BC–1492)

Its events

1. between 200 BC and 600: The Nazca draw on the desert
2. c. 1438–1471: Pachacuti and the rise of the Inca