Why was North America not as advanced as South and Central America?

[Dragoon]

The Native American population in Peru and Mexico regions was far larger, than Canada or USA.
They had better temperature/weather.

btw Mexico is North American (continent). However, regionally it is Central American.
I find there is a difference between North America and Northern America.

[Loki]

I will agree the ancient Americans were excellent architects and stoneworkers but just bear in mind any architectural engineering firm can build and design a pyramid within a week, it's not that difficult and only takes a team of structural engineers and an army of construction workers.

Thread Topid: How advanced and civilized were the Aztecs really?

"How advanced: very primitive agricultural civilization. Corn/maize takes very little work to grow and has great yields per acre, this allowed really big cities, but in their case not very advanced. Pyramids are very simple architecture and the same true of their other buildings and roads. The architecture and engineering was centuries ahead of them and so was the art adorning the buildings. Their gold smithing was also centuries behind Europe. Their weaving and textile making was also extremely primitive compared to Europe. Their weapons were stone age ones thousands of years behind Europe's. Their transport systems were stone age too.

Now if you want to look at their non-material culture, lets just say this my ancestors who revived human sacrifice and liked to drink out of skulls and keep them as trophies would have found them acceptably "civilized" except for their habit of throwing the corpses of their sacrifices down the steps of their pyramids to be carved up and eaten. We're taking about the 4th century and people barbarous even for Scandinavia, whom later became the Vikings, though they too might of found it objectionable to raid every year their subject peoples for human sacrifices and to offer every prisoner of war as a sacrifice. Having observed many centuries of totally ruthless ancestors and my living relatives all of whom are ruthless and their ruthlessness shocks even me and I'm ruthless too, I must say that the Aztecs were over the top in their inhumanity and were not civilized at all".

http://historum.com/general-history/...-really-3.html

Forget about the Aztecs. Look at the Maya, and the Andids.

[alnortedelsur]

Might be a bit of hyperbole , no ? They still used a literal number system which is inferior to our 10 digit decimal system, nowadays, and they never invented the wheel. They also did not have the astrolabe etc... which Europeans used to navigate the seas to conquer them.

You can't do advanced mathematics, which science needs, with chicken scratch like this :



Who is to say they would have advanced from that, at least in a timely manner, without European influence ?

If Amerindians didn't invent the wheel, it wasn't because they were "dumber" or "less smart" than Europeans, lol.

There were not domesticable animals in the American continents that were equivalent to the horse to use them as a mean of traction. Then, a wheel without having such animals would have been useless.

Add to that, that the Amerindians were for thousands of years isolated from peoples of the Eurasian landmass, where the exchange of goods, technology, techniques, and ideas favored the development of the great middle eastern and Southern European civilizations, which later on lead to the formation of the current European civilization.

And Amerindians, despite of their isolation and all those historical disadvantages, compared to the peoples of the Eurasian landmass (including Europeans), still managed to develop the notorious Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations. And that without mentioning other relatively advanced societies like the mound builders of the current mid-west of United states, the Pueblos (in the current SW of US), and many others.

[Taiji]

You meant Alaska?

Manitoba, Minnesota, Montana, Wisconsin, North Dakota can be colder than most of Europe too, although exceptions exist. However, you're from Finland, one of the coldest countries on earth. I've never heard of Finnish people fearing the cold, tough people you are.

Like some have mentioned before, lower levels of contact with more established civilizations in the South. Lack of horses to facilitate that contact. There were pyramid cities like Cahokia on the Mississippi which were clearly influenced by Meso American civilizations, but that civilization was really in its very early stages and did not end up sustainable.

I think all the reasons have already been stated by you and the other members here so there’s nothing I can add. However, the point about horses and contact is interesting. The strongest and most feared of all Native American tribes, the Comanche came from rather unassuming beginnings. It was after gaining access to horses that they were able to expand, raid and secure trade routes for themselves as well as participate in trading themselves. It only goes to show how important logistics and economic strength are to progress and warfare. It also shows that any tribe can rise to the top given the right circumstances.

[zhaoyun]

Manitoba, Minnesota, Montana, Wisconsin, North Dakota can be colder than most of Europe too, although exceptions exist. However, you're from Finland, one of the coldest countries on earth. I've never heard of Finnish people fearing the cold, tough people you are.

I think all the reasons have already been stated by you and the other members here so there’s nothing I can add. However, the point about horses and contact is interesting. The strongest and most feared of all Native American tribes, the Comanche came from rather unassuming beginnings. It was after gaining access to horses that they were able to expand, raid and secure trade routes for themselves as well as participate in trading themselves. It only goes to show how important logistics and economic strength are to progress and warfare. It also shows that any tribe can rise to the top given the right circumstances.

Indeed, it would've been interesting to see how the Amerindian civilizations would've evolved had they had horses from the very beginning, even prior to European contact. I think we would've seen some very grand civilizations throughout the Americas.

[GhostFromThePast]

I believe the crop availability has played a massive role. You need agriculture to support a dense population needed for civilization, you can't hunt and gather enough food for everyone in a stratified sophisticated society. And the agriculture better be productive enough.

Modern US has one of the largest agricultural outputs globally, but it's all based on Eurasian crops or native American crops that are highly modified through scientific breeding. There has been no wheat here before the Europeans brought it with them, and the classic American highly productive foodstuffs such as maize come from South and Central America and do not produce well in NA in its native form. Even beans and squash (the two other pillars of Native American agriculture) come from down South, so it's no coincidence that Native civilization has developed there.

[JohnSmith]

Before the arrival of Europeans, there were advanced civilizations in Mesoamerica and South America. Stunning pyramids, intricate stone constructions, cities, artwork, science, astronomy, etc abounded. Especially in countries like Mexico, Ecuador, Peru and also others.

But my question is... why is there nothing comparable in North America? This seems odd to me. I have a theory but would like to hear from others.

I do not think the population density for the Natives was as high in NA. Also the Climate was colder which made it harder to develop due to shorter growing seasons.

[Bobby Martnen]

Because Amerindian people needed Western culture and Christian salvation. Unfortunately, most of them rejected both.

[Synapsid]

LOL, ALL Amerindians (from North, Central and South America) mostly descent from people who crossed the Bering strait (which was the land bridge of Beringia, back then) from Siberia. There might have been some sea pacific contribution in the ancestry of Central and south American natives, but their contribution was very minimal and peripheral.

There's no pacific islander contribution in S. American populations. Later migrations pretty much affected entirely North American population groups, like the Na-Dene (7,000) and Aluet Eskimos.