Civilization In Pre-Columbian America

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Civilization in Pre-Columbian America The topic of the existence of civilization in the Pre-Columbian Americas appears to be a debatable one. However, there seems to be no sign of doubt that civilization existed, well before the arrival of the Spanish, on what we now call North and South America. This conclusion is not just based on conjecture, but has taken root in written facts. While there may be countless tribes, cities, and empires that were scattered through time on the American continent, two of these stand out the most. The two most prevalent examples of a civilization in Pre-Columbian Americas were definitely the Inca and Aztec Empires. They were by far the largest, most impacting, and most organized American factions by far. The population of these civilizations may have reached upwards of fifty million people before the arrival …show more content…

The Aztec Empire consisted of numerous territories dotted around modern South America that had been taken over by military forces, At this time, the capital of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan, housed 250,000 citizens.This was around five times the population of a large European city. Also, these cities had very complicated commerce and agricultural systems to sustain such a large population. Even the Spanish Conquistadors had never seen such a wondrous and large city before. As Spanish conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo said, “Some of the soldiers among us who had been in many parts of the world, in Constantinople, and all over Italy, and in Rome, said that they had never seen so large a market place and so full of people, and so well regulated and arranged” This shows that explorers that had visited what was considered the most technologically advanced societies in the world at the time, Italy and West Europe, were astounded by what they saw at Tenochtitlan. What else than a well functioning civilization would be able to offer such extremities for their

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