Two early civilizations developed in the Americas--specifically, in Mesoamerica (term describing a 400,000-square-mile [1,036,000-square-kilometer] area in the northern part of Central America, including Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Belize, and the southern and central parts of present-day Mexico) and in the central Andes Mountains of South America, including the part of the Andes in present-day Peru, and part of Bolivia, northern Argentina, and Ecuador. The geographic features of these regions made them extremely difficult to navigate and harder yet to farm. Although the two regions differ geographically, they both contain harsh physical environments, including parched desert-like plains at sea level and steep, frigid highlands at very high altitudes. However, despite these difficult conditions, people not only survived, but managed to forge two of the world's first civilizations. Many experts believe that the harsh physical environments of the Andes and Mesoamerica may have actually propelled the development of civilizations, because people had to work together to develop systems for survival.

In 1532 Spanish explorer and conqueror Francisco Pizarro (c. 1475-1541) and his forces entered the Inca empire in present-day Peru, seeking the gold and treasures rumored to abound there. The term Inca originally was used to refer to the supreme ruler and the original group of family clans that arose to prominence in the city of Cuzco. As the Inca empire arose, the supreme ruler was called the "Sapa Inca," and members of the noble class were called "Incas." As the Spaniards approached the temporary quarters of Atahuallpa (c. 1502-1533), the Inca emperor, they observed an army of forty thousand Inca soldiers. Before Pizarro and his company conquered the capital city of Cuzco and killed Atahuallpa, they had a chance to witness the workings of a civilization that was in many ways as advanced as the civilization they knew in Europe.

The Inca empire was populated by some twelve million people in the early 1500s and spanned an area that ran 2,600 miles (4,183 kilometers) down the western coast of South America, from present-day Ecuador to central Chile. (An empire is a vast, complex political unit extending across political boundaries and dominated by one central power, which generally takes control of the economy, government, and culture in communities throughout its territory.) Inca architecture was impressive: The monumental size of the structures and the precision of the stonework of the walls had clearly demanded tremendous planning, labor, and skill. Within the empire there were some 18,000 miles (28,962 kilometers) of good, paved roads; thousands of storehouses scattered throughout the empire held vast amounts of surplus food; people living within the empire paid taxes, and skilled accountants kept track of the economy. Inca farmers used complex irrigation and terracing systems to meet the extraordinary demands of the high mountain slopes and the coastal deserts. The hardworking people of the empire generally specialized in their field--as artisans, bureaucrats, traders, accountants, warriors, textile makers, farmers, or fishermen.

This vast, populous, and complex civilization that the Spanish witnessed was not just the work of the Incas; after all, the Inca empire had been in place for only about one hundred years, since 1438. The Incas' advanced way of life was the result of thousands of years of effort and innovation by ancient civilizations in the Andes region. Among the earlier peoples were the Chavin (900-200 B.C.E.), Nazca (100 B.C.E.-700 C.E.), Moche (100-800 C.E.), Tiwanaku (200-1200 C.E.), Wari (600-1000 C.E.), and Chimu (1150-1470 C.E.).

Recent archaeological excavations have shown that cities and organized religion existed in the Andes even before the rise of the Chavin. Large ceremonial centers, monumental architecture, and residential areas, all of which date back nearly five thousand years, have been found in the Norte Chico area of Peru. Pyramids, or temple mounds, were built in Peru's Supe Valley at about the same time the Egyptians were building their pyramids (around 2550 B.C.E.). These amazing buildings and the complexity of Andean social structures and religious organization have surprised the experts; such developments usually arise only after a community achieves other steps toward civilization, such as the making of pottery to store food supplies. There is no evidence that these early Andean people knew how to fire clay for pottery; instead, they appear to have made an unusual leap from relatively simple village life to complex organization.

Many scholars now believe that these Andean sites represent the first American cities and that this part of the Andes appropriately may be called the cradle of civilization in the Americas. Historians and anthropologists did not expect to find evidence of ancient civilization in the region, because the early Andean peoples did not have iron, a writing system, the wheel, or the plow--things previously thought to be essential to the development of civilization. However, the discovery of ancient Andean sites has prompted new questions about how civilizations arise. Many excavations in the area are continuing in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Only a small portion of the Andean area has been examined by archaeologists, and undoubtedly there will be new information--and many more surprises--in the years ahead.

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