Central America - Pre-Columbian, Maya, Aztec (2024)

Central America, an archaeological bridge connecting North and South America, was, before the arrival of the Europeans, home to various nomadic and sedentary cultures. Mayan civilization occupied much of the northwestern part of the isthmus, from Chiapas and Yucatán, now part of southern Mexico, through Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and El Salvador and into Nicaragua. Although the Maya were the most advanced pre-Columbian civilization in the hemisphere, they were never unified. Unlike the Aztec and Inca empires, their autonomous city-states remained independent, presaging the political fragmentation that would characterize Central America to the present day. What unity existed was cultural rather than political. In addition to the Maya, other Indian cultures occupied Central America, bringing influences from both North and South America.

There is scant evidence of human life in Central America before 8000 bce. Primitive human habitation in the region before that date is likely, perhaps as early as 40,000 bce, but civilized society did not emerge until the 2nd millennium bce. Between 4000 and 1000 bce, people of the region made the transition from hunting and foraging to plant cultivation. Pottery in the Parita Bay region of Panama, dating from about 2130 bce, reflected South American cultural influence, which eventually reached as far north as Guatemala and Chiapas. Mexican influence in Chiapas dates from at least 1500 bce, and thereafter it extended as far south as Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Central America thus became a meeting ground for Mesoamerican, South American, and Caribbean peoples. After 1000 bce, organized sedentary farming communities became numerous, and active commerce and communications developed among them. Although cassava (manioc) and other tubers were important to Indians of the Caribbean coast, corn (maize) was the primary staple food of most Central Americans, accompanied by a wide variety of beans, squash, and other vegetables and fruits.

The Olmec culture and other Mexican influences substantially affected the development of Mayan civilization, while central Mexican Nahuatl influence challenged the Maya and stretched along the Pacific coast, notable especially among the Pipil of El Salvador and the Chorotega and Nicarao of Nicaragua. In Panama and Costa Rica, South American Chibcha influence was prevalent, while Caribbean cultural patterns penetrated the coastal plain from Panama to Honduras. Fugitives from the European conquistadores in the Caribbean increased this influence considerably at the close of the 15th century. The Miskito, Sumo, Rama, and other tribes on the Nicaraguan and Honduran Caribbean shores have survived to the present.