Mesoamerican chronology

Mesoamerican chronology helps us understand the history of ancient peoples in a part of the world called Mesoamerica. This area includes places like Mexico and parts of Central America. The chronology divides this long history into several important time periods.

The earliest period is called the Paleo-Indian, which started when the first people arrived and lasted until around 3500 BCE. This was followed by the Archaic period, then the Pre-classic or Formative period from 2500 BCE to 250 CE. The Classic period ran from 250 to 900 CE, and the Postclassic from 900 to 1521 CE, the year the Spanish arrived. After that came the Colonial Period until 1821, and then the Postcolonial period continuing to today.

Experts created these time periods using clues from old buildings, writings, and studying modern cultures. They still work today to learn more about the history of this fascinating region.

Overview

Paleo-Indian period

18000–8000 BCE

Main article: Lithic period in Mesoamerica

The Paleo-Indian period began when people first came to Mesoamerica, probably by crossing the Beringian land bridge. It lasted until about 8000 BCE, when agriculture and new ways of living started. During this time, people learned to use stones for tools and began to stay in one place.

Archaic Era

Main article: Archaic period in Mesoamerica

Before 2600 BCE

In the Archaic Era, people began to farm and live in villages that stayed in the same place. They also started making pottery and weaving cloth. This was when simple tools like grinding stones and making pots were first created.

Preclassic Era or Formative Period

Main article: Mesoamerican Preclassic period

2000 BCE – 250 CE

The Preclassic Era saw the building of large ceremonial structures, the start of writing, and the growth of cities. Important parts of Mesoamerican culture began here, such as growing corn, building pyramids, and creating a detailed calendar.

The Olmec people were one of the first big civilizations, living in places like La Venta and San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán. Other cultures, like the Zapotec in the Valley of Oaxaca and the Maya in Guatemala, also began to grow during this time.

In Central America, some Olmec ideas influenced local cultures. Sites like Los Naranjos and Yarumela in Honduras show this influence.

Classic Period

Main article: Mesoamerican Classic period

250–900 CE

The Classic Period was when many separate city-states grew in the Maya area. In central Mexico, the city of Teotihuacan became very powerful, though we know little about its leaders because they left no writings. Arts such as painting, sculpture, and pottery became very advanced.

In the Maya region, cities like Tikal, Uaxactun, Copán, and Palenque reached their heights. They sometimes fought or formed alliances with each other. Many of these cities were later abandoned during a time known as the Classic Maya collapse.

Postclassic Period

Main article: Mesoamerican Postclassic period

900–1521 CE

In the Postclassic Period, many of the great cities from earlier times fell, but new powers rose. This was a time of change and new ideas. Technologies improved, and new ways of governing appeared.

The Toltec people ruled parts of central Mexico for a time, and later the Aztec Empire grew powerful. By the 15th century, the Aztecs were becoming very influential.

Spain became the first European country to reach Mesoamerica. Their soldiers, helped by local allies, conquered the Aztecs.

Colonial Period

Main article: Spanish Empire

1521–1821 CE

The Colonial Period began when the Spanish conquest ended the rule of the Aztec Empire between 1519 and 1521. The Spanish worked with local groups like Tlaxcala to defeat the Aztecs.

Though not all of Mesoamerica was quickly taken over, the Spanish slowly brought the whole area under their control. Many native people suffered from new diseases brought by the Spanish and from hard labor. The fall of Tenochtitlan started over 300 years of Spanish rule.

Chronology

Cultural horizons of Mesoamerica

Mesoamerican civilisation was a network of different cultures that developed over time. These cultures did not all happen at once, and their growth was influenced by many factors, including connections between groups, relationships with the environment, human migrations, and natural events.

Historians and archaeologists divide pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican history into three main periods. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire (1519–1521) marked the end of indigenous rule and began the 300-year colonial period. The postcolonial period started with Mexican independence in 1821 and continues today. European conquest changed the political systems of Mesoamerica's indigenous peoples but did not end their existence.

Timeline of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica

Preclassic Era

The Preclassic period lasted from 2500 BCE to 200 CE. It began with the development of the first ceramic traditions in western areas, such as Matanchén, Nayarit, and Puerto Marqués in Guerrero. The creation of pottery marks the start of a settled society and shows how Mesoamerica developed from hunter-gatherer groups to more stable communities.

The Preclassic Era is divided into three phases: Early (2500–1200 BCE), Middle (1500–600 BCE), and Late (600 BCE – 200 CE). During the Early phase, pottery became common, maize and vegetables were widely grown, and societies began to develop social classes. The Capacha culture played a key role in early civilizing processes in Mesoamerica.

By 2500 BCE, small settlements were forming in Guatemala's Pacific Lowlands, such as Tilapa, La Blanca, Ocós, El Mesak, Ujuxte, and others. From 2000 BCE, a lot of pottery was found along the Pacific Coast. Excavations suggest that the Highlands acted as a bridge between early villages on the Pacific coast and later cities in the Petén lowlands. In Monte Alto near La Democracia, Escuintla, giant stone heads and potbelly sculptures were found, dating to around 1800 BCE.

Around 1500 BCE, western cultures declined and assimilated into other groups. This led to the emergence of the Tlatilco culture in the Valley of Mexico and the Olmec culture in the Gulf. Tlatilco was one of the main population centers of this time, skilled in using Lake Texcoco's resources and growing maize. Some believe Tlatilco was founded by the ancestors of today's Otomi people.

The Olmecs entered an expansionist phase, building monumental architecture at San Lorenzo and La Venta. They traded goods within their core area and with sites as far as Guerrero, Morelos, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. San José Mogote, showing Olmec influences, lost dominance of the Oaxacan plateau to Monte Albán by the end of the Middle Preclassic Era. During this time, the Chupícuaro culture flourished in Bajío, while the Olmecs declined in the Gulf.

One major development in the Middle Preclassic period was the creation of the first writing system by either the Maya, Olmec, or Zapotec. Mesoamerican societies were highly stratified. Connections between power centers allowed regional elites to control resources and labor. This social structure was based on specialized knowledge like astronomy, writing, and commerce. The Middle Preclassic period also saw the start of urbanization that defined Classic period societies. In the Maya area, cities like Nakbe, El Mirador, Cival, and San Bartolo show architecture similar to the Classic period.

Toward the end of the Preclassic period, political and commercial power shifted to centers in the Valley of Mexico. Around Lake Texcoco, villages grew into cities like Tlatilco and Cuicuilco. Tlatilco had strong ties with western cultures, while Cuicuilco controlled trade in the Maya area, Oaxaca, and the Gulf coast. The rivalry between these cities ended with Tlatilco's decline. Meanwhile, in Monte Albán in the Valley of Oaxaca, the Zapotec developed independently of the Olmec, adopting some aspects of their culture while making their own contributions. On the southern coast of Guatemala, Kaminaljuyú advanced toward Classic Maya culture.

Around the start of the common era, Cuicuilco disappeared, and Teotihuacan began to rise. The next two centuries saw Teotihuacan become the premier Mesoamerican city, the main political, economic, and cultural center for the next seven centuries.

The Olmec

For many years, the Olmec culture was seen as the 'mother culture' of Mesoamerica due to its wide influence. More recent views see it as a process involving many contemporary peoples that eventually formed on the coasts of Veracruz and Tabasco. The ethnic identity of the Olmecs is still debated. Linguistically, they may have spoken an Oto-Manguean language or been ancestors of the modern Zoque people in Chiapas and Oaxaca. Zoque tribes are thought to have migrated south after the fall of major Gulf plain centers.

The Olmec culture marked Mesoamerican history with features like state organization, the 260-day ritual calendar, the 365-day secular calendar, the first writing system, and urban planning. It developed between 1600 and 1500 BCE and continued to grow until the 12th century BCE. Key sites were La Venta, San Lorenzo, and Tres Zapotes in the core region, with influences seen across Mesoamerica, especially in the Balsas river basin at Teopantecuanitlan.

Notable Olmec creations include giant stone heads and small carvings of jade and other greenstones, often featuring the were-jaguar. The exact causes of the Olmec decline remain unknown.

In the Pacific lowlands of the Maya Area, sites like Takalik Abaj, Izapa, and Chola, along with Kaminaljuyú in Guatemala's central Highlands, advanced toward Classic Maya culture. Cities grew wealthier, with monumental constructions following complex urban plans.

Toward the end of the Preclassic period, political and commercial power shifted to centers in the Valley of Mexico. Villages around Lake Texcoco grew into cities like Tlatilco and Cuicuilco. Tlatilco had strong western ties, while Cuicuilco controlled trade in the Maya area, Oaxaca, and the Gulf coast. The rivalry ended with Tlatilco's decline. In Monte Albán, the Zapotec developed independently of the Olmec. In Peten, Classic Maya cities like Tikal, Uaxactun, and Seibal began growing around 300 BCE.

Cuicuilco's influence waned between 100 BCE and 1 CE. As it declined, Teotihuacan grew, becoming the leading Mesoamerican city of the first millennium and the main political, economic, and cultural center in Central Mexico for seven centuries.

Classic period

The Classic period of Mesoamerica spans from 250 to 900 CE. The end of this period varied by region: in central Mexico, it ended with the fall of late Classic centers around 900 CE; in the Gulf, with the decline of El Tajín around 800 CE; in the Maya area, with the abandonment of highland cities in the 9th century; and in Oaxaca, with the disappearance of Monte Albán around 850 CE. The Classic period is known for peaks in arts, science, urban development, architecture, and social organization. Teotihuacan's influence dominated the region, and competition among states led to ongoing warfare.

The Classic period has three phases: Early (250–550 CE), Middle (550–700 CE), and Late (700–900 CE). The Early Classic began with Teotihuacan's expansion, controlling major trade routes in northern Mesoamerica. Urbanization consolidated, with major centers like Monte Albán, Kaminaljuyu, Ceibal, Tikal, Calakmul, and Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan held 80% of the 200,000 people in the Lake Texcoco basin.

Cities of this era were multi-ethnic, with people of different languages, cultures, and origins living together. Alliances among regional elites, especially with Teotihuacan, strengthened. Social differences became more pronounced, with a small ruling group over the majority, who paid tribute and built public structures. Agricultural advances and strengthened trade networks supported city growth.

Mesoamerican arts reached heights in this era, with notable Maya stelae, polychrome ceramics, mural painting, and music. Teotihuacan advanced architecture, defining the Classic style with stepped pyramidal bases. This style influenced cities like Monte Alban and Kaminal Juyú in Guatemala. Long after Teotihuacan's abandonment around 700 CE, Postclassic cities like Tula, Tenochtitlan, and Chichén Itzá followed its architectural style.

Scientific advances were made during this period. The Maya refined their calendar, script, and mathematics. Writing was used widely in Mayan areas, practiced by noble scribes, painters, and priests. Other cultures developed their own scripts, with the Mayan system being the only fully developed writing system in Precolumbian America. Astronomy remained vital for agriculture and predicting events like eclipses, important for rulers to show their heavenly connections.

The Middle Classic ended in Northern Mesoamerica with Teotihuacan's decline, allowing other regional powers to grow and compete for trade routes and resources. The Late Classic saw political fragmentation, with no single city dominating. Population movements occurred from Aridoamerica and northern regions, bringing groups like the Nahua, who later founded Tula and Tenochtitlan. Southern peoples like the Olmeca-Xicallanca moved to central Mexico.

In the Maya region, Tikal, an ally of Teotihuacan, declined after being defeated by Dos Pilas and Caracol, allies of Calakmul. Cities like Dos Pilas, Piedras Negras, Caracol, Calakmul, Palenque, Copán, and Yaxchilán consolidated during this time. These city-states were involved in wars with shifting alliances until Tikal defeated several of them, leading to monumental construction in Tikal from 740 to 810. The last recorded date there was 899. The Classic Maya collapse began around 760, with cities like Dos Pilas, Aguateca, Ceibal, and Cancuén abandoned. Usumacinta system cities like Yaxchilan, Piedras Negras, and Palenque followed. By the end of the Late Classic, the Maya stopped using the Long Count calendar, and many cities were burned and abandoned. In the Southern Highlands, Kaminal Juyú grew until 1200. In Oaxaca, Monte Alban peaked around 750 but was abandoned by the end of the 9th century. Other cities like La Quemada and Teotihuacan also met similar fates. In Oaxaca's valley, Lambityeco rose to prominence.

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan, meaning "The City of the Gods" in Nahuatl, began near the end of the Preclassic period around 100 CE. Little is known about its founders, but the Otomí likely played a key role, as they did in the ancient Valley of Mexico culture represented by Tlatilco. Teotihuacan initially competed with Cuicuilco for control but was aided by its access to obsidian deposits in the Navaja mountains in Hidalgo. Cuicuilco's decline remains a mystery, but many of its people moved to Teotihuacan before the eruption of Xitle, which covered the southern town in lava.

Free from competition, Teotihuacan expanded into one of the largest cities of its time, both in Mesoamerica and the world. It attracted most people living in the Valley of Mexico. Teotihuacan relied on agriculture, mainly growing maize, beans, and squash. Its political and economic power came from controlling goods like Anaranjado ceramics from the Poblano–Tlaxcalteca valley and mineral deposits from the Hidalgan mountains, which were traded for luxury items from places as far as New Mexico and Guatemala. This made Teotihuacan the hub of the Mesoamerican trade network, with partners like Monte Albán, Tikal, Matacapan, Altavista, and Tingambato.

Teotihuacan developed the Mesoamerican pantheon of deities, especially Quetzalcoatl and Tláloc, agricultural gods. Trade spread these cults to other Mesoamerican societies. Though Teotihuacan had a pictographic writing system, it was often mistaken for drawing.

Teotihuacan's fall is linked to the rise of city-states in central Mexico. These may have grown powerful after Teotihuacan's decline, or perhaps they weakened Teotihuacan by blocking trade routes. This happened around 600 CE, and though people lived there for another century and a half, the city was eventually destroyed and abandoned. Its people fled to places like Culhuacán and Azcapotzalco on Lake Texcoco's shores.

The Maya in the Classic period

The Maya created one of Mesoamerica's most developed and well-known cultures. While some believe Maya culture was entirely unique, many elements were shared across Mesoamerica, such as two calendars, the base 20 number system, corn cultivation, certain myths, and worship of deities like the Feathered Serpent and the rain god Chaac.

Maya culture began with Kaminaljuyú in Guatemala's Highlands during the middle Preclassic period. Recent research shows that early political states like Takalik Abaj, El Mirador, Nakbe, Cival, and San Bartolo developed around the 1st century BCE, earlier than once thought. The Maya were never a united empire but organized into small chiefdoms constantly at war. They had advanced warfare and practiced human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism, as shown by murals at Bonampak.

Writing and the Maya calendar developed early in major cities around 1000 BCE. Once thought to be only ceremonial, recent excavations show Maya sites had urban services like those in Tikal, which may have held up to 400,000 people at its peak around 750 CE. Drainage, aqueducts, and paved roads connected major centers since the Preclassic period. Society was highly stratified, with nobles controlling agriculture and imposing taxes for public monuments that reinforced their power and social hierarchy. During the Early Classic Period around 370 CE, Maya elites had strong ties to Teotihuacan, and Tikal may have been an important ally controlling trade with the Gulf coast and highlands. Drought, wars, ecological disasters, and famine eventually destroyed the Maya political system, leading to uprisings and the fall of dominant groups. Many cities were abandoned and rediscovered in the 19th century by Maya descendants guiding archaeologists.

Postclassic period

The Postclassic period lasted from 900 to the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica between 1521 and 1697. This era saw increased military importance, with warrior classes rising to power and eventually being overtaken by powerful merchant groups known as pochtecas, who gained political influence through their economic strength.

The Postclassic period has two phases. The early Postclassic (10th to 13th century) featured Toltec hegemony in Tula. The late Postclassic began in the 12th century with the arrival of the Chichimec, related to the Toltecs and Mexica, who settled in the Valley of Mexico in 1325 after a two-century journey from Aztlán. Many social changes resulted from northern migrations driven by climate threats. These migrations displaced long-rooted Mesoamerican peoples, some moving to Central America.

Cultural changes included the spread of metallurgy from South America, with the Mixtec developing advanced techniques. Architecture improved with nails for temple siding, better mortar, and widespread use of columns and stone roofs. Agriculture became more complex, with chinampas extensively used by the Mexica, who built a city of 200,000 around them.

Political systems also changed. Early Postclassic warlike elites justified their rule through religious beliefs, calling themselves descendants of Quetzalcoatl and heirs to the mythical city Tollan. Alliances formed among city-states with shared ideologies, like the League of Mayapan in Yucatán and the Mixtec confederation of Lord Eight Deer in Oaxaca's mountains. These societies were military-oriented and multi-ethnic.

However, Tula's fall weakened the zuyuano system, which collapsed with the dissolution of the League of Mayapán, the Mixtec state, and Tula's abandonment. New immigrants from the north, related to ancient Toltecs but with different ideologies, arrived. The Mexica settled on an island in Lake Texcoco under Azcapotzalco's rule. They later conquered much of Mesoamerica, forming a unified state rivaled only by the Purépecha Empire in Michoacán. When the Spanish arrived, many Mexica-controlled peoples sided with them, seeking freedom but leading to Mesoamerica's subjugation.

Aztec

The Mexica of Tenochtitlan, also known as the Aztecs, were the best-known prehispanic Mesoamerican culture, dominating central Mexico for nearly a century before the Spanish conquest (1519–1521).

The Mexica came from the north or west of Mesoamerica. The Nayaritas believed mythical Aztlán was on Mexcaltitán island. Some think it was in Zacatecas or as far north as New Mexico. They shared many traits with central Mesoamerica and spoke Nahuatl, like the Toltecs and Chichimecs before them.

The Mexica's departure from Aztlán is debated, with dates of 1064, 1111, or 1168 suggested. After wandering, they arrived in the Valley of Mexico basin in the 14th century, settling at points like Culhuacán and Tizapán before establishing Tenochtitlan in 1325 as an ally of Azcapotzalco. By 1430, the Mexica joined Texcoco and Tlacopan to defeat Azcapotzalco, forming the Triple Alliance that replaced the old Tecpaneca confederation.

In the Triple Alliance's early days, the Mexica expanded, controlling much of Mesoamerica except regions like Tlaxcala, Meztitlán, Teotitlán del Camino, Tututepec, Tehuantepec, and the northwest under the Tarascans. The Alliance's provinces paid tribute to Tenochtitlan, recorded in the Matrícula de Los tributos codex.

The Mexica state was conquered by Spanish forces under Hernán Cortés and their Tlaxcalan and Totonac allies in 1521. Mesoamerica's defeat was complete in 1697 when Tayasal was burned by the Spanish.

Postconquest era

Colonial Period, 1521–1821

In 1521, the Aztec Empire was destroyed, and central Mexico came under the control of the Spanish Empire. Over the next decades, nearly all of Mesoamerica was brought under Spanish rule. The Spanish made the old Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, into Mexico City, the main city for the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The Spanish focused on teaching the local people about Christianity, which became the only allowed religion. They also set up a system called the encomienda, where Spanish leaders were given control over local communities and their resources.

Even though life changed, many local communities kept their traditions and leaders. The Spanish called all local people "Indians" (indios), but these people did not use that name for themselves. They were governed separately from Europeans and others. Despite many changes, local languages and cultures survived.

Postcolonial Period, 1821–present

Mexico and Central America gained independence from Spain in 1821. The new government treated everyone as equal citizens, no longer separating people by their background. For many years, political fights among leaders did not greatly affect local communities. However, in the 1850s, new leaders tried to change laws about land and the church, which caused a civil war.

Later, under leader Porfirio Díaz, Mexico grew and connected more with the world, but pressures on local communities continued. These tensions led to the Mexican Revolution from 1910 to 1920. After the revolution, the government tried to support local cultures while also including people as part of the nation, but this remained a challenge.