Inca history: Macchu Picchu Before the Inca Until the 1400s AD, the Pacific coast of South America was made up of a lot of small independent kingdoms. First the Valdivia and Norte Chico people [...]
Guarani people performing a dance in the 1800s The Tupi move south When the first Tupi people expanded their territory from Central America to reach the coast of Brazil about 900 BC, some [...]
Chavin stone carving From Norte Chico to Chavin By around 900 BC, the Norte Chico people of northern Peru developed into the Chavin culture. Like the earlier Norte Chico people, the Chavin people [...]
Venus of Santarem (Brazil, ca. 1400-1000 BC) When did people get to Brazil? The first people probably arrived on the Atlantic coast of South America about 15,000 BC. Probably a second wave [...]
Arawak history: Arawak family in Trinidad, ca. 1500 AD The Arawak arrive in Venezuela The Arawak probably first arrived in South America with the second wave of people, around 15,000 BC. They [...]
Aztec men sharing a meal What did early people eat? When people first came to Central and South America, perhaps about 15,000 BC, they hunted and gathered all of their food. They picked wild potatoes, [...]
A llama in Bolivia - llamas live in South America Where did llamas come from? Llamas evolved from camels. Camels evolved in North America about 45 million years ago. They lived in the [...]
The Andes mountains run down the Pacific side of South America South America is a long, narrow continent running from the equator down nearly to the South Pole. So the north [...]
Olmec Pyramid, La Venta, Mexico (500 BC) The earliest big buildings from South America are in Ecuador and Peru, along the Pacific coast. The Norte Chico people and the Valdivia people built [...]
South American history: Aztec doctor treating people with smallpox (1500s AD, Codex Mendoza) The Inca, Brazil, and Chile In 1500 AD, the Inca Empire dominated the east coast of South America. Further north, [...]
