12.2 South America, Mesoameric, and the Caribbean: The Invention of Latin America
Part II. The Invention of Latin America Before the Name There was no Latin America before European conquest. There were thousands of communities, many languages, large states, small societies, trade routes, rivalries, sacred landscapes, farms, fisheries, and cities. The Mexica, commonly called the Aztecs, ruled a tribute empire from Tenochtitlan. Maya societies created city-states, writing systems, monumental architecture, long-distance trade, and sophisticated astronomical knowledge across a region extending through southern Mexico and Central America. The Inca governed a vast Andean empire through roads, administrative centers, storehouses, labor obligations, and alliances. Taíno societies lived across the Greater Antilles. Mapuche peoples resisted both Inca and Spanish expansion. Guaraní communities occupied parts of the southern interior. Countless Amazonian, coastal, highland, and island societies organized life on scales that colonial chroniclers often failed to understand....