Overview
South America runs from the Caribbean coast and the Andes to Patagonia and the Amazon, and its history long predates European contact. The central Andes cradled a succession of civilizations — Norte Chico, Chavín, Moche, Nazca, Tiwanaku, Wari, Chimú, and finally the Inca, the largest empire of the pre-Columbian Americas — while Amazonia and the coasts held their own diverse peoples.
The major eras
The first people reached the continent by at least 13,000 years ago, and the site of Monte Verde in Chile is among the oldest known in the Americas. During the Archaic period Andean peoples domesticated the potato, quinoa, and the llama, and by around 3500 BC the Norte Chico (Caral) civilization on the Peruvian coast built monumental centers, the oldest known in the Americas. The Chavín cult spread a shared art and religion in the Early Horizon (c. 900–200 BC), followed by the Moche and Nazca on the coast and, in the Middle Horizon, the highland states of Tiwanaku and Wari. After their fall, regional kingdoms such as the Chimú arose, until the Inca built their vast Tawantinsuyu from Cusco in the 15th century, linked by a great road network. In 1532 Francisco Pizarro’s expedition captured the Inca ruler Atahualpa and conquered the empire, while Portugal claimed Brazil, and Old World diseases devastated Indigenous populations. Colonial South America was divided between Spanish viceroyalties and Portuguese Brazil, its economy built on silver, sugar, and slavery, until the wars of independence (1810–1826) led by Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín freed Spanish South America and Brazil became independent in 1822. The modern continent, from the export booms and immigration of the 19th century to today’s nations, grew from these deep roots.