Most Important Pre-Columbian American Civ?

[frekk]

their "empire"?
have u been playing civilization much recently?

He's exactly right; the Iroqouis were building an empire after the Europeans arrived. They were likely doing so beforehand, as well.

They called it the Great Peace. Neighbouring tribes were offered a choice: disband their warrior societies, disarm, and accept trade conditions/tribute set by the Confederacy, or be exterminated, completely. Genocide was widely practiced, notably against the Huron Confederacy.

From their homeland in upstate New York, the Iroqouis were extending their reach as far west as Michigan. They were gaining control of the fur trading routes in order to trade to the English for guns.

Their enemies were at a disadavantage - most had allied with the French. The French sold guns for furs too, but at a maximum of 1 per convert. The English sold guns freely, no need to bring in converts, so the Iroqouis tended to be far more heavily armed than any of their opponents. So heavily armed, in fact, that by the late 1600s they were the strongest military power in eastern North America, more powerful than either the French or the English colonies, and controlling more land and fur trading routes than any other group.

It was the American Revolution that undid them; they were tightly allied with the English, and the Revolution threw them into confusion. They were paralyzed and unable to coordinate their aims, and divided loyalties resulted in civil conflict. Into the chaos came the Sullivan Expedition sent by Washington, which razed 40 settlements and destroyed the harvest. According to the one of the captains on the expedition, they were wealthier than the colonists: "It is remarked that the Indians live much better than most of the [American] Mohawk River farmers, their houses very well furnished with all necessary household utensils, great plenty of grain, several horses, cows, and wagons".

With the harvest destroyed, those who remained starved that winter - the refugees fled north to the protection of the British, and that was more or less the end of the Confederacy as a sovereign power.

 

[civ_king]

He's exactly right; the Iroqouis were building an empire after the Europeans arrived. They were likely doing so beforehand, as well.

They called it the Great Peace. Neighbouring tribes were offered a choice: disband their warrior societies, disarm, and accept trade conditions/tribute set by the Confederacy, or be exterminated, completely. Genocide was widely practiced, notably against the Huron Confederacy.

From their homeland in upstate New York, the Iroqouis were extending their reach as far west as Michigan. They were gaining control of the fur trading routes in order to trade to the English for guns.

Their enemies were at a disadavantage - most had allied with the French. The French sold guns for furs too, but at a maximum of 1 per convert. The English sold guns freely, no need to bring in converts, so the Iroqouis tended to be far more heavily armed than any of their opponents. So heavily armed, in fact, that by the late 1600s they were the strongest military power in eastern North America, more powerful than either the French or the English colonies, and controlling more land and fur trading routes than any other group.

It was the American Revolution that undid them; they were tightly allied with the English, and the Revolution threw them into confusion. They were paralyzed and unable to coordinate their aims, and divided loyalties resulted in civil conflict. Into the chaos came the Sullivan Expedition sent by Washington, which razed 40 settlements and destroyed the harvest. According to the one of the captains on the expedition, they were wealthier than the colonists: "It is remarked that the Indians live much better than most of the [American] Mohawk River farmers, their houses very well furnished with all necessary household utensils, great plenty of grain, several horses, cows, and wagons".

With the harvest destroyed, those who remained starved that winter - the refugees fled north to the protection of the British, and that was more or less the end of the Confederacy as a sovereign power.

This, The Iroquois were definitely the most awesome Post-Colombian Natives

 

[Louis XXIV]

Yep, although their awesomeness is clearly post-Colombian. Any cool Pre-Colombian North American empires are hard to know about because disease wiped them out.

EDIT: I'm curious about the Powhatan. I know they had a mini-Empire, but I'm not sure how mini it was (and it was post-Colombian as well, even if it was pre-contact).

 

[oranje willem]

I voted for Maya, because their mathematical knowledge was supreme on the whole continent, they build quite some impressive structures (the world wonder Chitzen Itza comes to mind) and they invented the concept zero before the Indians did, which made them the first in the world to understand zero.

 

[Desertsnow]

Chichen Itza was a true feat of engineering for its time, and is the main reason why I voted for the Mayans myself.

 

[Fife]

I agree with you that Chichen Izta was a major achievement. But most people care about their calendar. Everyone seems worried about 2012!!

 

[civ_king]

there are superstitious fools in every generation

 

[luke2345]

I voted the inca empire.
as you can where I live(peru).

 

[Jarlaxe Baenre]

I would vote the Mayans. The Aztecs came later, and they adopted many Mayan traditions. If the Mayans hadn't existed, maybe the Aztecs would not have settled where they did, moved on to where the Inca are, or gone back up north. The Mayans, because they were earliest of the three, had a good say in Aztec culture, although the Incas were too far south to have received a massive impact.

 

[frekk]

The Aztecs came later, and they adopted many Mayan traditions.

The Aztecs were a specific group of Nahuatl. Nahuatl culture includes several other civilization concurrent with the Mexica (Aztecs) such as Mixtec, Zapotec, etc. It also includes several powerful civilizations that had preceded the Aztecs, such as the Toltec and Teotihuacan, going back much further than the Aztec state.

Teotihuacan, a Nahua city of immense power in its time, exported Nahuatl culture to the Mayans; they also brought some home (the same way as the British Empire brought home artistic conventions and such from the Far East during the Victorian period), but the point is that it was Teotihuacan that was culturally dominant and it was the one exerting its cultural power abroad, not the Mayans. The Toltecs may also have invaded a portion of the Mayan region and could be responsible for Chichen Itza, the most famed Postclassic Mayan site.

Finally, the Mayans were not truly a single group, they are a collection of different groups, speaking dozens of different regional dialects. They were never united, and no Mayan city-state came even close to the power of the Triple Alliance and its empire.