South America 200 BCE
The spread of maize as a staple crop allows new areas to be settled by farmers.
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What is happening in South America in 200BCE
Recent centuries have seen the Chavin civilization begin to fragment, giving way to several local cultures in the highlands and coastal plains of Peru.
Major settlements are appearing in the central Amazonian basin, evidence that complex regional societies are developing. One major factor in this is the spread of maize in the region. This effectively enables the colonization of the fertile flood plains of the Amazon and its major tributaries. During this period, populations are expanding and hierarchical societies are developing. Settlements extending for several kilometres along river banks are growing up, centres of militarized chiefdoms which organize large workforces to dig canals and build massive defensive earthworks, raise ceremonial platforms and mounds for habitation.
Cultural influences seem to be entering the region from the Andes civilization. Small regional chiefdoms, situated in the forests of Bolivia and Ecuador near to the highland civilization, build earth and stone ceremonial structures.
In the north, the Arawak diaspora spills over into the Caribbean. The colonization of much of the Caribbean seems to have occurred relatively quickly between 500 and 200 BCE, leading to the development of those Caribbean chiefdoms which the European explorers would encounter more than a millennium later.
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What else is happening in the rest of the world...

Africa history 3500BCE
Most of Africa is home to bands of hunter-gatherers, but in the Nile valley, the civilization of Egypt is beginning to emerge

Iraq history 3500BCE
The first city-based civilization in history is appearing in Mesopotamia

Middle East history 3500BCE
The first civilizations in world history, those of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, are emerging
What else is happening in the rest of the world...

Iraq history 2500BCE
The Sumerian civilization flourishes in Ancient Mesopotamia

Egypt history 2500BCE
By this date Ancient Egypt has developed one of the great civilizations of world history.

India and South Asia history 2500BCE
One of the earliest civilizations in world history has emerged in ancient India, the Indus Valley civilization
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