Mexico

Abstract

The first settlers of the New World arrived in Alaska from Asia about 15,000 years ago. From about 2000 BC the people of Ancient Mexico began to settle in villages and to cultivate maize and other crops. From about 1000 BC the chief tribes were the Olmec on the Gulf Coast, the Maya in the Yucatán peninsula and modern day Chiapas, the Zapotecs and Mixtecs in Oaxaca, the Tarascans in Michoacán and the Toltecs in central Mexico. One of the largest and most powerful cities in ancient Mexico was Theotihuacán, which in the 6th century AD was one of the six largest cities in the world. By the time the Spanish conquistadores arrived in 1519, the dominant people were the Mexica, more commonly known as the Aztecs, whose capital Thenochtitlán became Mexico City after the conquest.