Agriculture was also an important part of ancient Chinese civilization. China contains one of the longest recorded habitations of the same land by the same indigenous group of people known in history. It is difficult to tell when their civilization began, as early evidence of grain agriculture extends back as far as 10,000 years. The earliest records of the civilization show that monarchs were also religious heads here, but that they retained even more power over a more complex court than other contemporary civilizations. Due to the widespread nature of the ancient Chinese civilization, trade with other peoples was not as necessary or as prevalent.
Instead, the economy depended more on court and military spending and trade between Chinese cities. The civilization never really fell, though dynasties often changed.
The Andean civilization in South America grew out of agriculture like all other civilizations, but in a very different way. The different ecosystems that exist at different elevations led to an early differentiation in lifestyle among these people depending on where the lived, as well as a complex interdependence upon neighboring communities. Each community also tended to contain more than one type of geography in order to maximize their own growing potential. The society seems to have been more loosely structured than other contemporary civilizations, with organization along kinship lines. Trade was basically...
Like other American civilizations, the entrance of the Europeans onto the scene marked the beginning of the end for the Andean civilizations, as disease and warfare wiped them out.
The other ancient American civilization, the Mesoamericans, did not fair any better at the hands of the Spanish. Before their arrival, however, this civilization flourished with complex cities and agricultural projects and extensive trading throughout Central America, as is evidenced by the wide dispersal of artifacts including pottery and forms of monetary exchange. City-states somewhat similar to those in other parts of the world existed, and religious centers were also the political and power centers in each of these. Government and religions were linked for most of the ancient civilizations, and though priests and kings were often separate in the Mesoamerican civilizations, each had an influence in both the political and spiritual world. Many city-states had their own special god or goddess, though the religion as a whole reflected a polytheism similar to what is seen in other ancient civilizations. Just as with other "New World" civilizations, the Mesoamericans were largely destroyed and/or assimilated by the Europeans following Columbus' "discovery."
