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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Heretic Apostate" data-source="post: 1902248" data-attributes="member: 696">As someone who has read Guns, Germs and Steel: Agriculture.  The Aztecs/Mayans were not blessed with an overabundance of crops worth domesticating.  Corn, for instance, proved exceptionally hard to domesticate (it started out very small, and the seeds were covered in a hard husk).  The Aztecs/Mayans only developed three major food crops (corn, squash, and something else, I forget what). Livestock.  The Eastern US natives domesticated the turkey.  The Aztecs/Mayans domesticated the dog.  The Incans domesticated the llama (the pack animal) and the alpaca (generally, a llama used for growing wool).  The southeastern South Americans domesticated the guinea pig.  Animals are used for meat, for labor, for clothing material, and for catching contagious diseases. Geography.  Most animals and plants can spread best in an east-west axis, and not so well in a north-south axis.  Look at North and South America.  They are north-south, and crops that are domesticated in one region might not get enough sunlight in other regions, or too much, or something. Climate.  Mexico is bordered in the north by deserts, and in the south by jungles.  Plants and people generally couldn't survive the transition through the hostile climatic regions. Politics.  Why did Columbus, an Italian, get support from Spain?  Because that was the third or fourth kingdom he approached with his idea for an expedition.  A bunch of small kingdoms will out-innovate a stratified empire any day in terms of innovation.  (Heck, the Byzantines bought the secret for "Greek fire," but decided not to buy the secret for gunpowder.  So the inventor sold it to the Turks, who used it to conquer Constantinople...) **************** So you want to posit a middle-ages-level mesoamerican or Mississippi valley or andean culture? To start, lay out the continent in an east-west axis.  Allow a few domesticable animals to survive (e.g., horses were exterminated during the pre-historic era in North America).  Have a few large-grain grasses (e.g., a wheat-substitute) around.  Allow for large cities, where innovation is rewarded, at least on a case-by-case basis.  Have multiple small kingdoms, so innovators can hunt for support. Those are some ideas...</blockquote>

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