The Neolithic era began more than 10,000 years ago in Mesoamerica with the cultivation of maize. Crops like sweet potatoes, beans and cacao were cultivated and spread throughout the Americas through trade networks.

Each Indigenous nation developed its own unique governance models to control their citizens and expand their territories. These systems ranged from patriarchal and matrilineal-based societies to complex political systems governing multi-nation empires. Complex trade networks developed to satisfy political, social and economic goals.