[NavyCanDo]

When you really think about it, Most of natives living in the Americas were literally still in the Stone Age when Columbus arrived. They had not even discovered the wheel yet, or discovered basic metallurgy. Eventually the two societies would have to meet each other. If not Columbus, it would have been someone else, and there would be someone else’s name they would be dragging through the mud.

[af_vet_rr]

When you really think about it, Most of natives living in the Americas were literally still in the Stone Age when Columbus arrived. They had not even discovered the wheel yet, or discovered basic metallurgy. Eventually the two societies would have to meet each other. If not Columbus, it would have been someone else, and there would be someone else’s name they would be dragging through the mud.

Actually if you've ever visited any of the structures in Central and South America, you wouldn't think they were so primitive. Even here in North America, there were some very complex structures and city-states in existence. Some of the cities were not surpassed in North America by European colonists until later in the 1800s. As for materials, metals, etc., they worked with what they had easily available, and they dealt with the terrain and animals they had available.

They had actually discovered the wheel in the Americas around 1500 B.C., however without beasts of burden, it was pretty useless, given the terrain and what their cultures needed. I take that back, there were bison in the Americas, but hooking up bison to a cart is one of those "HERE HOLD MY BEER AND WATCH THIS" kinds of moments.

[lentulusgracchus]

They had not even discovered the wheel yet, or discovered basic metallurgy.

The Moches and other Indian peoples of South America were good metallurgists, working in copper, silver, and gold (not iron). They were, I suppose, "chalcolithic". That's what brought the Spaniards running. Columbus spotted small gold decorative items in Cuba, that's what started it all.