Mesoamerica and Caribbean: every state, empire and people from 3200 BCE to today
The Mesoamerica and Caribbean section of the timeline follows 118 states, empires, colonies and peoples from 3200 BCE to today, in 6 areas: Northern Mexico, Central and West Mexico, Gulf Coast and Oaxaca, Maya Lowlands and Highlands, Lower Central America and Caribbean. Among the most significant are Olmec civilization, Teotihuacan, Classic Maya civilization, Taíno chiefdoms, New Spain and Haiti.
Open Mesoamerica and Caribbean on the interactive timeline
Northern Mexico
- Desert Archaic foragers
- Early farmers of the northern deserts
- Chalchihuites culture
- La Quemada
- Trincheras tradition
- Chichimeca peoples
- Yaqui, Mayo and Raramuri peoples
- Casas Grandes (Paquimé)
- Nueva Vizcaya
Central and West Mexico
- Archaic maize farmers
- Tlatilco culture
- Cuicuilco
- Cholula
- Teuchitlán tradition
- Teotihuacan
- Xochicalco
- Toltec state (Tula)
- Tepanec state (Azcapotzalco)
- Mexica city-state (Tenochtitlan)
- Tlaxcala
- Tarascan state
- Aztec Empire (Triple Alliance)
- New Spain
- First Mexican Empire
- Mexico
- Second Mexican Empire
Gulf Coast and Oaxaca
- Archaic foragers of Oaxaca and the Gulf
- Olmec civilization
- San José Mogote
- San Lorenzo phase (Olmec)
- La Venta phase (Olmec)
- Zapotec state (Monte Albán)
- Epi-Olmec culture
- El Tajín (Classic Veracruz)
- Zapotec city-states (Zaachila, Mitla)
- Huastec (Teenek) peoples
- Mixtec kingdoms
- Totonac (Cempoala)
- Zapotec, Mixtec and Mixe peoples
Maya Lowlands and Highlands
- Archaic peoples of the Maya region
- Mokaya culture
- Early Preclassic Maya villages
- Kaminaljuyu
- Izapa
- El Mirador
- Tikal (Mutal)
- Classic Maya civilization
- Caracol
- Kaan kingdom (Calakmul)
- Copan
- Palenque (Baakal)
- Puuc cities (Uxmal)
- Chichen Itza
- Mayapan
- K'iche' kingdom
- Yucatec Maya provinces
- Itza kingdom (Nojpetén)
- Kaqchikel kingdom
- Maya peoples (colonial and modern)
- Captaincy General of Guatemala
- Baymen settlement of Belize
- Guatemala
- Republic of Yucatán
- Chan Santa Cruz
- British Honduras
- Belize
Lower Central America
- Archaic foragers and gardeners of the isthmus
- Monagrillo culture
- Guayabo de Turrialba
- Greater Nicoya cultures
- Chibchan chiefdoms (Costa Rica and Panama)
- Gran Coclé chiefdoms
- Diquís culture
- Nicarao chiefdom
- Spanish Panama (Castilla de Oro)
- Mosquito Kingdom
- Federal Republic of Central America
- Honduras
- Nicaragua
- Costa Rica
- El Salvador
- Panama
- Panama Canal Zone
Caribbean
- Casimiroid culture
- Ortoiroid culture
- Saladoid culture
- Ostionoid culture
- Lucayan Taíno
- Taíno chiefdoms
- Island Caribs (Kalinago)
- Captaincy General of Santo Domingo
- Spanish Puerto Rico
- Spanish Jamaica
- Spanish Cuba
- British West Indies
- Dutch Caribbean
- French Antilles
- Colony of Jamaica
- Danish West Indies
- Saint-Domingue
- Haiti
- Kingdom of Haiti
- Dominican Republic
- Puerto Rico (US territory)
- Republic of Cuba
- Guadeloupe and Martinique (French departments)
- West Indies Federation
- Cuba
- Jamaica
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Barbados
- Bahamas
- Grenada
- Dominica
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
Key events
- Oldest known ballcourt built. Villagers at Paso de la Amada on the Chiapas coast build a court for the rubber ball game, a sport played across Mesoamerica for the next 3,000 years.
- San Lorenzo rises as the first Olmec center. Olmec rulers at San Lorenzo carve colossal basalt heads from stone dragged some 60 km from the Tuxtla Mountains.
- Monte Albán founded. Zapotec communities of the Valley of Oaxaca build a new capital on a mountaintop, one of the first cities in Mesoamerica.
- Early Long Count date at Tres Zapotes. Stela C at Tres Zapotes records a date in 32 BCE in the Long Count calendar, later used by the Classic Maya.
- Pyramid of the Sun completed. Teotihuacan finishes its largest monument, about 65 m tall, over a cave that was a sacred place before the city grew.
- Teotihuacan intervenes at Tikal. The warlord Siyaj K'ak' arrives at Tikal from Teotihuacan on the day its king dies and installs a new dynasty.
- Tikal defeats Calakmul. Jasaw Chan K'awiil of Tikal defeats Yich'aak K'ahk' of Calakmul, ending the dominance of the Snake kingdom in the southern lowlands.
- Classic Maya collapse. Over about a century, the southern lowland Maya cities stop raising monuments and lose most of their people, amid drought, warfare and failing kingship.
- Tenochtitlan founded. The Mexica settle on an island in Lake Texcoco where, in their legend, an eagle perched on a cactus.
- Triple Alliance formed. Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan defeat Azcapotzalco and form the alliance that becomes the Aztec Empire.
- Columbus reaches the Caribbean. Columbus lands in the Bahamas on 12 October and goes on to Cuba and Hispaniola, beginning permanent contact between Europe and the Americas.
- Fall of Tenochtitlan. After a siege of about 80 days, Cortés and tens of thousands of Tlaxcalan and other allies capture the Aztec capital, already ravaged by smallpox.
- Cocoliztli epidemic. A pestilence called cocoliztli kills a large part of the native population of New Spain between 1545 and 1548.
- Fall of Nojpetén. Spanish forces storm the island capital of the Itza, the last independent Maya kingdom.
- Haitian Revolution begins. Enslaved people in northern Saint-Domingue rise up. Under Toussaint Louverture and Dessalines they abolish slavery and win independence in 1804.
- Grito de Dolores. The priest Miguel Hidalgo calls for revolt against Spanish rule, starting the Mexican War of Independence, won in 1821.
- Caste War of Yucatán begins. Maya peasants rise against the Yucatecan elite and nearly take Mérida. Rebels hold eastern Yucatán for over 50 years.
- Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico cedes California, New Mexico and its claims to Texas to the United States, about half its territory.
- Mexican Revolution. A revolt against Porfirio Díaz turns into a decade of civil war that kills about a million people and produces the Constitution of 1917.
- Panama Canal opens. The US-built canal links the Atlantic and Pacific after ten years of work, cutting about 13,000 km off the voyage from New York to San Francisco.
- Cuban Revolution. Fidel Castro's guerrillas take Havana after Batista flees. Within two years Cuba is a socialist state allied with the Soviet Union.
- Cuban Missile Crisis. A standoff over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba brings the United States and the Soviet Union close to nuclear war for thirteen days in October.