South America: every state, empire and people from 3200 BCE to today
The South America section of the timeline follows 107 states, empires, colonies and peoples from 3200 BCE to today, in 6 areas: Northern Andes, Peruvian Coast, Central Andean Highlands, Amazon and Guianas, Brazil and Southern Cone. Among the most significant are Caral-Supe (Norte Chico), Moche (Mochica), Chavín culture, Tiwanaku, Portuguese Brazil and Viceroyalty of Peru.
Open South America on the interactive timeline
Northern Andes
- Northern Andean Archaic peoples
- Valdivia culture
- Machalilla culture
- Chorrera culture
- Tumaco-La Tolita culture
- Zenú culture
- San Agustín culture
- Quimbaya culture
- Tairona
- Cañari
- Tierradentro culture
- Muisca Confederation
- Manteño-Huancavilca culture
- Klein-Venedig (Welser Venezuela)
- New Kingdom of Granada
- Province of Venezuela
- Real Audiencia of Quito
- Viceroyalty of New Granada
- Captaincy General of Venezuela
- Gran Colombia
- Venezuela
- Ecuador
- Colombia
Peruvian Coast
- Archaic fishing villages of the Peruvian coast
- Caral-Supe (Norte Chico)
- Casma valley centers (Sechín)
- Cupisnique culture
- Paracas culture
- Nazca culture
- Moche (Mochica)
- Lima culture
- Sicán (Lambayeque)
- Chimú kingdom (Chimor)
- Chancay culture
- Chincha kingdom
- Governorate of New Castile
- Viceroyalty of Peru
- Peru
Central Andean Highlands
- Andean Archaic hunters and herders
- Kotosh religious tradition
- Chiripa culture
- Chavín culture
- Pukara culture
- Recuay culture
- Tiwanaku
- Wari Empire
- Aymara kingdoms (Colla, Lupaca)
- Chanka confederation
- Kingdom of Cusco
- Inca Empire (Tawantinsuyu)
- Quechua and Aymara peoples
- Neo-Inca State of Vilcabamba
- Charcas (Upper Peru)
- Bolivia
- Peru-Bolivian Confederation
Amazon and Guianas
- Amazonian Archaic foragers
- Mayo-Chinchipe culture
- Barrancoid culture
- Upano valley settlements
- Marajoara culture
- Arawakan peoples of the Amazon
- Carib peoples of the Guianas
- Santarém culture (Tapajó)
- Dutch Essequibo, Berbice and Demerara
- State of Maranhão and Grão-Pará
- French Guiana
- Dutch Suriname
- British Guiana
- Guyana
- Suriname
Brazil
- Sambaqui shell-mound builders
- Interior Archaic hunter-gatherers
- Jê peoples
- Tupi-Guarani peoples
- Upper Xingu garden cities
- Portuguese Brazil
- France Antarctique
- Quilombo dos Palmares
- Dutch Brazil (New Holland)
- United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves
- Empire of Brazil
- Riograndense Republic
- Brazil
Southern Cone
- Chinchorro culture
- Pampas and Patagonian Archaic hunters
- Fuegian canoe peoples (Yaghan, Kawésqar)
- Formative cultures of northwest Argentina
- Patagonian peoples (Tehuelche, Selk'nam)
- El Molle culture
- Aguada culture
- Diaguita
- Mapuche
- Charrúa
- Guaraní
- Governorate of the Río de la Plata
- Captaincy General of Chile
- Araucanía (independent Mapuche lands)
- Jesuit reductions
- Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
- United Provinces of the Río de la Plata
- Paraguay
- Cisplatina
- Chile
- Uruguay
- Argentine Confederation
- Falkland Islands
- Argentina
Key events
- Earliest known use of cacao. People at Santa Ana-La Florida in the Ecuadorian Amazon use domesticated cacao, about 1,500 years before it appears in Mesoamerica.
- Caral builds the first cities of the Americas. Platform mounds and sunken plazas rise at Caral in the Supe valley, part of a network of towns that traded cotton and fish between coast and valley.
- Chavín de Huántar becomes a pilgrimage center. The temple at Chavín draws pilgrims from across the Andes, and its art becomes the first style shared over most of Peru.
- Nazca Lines drawn. The Nazca begin scraping huge animal figures and straight lines into the desert of southern Peru, many visible in full only from the air.
- Wari and Tiwanaku expand. Two highland states spread their power across the Andes, Wari through roads and administrative centers and Tiwanaku through colonies and trade.
- Pachacuti defeats the Chanka. After saving Cusco from the Chanka, Pachacuti takes the throne and begins the conquests that create Tawantinsuyu.
- Cabral lands in Brazil. Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet, bound for India, reaches the coast of Bahia and claims Brazil for Portugal.
- Pizarro captures Atahualpa at Cajamarca. About 170 Spaniards seize the Inca emperor, fresh from victory in a civil war. Atahualpa is executed in 1533 despite paying a room full of gold.
- Orellana descends the Amazon. Francisco de Orellana's party travels the length of the Amazon and reports dense populations along its banks, later emptied by disease.
- Silver found at Potosí. The Cerro Rico of Potosí proves the richest silver deposit ever found. Its output fuels Spanish power and world trade for two centuries.
- Execution of Tupac Amaru. Viceroy Francisco de Toledo has the last Inca ruler of Vilcabamba beheaded in the main square of Cusco.
- Battle of Curalaba. Mapuche forces kill the governor of Chile and destroy the Spanish towns south of the Biobío, which stays the frontier for nearly 300 years.
- Fall of Palmares. A colonial army led by bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho destroys Macaco, capital of the largest runaway slave kingdom in Brazil.
- Rebellion of Tupac Amaru II. The kuraka José Gabriel Condorcanqui leads the largest Indigenous revolt in colonial Spanish America. Tens of thousands die before he is executed in 1781.
- Portuguese court arrives in Rio. Fleeing Napoleon, the Portuguese royal family moves to Rio de Janeiro, making it the capital of a European empire.
- Battle of Ayacucho. Antonio José de Sucre defeats the last royalist army in Peru, ending Spanish rule on the South American mainland.
- Paraguayan War begins. Paraguay fights Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay until 1870, the deadliest interstate war in Latin American history.
- War of the Pacific. Chile defeats Peru and Bolivia over the nitrate deserts of Atacama. Bolivia loses its coast, and Peru loses Tarapacá.
- Brazil abolishes slavery. Princess Isabel signs the Golden Law, freeing about 700,000 enslaved people. Brazil is the last country in the Americas to end slavery.
- Brasília inaugurated. Brazil moves its capital to a planned city built in under four years on the central plateau, designed by Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer.
- Coup in Chile. The armed forces overthrow President Salvador Allende, who dies in the presidential palace. Augusto Pinochet rules until 1990.