Conclusion: The World in 1500

From the perspective of archaeology, almost everything really important in human history had already happened by 1500! Homo sapiens had evolved, had expanded to all parts of the world, including the Americas, Australia, and Oceania, and had domesticated all the plants and animals upon which we still depend for food. Complex states had developed on five continents, with class stratification, full-time occupational specialization, and market exchange. The major religions of the world today had already developed. Technologically, fundamental inventions upon which we still depend, such as the wheel, metallurgy, mathematics, and writing, had already occurred. The humans in the two halves of the world were again reunited, and new food crops from the Americas spurred population growth in Europe, Africa and Asia. The stage was set for mass migrations of people across the oceans, and for the beginning of industrialism.

As noted, five continents had developed agrarian states, some of them very large both geographically and in terms of population. Yet in 1500, over half the occupied areas of earth were home to bands, tribes, and chiefdoms, not states. Foragers still inhabited all of the continent of Australia, small parts of south and central Africa, small parts of southern Asia, most of the far north of Eurasia and the far south of South America, as well as a few small areas in the Amazon basin. In addition, foragers occupied most of North America north of what is now the United States, as well as much of the western US. The majority of the foragers of the world were organized in egalitarian bands, with the exception of those along the Pacific coast north of California up through Alaska, where abundant food resources and large populations led to ranked chiefdoms.

Horticultural and pastoral tribes and chiefdoms occupied huge chunks of the world. Eastern Africa, particularly south of Egypt, was home to hundreds of tribal pastoralists, while much of central and western Africa supported horticulturalists, many of them organized as complex chiefdoms. Central Asia was home to many pastoral chiefdoms, as well as horticultural tribes. Oceania was full of horticultural chiefdoms, while New Guinea had hundreds of horticultural tribes. Horticultural tribes and chiefdoms also occupied the entire eastern half of South America, as well as some of the Caribbean islands. In North America, the American southwest was occupied by the Pueblo, horticultural tribes. Many areas along the Mississippi River and its tributaries were the home to complex horticultural chiefdoms; the rest of eastern North America was occupied by horticultural tribes and chiefdoms. The half of the world occupied by these non-state peoples was gradually to sucumb to the expansion of industrialism over the next 500 years of human history. The pattern of warfare between the world's states continues to the present.

The world at 1500 was culturally and linguistically as diverse as it ever would be again. Covering even the high points of so much cultural diversity can be confusing. As a help to keeping cultures straight and to gaining some appreciation of what the world was like in 1500, two chronology charts are found below. The first deals with Asia, Africa and Europe; the second does the same for the Americas. For the second chart, the events discussed in Unit 2 in Oceania and in North America north of Mexico are added. Print the charts out, cut them out in order to view them side by side, and you will have a chart of the world's cultures from 4000 BC to 1500 AD. The ones in red are the states you need to know something about for the Unit 3 exam.

Old World Chronology

New World/Oceania Chronology