Editing History of Central America (section)

== Before European contact ==
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In the [[pre-Columbian era]], the northern areas of Central America were inhabited by the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous]] peoples of [[Mesoamerica]]. Most notable among these were the [[Maya peoples]], who had built numerous cities throughout the region, and the [[Aztec]]s, who had created a vast empire. The pre-Columbian cultures of eastern [[El Salvador]], eastern [[Honduras]], Caribbean [[Nicaragua]], most of [[Costa Rica]] and [[Panama]] were predominantly speakers of the [[Chibchan languages]] at the time of European contact and are considered by some<ref name=Hoopes&Fonseca2003/> culturally different and grouped in the [[Isthmo-Colombian Area]].