Editing History of South America (section)

===The Amazon===
{{See also|Amazon rainforest#History|Chachapoya culture}}
[[File:Fazenda Colorada.jpg|thumb|150px|left|Geoglyphs on deforested land in the Amazon rainforest]]
For a long time, scholars believed that Amazon forests were occupied by small numbers of hunter-gatherer tribes. Archeologist [[Betty J. Meggers]] was a prominent proponent of this idea, as described in her book ''Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise''. However, recent archeological findings have suggested that the region was densely populated.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Margolis |first=Mac |date=2025-02-06 |title=Lost cities of the Amazon: how science is revealing ancient garden towns hidden in the rainforest |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/feb/06/ancient-garden-cities-amazon-indigenous-technologies-archaeology-lost-civilisations-environment-terra-preta |access-date=2025-03-01 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> From the 1970s, numerous [[geoglyph]]s have been discovered on deforested land dating between 0–1250 CE. Additional finds have led to conclusions that there were highly developed and populous cultures in the forests, organized as [[Pre-Columbian era|Pre-Columbian]] civilizations.<ref name="Simon Romero">{{Cite news |last=Romero |first=Simon |date=2012-01-14 |title=Once Hidden by Forest, Carvings in Land Attest to Amazon's Lost World |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/world/americas/land-carvings-attest-to-amazons-lost-world.html |access-date=2024-07-06 |work=[[The New York Times]] |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The BBC's ''[[Unnatural Histories (TV series)|Unnatural Histories]]'' claimed that the Amazon rainforest, rather than being a pristine [[wilderness]], has been shaped by man for at least 11,000 years through practices such as [[forest gardening]].<ref name=bbc>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0122njp|title=Unnatural Histories – Amazon|publisher=BBC Four}}</ref> The discovery of the [[Upano Valley sites]] in present-day eastern Ecuador predate all known complex Amazonian societies.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Yuhas |first1=Alan |last2=Jiménez |first2=Jesus |date=2024-01-23 |title=Remnants of Sprawling Ancient Cities Are Found in the Amazon |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/23/science/ecuador-amazon-cities-discovery.html |access-date=2024-07-06 |work=[[The New York Times]] |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

The first European to travel the length of the [[Amazon River]] was [[Francisco de Orellana]] in 1542.<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=A|title=Explorers of the Amazon|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|year=1994|isbn=978-0-226-76337-8|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/explorersofamazo00smit}}</ref> The BBC documentary ''Unnatural Histories'' presents evidence that Francisco de Orellana, rather than exaggerating his claims as previously thought, was correct in his observations that an advanced civilization was flourishing along the Amazon in the 1540s. It is believed that the civilization was later devastated by the spread of infectious diseases from Europe, such as [[smallpox]], to which the natives had no immunity.<ref name=bbc /> Some 5 million people may have lived in the Amazon region in 1500, divided between dense coastal settlements, such as that at [[Marajoara culture|Marajó]], and inland dwellers.<ref name="park">{{cite book|author=Chris C. Park|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4WQf6RZAiKcC&pg=PA108|title=Tropical Rainforests|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|isbn=9780415062398|page=108}}</ref> By 1900 the population had fallen to 1 million, and by the early 1980s, it was less than 200,000.<ref name=park />

Researchers have found that the fertile ''[[terra preta]]'' (black earth) is distributed over large areas in the Amazon forest. It is now widely accepted that these soils are a product of indigenous [[soil management]]. The development of this soil enabled [[agriculture]] and [[silviculture]] to be conducted in the previously hostile environment. Large portions of the Amazon rainforest are therefore probably the result of centuries of human management, rather than naturally occurring as has previously been supposed.<ref>The influence of human alteration has been generally underestimated, reports Darna L. Dufour: "Much of what has been considered natural forest in Amazonia is probably the result of hundreds of years of human use and management." "Use of Tropical Rainforests by Native Amazonians", ''BioScience'' 40, no. 9 (October 1990):658. For an example of how such peoples integrated planting into their nomadic lifestyles, see Rival, Laura, 1993. "The Growth of Family Trees: Understanding Huaorani Perceptions of the Forest", ''Man'' 28(4):635–652.</ref> In the region of the [[Xinguanos]] tribe, remains of some of these large, mid-forest Amazon settlements were found in 2003 by Michael Heckenberger and colleagues of the [[University of Florida]]. Among those remains were evidence of constructed roads, bridges and large plazas.<ref>{{Citation
|last1=Heckenberger
|first1=M.J.
|publication-date=2003
|date=19 September 2003
|title= Amazonia 1492: Pristine Forest or Cultural Parkland?
|periodical=Science
|volume=301
|issue=5640
|pages=1710–1714
|doi=10.1126/science.1086112
|pmid=14500979
|last2=Kuikuro
|first2=A
|last3=Kuikuro
|first3=UT
|last4=Russell
|first4=JC
|last5=Schmidt
|first5=M
|last6=Fausto
|first6=C
|last7=Franchetto
|first7=B
|bibcode=2003Sci...301.1710H
|s2cid=7962308
}}</ref>