Squash and chili are the first plants to be cultivated in America, in the Tehuácan valley in modern Mexico

The Maya are believed to have lived in the same region from about 1500 BC to the present day - America's longest example of continuity

San Lorenzo develops as the first centre of America's earliest civilization, that of the Olmecs

Massive stone heads carved by the Olmecs provide a dramatic beginning to the story of American sculpture

The Olmecs raise large clay platforms, probably with temples at the top, beginning the long American tradition of sacred pyramids

La Venta replaces San Lorenzo as the capital city and cultural centre of the Olmecs

An Olmec sculptor creates the piece known today as the Wrestler

The Zapotecs create a great city at Monte Alban, continuing the Olmec culture

The earliest inscriptions in an American script are those of the Zapotecs, from about this period

The Maya independently develop the concept of place value in numbers, previously pioneered in Babylon

The Maya introduce a calendar which has a cycle of fifty-two years, known as the Calendar Round

Teotihuacan, the dominant city in the northern highlands of central America, introduces the god Quetzalcoatl

The temple city of Tikal is one of many Mayan city states of the Classic period

Beans are gathered by the Maya from wild cocoa trees and are probably used in a chocolate drink

Mayan priests feature in stone carvings smoking pipes and puffing the smoke towards the sacred sun

Toltecs move into the valley of Mexico from the north and establish a capital city at Tula

A fair-skinned and bearded king, by the name of Quetzalcoatl, is exiled from Tula but says that he will be back in a 'One Reed' year.

The Mayan city of Chichén Itzá is captured by the Toltecs

The Aztecs begin to move south from their original home, which they call Aztlan, somewhere in northern Mexico

The Aztecs settle on an uninhabited island in a lake, which they name Tenochtitlan — the site of the modern Mexico City

The rulers of Tenochtitlan join with two other neighbouring kingdoms to form the Aztec Triple Alliance

When the enlarged pyramid at Tenochtitlan is dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec sacrifice of human victims lasts for four days

Vasco Núñez de Balboa reaches the Pacific coast and claims the ocean for the king of Spain

The Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes lands on the coast of Mexico with 600 men, 16 horses and about 20 guns

Cortes and his tiny force capture Montezuma, ruler of the mighty Aztec empire, in his palace at Tenochtitlan