<P> Before contact with Europeans, the indigenous peoples of North America were divided into many different polities, from small bands of a few families to large empires . They lived in several "culture areas", which roughly correspond to geographic and biological zones and give a good indication of the main lifeway or occupation of the people who lived there (e.g. the hunters of the Great Plains, or the farmers of Mesoamerica). Native groups can also be classified by their language family (e.g. Athapascan or Uto - Aztecan). It is important to note that people with similar languages did not always share the same material culture, nor were they always allies . </P> <P> The Archaic period in the Americas saw a changing environment featuring a warmer more arid climate and the disappearance of the last megafauna . The majority of population groups at this time were still highly mobile hunter - gatherers; but now individual groups started to focus on resources available to them locally, thus with the passage of time there is a pattern of increasing regional generalization like, the Southwest, Arctic, Poverty, Dalton and Plano traditions . This regional adaptations would become the norm, with reliance less on hunting and gathering, with a more mixed economy of small game, fish, seasonally wild vegetables and harvested plant foods . Many groups continued as big game hunters, however their hunting traditions became more varied and meat procurement methods more sophisticated . The placement of artifacts and materials within an Archaic burial site indicated social differentiation based upon status in some groups . </P> <P> The more southern cultural groups of North America were responsible for the domestication of many common crops now used around the world, such as tomatoes and squash . Perhaps most importantly they domesticated one of the world's major staples, maize (corn). </P> <P> As a result of the development of agriculture in the south, many important cultural advances were made there . For example, the Maya civilization developed a writing system, built huge pyramids, had a complex calendar, and developed the concept of zero 500 years before anyone in the Old World . The Mayan culture was still present when the Spanish arrived in Central America, but political dominance in the area had shifted to the Aztec Empire further north . </P>

The spanish and french north american empires were densely populated