Pre-Columbian CivilizationsCultures flourished thousands of years before Europeans arrived in the New World. Great empires such as the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas inhabited the vast lands of Central and South America. These three great powers controlled the earth before Christopher Columbus or Cortez were even born. Although pre-Columbian civilizations and Europeans shared some similar ideas, life in the New World was very different from that of medieval Europe. In the New World there were three main civilizations, the Aztecs, the Mayans and the Incas. Even though these civilizations came from the same area, they all have different cultures and thoughts. Many similarities can be found, but differences can be spotted when cultures are examined in depth. The Aztec civilization covered much of present-day Mexico. It was made up of bands of marauding warriors who had emigrated from the north. The god of the sun and war for the Aztecs was Huitzilpochtli. The Mayan civilization was the oldest of the three, born around 2500 BC in present-day Guatemala and covered the jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula. The Inca civilization began around 1200 AD and was found in the Andes mountains in what is now Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. Like pre-Columbian civilizations, the European kingdoms of the Middle Ages had similar qualities such as government structures. Spain, Portugal, England and the rest of Europe used the feudal system to resolve social differences. The king and queen were the head of state, followed by princesses, princes, bishops and other ecclesiastical officials. Then came the merchants and artisans followed by the humble serfs and farmers who work the land for the system. The discovery of the new world is what led to the fall of the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas. The Europeans were greatly outnumbered when they arrived in the New World and could easily have been crushed by the warriors of these powerful pre-Columbian civilizations. Lack of knowledge and deception were what led to their downfall. The "Indians" were stunned as they tried to understand what horses were and how it was possible that man and horse were not the same creature. La Malinche led the Aztecs to believe that horses could speak and think for themselves and that Herenan Cortez was indeed a god.