Empire of The Mound Builders

In Mexico, and Central and South America the great Empires lost to the might of the Europeans, but what if there had been a great North American Empire? The Pod is that during the Late Woodland period the great Mississippian Culture known as the mound biulders did not suffer from population dispertion as it did OTL, instead it became more centralized as its people became switched to becoming an agrarian culture.
 
In Mexico, and Central and South America the great Empires lost to the might of the Europeans, but what if there had been a great North American Empire? The Pod is that during the Late Woodland period the great Mississippian Culture known as the mound biulders did not suffer from population dispertion as it did OTL, instead it became more centralized as its people became switched to becoming an agrarian culture.
Err... They WERE agrarian. That was part of their problem. Studies have shown that their health got worse over time - possibly due to increased population, possibly due to fertility in their fields being exhausted. IIRC, they relied too heavily on corn (which leads to amino acid deficiencies), and didn't have a great source of animal protein.

Also, it is very clear that the Mound Builders weren't a single group. At the time of first European contact, some of the southern Mound builders still survived, and they spoke languages from at least 2 language families (Caddoan and Muskogee???). The Moundbuilders on the Ohio river presumably spoke a northern language (Algonkian? Siouxan?) unrelated to those used in the south.

Would this prevent an empire? No, of course, not. There are lots of multilingual empires in history.

OTOH, maintaining control over a large area with stone age tech would be difficult.
 
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