I've never heard anything believable along these lines. For starters, the only Mesoamerican state reliably claimed to work on metal more advanced than copper were the Tarascans, who were supposedly working with bronze on a rather limited scale. And the Tarascans were neither Nahua, nor were they a credible existential threat to the Aztecs as is often claimed here especially. They weren't very populous or developed in comparison to central Mexico. Nor were the other Nahua states in any position to topple the Mexica's hegemony. The only real rival to the Aztec state that was unconquered was Tlaxcala, and by the time the Spanish arrived their nation was already surrounded on all sides by the Aztecs and losing badly. Hell, some of their leaders actually advocating siding with the Mexica against the Spanish. They weren't going to win against them (without random Europeans popping up out of nowhere to pretend to be allies) without a POD taking place long before Cortez ever showed up.while the Aztecs were on the way to be replaced by other Mesoamerican Nahua powers (one of these had Iron). The Missisipians also seem to be a popular choice to wank.
If a native country that hugs the Caribbean coast and makes it "their sea" could become developed, right? I mean, ships are faster than horses.
If a native country that hugs the Caribbean coast and makes it "their sea" could become developed, right? I mean, ships are faster than horses.
Where did you hear that? It just sounds like more loopy, hysterical anti-Aztec myths. They were in no way close to a republic or a real meritocracy. Politically they were extremely similar to the Aztecs, Tlaxcala was a confederacy of four city-states with traditional Nahua political organization (and one city holding more power than the others), that being a hereditary monarchy and all. And that they were never conquered isn't particularly impressive since they were only recently surrounded by the Aztec Empire (which hadn't existed that long) and were most definitely losing by the time Cortez showed up. Even then, their continued independence owed a lot to the fact that the Aztecs took their time with them and didn't consider depriving them of independence to be very important when they could so easily extract tribute from them without occupation.You could take a look at the Tlaxcalteca/Tlaxcallan. They were the largest, weirdest divergence from the Nahua cultural governance system. In short, they were the closest thing to a republic the Americas had. A meritocracy, in fact, and highly capable given they were surrounded by the Aztecs and their allies but were never conquered.