I will only speak of metallurgy in Europe and the Americas, as speaking of Africa and Asia would only make the explanation more complicated and challenging, even if it’s really interesting.
Metallurgy is highly complex. In order to make a metal weapon or tool you would need to know how, and figuring out that you can mine the earth, take certain rocks, heat and purify them and then shape them, which isn't something that's easy to figure out.
Copper was used from 5000 BC in North America. Knives, fishhooks and bracelets were made. The Great Lakes, Northeast, and Mississippian culture areas valued and produced it. Copper shield-like items were used in the Pacific Northwest as a marker of status and wealth. All of them worked naturally occurring metal deposits, but did not smelt iron or practice bronze metallurgy.
To make bronze, you need to mix copper and tin. Europe & Asia Minor had copper & tin in relative proximity, so bronze could be discovered by the accidental mixing of the two, and then further developed. So no tin, no bronze. No bronze, probably no easy path to ironworking.
Before you say it, I know that arsenical bronze did exist and was the predominant alloy in Ecuador and north and central Peru, co-existing with tin bronze from central and southern Andes or Bolivia during the Inca Empire.
There are few tin deposits in North America (outside of Alaska), and most of them are not workable without at least 19th century mining technology. Further south, the only known exploitable source of tin during ancient times is located in the Zacatecas tin province of north central Mexico which supplied west Mexican cultures with enough tin for bronze production. Moving to the south again, tin deposits exist in many parts of South America, with minor deposits in southern Peru, Colombia, Brazil, and northwestern Argentina, and major deposits of exploitable cassiterite in northern Bolivia. These deposits were exploited as early as 1000 AD in the manufacture of tin bronze by Andean cultures, including the later Inca Empire.
Southern civilizations had some metallurgical capabilities developed on their own and inherited from predecessors in that area, but neither they, nor any group in the Americas had yet gotten to the point of producing enough tin and copper to equip large armies with bronze weapons. Bronze was mostly seen as an expensive substitute for the equally efficient stone.
The only exception is the Inca, but Andean people saw metal in a fundamentally different way from Europeans. Metal was a material of symbolic, religious importance. Using it for utilitarian purposes was wasteful. To be sure, there were bronze weapons and other tools, but these were always elite, symbolic objects. Technically, the Inca did finally produce metal/bronze weapons en masse for their troops, but it occurred post-contact.
Another reason why North Americans weren’t as advanced in metallurgy was also because there was a lack of population density. Cahokia, Mississippian culture, may have reached a population of over 20,000. It was the biggest city in precolumbian North America. There was a much smaller population and a smaller density of population in North America, which meant that there was less people who could innovate and discover things. For example, just to illustrate my point, let’s say that for every 100 people there is going to be 1 person who is intelligent, skilled, and lucky enough to make a breakthrough innovation or discovery. Then a population of 1,000 people will have 10 of those kinds of people, while a population of 10,000 will have 100 of those kinds of people.
Smelted iron is also a bigger leap, as iron ore does not in any meaningful way resemble usable iron. Just knowing you can turn it into a useful metal for tools was a leap and for this leap, you need previous knowledge in metallurgy. All of the civilizations that produced iron had a working knowledge of how to smelt other metals using high temperatures and hammering to create tools and weapons. Except the Inca, most Native Americans would have no reason to believe that iron was even capable of being smelted, as none of the kilns or furnaces they used got to temperatures hot enough for that.
There was also no “Silk Road” in North America, which was a huge source of innovations and ideas. Smelting of ores and production of bronze and other copper alloys developed in the Andes and spread to Mesoamerica, but not further due to a lack of trade with the north.
Mesoamericans and Incas both used armor, which most other tribes didn’t, but they used quilted cotton or compressed fiber armor. Some cultures also had armors made from carefully arranged pieces of wood, sometimes laminated or made of boiled leather which is the most common sort of armor worldwide for millennia. Archeologists never found any bronze or iron armors in Southern or Mesoamerica, a bronze or iron armor was not suited to the environment and Conquistadores later suffered from exhaustion and heatstroke.
Culturally, most civilizations developed iron militarily and used it to produce weapons that would be longer lasting and not easy to break, but Mesoamerican and North American warfare didn't need that. Heavy infantry didn’t become common and large pitched battles were a rarity, as warfare relied on projectile weapons. No arms race occurred in favor of metallurgy.
Wood clubs studded with obsidian or flint were as practical and sturdy as any bronze or iron weapons and far cheaper and simpler to make in quantity. They were enough to defeat their pre-conquest opponents. The native tribes adapted to the use of armor and steel weapons, most directly the Incas, as the wars against Spanish conquest lasted.
You need a lot of POD’s to have North American natives discover bronze and thus iron.
Metallurgy is highly complex. In order to make a metal weapon or tool you would need to know how, and figuring out that you can mine the earth, take certain rocks, heat and purify them and then shape them, which isn't something that's easy to figure out.
Copper was used from 5000 BC in North America. Knives, fishhooks and bracelets were made. The Great Lakes, Northeast, and Mississippian culture areas valued and produced it. Copper shield-like items were used in the Pacific Northwest as a marker of status and wealth. All of them worked naturally occurring metal deposits, but did not smelt iron or practice bronze metallurgy.
To make bronze, you need to mix copper and tin. Europe & Asia Minor had copper & tin in relative proximity, so bronze could be discovered by the accidental mixing of the two, and then further developed. So no tin, no bronze. No bronze, probably no easy path to ironworking.
Before you say it, I know that arsenical bronze did exist and was the predominant alloy in Ecuador and north and central Peru, co-existing with tin bronze from central and southern Andes or Bolivia during the Inca Empire.
There are few tin deposits in North America (outside of Alaska), and most of them are not workable without at least 19th century mining technology. Further south, the only known exploitable source of tin during ancient times is located in the Zacatecas tin province of north central Mexico which supplied west Mexican cultures with enough tin for bronze production. Moving to the south again, tin deposits exist in many parts of South America, with minor deposits in southern Peru, Colombia, Brazil, and northwestern Argentina, and major deposits of exploitable cassiterite in northern Bolivia. These deposits were exploited as early as 1000 AD in the manufacture of tin bronze by Andean cultures, including the later Inca Empire.
Southern civilizations had some metallurgical capabilities developed on their own and inherited from predecessors in that area, but neither they, nor any group in the Americas had yet gotten to the point of producing enough tin and copper to equip large armies with bronze weapons. Bronze was mostly seen as an expensive substitute for the equally efficient stone.
The only exception is the Inca, but Andean people saw metal in a fundamentally different way from Europeans. Metal was a material of symbolic, religious importance. Using it for utilitarian purposes was wasteful. To be sure, there were bronze weapons and other tools, but these were always elite, symbolic objects. Technically, the Inca did finally produce metal/bronze weapons en masse for their troops, but it occurred post-contact.
Another reason why North Americans weren’t as advanced in metallurgy was also because there was a lack of population density. Cahokia, Mississippian culture, may have reached a population of over 20,000. It was the biggest city in precolumbian North America. There was a much smaller population and a smaller density of population in North America, which meant that there was less people who could innovate and discover things. For example, just to illustrate my point, let’s say that for every 100 people there is going to be 1 person who is intelligent, skilled, and lucky enough to make a breakthrough innovation or discovery. Then a population of 1,000 people will have 10 of those kinds of people, while a population of 10,000 will have 100 of those kinds of people.
Smelted iron is also a bigger leap, as iron ore does not in any meaningful way resemble usable iron. Just knowing you can turn it into a useful metal for tools was a leap and for this leap, you need previous knowledge in metallurgy. All of the civilizations that produced iron had a working knowledge of how to smelt other metals using high temperatures and hammering to create tools and weapons. Except the Inca, most Native Americans would have no reason to believe that iron was even capable of being smelted, as none of the kilns or furnaces they used got to temperatures hot enough for that.
There was also no “Silk Road” in North America, which was a huge source of innovations and ideas. Smelting of ores and production of bronze and other copper alloys developed in the Andes and spread to Mesoamerica, but not further due to a lack of trade with the north.
Mesoamericans and Incas both used armor, which most other tribes didn’t, but they used quilted cotton or compressed fiber armor. Some cultures also had armors made from carefully arranged pieces of wood, sometimes laminated or made of boiled leather which is the most common sort of armor worldwide for millennia. Archeologists never found any bronze or iron armors in Southern or Mesoamerica, a bronze or iron armor was not suited to the environment and Conquistadores later suffered from exhaustion and heatstroke.
Culturally, most civilizations developed iron militarily and used it to produce weapons that would be longer lasting and not easy to break, but Mesoamerican and North American warfare didn't need that. Heavy infantry didn’t become common and large pitched battles were a rarity, as warfare relied on projectile weapons. No arms race occurred in favor of metallurgy.
Wood clubs studded with obsidian or flint were as practical and sturdy as any bronze or iron weapons and far cheaper and simpler to make in quantity. They were enough to defeat their pre-conquest opponents. The native tribes adapted to the use of armor and steel weapons, most directly the Incas, as the wars against Spanish conquest lasted.
You need a lot of POD’s to have North American natives discover bronze and thus iron.
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