WI Earlier Invention of Chinampas in Mesoamerica

[El Terremoto]

Chinampas were an incredibly productive and efficient form of wetlands agriculture invented and practiced in Mesoamerica sometime after the 1000s CE. In an effort to not rant for paragraphs about them, basically they're a way to maximize yields per acre utilizing aqua-and-agriculture. They were incredibly useful in Lake Texcoco and were one of the main reasons that medieval Mesoamerica's population increased so rapidly in the few centuries after the fall of the Toltec and before European contact.

I was wondering, had they been invented earlier, would Mesoamerica reach such a "golden age" of state formation and economic intensification earlier? The technology might more easily spread around the coasts through already existent trade routes. Importantly, it might arrive in the Mississippi which would do great to adopt it in their irregularly flooding wetlands (chinampa maize yields were something approaching three to four times higher than those in contemporary North America).

I am less interested in how this would effect European contact, but moreso in the idea that an earlier New World golden age like that the continents were experiencing just before colonization might mean more developed trade routes, more diffusion of crop packages and technologies, and overall a New World that is more clearly "developed" to Western eyes.

Here are some images pertaining to chinampas:

 

[Richard V]

It would be really interesting to see this in California. Several large lakes disappeared after European settlers diverted rivers for agriculture. Notably Lake Cahuilla and Tulare that could support chinampa agriculture. Of course just agriculture itself would already be a huge step forward from OTL hunting gathering. I could see this practiced in southern California by a people that use Chumash tomol boats for contact with Mesoamerica. Perhaps they could also learn copper smelting from the Tarascans.

 

[El Terremoto]

It would be really interesting to see this in California. Several large lakes disappeared after European settlers diverted rivers for agriculture. Notably Lake Cahuilla and Tulare that could support chinampa agriculture. Of course just agriculture itself would already be a huge step forward from OTL hunting gathering. I could see this practiced in southern California by a people that use Chumash tomol boats for contact with Mesoamerica. Perhaps they could also learn copper smelting from the Tarascans.

Funny you say that because this is something that also crossed my mind. Now indigenous California's irl cultivation was intense and advanced, it just wasn't agriculture as we think of it. Still, it managed to support more than 300,000 people at the time of the Spanish arrival in 1769, and there's good evidence that European diseases had already decimated the population before that.

California experienced megadrought in the medieval era, perhaps that could be the time when mesoamerican-style agriculture spreads up north.


Plus, even beyond the lakes, there are hundreds of miles of wetlands in California along the SF Bay and in the Central Valley.

 

[El Terremoto]

A point: an earlier explosion in population would likely mean more time to develop trade routes between the North, Neso, and South American spheres. If Mesoamerican lowlands are already extremely productive, imagine if potatoes are introduced from the south!

 

[SwampTiger]

I could see a Mississippian culture using its labor force to build water control structures for flood control. Then, realizing the irrigation possibilities for increased yields, developing a similar system. Numerous swamps and flood plains in the eastern USA were available to develop.

 

[El Terremoto]

I could see a Mississippian culture using its labor force to build water control structures for flood control. Then, realizing the irrigation possibilities for increased yields, developing a similar system. Numerous swamps and flood plains in the eastern USA were available to develop.

the main difference would be growing season, as there are frozen months throughout much of the heartland of the Mississippi Basin.

But I agree, overall, it's a technique that'd be hella useful.

 

[SwampTiger]

Even with a short growing season north of, say Natchez, you still have greater yields for the same season. Flood controls mean less losses and catastrophes. Overall, greater and more stable food production. It would require more centralization of power, thus improved record keeping, growth of roads, storage facilities, management of resources and development of an organized military force.

 

[El Terremoto]

Even with a short growing season north of, say Natchez, you still have greater yields for the same season. Flood controls mean less losses and catastrophes. Overall, greater and more stable food production. It would require more centralization of power, thus improved record keeping, growth of roads, storage facilities, management of resources and development of an organized military force.

Definitely true, it would just mean there would be a longer off-season for focusing on aquaponics (assuming the water system doesnt freeze through, lol) and raising poultry.

Overall chinampas seem... kinda incredible... and really one of the best things you can do until the Green Revolution at least.

 

[Arkenfolm]

Definitely true, it would just mean there would be a longer off-season for focusing on aquaponics (assuming the water system doesnt freeze through, lol) and raising poultry.

Overall chinampas seem... kinda incredible... and really one of the best things you can do until the Green Revolution at least.

Poultry definitely. The Southeastern subspecies of turkey and mallard could be domesticated. Maybe Canada geese in places too cold for turkeys since they're quite attracted to human areas with a lot of ponding water and perhaps someone will get the idea (since they'd be around a lot of geese after all) to breed the ones with weak/deformed wings to see if they can't be more like their tame ducks.

 

[Richard V]

Poultry definitely. The Southeastern subspecies of turkey and mallard could be domesticated. Maybe Canada geese in places too cold for turkeys since they're quite attracted to human areas with a lot of ponding water and perhaps someone will get the idea (since they'd be around a lot of geese after all) to breed the ones with weak/deformed wings to see if they can't be more like their tame ducks.

The Muscovy duck was already domesticated, albeit in Central and South America.

 

[Richard V]

It occured to me if you’re going to have chinampas, you might as well go into aquaculture. A variety of fish, crustaceans and mollusks can be farmed. In warm climates catfish, crayfish and shrimp. In colder climates rainbow trout, geoduck, freshwater mussels.

 

[El Terremoto]

It occured to me if you’re going to have chinampas, you might as well go into aquaculture. A variety of fish, crustaceans and mollusks can be farmed. In warm climates catfish, crayfish and shrimp. In colder climates rainbow trout, geoduck, freshwater mussels.

oh yeah aquaculture was an instrumental part of chinampas systems irl, gotta get that nutrients to dredge more lake mud onto your fields somehow, and fish droppings work.

 

[El Terremoto]

Also, apparently the fish do good when it comes to mosquito prevention by eating the larva, meaning more fish meat, more fish droppings, and less pests...

So uhhhh, no wonder the population exploded in the last few centuries before Columbus

 

[DarkKayder]

It would be really interesting to see this in California. Several large lakes disappeared after European settlers diverted rivers for agriculture. Notably Lake Cahuilla and Tulare that could support chinampa agriculture. Of course just agriculture itself would already be a huge step forward from OTL hunting gathering. I could see this practiced in southern California by a people that use Chumash tomol boats for contact with Mesoamerica. Perhaps they could also learn copper smelting from the Tarascans.

Which of the two would have higher yields, though? If labour intensity weren't a factor, would this system still be an improvement to the irrigated form of agriculture practices by the settlers?

 

[Richard V]

Which of the two would have higher yields, though? If labour intensity weren't a factor, would this system still be an improvement to the irrigated form of agriculture practices by the settlers?

I would think the advantage of chinampas is yield per acre. Conventional irrigation would have far more irrigated acres. Chinampas at a lake shore might be more useful for defense and has lower risk than flood prone river banks.

If you had a river with entirely predictable flood pattern like the Nile I can’t see why you wouldn’t use conventional irrigation.

 

[El Terremoto]

I would think the advantage of chinampas is yield per acre. Conventional irrigation would have far more irrigated acres. Chinampas at a lake shore might be more useful for defense and has lower risk than flood prone river banks.

If you had a river with entirely predictable flood pattern like the Nile I can’t see why you wouldn’t use conventional irrigation.

And the Sacramento-San Joaquin system is uhhhhhh anything but predictable...

 

[El Terremoto]

Hell Tulare Lake might benefit from Bangladeshi-style floating farms, as in, actually floating rafts of woven plants (today usually water hyacinth, but theoretically any buoyant plant would work, maybe the tule reeds that Tulare Lake is named for) with compost on top for soil.

But that's a different thread.

 

[LunazimHawk]

Hell Tulare Lake might benefit from Bangladeshi-style floating farms, as in, actually floating rafts of woven plants (today usually water hyacinth, but theoretically any buoyant plant would work, maybe the tule reeds that Tulare Lake is named for) with compost on top for soil.

But that's a different thread.

This. In my home region it’s being implemented in a lot of the larger areas of water.
Like someone said earlier, Chinampas in California would do wonders.

 

[Miguel Lanius]

Hmmm... could this be used in the amazon alongside Terra Preta?

 

[SwampTiger]

Chinampas and floating fields are possible in many places. In the Amazon and similar riverine systems, the issue in water current, especially during annual floods and intermittent rainfall and snow melt events. You don't want to watch all that work go floating away. You could circumvent some of this problem by locating your fields away from the worst areas of current, on higher ground flooded only by shallow waters, or use of strong enclosures/embankments/levees. You have much less of a problem in lakes, ponds and marshes. In the case of smaller streams, you could place the fields off the main flow in natural of man-made marshes. The problem is not insurmountable if you have large amounts of labor, free time and patience.

Edit: This would be a great complement to Terra Prieta.