North America in the 1400s: Indigenous Nations, Not Countries

No recognized countries existed in North America during the 1400s. The continent was inhabited by hundreds of distinct indigenous nations and tribes, each with their own territories, governments, cultures, and trade networks.

Major cultural regions included the Mississippian mound builders, Ancestral Puebloans, Iroquoian and Algonquian peoples in the Northeast, Plains nomads, Pacific Northwest coastal nations, and many others. These societies had complex political structures, agriculture, and continental trade routes long before European contact.

European colonization began in earnest in the late 15th and 16th centuries, fundamentally altering the continent's political landscape.