The Moche
The collapse of the Olmec state in Central America, about 400 BC, seems to have opened the way for other people to develop states of their own. The Moche were one of these kingdoms. They started up around 100 AD along the Pacific coast of South America, in what is now northern Peru. The Moche kingdom was mainly based on farming corn and beans, like the Maya at the same time. There were big complicated irrigation systems all over the area controlled by the Moche. Nobody knows exactly what the government of the Moche looked like - it may have been an empire, or it may have been a bunch of independent city-states united by having the same language and culture, like classical Greece just a little earlier.
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