The development of agriculture in the Americas were very important for the development of Pre-Columbian civilizations. Agriculture allowed farmers to use genetics to select the best crops for their areas. Agriculture also enabled the population of Pre-Columbian America to increase. People could now live in permanent villages. In time, these villages created their own systems of governance. Divisions of labor allowed different villages to trade goods with one another. There is archaeological evidence that indicates that some of these trade networks spanned the entire North American continent. Villages formed alliances and fought wars over the best land for growing crops. Some groups such as the Aztecs also built up strong empires by subjugating their neighbors. The Mayans also took full advantage of agriculture as through the division of labor some of their people became astronomers. Agriculture may have also led to the fall of the Mayans—one theory about their decline looks at years of crop failure which ultimately led to the loss of faith in religious and governmental institutions.

The development of agriculture, which took place at different times around the Americas, facilitated the development of sedentary societies built around centralized (to varying degrees) political systems. In the Southeast United States, for example, the development of agriculture led to the creation of the Woodland and especially the Mississippian cultures, who were renowned for enormous, complex cities such as Cahokia and Etowah that were based on the production of corn. Other, even more prominent, and roughly contemporary examples were the Aztec and Maya peoples in modern Mexico and Central America. The development of agriculture enabled societies to produce surpluses, which allowed for division of labor. This, in turn, led to varying degrees of social stratification, as well as wars with neighboring peoples over fertile lands.