"On the western side of the ocean, movements of people and ideas preceded the Atlantic connection. Great empires-in the Valley of Mexico, on the Mississippi River... -had collapsed or declined in the centuries before 1492
As Columbus embarked on his first transatlantic voyage, the Mexica, or Aztecs, were consolidating their position (in Mexico); their city was a
center of both trade and military might. Tenochtitlán (the Aztec capital)...held 200,000 people, a population greater than in the largest city in
contemporary Europe
... The Mississippian culture spread east and west from its center, the city of Cahokia, on the Mississippi River near the site of modern St.
Louis. It was a successor to earlier cultures, evidence of which can be seen in the great ceremonial mounds they built. Cahokia declined and
was ultimately abandoned completely in the later thirteenth century. Throughout the Southeast, smaller mound-building centers
continued."
Karen Ordahl Kupperman, historian, The Atlantic in World History, 2012
Which of the following contributed most significantly to the population trend in pre-Columbian Mexico described in the excerpt?
A Migration in pursuit of fertile lands
B Trade and settlement resulting from maize cultivation
Low birth rates and high death tolls as a result of European diseases
D
Internal conflict between groups causing political instability