Why didn’t indigenous American cultures have technology that was as advanced as that of Old World civilizations (I’m thinking guns, large ships, iron armor, etc)?

by ECGeorge

I assume it has something to do with the natural materials available in the Americas, but how come indigenous cultures couldn’t develop roughly similar technology using the materials at hand?

Kelpie-Cat

There are several threads addressing this question in the AskHistorians FAQ: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/nativeamerican#wiki_technology_and_civilization_in_the_americas