It’s theorized this is partially why a lot of indigenous societies in the Americas simply didn’t use wheels in larger contexts. We’ve found perfectly engineered wheels in a lot of archaeological sites here in North and South America, but they’re almost always on toys. The theory is that civilizations like the Aztecs and various Native American and First Nations peoples invented wheels just fine, but since North America particularly lacks any form of native, easily-domesticated draft animal, wheels just didn’t make sense or save anyone significant enough time to really bother with in larger forms like carts or chariots.
Also, horses had gone extinct in North America until the Spanish brought them back in the 15th century.
It’s theorized this is partially why a lot of indigenous societies in the Americas simply didn’t use wheels in larger contexts. We’ve found perfectly engineered wheels in a lot of archaeological sites here in North and South America, but they’re almost always on toys. The theory is that civilizations like the Aztecs and various Native American and First Nations peoples invented wheels just fine, but since North America particularly lacks any form of native, easily-domesticated draft animal, wheels just didn’t make sense or save anyone significant enough time to really bother with in larger forms like carts or chariots.