Transcript Chapter 1: The First Americans

Chapter 1: The First Americans
Prehistory to 1492
I. Early Peoples
Where were the 1st
people migrating
from?
A. They migrated from Asia to North, Central,
& South America during the last Ice Age
How long did this
take?
B. Centuries – people spread out across the
Americas as far east as the Atlantic Ocean &
as far south as the tip of S. America
What route did they
take?
C. They crossed a land bridge, Beringia, from
Siberia to present day Alaska. This bridge is
now under the Bering Strait.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Beringia_land_bridge-noaagov.gif
I. Early Peoples
What is a nomad?
D. A person who moves from place to place in
search of food
What types of hunters
were Native
Americans?
E. They were skilled hunters that used every
part of the animal for food, clothing, weapons, &
tools
II. Settling Down
What happened when
large animals
disappeared?
A. Native Americans hunted smaller game after
the mammoths died, and ate plants & berries
What were the new
food sources for
Native Americans?
B. Learning to plant & raise crops
What did the settlers
do?
D. They formed villages & communities.
Some people remained nomadic hunters
C. People living near the coast or rivers
learned to fish
III. Cities & Empires: Olmec
What were the most
advanced
civilizations?
A. Located in present-day Mexico & in Central
& S. America; Olmec, the Maya, the Aztec, &
Inca
What were the Olmec
people like?
B. The Olmec people lived in what is now
Mexico, Guatemala, & Honduras, b/t 1500
b.c. & 3000 b.c.
C. They built stone pavement, drainage
systems, & stone monuments.
III. Cities & Empires: Mayan
Where did the
Mayans live?
D. present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, &
Belize
What did the people
do?
E. They built large cities, each having at least one
stone pyramid
What was the largest
city?
F. Tikal (ti-call) was the largest Mayan city & had 6
pyramid
What type of govt.
was it?
G. A theocracy – or a society ruled by religious
leaders
III. Cities & Empires: Mayan
What were the Mayan
gods like?
H. They believed that their gods controlled all that
happened on Earth. Atop the pyramids were
religious & govt. centers
Interesting info.
I. They Maya were skilled astronomers & developed
a writing system called hieroglyphics
What did they trade?
J. maize, vegetables, jade, turquoise, jewelry & cacao
beans
What caused the
decline of the Maya?
K. No one knows – it happened around A.D. 800, but
the descendants of the Maya still live in parts of
Mexico.
III. Cities & Empires: Aztec
What was Tenochtilan?
L. Home of the Aztec. Founded in 1325. An island
near present-day Mexico City
What is a causeway?
M. Linked Tenochtilan to the mainland
Who were the Aztec?
N. They were warriors & conquered nearly all rivial
communities. Military empire.
What did Aztec take
from conquered
people?
O. weapons, maize, cotton cloth, & copper & also
forced their captives to work as slaves
What did the Aztecs
do to please the gods?
P. Their society was organized around religion, &
they sacrificed thousands of prisoners in
religious ceremonies
III. Cities & Empires: Aztec
III. Cities & Empires: Inca
Where were the Inca?
Q. Western highlands of S. American – A.D. 1200
Interesting info.
R. Largest of early American civilizations. 3,000
mile empire
S. More than 9 million people
What was the
population?
What did they do?
T. 10,000 miles of paved roads, record-keeping
system, written language, terracing to plant
crops on slopes
IV. North American Peoples
Who were the
Hohokam?
A. Lived in present-day Arizona.
B. A.D. 300 to 1200. They build irrigation channels
to bring water to hot, dry land
Who were the Anasazi?
C. They lived in the Four Corners (UT, CO, AZ, &
NM) from A.D. 200 & 1300
What did the Anasazi
build?
Who were the Mound
Builders?
D. Stone & cliff dwellings.
E. Lived in central N.America. They built mounds
of earth that looked like Aztec pyramids.
IV. North American Peoples
People of the West?
F. Ute & Shoshone – used resources of the forest &
the sea as they hunted & gathered
People of the
Southwest?
G. Hopi, Acoma, Zuni – adobe brick homes, raised
maize, beans, & squash. The Navajo & Apache
People of the Plains?
H. Nomads; hunted & farmed & built tents called
tee-pees. They tamed wild horses.
People of the East?
I. Iroquois & Cherokee formed complex political
systems of governing.
Discussion Questions
Why did these people spread out across
the Americas?
They were looking for particular climates or land terrain as well as enough resources so they
could survive.
How did early Native Americans learn
to adapt to their environment?
They used the resources around them for food, clothing, and shelter. The hunted, fished,
planted, and traveled from place to place search of their needs.
Why do you think early American
civilizations developed along large
bodies of water?
Early people settled near water as a means of transportation and a way to far,. If they needed
to flee quickly, they could navigate along the waters
Why do you think the Maya believed
that the gods controlled what happened
on Earth?
It was an easy way to explain what they did not understand, such as the change of seasons or
the weather
How did the Aztec build a military
empire?
They went to war & conquered neighboring communities. They stole weapons from the
conquered people to help build their empire.
Why is the Inca considered a great
civilization?
It was the largest of the early civilizations, stretching for about 3,000 miles. The Inca
developed paved roads, a common language, a record-keeping system, & terracing for farming.
Why do you think the dwellings of these
early Native Americans were large &
massive?
They thought that if they reached high in the sky they would be nearer to the gods. Also if they
were visible from far away, and could accommodate a large group of people for living quarters,
and for religious ceremonies.
Why do you think the different native
American groups developed a wide
variety of cultures?
Recognition that regional climate and resources created the need for different lifestyles.
Climate and resources affected whether groups farmed, fished, or hunted, were nomadic or
permanently settled, and what type of shelters they build.