the settlement of america world history - libertyville hs
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The Settlement of America
World History - Libertyville HS
Environment and Settlement Why Did the Ice Age Occur?
• Likely cause was increased volcanic activity
• Volcanic ash accumulated in upper atmosphere, lowering world temps
Most recent glacial advance = 70,000 years ago• As ice sheet advanced
animals were driven before it
• Into this environment, man arrived
Environment and Settlement During Ice Age, ocean levels dropped 50-300 feet,
compared to today• Effect was to create a “Bering Land bridge” between Asia
and Alaska / North America (Beringian Land Mass)
• Small hunting gathering groups followed game into Americas, not even knowing they were doing so
• Based on geological & archaeological evidence, early man arrived in Americas about 30,000 years ago
Bering Strait,Today
AsiaAmerica / Alaska
Migration and Settlement Man in North America = Homo Sapiens
• No evidence of fossil apes in W. Hemisphere• No evidence of primitive man in W. Hemisphere
Significance?
Migration and Settlement Critical factors of
settlement of Americas• Ice free corridor from
Western Canada into Rocky Mts, along river valleys
• Remember: Americas were NOT settled in a short amount of time OR by a single group of people!
• Migration is a SLOW, PROLONGED SPREAD OF SUCCESSIVE WAVES OF PEOPLE!!!
Migration pattern fromAfrica through rest of world – colored circles,lines represent approx.time when Man reached those areas
Animals of the Americas What animals did
man find in the Americas?• Horses• Camels• Giant ground sloth• Dire wolves• Mastodon• Wooly mammoth• Saber tooth cats• Stag-Moose• Bison / musk ox
Where did the animals go? Almost all big game
species in the Americas present during the Ice Age died out by 8000 BC – why?• Environmental
change: climate changed faster than natural selection
• Human hunting
Implications of Big Game Extinction
As big game died out and weather warmed, man had to adapt to new circumstances
• Some settled down and developed agriculture
• Others continued their hunter gatherer tradition, following (diminished) herds wherever they went
Central American Pre-history
Pre-history• Human habitation from
15000 BC• Corn farming from
8000 BC, with intensive farming from 1800 BC
• Civilization started, at this point
Olmecs Considered the
ancestor culture to all other Mesoamerican civilzations
Influence on later civilizations• Writing system, from
950 BC• Religion, including
bloodletting (no HS)• Political arrangement
= City states
Maya (600 BC-900 AD) Located in Yucatan
peninsula Architecture
• Built impressive cities, in middle of jungle
• Stepped pyramids• Ball courts central to
cities
Mayan Politics & Religion Organized as city
states, like Greeks• At height, population =
2 million Religion
• Polytheistic (nature gods / goddesses)
• Part of daily life• Worshipped cycles of
nature, life, universe• Closely observed
nature’s cycles (sun, moon, etc)
Math, Science, Technology
Base 20 counting system (dots and dash)
Obsessed with astronomy (religion)• Temples functioned as
observatories• Made detailed
calendars to predict events
“El Caracol” – Chichen Itza
Trade, Decline & Fall Traded by land and by
water Decline / fall – we’re not
100% sure…• Ecological theory
(catastrophe, disease, climate change)
• Non-ecological theory (invasion, revolt)
Mayan cities in Northern Yucatan continued to flourish until Spanish arrived in 1500s
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