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THE AMERICAN NATION 12th Edition

Prologue

Mark C. CarnesJohn A. Garraty

©2006 Pearson Education, Inc.

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BEGINNINGS• Cro-Magnon Man (50,000 years

ago)– Stone tools– Complex Languages– Migration

• Moved north into Siberia following receding supply of large mammals, especially mammoths

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PASSAGE TO ALASKA

• About 12,000 years ago, perhaps earlier, these hunters moved into Alaska across the Bering Strait land bridge created by the lowered sea levels during the Pleistocene (Ice Age)

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INTO THE CONTINENT

• The hunters then moved into the continent along an ice free corridor beginning in Calgary, Canada, and extending into the Great Plains where vast herds of giant mammals roamed

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DEMISE OF BIG MAMMALS

• Clovis hunters had developed divided spears tipped with sharp stone points (Clovis points named after location in New Mexico where first found)

• Another stress on the big mammals was a warming climate that caused deserts and forests to expand while grasslands shrank

• By 9,000 BCE nearly three-fourths of large mammals were extinct

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WHO KILLED BIG MAMMALS?• CLOVIS HUNTERS

– Paul Martin estimates that several hundred thousand Clovis hunters hunted 93 billion pounds of animals to extinction

– But were they really such effective hunters or were they primarily scavengers?

• CLIMATE CHANGE– After 11,000 BCE climate became warmer and drier

damaging the ecosystem on which mammals depended

– Climate change was not so drastic as to adversely impact other species and large mammals had survived previous climate changes so why a problem now?

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ARCHAIC PERIOD 9000-1000 BCE

• Clovis period ends with death of large mammals and humans are forced to find new sources of clothing, food, and shelter

• EARLY ARCHAIC (a hundred human generations) was a time of scarcity

• Hunted small animals, bison and other game for which they hunted continuously

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ARCHAIC PERIOD 9000-1000 BCE

• MIDDLE ARCHAIC– Increasingly settled– Development of far-ranging trade networks– Discovered edible plants

• LATER ARCHAIC– Around 2500BCE seeds were planted in

Midwest and Archaic peoples supplemented their hunting with primitive agriculture

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ARCHAIC PERIOD 9000-1000 BCE

• Period saw steady population growth but it was slow– Diet low in fats and carbohydrates,

delaying menses

– Diet unsuited to infants resulting in 2-3 years of breastfeeding thereby delaying next pregnancy

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FIRST SEDENTARY COMMUNITIES 1000 BCE

• COASTAL AREAS– Pacific Northwest & Alaska:

developed nets, fishhooks, and boats from skins and bark

– Coast of New England: lived primarily on shellfish

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FIRST SEDENTARY COMMUNITIES 1000 BCE

• Poverty Point, LA (founded 1000 BCE)– Supplemented fishing with agriculture– Built large mounds that totaled over 1

million cubic yards of dirt

• What do mounds mean?– Must have had decent supply of food to

spend so much time building mounds– Likely that their society was

hierarchical (unlike usual egalitarian societies of Archaic peoples)

• Deserted after about 500 years

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MOUND BUILDERS

• ADENA (Mississippi & Ohio River valleys)– Hierarchical hunting

and agricultural society– Extensive trade– Lasted several hundred

years

• HOPEWELL (200 BCE – 500 CE in Ohio & Illinois)

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CORN TRANSFORMS THE SOUTHWEST

• About 2000 years ago, Teotihuacán, a city of 100,000, flourished 40 miles north of what is now Mexico City

• Basis for large, thriving civilizations was cultivation of CORN which led to a NEOLITHIC revolution—transformation to farming life by 2000 BCE

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CORN TRANSFORMS THE SOUTHWEST

• Corn culture spread north to the Hohokam and Mogollon people of Arizona and New Mexico and the Anasazi of the Coloraldo Plateau

• Their culture came to revolve around corn– Built irrigation canals– Sun and water became center of religious beliefs– Astronomers measured seasons to ensure the best

harvest– Corn Mother symbolism dominated– Corn surplus was key to political power

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CORN TRANSFORMS THE SOUTHWEST

• Corn cultivating peoples increased in number after 800 CE especially among the Anasazi in the Chaco Canyon region

• Anasazi carved cities into the cliffs and built elaborate road systems

• The Hohokam constructed an irrigation canal system over hundreds of miles and a Hohokam village 250 miles west of modern Phoenix had a population of several thousand

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DIFFUSION OF CORN

• Corn spread to southeast but then slowed due to weather conditions and social disdain—it was work for women

• But it was so good as a food base, especially combined with squash and beans that by 700 it was around St. Louis and in southern Wisconsin by 900.

• By 1000 CE corn had become king

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POPULATION GROWTH AFTER 800

• An acre of woodlands fed two or three hunters while the same area fed 200 people when planted with corn and as a result– had more children because started

menstruating and weaning earlier– infants could be protected from weather and

were less bothersome than when mobile

• Needing more land, the larger population expanded often pushing hunters out of the way

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CAHOKIA: The Hub of Mississippian Culture

• Located near St. Louis, it was a center of trade, shops, religion, and politics by 1000, reaching its height at 1150– Location of a variety of mounds including largest

in North America– Highly stratified society– May have practiced sacrifice– City surrounded by palisade suggesting conflict

though rulers maintained power due to religious roles not military

– Culture spread even to southern Wisconsin where Aztalan was built

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COLLAPSE OF URBAN CENTERS

• By 1200 Cahokia’s population down from over 15,000 to several thousand and the town was deserted by 1350

• In Southwest the Anasazi pueblos were empty by 1200

• Why the decline?– Protracted droughts during 1200s and 1300s– Environmental damage– Decline in crop yields– Endemic warfare

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AMERICAN BEGINNINGS IN EURASIA & AFRICA

• Neolithic revolution earlier and more complete– Wheat in SW Asia after 9000 BCE– Rice from China around same time– Diffusion of these crops soon followed by

variety of others

• Shift of African climate around 6000BCE hindered flow of crops

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ANIMAL DOMESTICATION• Domesticated horses, pigs, cows, goats, sheep,

oxen– Protein rich meat– Dairy products– Field work – Fertilizer– Transportation (when combined with wheels)

• All this led to increase in population• By 1500, China and India each over 100 million

people, Europe around 80 million, Africa about 40 million (compared to maybe 10 million in what is now the U.S.)

• Domesticated animals also brought disease leading to recurrent plagues

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WEST AFRICA

• Grassy savannah south of Sahara became home of herding peoples

• Cities emerged in response to trans-Saharan trade

• Conflict over trade routes lead to great kingdoms though disease kept them from penetrating farther south

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EUROPE IN FERMENT

• During the 1400s European population increased by a third, often leading to scarcity, migration, and the search for a scapegoat

• New ideas gave rise to challenges to tradition such as the Protestant Revolution

• Nearly constant warfare led to advances in military technology which made war more expensive and required creation of nation states

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WEBSITES

• Pre-Contact and Colonial Mapshttp://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/americas • Ancient Mesoamerican Civilizationhttp://www.angelfire.com/ca/humanorigins/index.html

• National Museum of the American Indianhttp://www.si.edu/nmai • Cahokia Moundshttp://medicine.wustel/edu/!mckinney/cahokia/cahokia.html