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