Mesoamerica

1. Mesoamerica

2. Section 1-1 The Migration to America • Objectives: • 1. Explain why scientists believe that the earliest Americans migrated from Asia. • 2. Describe the early civilizations of Mesoamerica.

3. Did You Know? The spear points of the first immigrants to the Americas have been found with the bones of many animals—giant bison, mastodons, and tapirs—now extinct in America.

4. The Asian Migration to America • Scientists are unsure when the first people came to America, but scientific speculation points to between 15,000 and 30,000 years ago. Scientists study the skulls, bones, teeth, and DNA of ancient peoples to learn their origins. DNA and other evidence indicate that the earliest Americans probably came from Asia.

5. Scientists use radiocarbon dating to determine how old objects are. This method measures the radioactivity left in carbon 14. Scientists use the rate at which carbon 14 loses its radioactivity to calculate the age of the objects.

6. About 100,000 years ago, the earth began to cool, gradually causing much of the earth's water to freeze into huge ice sheets called glaciers. This period is called the Ice Age. Ocean levels dropped, exposing an area of dry land. Scientists believe that people from Asia crossed this land bridge as they hunted large animals about 15,000 years ago or even earlier. These people were probably nomads, people who continually moved from place to place.

7. How do scientists know who the first Americans were, and when and how they came to America?

8. Early Civilizations in America • During the agricultural revolution between 9,000 and 10,000 years ago, Native Americans in Mesoamerica learned how to plant and raise crops. The most important crop was maize, or corn. Agriculture allowed people to stay in permanent villages to raise crops and store the harvest. Civilizations emerged. A civilization is a highly organized society that is characterized by trade, government, the arts, science, and often, a written language.

9. Anthropologists believe the Olmec culture was the first civilization in America. The culture began between 1500 and 1200 B.C. in what is today southern Mexico. The Olmec had large villages, temples, and pyramids, and they built large sculpted monuments. Olmec culture lasted until about 300 B.C., at which time another people built Teotihuacán, the first large city in America.

10. The Maya civilization developed in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula and spread into Central America. The Maya developed complex calendars based on the position of the stars. They built elaborate temple pyramids. The Mayan people abandoned their cities in the A.D. 900s, possibly fleeing invaders or searching for new farmland.

11. The Aztec built the city of Tenochtitlán in about 1325 where Mexico City is today. They built a great empire by conquering other cities. Their military controlled trade in the region and demanded tribute from the cities they conquered.

12. Anthropologists believe that the agricultural technology of Mesoamerica spread into the American Southwest and beyond, changing many North American nomads into farmers.

13. The Hohokam built a civilization in what is now south-central Arizona from about A.D. 300 to the 1300s. They created an elaborate system of irrigation canals to bring water to their crops hundreds of miles away.

14. The Anasazi built a civilization between A.D. 700 and 900 in the area where the present-day states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. They built networks of basins and ditches to catch rainwater for their crops. Between A.D. 850 and 1100, the Anasazi living in Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico began to build large multi-storied buildings of adobe and cut stone. These buildings were called pueblos.

15. Mound-building cultures arose in North America's eastern woodlands at about the time the Olmecs arose in Mesoamerica. Between 200 and 100 B.C., the Hopewell culture rose. These people built huge geometric earthworks.

16. Between A.D. 700 and 900, the Mississippian culture arose in the Mississippi River valley. The Mississippians were great builders. One of their largest cities was Cahokia built in Illinois near present-day St. Louis, Missouri.

17. Native American Cultural Diversity • The Native American groups of the Far North included the Inuit whose territory stretched from Alaska to Greenland, and the Aleut of Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

18. The groups of the Far North hunted for food and invented devices, such as the harpoon and the dogsled, to cope with the harsh environment. They used whale oil and blubber for fuel.

19. Native American groups who lived along the Pacific Coast fished. Farther inland, Native Americans fished, hunted, and gathered roots and berries. Between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains, where the weather was much drier, the Native Americans were nomads. In what is today California, groups such as the Pomo enjoyed the abundant wildlife and mild climate.

20. The Native American groups of the Southwest farmed like their ancestors. They believed in a spirit world. When men married, they joined the kachina cult. A kachina was a good spirit.

21. Before 1500, Native Americans of the Great Plains were farmers. Around 1500 those Native Americans in the western plains became nomads, possibly because of drought or war. They followed migrating buffalo herds. When the Spanish brought horses to North America, Native Americans of the Great Plains began to use the horses for hunting or for wars.

22. The Native Americans in the Eastern Woodlands had an environment that supported an abundant range of plant and animal life. These Native American groups hunted, fished, and farmed. Deer provided food and clothing.

23. Native Americans of the Northeast practiced slash-and-burn agriculture. They cut down forests and burned the cleared land, and then used the rich ashes to make the soil more fertile. The peoples of the Northeast lived in large rectangular longhouses, which housed up to 10 families. The Iroquois lived in large kinship groups, or extended families headed by the elder women of each clan. The Iroquois often fought one another. Five Iroquois groups formed an alliance called the Iroquois League to maintain peace.

24. Most Native Americans of the Southeast lived in towns built around a central plaza. They farmed and hunted. The houses were made of poles covered with grass, mud, or thatch.

25. Europe and Africa, • Objectives: • 1. Analyze the impact of the Renaissance on European exploration. • 2. Describe the culture of early West African kingdoms.

26. Did You Know? A trade exchange known as "the silent trade" was used by merchants in Ghana. Since many of the traders had no common language, they would place their goods on the ground and then leave. Then the people of Ghana would leave gold beside the goods and then leave. The owners of the goods would return, and if they were satisfied with the amount of gold that was left, they would take it. If not, they would go away again and the people of Ghana would return and add more gold. This process continued until the trade ended.

27. European Society • For centuries the Roman Empire had controlled much of Europe with stable social and political order. By A.D. 500, the empire collapsed. Western Europe became isolated, trade declined, and law and order ended. This period, from about A.D. 500 to 1400, is called the Middle Ages.

28. Feudalism developed in western Europe. Under this political system, the king gave estates to nobles in exchange for their loyalty and military support.

29. In exchange for protection, peasants provided various services for the feudal lord on his manor, or estate. Most peasants were serfs who could not leave the manor without permission. The economic ties between nobles and peasants is called manorialism.

30. Around A.D. 1000, western Europe's economy began to improve. Many villages were able to produce a surplus of food because of new agricultural inventions, such as a better plow and the horse collar. This revived trade in Europe and encouraged the growth of towns.

31. After the fall of Rome, the Roman Catholic Church provided stability and order in Europe. People who disobeyed church laws faced severe penalties.

32. The religious ideas of Islam swept across the Middle East and Africa during the 600s and 700s. Followers of Islam are known as Muslims.

33. As Muslim power grew, Europeans were fearful of losing access to the Holy Land. The Crusades, called for by Pope Urban II in 1095, were almost two centuries of armed struggle to regain the Holy Land.

34. The Crusades helped change western European society by bringing western Europeans into contact with Muslims and Byzantine civilizations of the Middle East. Trade increased in the eastern Mediterranean area and especially benefited Italian cities.

35. An increasing demand for gold to make gold coins was a direct result of Europe's expanding trade with Asia.

36. The rise of the Mongol Empire in the 1200s broke down trade barriers, opened borders, and made roads safer against bandits. This encouraged even more trade between Asia and Europe.

37. By the 1300s, Europe was importing large amounts of luxuries from Asia. The Mongol Empire ended in the 1300s, however, causing Asia to become many independent kingdoms. The flow of goods from Asia declined, and European merchants began to look for a sea route to Asia to avoid Muslim traders.

38. By the early 1400s, Europeans had acquired new technologies to make long-distance travel possible. They learned about the astrolabe, a device that uses the position of the sun to determine direction, latitude, and local time, and they acquired the compass. They also started building newly designed ships that were capable of traveling long distances. The Portugese invented the caravel, a ship that made travel much faster.

39. Henry the Navigator set up a center for astronomical and geographical studies in Portugal in 1419. In 1488 a Portuguese ship commanded by Bartolomeu Dias reached the southern tip of Africa. A little over nine years later, four Portuguese ships commanded by Vasco da Gama sailed from Portugal, around Africa, and across to India.

40. Europe Encounters America • Objectives: • 1. Describe Columbus's journeys and their impact on Native Americans and Europeans. • 2. Evaluate the workings and impact of the Columbian Exchange.

41. In the A.D. 100S, the scholar Claudius Ptolemy drew maps of a round world. His maps used the basic system of lines of latitude and longitude that are still used today. • In the mid-1400s, Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator, became interested in sailing across the Atlantic.

42. Ptolemy's calculations made the earth seem much smaller that it actually was. As a result, Christopher Columbus miscalculated the distance from Spain to India. Columbus tried, but failed, to get financial backing from the rulers of England, Portugal, France, and Spain for an expedition. In 1492 Spain's King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella finally agreed to finance Columbus's expedition.

43. Columbus's Explorations • Columbus and his three ships left Spain in August 1492. After a long, frightening trip across the Atlantic Ocean, they landed in the Bahamas, probably on what is today San Salvador Island. He called the people he met Indians, because he thought he had reached the Indies. Columbus also found the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. He built a small fort on Hispaniola called La Navidad. In March 1493 he returned to Spain with gold, parrots, spices, and Native Americans. Columbus impressed Ferdinand and Isabella and convinced them to finance another trip by promising them as much gold as they wanted.

44. In 1493 the Catholic Church's Pope Alexander VI established a line of demarcation. This imaginary north-to-south line running down the middle of the Atlantic granted Spain control of everything west of the line and Portugal everything east of the line. In 1494 Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas. This gave Portugal the right to control the route around Africa to India. Spain claimed most of the new lands of the Americas.

45. Columbus made three more voyages in 1493, 1498, and 1502. He explored the Caribbean islands of Hispaniola, Cuba, and Jamaica, and sailed along the coasts of Central America and northern South America. He claimed many lands for Spain but did not find a trade route to Asia.

46. Continuing Expeditions • By the early 1500s, the Spanish had explored the Caribbean region and begun to explore the American mainland. • The Americas were named after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian who repeated Columbus's voyages in 1499 and 1501 and discovered that this large landmass could not be part of Asia.

47. Juan Ponce de Leon, the Spanish governor of Puerto Rico, discovered Florida in 1513. In 1513 Vasco de Balboa became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean. In 1520 Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese mariner working for Spain, discovered the strait at the southernmost tip of South America. His crew became the first known people to circumnavigate, or sail around, the globe.

48. Who was the first person to see the Pacific Ocean, and who named it? • (Vasco de Balboa founded a colony on the Isthmus of Panama. He crossed the land and reached the opposite coast. Ferdinand Magellan discovered a strait at the tip of South America and sailed into the ocean. Its waters seemed so peaceful he named it pacific.)

49. Spain Builds an Empire • Objectives: • 1. Describe the early Spanish settlement of North America.

50. Did You Know? The Aztecs started Tenochtitlán on an island in what was then Lake Texcoco. The site of Tenochtitlán was a marshy, snake-infested land. However, the Aztecs were able to make the land flourish. They used irrigation to grow crops. The also grew crops on "floating gardens," which they made by filling shallow areas of the lake and securing the soil with trees. Tenochtitlán included palaces, plazas, and pyramids. It also included ball courts and a zoo. By 1520 the city was one of the largest cities in the world in population.