The Early Discovery of North America and The Pre Columbian Period

Roughly 300-250 million years ago there was one massive super continent called Pangaea.
1. According to anthropholgy and archeology man developed in Africa around 1.5 million years ago.
2. B/c North and South America are isolated from the Eurasian plates, man DOES NOT migrate into these continents.
  1. Paleolithic man crosses the land bridge following magafauna.
    1. The Alpine Glaciers along the coast and the Continental Glacier on the interior crates a corridor that forces human migration south.
      1. These early paleo-humans are called the Clovis Culture, named after the type of spear and arrow heads they made.
        The Clovis Culture was a hunting and gathering culture living off of the magafauna.
        When the ice melted and submerged the land the Clovis Culture gets trapped in North and South America, separate from the other humans of the Eurasian continent.
      2. The Effects of Human Migration to North and South America:
        1. A sudden decrease in megafauna, humans begin to hunt smaller game animals such as deer, rabbits, and bears.
        2. Humans become isolated in North and South America form the populations of the Eurasian continent.
        3. The geography of N. and S. America further divided humans into different regional subcultures.
        4. Humans in N. and S. America lost their immunities to Eurasian diseases like measels, smallpox, and influenza.
        5. The humans took advantage of new food sources.
The 5 Base Cultures Developed And Were The Root Of All Other Native American Cultures:
1. 1. The Olmec (1500-600 B.C)
  1. We know very little.
    1. Built very large cultural centers with pyramids at the center of the cities.
      1. Worshiped the jaguar.
        1st culture we know of that had a written language (hieroglyphs).
        Made huge stone heads.
        There is evidence of human sacrifice.
        They had a knowledge of math and astrology.
2. 2. Mayans (300-800 A.D)
  1. Built large stepped pyramids called Ziggurats.
    1. The Ziggurats were at the center of the Mayan city.
      1. The Mayans were astrologists and excellent at math.
        They predicted astrological events and seasons.
        They developed a number system based on 20 and including a 0.
        The Mayans had a distinct social order:
        A noble class. Priest class. Merchant class. And farming class.
        Mayans played a ball game called Pok-A-Tok.
        There is also evidence of human sacrifice.
3. 3. Hohokam (300 B.C.-1500 A.D.)
  1. Hohokam were farmers.
    1. They built a 30 mile canal system to move water to their fields.
      1. Built large cities that housed as many as 5000 to 10000 people.
        Suddenly disappeared at around 1400/1500 A.D.
4. 4. Anasazi (700 B.C. - 1400 A.D.)
  1. They were also farmers that also irrigated their crops like the Hohokam.
    1. Built their cities in the sides of cliffs (Mesa Verde).
      1. They built huge cisterns called Kivas to store food and water. Also for protection.
5. Breakdown of Cultures:
  1. Mississippian and Hopewell Culture turns into-
    1. -Eastern Woodland Indians and South Eastern Woodland Indians.
      1. Native American Indian Cultures: (Southwestern Indians, Great Basin Culture, Far Northern Culture, North Western Culture, Great Plains Culture, Southeastern Woodland Culture, Eastern Woodland Culture)
        SouthWestern Indians:
        Lived in the desert region of Southwestern United States and Mexico.
        Most were farmers.
        They irrigated the land.
        Lived as individual tribal units.
        Believed in animism (everything has a spirit) and worshiped the elements.
        Some people lived in pueblos (Adobe huts) like the Anasazi.
        Main crops were corn, beans, and squash.
        Some of these indians made a living by raiding the local farmer cultures (Apache).
        Made up of Indian groups like Hopi, Zuni, and the Navaho.
        Tribal units: Political units based on the village level with all political power focused on a single local leader or a group of local leader. Own little system not attached to others. Local Village surrounds leader.
        Great Basin Culture:
        Lived in the basin area west of the Rocky Mountains.
        Lived in small tribal units.
        Mainly nomadic hunters and gatherers.
        Believed in animism and worshiped the elements and the spirits of nature.
        Made up of Indian groups like the Shoshone and the Ute.
        Most violent group.
        Far Northern Culture:
        Lived in what is modern day Alaska and Canada.
        Lived in small family units (matrilineal).
        Lived mainly off of hunting and fishing.
        Believed in animism.
        The culture will later develop into today's Eskimos (Inuit).
        Matrilineal - Trace ancestry through your mother's side of the family. When a couple gets married, the son lives/moves in with the mother's family. Used rarely.
        Patrilineal - Trace ancestry through your father's side of the family. When a couple gets married, the son lives/moves in with the father's family. Commonly used.
        The Northwestern Culture:
        Factory Indians.
        Large tribal units b/c of large "assembly lines".
        Their rivers had a lot of big salmon.
        Lived in what is today the northwestern part of the U.S.
        Lived in large tribal units.
        Hunters and gatherers but the exploited abundant fishing grounds in the rivers and coastal waters of the region.
        Believed in animisim but they also had an archaic religion - Archaic religions have a hierarchy of gods, some god is more important of superior to other gods.
        Like the Greek gods.
        The lush forests of the northwest provided them with wood for homes and canoes.
        Built totem poles.
        Made up of Indian groups like the Nootka, Flathead, and Nez Perce.
        Urine - Dye, gunpowder.
        Great Plains Culture:
        Lived in the Great Plains of the U.S. (Early Europeans called this the Great Desert).
        Tribal units that formed a confederate form of government.
        Believed in animism but they also had an archaic religion.
        Nomadic hunters that lived off of the buffalo.
        They made everything that they needed to live from the buffalo. They followed the herds across the plain until winter when they would migrate into the mountains of South Dakota and Montana to live in winter camps.
        Made up of Indian groups like the Crow, Sioux, and Pawnee.
        Greatest horsemen in the world.
        Spanish found horses called "Spanish Stallion" designed to carry army and heavy armor. They then got loose and reproduced with other horses then called them "American Mustangs"
        Recurved the bow and arrow which increased it's speed.
        A strong outer government supports the weak central government.
        Wasn't settled till the late 1800s.
        The area was a grass land with no trees, hills and very little water, thus European settlers considered the area unfertile.
        Reality is that it was very fertile.
        The Southeastern Culture:
        More farming than hunting, not nomadic.
        Lived in what is now the Southeast part of the U.S.
        Tribal units that formed a confederate form of government.
        Believed in animism but they also had an archaic religion.
        Continued the mound building tradition of the Hopewell and Mississippian Cultures.
        Made up of Indian groups such as the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole.
        These tribes were referred to as the Indian Nations.
        They had large villages that made up political units that united together to form the nation.
        The Eastern Woodland Culture:
        Lived in the Ohio river valley, northeastern U.S. and Southeastern Canada.
        Hunter Gatherers and farmers.
        Tribal units that formed a confederate form of government. Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca formed a political unit called the 5 Nations of the League of the Iroquois.
        Each is a tribe then joined together to from a confederation.
        Believed in animism but it was based on an archaic structure.
        Made up of tribes like the Iroquois, Algonquin, Miami, Ottawa, and Powhatan.
  2. The Hohokam and Anasazi turns into-
    1. -Southwest and Great Plains Indians.
  3. The Olmec and Mayans turn into-
    1. -Teotihuacans, Toltec, Aztec, and Inca.
      1. Mesoamerica and South American Empire
        Teotihuacans (300 A.D. - 750 A.D.)
        A group of people who built a city 30 miles northeast of modern day Mexico city.
        The city was a ceremonial center.
        Large pyramid in the center of the city.
        City was controlled by a priest ruler. Theocracy.
        The outer edge of the city had neighborhoods of merchants and artisans.
        The temple was dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl.
        The god was symbolized as a feathered serpent. And was considered the carrier of civilization and the defender of good against evil.
        When the sun would hit the temple it would look like there was a giant snake going up the stairs.
        Toltec 750-1170 A.D.
        Invaded the Teotihuacan empire from the north.
        Mined gold and silver near their capital city of Tula.
        Carried on extensive trade through out Central America and the Northern part of South America.
        Using a powerful army they conquered as far South as the Yucatan Peninsula.
        Around 700-750 A.D. war like nomads swept out of the north and destroyed the Toltec empire.
        One of these groups were called the Aztecs.
        Aztecs (1325 A.D. - 1500 A.D.)
        Moved onto an island in the center of lake Texcoco.
        They built a city on the island and connected it to the main island with 3 stone causeways.
        They farmed on floating mats of grass and earth called Chinampas.
        They had more food than they could eat.
        Government and Society:
        The emperor was at the top of the social hierarchy.
        The emperor gains his power from his control of the army.
        The chief deputy (2nd to the emperor) communicated b/w the emperor and the gods.
        Under the emperor you had 2 groups of assistants that help him run the empire:
        1. 4 Noble princes.
        2. 3 Honored classes of warriors.
        Society was divided into 4 parts:
        1. Nobles - Owned private plots of land. Owned and controlled land held in common by a family.
        2. Serfs - Farmed the nobles land.
        3. Commoners - Made up the largest part of the Aztec society. Made up of priests, artisians, merchants, and small land owners.
        4. Lowest Class - Consisted of criminals, people who could'nt pay their debts and female/children prisoners of war. Male prisoners of war were sacrificed to the sun god.
        Religion:
        Had a polytheistic religion.
        Most important god was the sun.
        Aztecs priests sacrificed a human to the sun god to ensure the sun would rise and the season would come.
        In one Aztec pyramid over 20000 prisoners were sacrificed.
        Inca (1200 A.D. - 1533 A.D.)
        Developed from a small tribe that settled in the fertile mountain plains of the Andes mountains.
        Founded the city of Cuzco (capital).
        Government and Society:
        Leader was considered a god king - He was called The Inca. He was the head of the militaty.
        The Inca had a specially trained class of administrators - Ran the various parts of the Inca empire. Kept records by means of unique written language called quipu.
        Quipu - Made with colored strings and knots. The strings and knots represented a region, crops, and amount of harvest.
        Special priest class that was responsible for religious ceremonies.
        Almost a communist type of society - A commoner worked and tilled his land. He owed the government one month of labor. He would work the Inca's, and priests land, serve time in the military, work on public works or engineering projects.
        Built huge cities, bridges, network of roads, and aqueducts that still exists today.
        Set up a public school system.
        Unify and consolidate the various tribes conquered by the Inca - Thought the imperial language, thought the Incan religion and history.
        Advances in medicine - Had anesthesia, performed brain surgery which would prolong the persons life.
        Used terrace farming.
Ancient Woodland Cultures:
1. 1. Hopewell Culture (500 B.C. - 1200 A.D)
  1. Built large village complexes.
    1. Started cultivating corn around 450 A.D.
      1. The Hopewell became known as the mound builders.
        Around 750 A.D. the Hopewell started surrounding their villages with earthen palisades.
        Had to have contact with Mexico for jade. Traded.
        First to play with metals.
2. 2. Mississippian Culture (900 A.D. - 1400 A.D.)
  1. Built large flat mounds with temples and meeting houses called long houses.
    1. Their largest city was Cahokia, housed over 30000 people the site was surrounded by over 1000 mounds.
      1. The center of the city had posts arranged in a circle and anthropologists believed that it acted as a calendar.
        Suddenly around 1350-1400 A.D. the culture disappeared.
The Columbian Exchange
1. When 2 cultures meet, various characteristics of the 2 cultures are adopted by each culture.
  1. 1492 - 2 world collide. Europe and N.A. = Columbian Exchange.
2. What Native Americans Gave to the Europeans?
  1. New world crops, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, squash, beans, tobacco, pineapples. These crops helped the European population grow.
    1. Place/Geographic Names, Ohio river, Mississippi river, Neuse river.
      1. Indian (Geometric Art), Pottery, basket weaving.
        Furs, pelts, and hides.
        French traded with the Indians and lived with them. The English wanted to get rid of them.
        BIG MARKET
    2. Tobacco becomes the crop that saves Jamestown.
3. What Americans Gave to the Native Americans?
  1. European Trade Goods, metal items, guns, textiles, and trinkets.
    1. New animals like the cow, pig, and horse.
      1. Cows running around wild. Young jobless men rounded up cows and sold them = Cowboys.
        New cow = Texas Longhorn got loose.
      2. European diseases, smallpox, mumps, influenza, and measles.
        N.A. population before = 68-78 million after = 9 million.

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The Early Discovery of North America and The Pre Columbian Period

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