7th SS – Chapter 1 – Roots of the American People (Prehistory – 1500)

Key Terms:

1.glacier-thick sheet of ice

2.irrigation- channeling water from rivers or streams to crops

3.surplus-extra; condition that exists when income exceeds spending

4.civilization-advanced culture in which people have developed cities,

science and industries

5.culture-way of life

6.culture area-region in which people share a similar way of life

7.kayak-boat with a light wooden frame covered with watertight

skins propelled by a double-bladed paddle

8.potlatch-ceremonial dinner held by some North American tribes

of the NW coast to show offtheir wealth

9.adobe-sun-dried brick

10.clan-group of two or more related families

11.sachem-member of the tribal chief council in the League of the

Iroquois

12.navigation-science of locating the position and plotting the course

of ships

13.monotheism-belief in one god

14.salvation-everlasting life

15.direct democracy-form of government in which ordinary citizens have the

power to govern

16.republic-systems of government in which citizens choose

representatives to govern them

17.feudalism-system of rule by lords who ruled their own lands but

owed loyalty and military service to a monarch

Key People:

1.Muhammad-founder and prophet of the Islam religion

2.Mansa Musa-Muslim ruler of Mali in Africa

3.Zheng He-explorer from China who explored Africa and Asia

4.Jesus-Jewish teacher and preacher whose belief help found

Christianity

5.Martin Luther-a German monk who founded the Protestant Reformation

6.Henry the Navigator-brother of the king of Portugal who "navigated" the

expansion of Portugal's power and Christianity

7.Vasco de Gama-Portuguese sailor who's course became an important

trade route to the East Indies

Chapter 1- Roots of the American People (Prehistory – 1500)

Section 1 - The Earliest Americans

Obj: to understand how people first came to the Americas and learned to farm; to discuss the early civilizations of the Mayas, the Aztecs and the Incas

Scientists have various ideas about how people came to the Americas. Some think that people may have come from Asia in large canoes. However, most think that the first humans arrived by land.

The Land Bridge Theory:

•between 10,000 and 100,000 years ago, much of the world was covered by glaciers.

•as more and more of the water froze, the level of the oceans dropped

•areas once covered by shallow water became dry land

•one area stretched between Siberia and Alaska

•it became a bridge of land many miles wide

•today it lies under a narrow waterway called the Bering Strait

•it may have appeared and disappeared several times

•many scientists believe that people first came to North America between 20,000 and 30,000 years ago

•hunters, who possibly followed the woolly mammoth

•over thousands of years, hunting bands moved over the land

•eventually spread across North and South America

Other Theories:

•crossing the arctic waters by boat and traveled southward along the Pacific coast.

•this is the coastal-route theory

•many Native Americans dispute both the land and coastal-route theories.

•each group has its own tradition explaining how they settled in the lands

•these traditions appear in their creation stories

Learning to Farm:

•early humans would hunt - game animals provided food, furs for clothing and bones for tools.

•as many of the larger animals began to disappear, hunters had to change their ways of life

•they became gatherers

•moved place to place in search of plants and wild game

•in Mexico 8,000 years ago - gatherers began growing food plants (squash and lima beans)

•the discovery of farming transformed life

•no longer nomads

•methods of irrigation

•learning how to raise animals (cattle, pigs, and llamas)

•more dependable food supply

•population grew

•surplus food was traded with others

•some farming communities grew into cities

•cities became the center of government and religious life

Three Civilizations

The development of cities progressed into the beginnings of civilizations.

Over the centuries several civilizations rose and declined in the Americas.

The largest were the civilizations of the Mayas, the Aztecs and the Incas

Mayas:

•between AD 250 and AD 900

•today's Mexico and Central America

•their cities contained public plazas lined with pyramids, temples, ball courts, and palaces

•they developed:

•arts

•a system of government

•written language

•they observed the stars and created the most accurate calendar known until modern times

•they carved stories of their past and gods into the stones of their buildings

•Around AD 900 they began abandoning their cities

•why remains a mystery (possibly disease, overpopulation, natural disaster)

•today the Mayan language still remains the root of more than 20 languages of Central America

Aztecs:

•Mayan civilization declined - their civilization began to rise.

•Capital city - Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico city)

•built on a series of islands in a large lake (Lake Texcoco)

•connected to mainland by stone roadways

•farmers raised crops on floating platforms (chinampas)

•more than 200,000 residents there making it the largest city in the world at that time

•religion dominated their lives

•dozens of temples in the city

•practiced polytheism

•practiced human sacrifice as offerings to the gods

•1400 - Aztec armies brought half of modern-day Mexico under their control

•proved to be effective but harsh rulers

•conquered tribes' people forced to pay high taxes, send treasure, food and prisoners to Tenochtitlan

**resentful subjects would eventually turn on the Aztecs

Incas:

•1400s - became the largest empire

•located in South America

•Capital city - Cuzco

•center of the empire

•city linked to other cities and town by a great network of roads

•engineers built walls, canals, bridges and constructed buildings of huge stones

•produced fine weavings and metalwork

•Incan rulers wore gold and silver jewelry and their palaces contained plates of gold

Chapter 1 – Section 2 – Cultures of North America

Obj: to identify Early Native American settlements; to understand the ways of life of the Iroquois Nation

First Cultures of North America

In North America, as elsewhere, groups of people developed unique cultures.

Around 3,000 years ago, various groups began to emerge in an area stretching from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi Valley. (Mound Builders)

Mound Builders – constructed large piles of earth.

  • Burial places
  • Foundations for public buildings
  • Built the first cities in North America
  • Cahokia – the largest Mississippian city (present-day Illinois)

The Anasazi – southern Utah, Colorado, northern Arizona and New Mexico

  • Built large cliff dwellings
  • Probably to defend against attacks by outsiders
  • Skilled in making baskets, pottery and jewelty.
  • Engaged in trade
  • Mysteriously abandoned with cliff dwellings by 1300

The Hohokam – 300 BC – AD 1450 – (present-day Arizona)

  • Highly skilled farmers
  • Dug irrigation canals in the desert
  • Engaged in trade (seashells, which they used to crate jewelry and religious objects)

Way of Life

Native Americans are classified into several culture areas.

Though these cultures were very different from one another, many shared some basic traits:

Meeting Basic Needs –

  • Women collected roots, wild seeds, nuts, acorns, and berries.
  • Men hunted for game and fished. (wild game plentiful in Pacific Coast and Eastern Woodland regions)
  • Agriculture allowed people to grow and store food
  • Native Americans learned to grow crops suited to the climate in which they lived.
  • Used pointed sticks for digging.
  • Bones and shells served as hoes
  • Some used fertilizer (dead fish)
  • Farming populations much larger than non-farming areas
  • Some areas used seashells or beads as currency
  • Important trade items were:
  • Shells
  • Flint (for making fires)
  • Copper
  • Salt

Shared Beliefs –

Many Native Americans felt a close relationship to the natural world.

Believed the spirits dwelled in nature and were part of their daily lives.

Traditions reflected their beliefs.

Native Americans had a strong oral tradition

  • Storytellers memorized history and beliefs and then recited them.
  • In this way, tradition was passed on from generation to generation

Native Americans of North America

Well before 10,000BC, Native Americans spread across the North American continent.

They adapted to the various climates and living conditions of the land they settled.

By AD 1500, when the first Europeans reached the Americas, Native Americans of North America were a richly diverse group of people with distinct ways of life.

Far North –

  • People of the Arctic
  • Vast and harsh land covered with ice all year long
  • Survived on fish, shellfish and birds
  • Hunted marine mammals (whales, seals, and walruses) from kayaks
  • In the summer, fished on the rivers and hunted caribou
  • South of the Arctic
  • Dense forests of the subarctic region
  • Climate too cold for farming
  • Relied on animals and plants of the forest
  • Most hunted caribou, moose, bear and smaller animals

Northwest –

  • Pacific Northwest (many Native Americans) – stretches from southern Alaska to northern California
  • Not farmers
  • Abundance of deer, bear, roots, berries and salmon allowed permanent settlements
  • Many high-ranking people in the societies practice potlatch
  • Woven baskets
  • Canoes
  • Furs
  • A family’s status was judged by how much wealth it could give away

Far West –

  • Different geographic regions
  • Winters could be very cold in forests and grasslands of the north
  • Southern parts could be desertlike
  • California – warm summers/mild winters
  • Food abundant
  • Ate small game, fish and berries
  • Housing differed depending on the area
  • Pit houses – dug into the ground
  • Con-shaped houses covered with bark
  • North had houses made of wooden planks

Southwest –

  • Present-day Arizona, New Mexico, and the southern parts of Utah and Colorado
  • Dry most of the year
  • July and August thunderstorms drenched the desert
  • all groups did some farming
  • also hunted and followed animals
  • farming people learned to collect and store the rain for the dry times
  • Pueblo people had stable towns that lasted for hundreds of years
  • Hopis
  • Zunis
  • Built large adobe apartment houses to protect themselves from attack

Great Plains –

  • Vast region stretching between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains
  • Eastern Plains
  • Lived mainly by farming
  • Women planted corn, beans and squash
  • Lived in earth lodges
  • Log frames and covered with soil
  • Western Plains
  • Too dry and too matted with grass to farm
  • Treeless land provided few building materials
  • Teepees made of animal skin
  • Some dug round pits near their fields for shelter
  • Hunting parties followed buffalo across the plains
  • Depended on buffalo for:
  • Meat
  • Hides
  • Bones

Eastern Woodlands –

  • Covered by forests of maples, birches, pines and beeches hundreds of years ago
  • Early peoples lived by hunting, fishing, and foraging for nuts and berries
  • By AD 1000 many woodlands people had taken up farming
  • Two groups dominated
  • One group spoke Algonquin languages (people scattered through southern Canada, the Great Lakes, and along the Atlantic coast to Virginia)
  • The other group spoke Iroquoian languages (people lived in present-day New York)
  • The Iroquois - five distinct nations
  • Each nation made up of clans
  • Membership passed from mother to children
  • women had great influence in the society
  • women owned all property belonging to a clan
  • women also chose the clan’s sachem
  • after years of constant warfare, Iroquois leaders convinced their people to make peace
  • the League of the Iroquois
  • established a council to make laws to keep peace
  • each tribe free to deal with its own affairs

Southeast –

  • mild climate with steamy and hot summers
  • land and climate supported farming
  • Cherokees and Creeks built houses on wooden frames
  • covered with straw mats
  • plastered the houses with mud clay to keep the interiors cool and dry
  • Natchez of the Gulf Coast created complex societies
  • Ruler – the Great Sun and nobles on top
  • Stinkards – commoners on the bottom of society
  • All nobles, including the Great Sun, had to marry Stinkards (membership in each class kept changing)

Chapter 1 – Roots of the American People (Prehistory – 1500)

Section 3 – Trade Networks of Africa and Asia

Obj: to identify how trade moved along the land and sea routes that linked that peoples of Africa, the Middle East and India; to understand why this period marks the beginning of what historians call the First Global Age.

The Muslim World:

  • Arab merchants played a large role in this growing trade.
  • Middle East became a major crossroad of the world.
  • It stood at the center of trade routes that linked the Mediterranean world in the west with Asia in the east and Africa in the south.
  • The growth of trade also linked the growth of a new religion….Islam.
  • Founded by the prophet Muhammad
  • Followers called Muslims
  • Believed the Quran to be the sacred book of Islam, contained the exact word of God as revealed to Muhammad.
  • Islam expanded through trade and conquest
  • Many conquered chose to convert to the new religion
  • Muslim merchants carried the new faith to people living along the trade routes of Asia and Africa
  • Mecca – holy city
  • Basic duty of Muslims to make a pilgrimage there at least once in their life
  • Muslim sailors had expert knowledge of wind and weather conditions of the Indian Ocean
  • Some Muslim traders traveled the overland routes that crossed the grasslands, mountains, and deserts of Central Asia and linked China and the Middle East.
  • These routes became known as the Silk Road (Chinese silks had been carried westward along them for more than 2,000 years.
  • Travel on the Silk Road was dangerous
  • Desert storms
  • Hunger
  • Bandits a constant threat
  • Traders formed caravans for safety
  • Despite dangers, trade along the Silk Road prospered
  • Trade routes played a large role in Africa too.
  • Routes crossing the vast Sahara desert linked West Africa and North Africa
  • Along the coast of East Africa, small villages grew into busy trading centers
  • Wealth from trade helped local East African rulers build strong city-states
  • Many rulers became Muslims
  • Blended cultures led to a new language, Swahili (Arabic words and African languages)
  • West Africa had several rich kingdoms
  • Timbuktu – a major trading center for the kingdoms of Mali and Songhai
  • Family relationships were important in African cultures. – may lived within an extended family
  • Religious belief varies across Africa, but there were common threads (the forces of nature – powerful spirits could harm or help the living

Africa had many different cultures and kingdoms, by contrast, in China, power was centered on the emperor.
  • Chinese rulers often suspicious of outsiders.
  • Long distances and physical barriers separated it from Egypt, the Middle East and India.
  • Isolation contributed to the Chinese belief that China was the center of the Earth and the sole source of civilization
  • Zheng He was a young emperor eager for trade and actually commanded it.
  • Huge fleet of over 300 ships brought back exotic goods and animals, that they never saw before (i.e. giraffes)
  • He decided that China had nothing to learn from the outside world and outlawed foreign trade

Chapter 1 – Roots of the American People (Prehistory – 1500)

Section 4 – The European Heritage

Obj: to identify the foundation of Jewish and Christian religions to describe the impact of Greek and Roman ideas on government; to understand the influence of the Crusades and the Renaissance; and, to introduce Portuguese exploration

  • European civilization emerged slowing between 500 – 1400 AD
  • European beliefs were shaped by two religions of the ancient Middle East
  • Judaism – refers to the beliefs of the Israelites, who lived more than 30,000 years ago.
  • Their history recorded in the Torah
  • Credited Moses with bringing God’s laws to them
  • Jews (which they came to be known) believed in those laws and the traditions of the Israelites
  • Christianity – brought about by the teachings of Jesus, the Messiah.
  • Gospels tell about Jesus through a recount of his birth, life, death, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension
  • Jesus emphasized love, mercy and forgiveness
  • An organized church with its own government of officials
  • Sent missionaries across Europe to spread Christian teachings
  • Ancient Greece and Rome shaped European traditions.
  • Greece – artists, thinkers, science, mathematics, doctors, scientific methods, government (direct democracy)
  • Rome – from small city-states would become a huge empire.
  • It absorbed ideas from many other peoples, including Greeks.
  • Created its own traditions, especially in law and government (a republic)
  • A senate and assembly
  • Rome’s empire lasted for almost 500 years
  • Declined slowly, invaders attacked and overran many regions
  • Splintered into many small, warring kingdoms.
  • Middle Ages
  • Feudalism
  • Crusades – holy wars fought between Christians and Muslims
  • Trade brought new knowledge
  • Muslim world –
  • Europeans acquired sailing skills and the magnetic compass, which Muslims adopted from the Chinese
  • The astrolabe, an instrument which helped sailors determine their latitude while at sea.
  • The Renaissance increased learning and discoveries – a rebirth on new inventions
  • In Spain and Portugal, Christian monarchy drove out Muslim rulers. All four regions eager to increase their wealth.
  • Portugal was the early leader in the search for new trade route to Asia and for the source of gold

An Age of Exploration Begins