The Americas

1. The Americas

2. The Earliest Americans • Explain how people first arrived in the Americas. • Describe the changes that the development of agriculture brought to the Americas.

3. Physical Setting • Stretches more than 9000 miles from Greenland to Cape Horn in South America • Rocky Mountains stretch from North America into South America, where they are called the Andes • Mississippi River in North America • Amazon River in South America • Bering Strait- a narrow strip of water

6. First Arrivals • Followed animal herds across the land bridge • Many were hunter-gathers • Depended on hunting, fishing, and plants • Created Myths to explain their origins

7. Development of Agriculture • Nomads who hunted wild animals and gathered plants • Climate change destroyed the large animal population • Created new way of life…Farming • Earliest known farming in America is in Mexico • Practiced subsistence farming

8. Mammoths Mastodons

9. Cultures of North America • Explain how geography and climate affected life in different regions of North America • Distinguish between the early American cultures in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, the Great Plains, and the Eastern Woodlands.

10. The Northwest • Located on the Northwest coast of North America • Achievements in fishing, weaving , and woodworking • Known for Totem Poles- carvings that that tell the history of people • Held gift giving ceremonies called potlatches • Organized by clan or family

11. The Southwest • Hohokam people lived in SW United States • Achievements in irrigation networks, farming, and cliff dwellings • Climate change made them abandon their communities • The Pueblo built house made of adobe, sun dried brick and raised corn

12. The Southwest

13. The Great Plains Located between the Rocky Mtns and MS River Achievements in hunting buffalo, making tools and pottery, and farming Hunted buffalo by the jump-kill method or chasing them over cliffs Built cone shaped dwellings called tepees Lived in square or rectangular houses built in a small pit Organized by villages

15. The Eastern Woodlands • Stretched from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and from Atlantic to MS River • Achievements in building cities, conducting trade over long distances, building mounds, farming, and skilled artists • Organized by ceremonial centers or villages • Hopewell built mounds in the shape of animals • Mississippians settlements centered around ceremonial mounds

17. Mesoamerica & Andean South America • Identify characteristics of the Olmec, Toltec, and Maya Cultures • Explain how the Aztecs and the Incas built and strengthened their empires

18. Olmec & Chavin • Earliest known in Mexico • Large class of farmers and small elite • Worshipped god that is part jaguar part human • Known for giant stone heads • Mysteriously disappeared

20. Maya • Most advanced • Skilled architects & engineers • Developed written system based on hieroglyphs • Worshipped many gods…Rain god • Used astronomy for agriculture calendar • Considered stars and planets to be gods • Warfare & overuse of land are reasons for decline

23. Toltec • Ruled by military class • Erected pyramid buildings • Introduced metal work • Worship Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent) • Chief god of ancient Mexico • Practiced human sacrifice

25. Aztecs • Wandering warriors • Most powerful in Mexico • Farmed on Chinampus • Fields made from mud lakes • Increased the amount of food for farmers • Military dominated society • SUN god constant struggles/sacrifices…prisoners of war • Declined due to discontent among people forced to pay heavy tributes

27. The Inca:“ Children of the Sun” • Emperor had absolute power • Built fortresses, irrigation systems, paved roads, and storehouses • Steps to unify • Move villages to colonize new lands • Established educational system w/ common language…Quechua • Record keeping by Quipu- series of knots on parallel strings • Advanced in the practice of medicine

28. Viracocha