Before Discovery

Chapter 1, Section 2

The Bering Strait

Open your text to page 954. It is believed that North America and

Asia were joined together by a land bridge during the last Ice Age, roughly 25,000 to 40,000 years ago. Over this land bridge, it is believed that the first humans traveled to America.

Similarities and DifferencesAztecs Mayans Incas SW Indians Eastern Woodland

Indians

Architecture

Agriculture

Literature

Government

Transportation

Location

Similarities and DifferencesAztecs Mayans Incas SW Indians Eastern

Woodland Indians

Architecture Pyramids and adobe homes with thatched roofs

highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories, all built without metal, ball courts

irrigation systems, palaces, temples, and fortifications

Multi-storied terraced buildings, pueblos, villages

Wigwams and log houses

Agriculture corn, tomatoes, potatoes, chili peppers, and squash , fishing with nets

permanent raised fields, terracing, forest gardens, managed fallows, and wild harvesting

terracing, drainage, irrigation, and the use of fertilizers – domesticated animals (the llama, the alpaca, the dog, the guinea pig, and the duck) were important to daily living

Hunting buffalo, farming, maize and other wild plants

animals could be hunted, fish caught, birds taken, leaves, seeds, and roots of wild plants gathered, shellfish collected, and crops grown – also grew maize, beans and squash

Literature N'ahuatl - a system of pictures which they used as sort of an alphabet

developed a highly complex system of writing, using pictographs and phonetic or syllabic elements

No paper or system of writing

Gov’t theocracy Small kingdoms led by hereditary rulers

Monarchy, aristocratic bureaucracy

Confederation of five (later six) Indian tribes across upper New York

Transportation Canals, Roads (for communication)

No draft animals, wheel or paved roads

Roads, suspension bridges, stone bridges

walking

Location Mexico City Mexico and Northern Central America

empire that extended along the Pacific coast and Andes Mountains from what is now northern Ecuador to central Chile

Arizona, New Mexico, Southern Colorado, and the northern part of Mexico

stretching east from the Mississippi River valley to the Atlantic coastline and extending north into Canada and south as far as what are now the U.S. states from Illinois to North Carolina

Why do you think the different Indian civilizations did not interact?

The distance between the tribes and the lack of transportation, other then by foot, made it difficult.

Another problem was geography. Mountains and deserts made travel by foot difficult.

They were self-sufficient No horses or sea going ships

Indians “ripe for conquest”

There way of life made them vulnerable to foreign domination.

Europeans had more advanced weapons.

Europeans had technology. They had iron and metal, cannons, guns, armor, horse, ships

Why did Europeans have such a wide technological lead at this time?

Europeans could travel and exchange ideas.

Cannon came from Turkey, stirrups came from Asia, and decimal system came from Arabia.

Indians were isolated.