BEGINNINGS

1. BEGINNINGS • Passage to Alaska • Hunters moved north in Asia in search of large mammals • Around 12,000 B.C., hunters walk across Bering Strait into North America • Hunters arrived at the Great Plains and find lush grasslands and millions of large mammals

2. The Demise of the Big Mammals • Clovis hunters develop long spears and stone blades for more effective hunting • The animal slaughter begins • Some histoians debate the role of the Clovis hunters in killing these mammals

3. The Archaic Period: A World Without Big Mammals, 9000 B.C.-- 1000 B.C. • Absence of big mammals forces people to find new sources of food, clothing and shelter • The Archaic Period lasts for several hundred human generations • Bands of Archaic people migrated in search of food according to season • Some plant cultivation beings around 2500 B.C. The First Sedentary Communities, 1000 B.C. • Sedentary communities developed in different places at different times

4. Poverty Point, Mississippi: an important early sedentary community • Egalitarian social structure • Hopewell Mounds developed in Ohio and Illinois. • Corn Transforms the Southwest • The Aztec city of Teotihuacán: population near 100,000, paved roads, complex housing system • Gradual domestication of corn • importance of corn in culture • corn growing moves north to Mexican desert

5. The Diffusion of Corn • Corn moved slowly through North America because of weather and labor demands of the crop • Hunting and gathering peoples slowly learned the necessity of agricultural labor • Population Growth After 800 A.D. • Corn stimulated population growth by improving physical health • Increased population caused people to clear more land, which in turn allowed for higher population • Trade system evolves

6. Cahokia: The Hub of Mississippian Culture • By 1000 A.D., Cahokia had become a major center of trade, religion and politics • Vast and complex system of mounds and buildings • Sharp class divisions were present at Cohokja • The Collapse of Urban Centers • By 1200 A.D. most of the urban areas across North America were losing their populations • Why? Ecological disasters, land abuse, crop failure all contributed to lack of adequate food supply

7. Many corn-growing tribes also began a long period of warfare with each other • American Beginnings in Eurasia and Africa • The domestication of a variety of crops (wheat, oats, peas, olives, etc.) and animals spread through African and Eurasia • Disease wrought havoc on Eurasian populations

8. Europe in Ferment • Growing population put pressure on resources of land which in turn caused political unrest • Shortage of tillable land created a large, wandering peasant class • Invention of movable type created communication revolution • By the 15th century, Europeans were sharply divided along class and education lines and wholly cut-off for the worlds across the Atlantic Ocean