8th Grade Notes

Here are Chapter 2 Section 1 notes. Please have them in your notebook when you come to class on Monday. This gives you 4 days to do it. No excuses.

Mr. Clark

First Civilizations in America
Chapter 2
Section 1 Reaching the Americas
• Glaciers- Thick sheets of slow moving ice
• One such glacier created a land bridge that allowed peoples from Asia to enter North America across the Bering Strait
• New country, new way of life
• Hunting for new types of food
• Growing new types of crops
• Climates dictated these changes
Olmec Civilization
• First known civilization in the Americas
• Farming
• Formed cities
• Social classes
• Complex religions
• Primitive forms record keeping
• Studied stars to know when to plant crops
The Mayas
• Rainforests of what is today Guatemala
• Cleared rainforests and drained swamps for farming
• Populations grew and spread along trade routes
• Social classes
• 365 day calendar
• Mysteriously disappeared about 900A.D.
The Aztecs
• Originally nomadic
• Settled in Central Mexico and built a powerful empire
• Causeways- raised roads made of packed earth
• Farming and trade
• Worshipped the Sun God
• By 1500 ruled a huge empire that stretched from Gulf of Mexico to Pacific Ocean
The Incas
• 2500 miles along west coast of S. America
• Massive palaces and temples made of stone
• Population 10 million people
• Well organized
• Systems of roads
• Government officials to carry out emperors wishes (governors of each area)
• Skilled engineers
Early North American Cultures
• Hohokams-
– American Southwest
– Dug irrigation ditches for farming
• Anasazis-
– Four corners region
– Adobe for housing- (sun dried bricks)
– Irrigation farming, trading
Mound Builders
• Appalachian Mts., and Mississippi Valley
• Mounds used as burials & religious ceremonies
• 2 groups- Hopewells and Mississippians
• 30,000 may have lived at Mississippian city of Cahokia