Chapter 1 Outline: The New Global World, 1450-1620
I. Native American Societies
A. The First Americans
1. Native Americans were originally migrants from Asia.
2. Relatively few came by water and most came via a land bridge.
a. This migration occurred from around twenty thousand years ago up until around five thousand years ago.
b. Most started out as tribal hunters, developed into hunter-gatherers, and then ultimately farmers
B. The Mayas and the Aztecs
1. The Mayas resided in large urban centers, which were ruled by an elite class who claimed that they were decedents from the gods.
a. They developed a complex society with scholars, artists, and priests.
b. Starting at around 800 the Mayan civilization went into a steady decline.
2. A second Mesoamerican civilization developed in the highlands of Mexico.
a. Their major city was called Teotihiuacan, which had over one hundred temples, four thousand apartment buildings, and a population over 100,000 (500 AD).
b. By 800 AD the city was declining and due to drought and invasion.
3. The Aztecs were a tribe of semi-nomadic warriors, who settled and built a city called Tenochtitlan near present day Mexico City in 1325.
a. The Aztecs developed a hierarchical society, where priests and warrior nobles ruled over free Aztec commoners who farmed communal land. They also possessed non-Aztec slaves.
b. The Aztecs conquered much of Mexico and demanding tribute from those defeated.
c. The Aztecs developed trading routes across their vast empire. They imported furs, gold, textiles, food, and obsidian from as far north as the Rio Grande and as far south as present day Panama.
d. By 1500, their magnificent capital had a population of over 200,000. A Spanish soldier said, “These great towns and pyramids and buildings arising from the water, all made of stone, seemed like an enchanted vision.”
C. The Indians of the North (Hopewell Culture)
1. By 100 A.D., the Hopewell people of present day Ohio had organized themselves into large villages and had domesticated plants for cultivation.
a. They also set up a trading post that stretched from present-day Louisiana to Wisconsin, importing obsidian from the Rocky Mountains, copper from the Great Lakes, and potter and marine shells from the Gulf of Mexico.
b. The Hopewells built large burial mounds that still remain today.
c. For reasons unknown, the Hopewell’s sophisticated trading network collapsed around 400.
D. The Indians of the North (The Peoples of the Southwest)
1. A complex culture developed among the Pueblo peoples of southwestern North America: the Hohokams, Mogollons, and Anasazis.
a. By A.D. 600, the Hohokam people in the high country, near Arizona and New Mexico, were utilizing irrigation to successfully grow two crops a year, making pottery, and worshipping gods.
b. By 1,000, the Hohokam were living in elaborate stone structures called pueblos and had adopted the Mayan ritual of drinking chocolate on special occasions.
3. By A.D. 900, the Anasazi ...
