The American Journey © 2012

Chapter 1: The First Americans

Chapter Overviews

Section 1: Migration to the Americas

Recent archaeological finds suggest that the first Americans arrived thousands of years ago, much earlier than once believed. Artifacts of early peoples show that many may have come across a strip of land from Asia into North America. Extremely cold periods during the Ice Age may have exposed this land bridge that now lies under the Bering Strait.

By A.D. 1500, millions of Native Americans, belonging to more than 2,000 different groups, lived on the two continents of North America and South America. Huge mammals, such as the saber-toothed tiger and woolly mammoth, also lived here. They were hunted by early Americans for food, tools, and clothing. As the large animals disappeared, people hunted smaller game, caught fish, and gathered berries and grains. Many began to farm and develop permanent settlements. Over time, the groups of people living in the Americas developed their own cultures.

Section 2: Cities and Empires

Long before the Europeans arrived, several great civilizations arose in present-day Mexico and Central America. These civilizations built enormous cities in thick rain forests and on mountaintops. They also developed complex systems for writing, counting, and tracking time. Among the largest and most advanced of these early civilizations were the Olmec, the Maya, and the Aztec. Each of these civilizations spread out over hundreds of miles, included millions of people, and thrived for several centuries.

In the western highlands of South America, the Inca Empire developed. At its height, the empire’s population was more than 9 million people and stretched from north to south for more than 3000 miles. The empire was built on war, and had a powerful army. People farmed the mountainous land by cutting terraces into the steep slopes. Some cities, such as Machu Picchu, were used only for religious ceremonies.

Section 3: North American Peoples

Many Native American cultures emerged and flourished in North America long before Europeans arrived in the 1500s. Among the most advanced of these earliest cultures were the Hohokam, the Anasazi, and the Mound Builders of the Ohio River valley. As these civilizations eventually faded away, a number of the other Native American cultures arose to take their place.

Each of these many different societies in North America developed ways of life that were well suited to their environments. The Inuit, who settled in the lands around the Arctic Ocean, built igloos and wore furs and sealskins; while the descendants of the Anasazi in the warm Southwest raised maize as their basic food and built homes from sun-dried mud bricks. The arrival of Europeans in the 1500s drastically changed these Native American cultures.

Glencoe Online Learning CenterSocial Studies HomeProduct InfoSite MapContact Us

The McGraw-Hill CompaniesGlencoe