The earth had a
single supercontinent 225 million years ago.
The Great Ice
Age accounted for the origins of the continent's human history.
By making land
bridges, people could roam into different continents freely.
When the ice
age finished and the glaciers melted, the sea level rose, inundating the
land bridge stopping immigration into America for man thousands of years,
leaving the first native Americans as the only ones.
By the time
Europeans arrived in America in 1492, around 72 million people inhabited
the two American continents.
They split
into many tribes developing over 2000 separate languages, many diverse
religions, cultures, and ways of life.
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Incans in Peru,
Mayans in Central America, and Aztecs in Mexico shaped stunningly
sophisticated civilizations.
Talented
mathematicians made accurate astronomical observations.
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The Azetecs
gave human sacrifices by cutting the hearts out of captives of battle.
Agriculture,
especially corn, accounted for the size and sophistication of the Native
American civilizations in Mexico and South America.
Everywhere it
was planted, corn transformed nomadic hunting bands into settled
agricultural villagers.
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The cultivation
of maize, as well as of beans and squash, reached the southeastern
Atlantic region of North America around A.D. 1000. These techniques were used by the Creek,
Choctaw, and Cherokee Indians.
Unlike the
Europeans, the Native Americans respected nature and took only what they
needed.
Mound
Builder and Mississippian cultures mysteriously went into decline around
1300
The Iroquois
Confederation menaced Native Americans and Europeans.
Substantial
authority went to women of the native people of North America.
In
1492 less than 4 million Native Americans were left on North America.
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Europeans were not aware that the Americas even existed.
Europeans
wanted certain goods brought into the continent from Asia during the
Crusades.
This
was found to be too costly
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Marco
Polo may have never seen China but told of the cheap treasures that lay in
the East.
A
caravel was developed to overcome strong winds and currents.
Europeans
could also easily be carried home from Africa from the westward breezes.
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South
of the Sahara Desert was a mystery to many people because it could never
be reached until advanced sea travel came along.
The
Portuguese set up trading posts along the African shore.
A
reason why slavery became big in Africa
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Portuguese
went further southward of Africa in search of a water route to Asia.
Unity occurred
between Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile
Spain
and Portugal were in a race to discover the riches of the Indies.
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