 First Americans left no written records  Evidence suggests people first reached the America’s during the late Ice Age

 12,000 years ago, glaciers(thick sheets of ice) covered much of the earth  Bering Strait Passage way between the U.S. and Asia in which people crossed

 Hunters that travelled in small groups following herds of wooly mammoths and bison Nomads

 Temperatures rose and glaciers melted  Water covered land that had previously been seen  People adapted and animals died

 The Olmecs were the earliest known civilization in the Americas  Farmers that lived near the Gulf of Mexico  Grew a surplus(extra) food to support a growing population  First cities began to appear

 Traders of jade, jewelry, cocoa beans and other goods  Existed about 3,000 years ago  Came from Southern Mexico rainforests  Cities appeared in Mexico and Central America and built roads for transportation  Used hieroglyphics or pictures to represent words  Cities disappeared

 North of the Mayans  Central Mexico  Tenochtitlan  Constructed causeways or raised roads made of earth  Religion was important—worshiped Sun God  Young people attended school  Emperor was supreme leader  People heavily taxed

 South of Aztecs  Largest empire in the Americas  Excellent farmers(like others)  Built homes into mountainsides  Created 19,000 miles of road  Discovered advances in medicine  Worshipped the sun god  Attacked by the Spanish in 1500—too weak to fight back