ROOTS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE (PRE-HISTORY TO 1500)

Essential Question: How and when did people get here? A Navajo answer: Long ago, before being rejected by three former worlds owing to quarreling, the first people came up into this world but found the Pueblo people already here!

When did people first reach the land we now call the United States?

How did they get there?

What career fields might be involved in developing a hypothesis?

How do you know if a reference source is correct when researching questions?

In Archeology, Absence of Evidence is NOT Evidence of Absence People may have come by boat rather than on foot. (Coastal Route Theory) People from many places may have washed up in the Americas. Clovis points haven’t been found in Siberia. A comet may have hit North America around 13,000 BCE, causing a firestorm and transforming human life. Humans may have spread throughout the hemisphere before 13,000 BCE, including throughout Amazonia

What is cultural diffusion?

Forms of Bias: Presentism and Chronological Ethnocentrism What is primitive? What is civilized?

In what ways could Native societies be superior to modern societies?

What do you already know about the geography of the Americas?

When should we begin the history of the United States? 1492? The Land Bridge in the Bering Strait? Europe? Africa? The Middle East? Asia? The Ocean?

The Donut Theory of Our Planet

What was the paradigm shift? BEFORE EXPLORATION: The world is a donut! (But they knew it was a sphere) AFTER EXPLORATION: There are many donuts! (Many WORLDS!)

THE “ISLAND” WORLD Between 200 BCE and 400 CE, trade routes linked the Roman Empire with Han China. What are these trade routes called? What was going on in the rest of the world during the Dark Ages in Europe? Who was Marco Polo? Who was Ibn Battuta? (read quote on page 24) How did things change once Europe start exploring the oceans?

GOING GLOBAL Why did the Europeans want a sea route to Asia? (Rhymes with Macbeth.) Who was poised to take the lead in navigation and trade? “…government subsidies for such maritime travel ended, and without government support, which was essential for the very large ships, private traders turned to regional trading in smaller ships.” What was Africa like during the age of exploration? Was there slavery before Columbus? (p. 32)

Who was Mansa Musa (1280 to 1337)?

PEOPLE FROM THE SEA Who were the people from the sea? Ocean barbarians? Mountain range floating on the water? Men who lived under the ocean? What new alliances were formed during the age of exploration? (page 34, 39) Why were the Europeans able to colonize the Americas so quickly? How did Europeans envision the Americas?

ATLANTIC CREOLES

THE PLANTATION COMPLEX

THE OCEAN WORLD