No one knows for sure when the first Americans arrived, but it may have been 22,000 years ago. At the glaciers of the last Ice Age had frozen vast quantities of the earth's water, lowering sea levels and possibly creatinga land bridge between Asia and Alaska across what is now the Bering Strait. Ancient hunters may have trekked acrossthe frozen land ,known as Beringia, into North America.

Archeologist belive that the earliest American lived as bog-game hunters. The way of life changed around 12,000 to 10,000 years ago when temperatures warmed, glaciers melted, and sea levels rose once again. The land bridge disappeared under the Bering Sea, bringing to an end land travel between the Asia and North American Continents. As the climate grew warner, the large animals no longer thrived. People gradually switched to hunting smaller game and fish and gathering nuts and berries.

While manny ancient groups settled in North America, others continued south into what is now Mexico and south America. Between 10,000 and 5,000 years ago, an agricultural evolution quietly took place in what is now Central Mexico. There, people began to plant crops. Eventually, agricultural techniques spread throughout the Americas. The introduction of agriculture made possible for people to settle in one place and to store surplus foods. From this agricultural base developed larger communities. However, some Native American cultures never adopted agriculture and remained nomadic, moving from place to place in search for food and water. Other tribes mixed nomadic and nonnomadic lifestyle.

 

 

The first empire of the Americas emerged as early as 1200 B.C. in what is now Southern Mexico, where the Olmec people created thriving civilization. In the wake of Olmec's mysterious collapse, around 400 B.C., the Maya built a dynamic culture in Guatimala and the Yucatan Peninsula between A.D. 250 and 900. Later, the Aztec settled the valley of Mexico in the 1200s and developed a suphisticated civilization.

 

native american societies of the 1400's

The varied regions of the North American continent provided for manny different ways of life. The native group that populated the continent's coasts, desert and forest 400 years ago were as diverse as their sorroundings.The inhabitants of California adapted to the region's varied environments. The Kashaya Pomo lived in marshland along the central coast, hunting waterfowl with slingshot and nets. to the north of them, the Yurok and Hupa searched the forest for acorns and traped fishes in mountain streams.

The waterways and forest af the Northwest coast sustained large communities year-round. On a coastline that stretched from what is now Southern Alaska to Northern California, group such as the Kwakioutl, Nootka,and Haida collected shellfish from the beaches and hunted the ocean for whales, sea otters and seals. In the dry Southwest, the Pueblo and Pima tribes, descendants of the Anasazi and Hohokam, lived in multistory houses made of stone or adobe, a sundried brick of clay and straw, and grew maize(corn), beans melons, and squash.

Beneath the forest conopy of the Northeast, members of the Iroquois nation hunted fish and game, such as wild turkeys, deer, and bears.In the Northeast, where winters could be long and harsh, Northeast people relied heavily on wild animals for clothing and food. In the warmer Southeast, groups lived mainly off the land, growing such crops as maize, squash and beans.

 

 

Manny of the Native American had in common certain pattern of trade, attitudes towards land use, religious beliefs, and social values.Tribes traded among each other both locally and over long distances. So extansive was the network of forest trails and roadsthat an English sailor named David Ingram claimed in 1568 to have walked along Native American trade routes all the way from the Gulf of Mexico to Nova Scotia. Native Americans traded many things, but land was not one of them. Land was regarded as the source of life, not as commodity to be sold.

 

European colonization of the Americas

The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492, although there was at least one earlier colonization effort. The first known Europeans to reach the Americas were the Vikings ( Norse ) during the 11th century, who established several colonies in Greenland and one short-lived settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows (51°N) in the area the Norse called Vinland , present day Newfoundland . Settlements in Greenland survived for several centuries, during which time the Greenland Norse and the Inuit people experienced mostly hostile contact. By the end of the 15th century, the Norse Greenland settlements had collapsed.

In 1492, a Spanish expedition headed by Christopher Columbus reached the Americas, after which European exploration and colonization rapidly expanded, first through much of the Caribbean Sea region (including the islands of Hispaniola , Puerto Rico and Cuba ) and, early in the 16th century, parts of the mainlands of North and South America. Although Christopher Columbus is credited for discovering America, he was preceded by John Cabot who was the first to land in North America (1497). Eventually, the entire Western Hemisphere would come under the domination of European nations, leading to profound changes to its landscape, population, and plant and animal life. In the 19th century alone over 50 million people left Europe for the Americas. The post-1492 era is known as the period of the Columbian Exchange .