Five Themes of Geography

1
Unit I Settlement of the Americas
2
Five Themes of Geography

• Location
• Geographic location as represented on a map
  through latitude and longitude.
• Relative location as related to another place.

3

• Interaction
• Interaction between people and their
  environment how has man altered the environment
  to suit our needs.
• Interaction between cultures, exchange of ideas
  or military conflict or both.
• Movement
• Movement of man across the globe.
• Movement of trade goods.

4

• Regions
• Physical characteristics that define a
  particular area
• or it cultural characteristics that define a
  region.

5

• Place
• Physical features of an area, availability of
  natural resources being an important factor.
• Human features of an area, including the
  cultural developments that have taken place.

6
Physical Regions of the U.S
7
Climate classifications in the U.S
8
Development of Civilization

• 23000 B.C - climate change develops an Ice Age
  which creates massive glaciers that lower ocean
  levels by 200 ft. Drop in sea levels expose land
  connecting Siberia with Alaska across the Bering
  Strait. Land Bridge remains until roughly 12000
  BC.

9

• Exact date of the migration of nomadic hunters
  across the Bering Strait is uncertain. The first
  definitive evidence is from around 12000 BC.
  Fossil evidence has been found in Siberia and
  Western Alaska.
• Within 4000 years nomads had advanced to the tip
  of South America (Tierra del Fuego).

10
(No Transcript)
11

• Archeologists believe that Asian migrations
  developed in three waves. The first Asians
  entered North America around 14000 BC, speaking
  Amerind a forerunner to many Native languages.
  Tribes from the Algonquian in the Northeast to
  the Mayan in Central America speak a derivative
  of Amerind.

12

• The second wave of nomads entered North America a
  few thousand years later, speaking a language
  known as NaDene, which Native American
  languages in the Canadian Northwest and American
  southwest derive from.

13

• The last wave of nomads entered North America
  around 7,000 BC and were the ancestors of the
  Inuit who maintained an existence across the
  Artic tundra. It was these settlers which the
  Vikings in Greenland encountered around 1000 AD.

14

• The nomadic hunters entering North America found
  an area loaded with large game that had no
  previous experience with man. The development of
  the Clovis spearhead around 9000 B.C allowed
  hunters to successfully hunt large mammals. At
  the same time though the climate changed and
  further contributed to the extinction of big game
  in North and South America.

15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17

• The loss of big game for nomadic hunters
  prevented their population numbers from
  increasing. This was in sharp contrast to the
  Eurasian population which domesticated animals
  and developed larger populations.

18

• The close proximity of people to animals created
  a host of communicable diseases which killed
  portions of the Eurasian population but also led
  them to develop immunities that did not occur in
  the Americas.

19

• Life as hunter-gathers could not sustain the
  population for ever. Nomadic hunters thus had to
  turn to the domestication of plant species which
  could be harvested for food on a regular basis.
  By 4000 BC permanent farming communities had
  developed in Peru, central Mexico, and the
  southwestern United States.
• The most important of the early crops were maize,
  sweet potatoes, beans, tomatoes.

20
(No Transcript)
21

• Only the most advanced cultures developed into
  sedentary farmers in the Americas. North of
  Mexico, Indians developed semi-sedentary
  communities where they would settle for a time in
  a area. They would use slash and burn
  agriculture to clear an area and then Native
  women would plant crops and build temporary
  dwellings while men hunted and fought rival
  tribes.

22

• Every few years the soil would become exhausted
  forcing the tribe to move to a new location. The
  combination of semi-sedentary and sedentary
  cultures created a population of around 50
  million by 1492.

23

• Civilization in Mesoamerica developed around 1200
  B.C along the Mexican gulf coast. Civilizations
  are defined by the development of cities,
  political structures, surplus food production,
  artistic activity and a complex form of
  communication, but does not have to be written.

24

• The Olmec civilization thrived between 1200 and
  400 A.D. The area was first settled around 3500
  BC when Indians began farming corn and beans.
• How did Olmec civilization develop in the gulf?

25
(No Transcript)
26
(No Transcript)
27
Among other monolithic works, the Olmec carved
three-dimensional stone heads, ranging in height
from about 6 to 10 ft, out of basalt boulders
quarried in distant mountains.
28
Ruins of Monte Albán, ancient center of the
Zapotec civilization. The Zapotecs thrived for
about 1000 years, between 500 BC and 500 AD.
29

• Olmec religious beliefs had a tremendous impact
  on the Mesoamerican cultures. They developed a
  dual calendar system that lasted through the fall
  of the Aztecs. The Olmecs developed a 52 year
  calendar that ended on the first day of the long
  calendar. They believed that this occurrence
  could bring an end to the world and the
  destruction of the sun. Thus human sacrifice was
  necessary to keep the sun in motion.
• This belief was also central to the lowland
  culture of the Mayans.

30

• Mayan culture developed as a series of
  independent city states that controlled the
  Yucatan Peninsula between 50 BC and 900 AD.

31
(No Transcript)
32
(No Transcript)
33
(No Transcript)
34
The Temple of the Inscriptions is famed as
Pacal's Tomb. One of the most elaborate burials
in a Mayan pyramid is buried deep inside this
monument.
35
Caracol, Chichén Itzá
36
The Temple of the Columns at Chichen Itza
37
The city of Chichén Itzá, on the northern Yucatán
peninsula, became a center of Maya civilization
in the Postclassic Period, after ad 900.
38
Mayan artwork
39

• Classic Mayan culture began to decline around
  800, with the abandonment of several of the
  larger city states.
• Causes of the Mayan collapse
• The Maya had damaged their environment through
  deforestation and erosion.
• Climate changes occurred that brought droughts to
  the area.
• Frequent wars between the city states also took
  its toll on the population.
• The competition between nobles led them to
  forsake underlying problems.

40

• By 1400 power in central Mexico had been
  consolidated by the Aztecs, who had migrated out
  of the north around 1200. They settled along the
  shore of Lake Texcoco and began construction of
  their capital Tenochtitlan, which was on the lake
  itself.

41
(No Transcript)
42

• Tenochtitlan was connected to the mainland
  through a series of causeways and built floating
  gardens on the lake to supply the capitals
  population.
• With a population around 200,000 the Aztecs
  dominated the smaller cities in central Mexico.
  They adopted the traditional religion of
  Mesoamerica and waged war to capture people for
  sacrifice in their religious ceremonies.

43
(No Transcript)
44
(No Transcript)
45
Plaza of the Three Cultures
46
Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacán
47
(No Transcript)
48

• Avenue of the Dead Teotihuacán, Mexico

49
(No Transcript)
50
Aztec Calendar Stone
51

• The dominant empire in South America by 1400 were
  Incans which were located along the Pacific
  coast.

52
This view of the Andes Mountains is from a
village near Cuzco in the highlands region of
southeastern Peru. Broad valleys and plateaus in
this area are above 6500 ft in altitude and lie
among the tallest peaks in South America.
53

• The Incan capital of Cuzco controlled an empire
  over 2,000 miles long. They developed a complex
  transportation system to move troops and supplies
  across the empire and fed the population by
  building massive terraces on the sides of the
  mountains.

54
(No Transcript)
55
(No Transcript)
56

• North of Mexico, Native American cultures
  developed less sophisticated cultures that were
  still impressive. Between 3000 BC and 1700 AD
  mound builders developed powerful empires from
  the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes. The mound
  building cultures developed trade routes across
  the continent that last until 400 AD.

57
The Serpent Mound twists to a length of 1,348 ft
near the town of Peebles in southern Ohio. It is
believed to have been built by the Adena, whose
culture flourished in the first millennium bc.
58

• In the American southwest, two cultures developed
  complex societies
• Hohokam settled Arizona around 300 BC and 300
  AD. They dug irrigation canals, created pottery
  and trade with California tribes and
  Mesoamericans.
• Anasazi developed a power culture in Colorado,
  New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada. They developed
  housing in the cliffs of the various canyons,
  irrigation ditches, and astronomical
  observatories in the cliffs.

59
(No Transcript)
60
Hohokam Indian Village
61
Pueblo Bonito of Chaco Canyon
62
Anasazi Bowl
63
(No Transcript)