UNITED STATES HISTORY NOTES: GRADE 5
CHAPTER 1
LESSON 1: MIGRATION TO THE AMERICAS
I. MOVING INTO THE AMERICAS (page 55)
-The Ice Age occurred about 20,000 years ago. It was a long period of extreme cold. Low temperatures caused large areas of earth’s water to freeze, forming thick sheets of ice or glaciers. The levels of the oceans dropped.
-The Bering Strait is a narrow stretch of water that separates Asia from North America. During the Ice Age, the Bering Strait became shallower. Land that had been underwater was uncovered, forming a long land bridge that linked Asia and North America.
-Many scholars believe that people first began to migrate, or move, to the Americas between 40,000 to 10,000 years ago. But how did they get here? The land bridge gave historians a theory, or a possible explanation.
-Perhaps large animals like mammoth and caribou began to cross the land bridge from Asia. Perhaps hunters began to follow these animals on foot. As the animals moved deeper into North America, so did the hunters.
-Some scholars think people may have migrated to the Americas by boat. Perhaps both theories are right and different people arrived in different ways.
-The first Americans migrated throughout North America and South America. They lived in many different environments. They adapted, or changed, their ways of living to meet the challenges of these environments.
II. WAYS OF LIFE (page 56)
-Life was a struggle for the earliest people in the Americas. Getting enough food to eat for all was often a challenge. So they lived in small bands, or groups, of people. Their way of life centered on hunting. They depended on wandering herds of animals for food, so they moved often.
-The early people used more than food from animals like the mammoth. They stripped the hides from the animals and made clothes from them. They also stretched hides over wood frames to make their temporary homes.
-They made tools like needles and scrapers from the animal’s bones and tusks. The early people also made tools from stone. Pressing one stone against another, they chipped spear points, knives, and hand axes.
-The earliest people left no written record of how they lived. So how do we know about their lives? Clues they left behind—called artifacts—tell us. An artifact is an object that someone made in the past.
-Archaeologists are scientists who interpret these clues. Archaeologists study the artifacts of people who lived long ago and draw conclusions from them.
-For example, sturdy bone needles reveal that people stitched strong hides together to make their clothing, blankets, and even shelter.
III. CHANGING WAY OF LIFE (Page 57)
-About 10,000 years ago, the Ice Age gradually came to an end. Earth’s climate began to get warmer and glaciers melted. As time passed some of the large ice animals became extinct, or died out. Perhaps they could not adapt to the new climate. Or perhaps the hunters had killed them off.
-Whatever the cause, the first Americans had to find new food sources. They continued to hunt for smaller animals and to fish. They also gathered plants that grew wild, like grains, root vegetables, berries, and nuts.
-Hunters had become hunter-gatherers, but they were still on the move. They moved with the seasons to find whatever foods each season provided.
-Then about 7,000 years ago in present-day Mexico, people began to learn how to grow food themselves. Instead of gathering wild grain, they started planting its seeds. Agriculture made it possible for people to settle in one place. Now wandering bands of hunter-gatherers could become members of settled communities.
LESSON 2: EARLY AMERICAN CULTURES
- I. THERE YOU ARE (Page 60)
-You’re looking out the window of a plane as you fly over southwestern Ohio. All of a sudden something amazing catches your eye. You see what looks like a huge snake that seems to be slithering its way across the countryside.
-It looks as if it is built out of mounds of soil. It’s probably about three feet high. What in the world can this be?
- II. THE MOUND BUILDERS (page 61)
-The snake-like mound that you just read about is real. Called the Great Serpent Mound, it is near Hillsboro, Ohio. it was built more than 1,000 years ago by people often called the Mound Builders.
-They were one of several early Indian groups that once flourished in North America, and then disappeared.
-The Mound Builders culture began about 3,000 years ago and lasted about 2,500 years. Most Mound Builders lived east of the Mississippi River. The land there is rich in forests, fertile soil, lakes, and rivers.
-The Mound Builders were farmers who lived in settled communities. Their main crop was corn.
-The Mound Builders were not a single group of people. The three main groups were the Adena, Hopewell, and Mississippians. They built thousands of mounds in many different shapes.
-At Cahokia in present-day Illinois, a mound rises 100 feet, as tall as a 10-story building.
-Some mounds were burial places for important chiefs. Some, like the Great Serpent Mound, may have been built to honor animal spirits that were part of the Mound Builders’ religion.
-Many of the mounds had platforms where religious or other ceremonies were held. A ceremony is an activity done for a special purpose or event, such as a birth, wedding, or death.
-The Mound Builders left many clues about their way of life for archaeologists to study. Being able to build such enormous structures shows they were well organized. Hundreds or even thousands of workers had to be directed to dig up tons of earth with the hand tools available.
-Then the earth had to be moved—often over long distances—to a mound location. Finally, workers had to create the shape the builder planned.
-Artifacts tell us that trade was important to their builders. Knives found in mounds were carved from a rock called obsidian that came from the Rocky Mountains, hundreds of miles to the west.
-Seashells used in jewelry came from the Gulf of Mexico, hundreds of miles to the south. Copper came hundreds of miles from near the Great Lakes, to the north. Mica, a glittering mineral the people of Cahokia prized, came from the Appalachian Mountains far to the east.
III. THE ANASAZI (Pages 62-63)
-Another early farming group, called the Anasazi, lived in what is today the Southwest of the United States. Their name is a Navajo Indian word for “the old ones.”
-Anasazi communities were located in an area today called the Four Corners. Four present-day states come together here. They are Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. The Anasazi lived in this area from about the year 100 to about 1300.
-The Anasazi grew corn, squash, beans, and pumpkins. Like Mound Builders, they lived in permanent communities. Although the climate of the Four Corners region is dry, it did not limit the Anasazi’s farming.
-They dug ditches to carry water from streams to the crops in the fields. The Anasazi were the first people to use irrigation in what would become the United States.
-The Anasazi are also known as the “Cliff Dwellers” because they sometimes carved houses into the sides of cliffs. They also built apartment-style buildings several stories high on the top of mesas.
-A mesa is a high, flat landform that rises steeply from the land around it. Mesa means “table” in Spanish.
-In the Anasazi community of Mesa Verde in present-day Colorado, you can see a village built into steep cliffs. The largest building is the Cliff Palace, which has about 150 rooms.
-It also has 23 kivas, which are large underground rooms. Kivas are important to Anasazi religion. They are where religious ceremonies are held. Only men are allowed to enter a kiva.
-All around you, people are using beautiful woven baskets. They are so tightly and expertly woven that they can even hold water and be used for cooking. Hot coals are put into the baskets with corn that has been ground into flour, beans, and other food to make a stew.
-Anasazi culture reached its height in the 1100s. But then something mysterious happened. The Anasazi suddenly abandoned their villages in the Four Corners region. Why did they leave? Where did they go? No one knows for sure.
-One theory is that a drought, or a long period without rain, forced them to leave. Streams dried up and irrigation became impossible. The Anasazi had to move to a place where there was enough water for farming.
-Historians believe that the Pueblo peoples of today’s Southwest, including the Hopi, are descended from the Anasazi.
IV. THE INUIT (Page 64)
-Far to the north, in what is today Canada, live people who call themselves Inuit, meaning “the people.” Like the first Americans, the Inuit traveled from Asia to North America. But the Inuit came much later, probably about 2,500 years ago.
-Today they make their homes across the frozen lands near the Arctic Ocean, from Alaska through Canada and on to Greenland.
-The Inuit adapted to life in the cold climate. They hunted whales, walruses, and seals in the Arctic waters. They developed the kayak, a light, one-person boat that is used for hunting and transportation. In the winter, some Inuit still build traditional houses called igloos from blocks of packed snow.
LESSON 3: THE RISE OF EMPIRES
- I. THE MAYA (Page 67)
-Mayan civilization reached its peak around the year 400. A civilization is a culture with organized systems of government, religion, and learning.
-The Maya settled in present-day Mexico about 3,000 years ago. They were farmers who cut down the thick forest to create open fields, where they grew corn and other crops.
-The Maya were such successful farmers that they began to grow a surplus, or more food than they needed to feed their own families. People with extra food could trade it for things they needed. As a result, not everyone had to farm.
-Some Maya began to specialize, or do only one kind of job. People began to develop skills such as basket weaving, jewelry making, and stone carving.
-Specializing helped the Maya to develop a complex civilization with many achievements. Some Maya specialized in studying the world around them and developing new ideas.
-For example, some devoted themselves to studying the movements of the sun, moon, stars, and planets. What they learned helped them develop an extremely accurate calendar.
-Other Maya became skilled at mathematics. They were among the first people to use the number zero.
-Other Maya specialized in building. They developed methods to build tall pyramids. A pyramid is building with three or more sides shaped like triangles that slant toward a point at the top.
-At the top of the Mayan pyramids were temples where religious ceremonies were held. Mayan kings were buried in pyramids.
-The Maya also developed a system of writing. They recorded their history and what they learned about mathematics and science.
-Mayan civilization began to decline as early as the year 750. By 900, the Maya had deserted most of their cities. Eventually the forest grew back, completely covering them over. Today, however, descendants of the Maya continue to live in Mexico and Central America.
II. THE AZTECS AND THE INCA (Pages 68-69)
-In about 1200, people called the Aztecs began to migrate south from northern Mexico. According to legend, they were following the instructions of one of their gods, who told them to travel until they saw an eagle with a snake in its beak sitting on a cactus.
-There, he said, they should settle. When the Aztecs reached an island in lake Texcoco, they as last saw what they had been searching for. Here, in the Valley of Mexico, they built Tenochtitlan, meaning “near the cactus.”
-Today, the eagle, cactus, and snake appear as the central symbols on the flag of the country of Mexico.
-Tenochtitlan grew into a great city. Causeways, or low bridges, linked Tenochtitlan to the land around the lake. As many as 300,000 people lived there, making it one of the largest cities in the world.
-In order to have more land for farming, Tenochtitlan farmers created “floating gardens” around their island city. Farmers on other Aztec lands developed irrigation systems and created more farmland by carving terraces, or wide, flattened steps, into the hillside.
-From Tenochtitlan, the Aztec sent out armies to conquer other people in the Valley of Mexico. Soon they had created an empire that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. An empire is a group of lands and peoples ruled by one leader.
-The Aztec forced the people they conquered to pay them tribute. Tribute is the payment demanded by rulers from the people they rule.
-Each year people in the Aztec empire had to send gold, silver, and precious stones, as well as food, clothing, and weapons as tribute to Tenochtitlan.
-The Aztecs also demanded to be given people as tribute. They enslaved people given to them as tribute as well as prisoners captured in war. Slavery is the practice of holding people against their will and taking away their freedom.
-Like the Maya, the Aztecs worshipped many gods. Chief among them was Huitzilopochtli, the god of war. The Aztecs believed that they had to worship Huitzilopochtli by offering him human blood. Slaves and prisoners were sacrificed to the god. To sacrifice is to kill a person or animal for a religious purpose.
-At the same time as the Aztecs ruled central Mexico, the Incan empire rose in South America. Like the Aztecs, the Inca created their empire through conquests.
-The Inca built thousands of miles of roads to link all parts of the empire to their capital at Cuzco in present-day Peru. Government messengers could travel to the empire’s far corners at a rate of 140 miles a day. That was probably the fastest communication system anywhere in the world.