The Beginning - A Ridiculously Brief Introduction
(Lecture Notes from Mr. Kersey's 8th Grade U.S. History Class)The Beginning
- Around 15 billion B.C. (that’s about 15 billion years ago) the universe was formed by the Big Bang.
- Around 4.5 billion B.C. the planet Earth was formed.
- Somewhere around 4 to 6 million B.C. the first humans began walking the earth, almost certainly on the present-day continent of Africa.
The First Americans
- Many scientists believe the first Americans arrived in North America somewhere between 50,000 and 10,000 B.C.
- Most of these people probably crossed a land bridge between Asia and present-day Alaska called Beringia.
- Other Paleo-Indians may have arrived in North America by boat.
- These hunter-gathering groups spread throughout North America.
- Many of these groups eventually formed agrarian (farming, domestication of animals) societies and settled in one place.
- After some thousands of years these groups formed the many tribes of North America and developed into the great Mayan, Incan, and Aztec civilizations.
- These early American civilizations had no known contact with Europeans until about 1000 A.D.
Before the English
- In 1000 A.D. a Viking named Leif Ericson explored the northeast cost of North America, found Newfoundland and established a settlement there.
- Europe spent the next 500 years or so in the Dark Ages. While trade in Europe grew and trade routes to Asia and Africa were slowly established, no one visited North America.
- Finally, in the late 1400’s, The Renaissance began and with it came new exploration.
- In 1492, and Italian named Christopher Columbus set sail and landed in the New World.
- A string of European explorers followed and in 1565 the first permanent colony was established in Florida by the Spanish.
- Not wanting to miss out on all the good raw materials and trade opportunities, the English soon got in the game as well.
