North American History
The history of North America up to 1500 AD
is a story of a continent that started out empty and gradually got more
and more crowded. Probably the first people to come to North America came
from East Asia, over a
land bridge between Siberia
and Alaska. We don't know for sure whether they came during an earlier Ice
Age, about 30,000 years ago, or about 12,000 BC,
during the last Ice Age. It could be both. Only a few people came over the
bridge, with their dogs. They were
probably following woolly mammoths that they were hunting for food. The
people probably didn't even realize they had crossed over to North America.
Probably other people came from East Asia in small boats, crossing the Pacific
Ocean by following the coast around by Alaska. We don't know when that happened.
There's no archaeological evidence for either method, walking or in boats,
but people did get here somehow from East Asia, because we have archaeological traces of
people that scientists can date to about 12,000 BC.
(This is what most archaeologists think. People whose ancestors lived in North America, like the Navajo and the Sioux, tell a different story about their own origins, which you can see here).
(This is what most archaeologists think. People whose ancestors lived in North America, like the Navajo and the Sioux, tell a different story about their own origins, which you can see here).
Go on to the Paleo-Indian period
To find out more about North American history before 1500, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
North American
history after 1500 AD
Early North American Government
Main North America page
Main South America page
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