Ch1 outline
Subject:
Chapter 1
New World Beginnings
I. The Shaping of North America
i. Recorded history began 6,000 years ago. It was 500 years ago that Europeans set foot on the
Americas to begin colonization
ii. The theory of “Pangaea” exists suggesting that the continents were once nestled together into
one mega-continent. They then spread out as drifting islands.
iii. Geologic forces of continental plates created the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains.
iv. The Great Ice Age thrust down over North America & scoured the present day American
Midwest.
II. Peopling the Americas
i. “Land Bridge”
1. As the Great Ice Age diminished, so did the glaciers over North America.
2. The theory holds that a “Land Bridge” emerged linking Asia & North America across
