Hernán Cortés

Chapter 01 - New World Beginnings I. The Shaping of North America 1. Recorded history began 6,000 years ago. It was 500 years ago that Europeans set foot on the Americas to begin colonization 2. The theory of Pangaea exists suggesting that the continents were once nestled together into one mega-continent. They then spread out as drifting islands. 3. Geologic forces of continental plates created the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains. 4. The Great Ice Age thrust down over North America & scoured the present day American Midwest. II. Peopling the Americas 1. The Land Bridge theory. o As the Great Ice Age diminished, so did the glaciers over North America. o The theory holds that a Land Bridge emerged linking Asia & North America across what is now known as the Bering