What is history for?
History is complicated, and what we do with it even more so. As the English biographer Lytton Strachey wrote, “Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian—ignorance which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits.”
For our first Essential Question, consider our class discussion, the materials we've studied, your own values, and make a simple claim statement about what history is for.
Explain/defend/develop your claim with a quoted piece of evidence. You may use evidence I've included in the links below and/or you may use a piece of evidence from your own research.
Finally, explain that evidence in your own words. How does the evidence you've quoted help you make your claim?
How did the indigenous people of North America adapt to, and change, their environment?
Answer both sections of this question. Address both:
Adaptations (Those ways in which we change ourselves or our behavior)
Changes to the environment (Those ways in which we change the world to fit our needs better)
What markers of civilization existed in Mesoamerica prior to European invasion?
As you answer this question, do not write a list. Instead, pick one or two "markers of civilization" and discuss how they manifest in Mesoamerica.
Suggested Markers Of Civilization:
Government
Military
Economy
Arts: Games/Art/Music/Cusine
Religion
Agriculture
Scientific Advancement
Recordkeeping
Civil Engineering
What motivated European exploration of new trade routes through the Atlantic?
What were the direct results of European contact with the Americas?