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Era
1 Themes
ERA I HIGHLIGHTS IN NEW
HAMPSHIRE: geological formation of the land, changes in prehistoric
peoples, the beginnings of New Hampshire history, the coming of explorers
from Europe, the first meeting of cultures
Geological evidence suggests that the continents were once part of the
same land mass. Current theory surmises that they broke apart, collided,
and moved away from one another during the formation of the world as we
know it. During the last two million years the Atlantic Ocean has grown,
and continues to grow bigger. It has flooded the land we call New Hampshire
and contributed soil. Faults, folds, and volcanic activity have formed
great mountain ridges. In the last two million years, glaciers covered
New Hampshire four times, the latest being the Wisconsin period of glaciation
that ended about 10,000 years ago. The glaciers carved wide river beds
and deep mountain notches. They lopped off the tops of mountains and redeposited
soil and boulders across the landscape. Erosion, too, wore away at the
land. As the climate
became more mild. New Hampshire
became a habitat for humans and species of animals that we would recognize.
Archaeologists theorize that
humans multiplied and spread south and east from their probable entry point
to North America across a land bridge between Asia and Alaska at least
25,000 years ago. Current archaeological evidence of the coming of
humankind to New Hampshire goes back about 10,000 years, after the last
glacier melted and the climate warmed. Evidence suggests that at least
two different prehistoric peoples have populated New Hampshire, the second
representing the Native Americans found here by European explorers after
1500.
Native American pre-contact
history in New Hampshire is divided into the Paleo-indian (circa
11,000-9000 years Before Present ), Archaic (9000-3000 BP) and Woodland
(3000-400 BP) periods, and contact (400-200 BP).
Native American cultures
diversified so greatly that no one description will represent their ways.
Even within the land we call New Hampshire, the ways of Native Americans
differed between tribes and changed over time. The Western Abenaki tribe
subdivided into bands with different names, each band
associated with a general
geographical area. In general, hunting large game animals gave way to hunting
smaller game, as the larger animals became extinct. Tribes tended to become
more settled and less nomadic as time went on, though they did make limited
seasonal migrations to gather and grow food. Because of
climate and length of growing
season, tribes in the north of New Hampshire probably engaged in more hunting
while tribes in the south engaged in relatively more agriculture, although
it is likely that agriculture never had the importance in pre-contact New
Hampshire that it had further south in what we now call
Massachusetts.
Early European explorers
grazed the coast of New Hampshire. Evidence suggests that the first Europeans
in New Hampshire probably did not go far inland, but rather used the Isles
of Shoals as seasonal fishing camps for processing fish before taking it
back to Europe. The early encounters between Europeans
and Native Americans ranged
from curious to friendly to warlike. The two worlds learned from each other,
however, and the encounters changed both worlds forever.
New Hampshire events were
part of a bigger picture. Western Abenaki homelands in New
Hampshire and Vermont must
be seen in relation to the territories staked out by the Eastern Abenaki
in Maine to the east and the Iroquois to the west. Europeans came because
of population pressures, political consolidations, economic ambitions,
philosophical thought, Christian upheaval, and technological
applications in Europe.
The coming of Africans must be seen in the context of European expansion
into Africa and the enslavement of Africans. |
