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Mississippi Civilization Essay

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Around the year 3000 B.C.E., many major early civilizations began to form. These civilizations consisted of China, Egypt, the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, the Norte Chico, and the Olmec. All of these 6s civilizations developed along a major river or major river system. All of these rivers that major civilizations developed along had similar characteristics. (For example, all of these rivers annually flooded, depositing silt along their banks.) In eastern America at this time, there was the Mississippi river which was similar to the other rivers in other parts of the world that prospered significant civilizations. By the discovery of the Americas, the Mississippi had not prospered a significant civilization. There are a number of factors that go into assuming why a major civilization failed to form in this part of the world. Upon first glance, people may jump to the conclusion that the Mississippi area failed to develop a major civilization due to annual flooding. Historians know that all of the rivers that these 6 early civilizations were built along …show more content…

However, the Mound Builders lacked some of the qualities of a basic civilization and died off before the Europeans’ discovery of the Americas. The reason they died off is unknown, but historians believe that it was due to a lack of a reliable and cultivatable crop used for a food source. This region of America failed to successfully sustain the cultivation of corn, hence the Native American’s high dependance on hunting-gathering. Therefore there wasn’t any compelling reason to switch the main food source from hunting-gathering to agriculture. In addition, most of the Native American’s inhabiting this region at the time were highly egalitarian and nomadic. Because the indigenous groups were not sedentary, the main food source remained

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