Numerous economic activities have evolved in the Americas. Systems range across the technological spectrum, from nomadic activities and simple agriculture to advanced, post-industrial economies with global reach.

The earliest people of the Americas engaged in hunting and gathering to extract available resources from the flora and fauna in their local environments. These resources became more abundant in North America after the most recent ice age, as retreating ice opened new environments for humans, plants and animals to inhabit.

During the Neolithic period, domestication of New World crops began. The first potatoes appeared perhaps from 8,000 to 7,000 BCE (Before the Common Era) in southern Peru and the first chiles about 5,000 BCE in Central America. Maize originated about 3,000 BCE in southern Mexico. Tomatoes were domesticated in Central America. Additional New World domesticates included squash, beans, avocado, pineapple, sweet potato, cacao and others.

Sedentary agriculture encouraged permanent settlements, and efficient food production released some members of society for other pursuits, such as weavers, stonecutters, artisans, potters and government leaders. Some societies flourished and became great civilizations of the New World, in particular the Maya (approximately 250 BCE-900 Common Era); Inca (approximately 1200-1533 CE), and Aztec (approximately 1300-1521 CE).

These pre-Columbian civilizations were typified by a higher level of economic activity than previously known in the Americas. They evolved class-based societies and built pyramid-temple complexes and extensive road systems. They expanded their geographic influence and traded with other groups over great distances to procure goods from diverse environments: conch shells and coral from coastal areas; bird feathers and cacao (used as currency by the Aztecs) from rain forests; and volcanic glass for the production of obsidian knives from upland regions.

Economic systems in the Americas underwent dramatic change with the arrival of Europeans in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Mercantilism became the prevailing economic order into the 18th century, wherein Europeans in the New World sought to enrich themselves or their European crown.

Particularly in Middle America (Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean) and South America, where native populations were numerous and generally more advanced than their North American counterparts, the colonial period was characterized by plantation agriculture and resource extraction.

Plantations produced cash crops that varied by time and place. Initially, these included sugar, tobacco and indigo in Caribbean and Atlantic regions. Coffee and bananas became important post-colonial plantation crops. Mining activities in the Andean zone and interior parts of Central America and Mexico extracted mineral ores, notably silver and gold.

The burgeoning agricultural and mining systems required labor, and European enslavement of indigenous people became common. When native populations were exhausted, African slaves were brought by the British, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Dutch to the Caribbean, and to the Atlantic regions of North and South America. After the abolition of slavery, many indigenous people in the Americas continued to labor under exploitative conditions as indentured servants or in a debt-peonage system.

The industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries altered economic practices substantially, especially in North America. Fossil fuels powered factories and their production. Economies were in transition. Manufacturing replaced agriculture as the primary form of employment in North America by the close of the 19th century.

In Maine, this brought more young women into the formal work force as many left the farm for opportunities in the mills. Shortly after mid-20th century, manufacturing began a slow but steady decline during the ascendancy of a service-based economy. The service sector now accounts for better than two-thirds of the employment in both the United States and Canada.

North America is deemed to be in a “post-industrial” economy, characterized by skilled services, high-tech manufactures, science industries and the manipulation of information within a global framework of business operations.

Agriculture, though it now employs relatively few, is big business and depends on technology and a high degree of mechanization. The increasing geographic concentration of agricultural production brings greater reliance on the efficient transport of foodstuffs. Perishable food items in the United States travel an average of 1,500 miles from farm to supermarket shelf. The rising cost of petroleum at the dawn of the 21st century, however, brings the long-term viability of such a system into question.

Cooperation between countries in the Americas has amplified recently as many economic activities assume a global scale. Initiatives such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central American Free Trade Agreement encourage market expansion, reduce border tariffs, and facilitate trade in goods and services between member countries.

This has contributed to the relocation of a host of manufacturing industries, formerly based in the United States and Canada, to sites in Middle America. The G.H. Bass company, long a mainstay of Maine’s shoe industry, now produces in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. General Electric’s aeronautics and space division operates in the “maquila” factory zone of Monterrey, Mexico. Countless other corporations have similarly migrated. The maquilas, which manufacture an array of goods from socks to appliances, employ females in Mexico by the hundreds of thousands.

Though there is considerable momentum behind these globalization processes, many now challenge the wisdom, legitimacy, and shared benefits of such an unrestricted economic system. Appraisal of the myriad economic activities thus far on the landscapes of the Americas tells us, if nothing else, that economic change is constant.

Helpful terms

BCE: Before the Common Era or Current Era.

Sedentary agriculture: Farming in established fields and communities as opposed to shifting cultivation or nomadic hunting and

gathering.

Domestication: Production of plants or animals under human care or management, as opposed to naturally occurring.

Pre-Columbian: Occurs before Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492.

Cash crops: Products grown primarily to be sold. For example, tobacco and sugar are not crops that a family could eat and survive on whereas potatoes might be.

Indentured servants: Laborers who owe a specific period of time (sometimes seven years) to their employers in return for a place to live or passage to the New World.

Series Contributors: Dr. Brad Dearden, Associate Professor of Geography, University of Maine at Farmington;

Allison L. Hepler, Associate Professor of History, University of Maine at Farmington; Dr Jon Oplinger, University of Maine

at Farmington; Margaret Shaw Chernosky and her geography students, employing GIS technology, Bangor High School, Bangor; Susan Lahti, Maine Geographic Alliance, Department of Social Science and Business, Roberts Learning Center, University of Maine at Farmington; Stacy Doore, National Science Foundation GK-12 Sensor Fellow, University of Maine Spatial Engineering; The Maine Geographic Alliance. Photos: iStockphoto; Additional content: National Geographic; Maine Office GIS; ESRI

Geography Action Week is sponsored by Casco Bay Energy.

For information regarding the Bangor Daily News’ Newspapers in Education program, contact Pat Lemieux, Bangor Daily News, 990-8076. For additional copies, subscriptions and general information, contact the Bangor Daily News at 990-8000 or

800-432-7964. Bangor Daily News’ Newspaper in Education editor: Pat Lemieux

Series editor: Julie Harris

Design and graphics editor: Eric Zelz