Throughout the long history of humanity, geography and climate have played a crucial role in determining the success and failure of many different tribal groups.
It’s only in very recent times, the last few thousand years, that humans have actually settled down. Prior to that we were transient and nomadic, wandering from place to place and relocating with the passing of the seasons and the movements of migratory animals.
Geography and climate determined where the fertile agricultural lands were, where animals could easily be hunted, where reliable water sources were found, where the weather was agreeable. Deserts and mountains were impassable objects and attempts at passage could prove fatal.
The onset of climatic shifts, such as the arrival of ice-age conditions, made conditions extremely hard but it also means that much water was frozen in the Polar regions. Sea-levels dropped considerably and more land was exposed, including the long submerged region of Beringia. This is the name given to the substantial land-mass that connected Asia and North America when sea-levels were lower.
It is generally believed that about 14,000 years ago the first Clovis people arrived in what today is Alaska having migrated across Beringia. This was the time when the last ice-age was coming to an end, the huge masses of ice that covered much of Northern Europe, Canada and northern parts of the US were retreating, Beringia was freed from it’s icy tomb, as the ice continued to melt the sea-levels rose and Beringia was lost beneath the waves.
The Clovis began their slow migration southward, initially benefiting from a warmer climate. This migration took centuries but eventually the Clovis spread into western Canada.
The climate again changed, this time for the worst. Changes in the movement of ocean currents redistributed heat around the world, the Clovis were unfortunately in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their world cooled and this could easily have contributed to the loss of many plant and animal species upon which they relied for food.
It has been hypothesised that the Clovis may have hunted to extinction some of the species upon which they relied for food.
Quite what brought the Clovis culture to an end is unsure, it was probably a combination of the onset of cold weather and over-hunting. Weak genes could have played a role allowing other peoples to dominate, the Clovis were not alone but they appear to have been the only culture that died out at the time, some 13,000 years ago.
We don't know a great deal about them. We found one specimen, who our idiot politicians gave back to Native Americans to bury in spite of the fact that it appears it wasn't their ancestor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennewick_M...
There is evidence that the Younger Dryas Period, that may have been caused by a large influx of cold fresh water from the St. Lawrence Seaway into the Atlantic, killed off the Clovis people and the Megafauna. It happened right after the Ice age began to dissipate and warm. The sudden re occurrence of cold may have been more than the already stressed fauna (including people) could handle. This may have allowed the subsequent migration of Asians (now referred to as Native Americans and First Nations people).
To take the other end from linlyons' answer, Clovis disappeared coincidentally with the extinction of mammoth and other megafauna, and with the Younger-Dryas cold phase.
It did allow them to cross the Bering Land Bridge, from Asia into America, during the last ice age.
SORRY, I dont know your Clovis people. Mike
They realized their use of automobiles was making the climate warmer. They decided to disregard the scientists and then they disappeared.
