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APUSH Unit 1 Review

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3 views4 pages

APUSH Unit 1 Review

Uploaded by

Mya Carranza
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Unit 1: Early America: Pre-Columbus, Exploration, and Contact (1491-1607)

★ Contact between Europeans and Native Americans who traded animals, plants, and germs
is known as the Columbian Exchange

Cultures of Central & South America


● The native population was concentrated in three highly developed civilizations:
- The Mayas
➔ Yucatan Peninsula
➔ Built well-developed cities in rainforests
- The Aztecs
➔ After the fall of the Mayas, came the Aztecs
➔ Developed in Central Mexico
➔ Capital of Tenochtitlan
- The Incas
➔ Based in Peru
● All three had highly organized societies, traded with other regions, and cultivated crops
that provided a stable food supply
- Cultivation of maize in Mayan and Aztec populations, potatoes in the Incan

Cultures of North America


● Smaller than South American populations since it took more time for the cultivation of
maize to spread
● Men = toolmakers and hunters, women = food gatherers and harvesters
● Had various types of languages, more than 20 language families
● Various types of settlements located throughout North America
- Southwest Settlements
➔ Dry region
➔ New Mexico & Arizona
➔ Anasazi, Hohokam, and Pueblo tribes
➔ Supported their societies through farming and irrigation systems
➔ Lived in caves, under cliffs, and in multistoried buildings
- Northwest Settlements
➔ Along Pacific coast
➔ Lived in longhouses or plank houses
➔ Based on hunting, fishing, and gathering nuts, berries, and roots
➔ Carved totem poles
➔ High mountain ranges in this region created barriers to development
- Great Plains
➔ Nomadic hunters or sedentary people
➔ Nomadic tribes survived on hunting buffalos which served as a food
supply as well as decorations, crafting tools, and knives
➔ Farmed and traded
➔ Cultivated corn, beans, and squash (“three-sisters”)
➔ Acquired horses by trading or stealing from the Spanish settlers; These
horses were useful when migrating through the plains
- Midwest Settlements
➔ East of the Mississippi River
➔ Supported by hunting, fishing, and agriculture
➔ Culture is known for its large earthen mounds
- Northeast Settlements
➔ Combined hunting and farming
➔ Due to their farming techniques, the soil became exhausted, which forced
them to move frequently to fresh land
➔ Iroquois Confederation - a political union of five tribes (diplomacy among
tribes)
➔ Battled rival tribes as well as Europeans
*Sedentary/settled societies tended to be hierarchical; nomadic societies tended to be egalitarian

Improvements in Technology
● Several technological advances during the Renaissance that projected European
exploration
- Improved gunpowder, which was originally made by the Chinese
- Improved the sailing compass, which was originally made by Arab merchants
- Shipmaking & Mapmaking
- Invention of the printing press

Expanding Trade
● Increased trade with Africa, India, and China
- Interested in finding new trade routes by either sailing south along the African
coast or across the Atlantic
- Portugal’s Prince Henry the Navigator eventually opened up a long sea route
around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope
- Vasco de Gama first to reach India via his route
● This increased trade was relative to an increased forced migration of Africans
- Used enslaved people to work established sugar plantations
- Producing sugar using slave labor was so profitable, that they decided to use the
same system in the Americas
- Enslaved Africans showed resistance by revolting, running away, or sabotaging
work
Dividing the Americas
● Line of Demarcation
● Treaty of Tordesillas

Spanish Exploration and Conquest


● Spain owed its expanding power to its conquistadores
- They sent ships loaded with gold and silver back to Spain from Mexico and Peru
- Spanish instituted the encomienda system, with the kings of Spain giving grants
of land and natives to individual Spaniards
● European diseases and brutality drastically reduced native populations, so the
Spanish brought enslaved people from West Africa to replace the labor force

European Powers & their Motivations for Exploration


● Combination of religious and economic motives drove Europeans to colonize the
Americas
- The Spanish
➔ Desire to spread Christianity * ”The 3 G’s”
➔ New sources of wealth
➔ Economic and military competition
➔ Casta system caused by interracial relationships (peninsulares,
creoles, and mestizos)
➔ North American settlements: Florida, New Mexico, Texas, and California
- The French
➔ Interested in fur trading
➔ Jesuit missionaries were sent to convert *Not as focused on conversion to
Christianity compared to the Spanish
➔ Trade alliances and intermarriage with natives
➔ Most culturally sensitive of the European powers
- The Dutch
➔ Traded more diverse goods
➔ The Netherlands the Dutch West India Company (VOC) the right to
control the region for economic gain
➔ Alliance w/ Iroquois tribe
➔ Most diverse colony
➔ Colony of New Netherlands, which then became New York
- The English
➔ Brought whole families and churches so did not find the need to have
interracial relationships with natives
➔ Sought better economic and social conditions
➔ Focused on agriculture
➔ Lives separately from the Native Americans
➔ Saw natives as “primitive”

Valladolid Debate
● Bartolome de Las Casas argued against brutality and cruelty towards the natives and
supported his argument by stating they were “creations of God”
● Juan Gines de Sepulveda went against Las Casas, arguing that the natives were “less than
humans”

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