Unit 1 and Unit 2 Exam Study Guide

Exam Wed. 8-21-2024

A. Know the AP Themes and HIPPO

THEME 1: AMERICAN AND NATIONAL IDENTITY (NAT)

THEME 2: WORK, EXCHANGE, AND TECHNOLOGY (WXT)

THEME 3: GEOGRAPHY AND THE ENVIRONMENT (GEO)

THEME 4: MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT (MIG)

THEME 5: POLITICS AND POWER (PCE)

THEME 6: AMERICA IN THE WORLD (WOR)

THEME 7: AMERICAN AND REGIONAL CULTURE (ARC)

THEME 8: SOCIAL STRUCTURES (SOC)

H: Historical Context

I: Intended Audience

P: Purpose

P: Point of View

O: Outside Information

B. Unit 1: 1491-1607 Native Americans Diverse Societies

1. Explain how and why various native populations in the period before European contact
interacted with the natural environment in North America.

The spread of maize cultivation from presentday Mexico northward into the present-day American
Southwest and beyond supported economic development, settlement, advanced irrigation, and social
diversification among societies. Societies responded to the aridity of the Great Basin and the grasslands
of the western Great Plains by developing largely mobile lifestyles. In the Northeast, the Mississippi River
Valley, and along the Atlantic seaboard, some societies developed mixed agricultural and hunter-
gatherer economies that favored the development of permanent villages. Societies in the Northwest and
present-day California supported themselves by hunting and gathering, and in some areas developed
settled communities supported by the vast resources of the ocean.

2. Explain the causes of exploration and conquest of the New World by various European nations.
European nations’ efforts to explore and conquer the New World stemmed from a search for new
sources of wealth, economic and military competition, and a desire to spread Christianity.

3. Explain causes of the Columbian Exchange and its effect on Europe and the Americas during the
period after 1492.
 The Columbian Exchange brought new crops to Europe from the Americas, stimulating
European population growth, and new sources of mineral wealth, which facilitated the
European shift from feudalism to capitalism.
 Improvements in maritime technology and more organized methods for conducting
international trade, such as joint-stock companies, helped drive changes to economies in
Europe and the Americas.
 Spanish exploration and conquest of the Americas were accompanied and furthered by
widespread deadly epidemics that devastated native populations and by the introduction of
crops and animals not found in the Americas.

4. Explain how the growth of the Spanish Empire in North America shaped the development of
social and economic structures over time.

 In the encomienda system, Spanish colonial economies marshaled Native American

labor to support plantation-based agriculture and extract precious metals and other
resources.
Bartolomé de las Casas (Spanish Priest): Wrote letters to the crown about the
Conquistadors cruelty treatment of the Native Americans, “Brief Account of the
Destruction of the Indies”(1542).
 European traders partnered with some West African groups who practiced slavery to
forcibly extract enslaved laborers for the Americas. The Spanish imported enslaved
Africans to labor in plantation agriculture and mining.
 The Spanish developed a caste system that incorporated, and carefully defined the
status of, the diverse population of Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans in their
empire (Caste System).

C. Unit 2: 1607-1754: European Countries Colonization of the Americas

1. Explain the cause and effect of European colonization of North America from 1607 to 1754.
 Europeans developed a variety of colonization and migration patterns, influenced by
different imperial goals, cultures, and the varied North American environments
where they settled. They competed with each other and American Indians for
resources (Mercantilism).
 Spanish, French, Dutch, and British colonizers had different economic and imperial
goals involving land and labor that shaped the social and political development of
their colonies as well as their relationships with native populations.
  In the 17th century, early British colonies developed along the Atlantic coast, with
regional differences that reflected various environmental, economic, cultural, and
demographic factors.

2. Explain how and why various European colonies developed and expanded from 1607 to
1754.
 Spanish efforts to extract wealth from the land led them to develop institutions
based on subjugating native populations, converting them to Christianity, and
incorporating them, along with enslaved and free Africans, into Spanish colonial
society.
 French and Dutch colonial efforts involved relatively few Europeans and relied on
trade alliances and intermarriage with American Indians to build economic and
diplomatic relationships and acquire furs and other products for export to Europe.
 English colonization efforts attracted a comparatively large number of male and
female British migrants, as well as other European migrants, all of whom sought
social mobility, economic prosperity, religious freedom, and improved living
conditions. These colonists focused on agriculture and settled on land taken from
Native Americans, from whom they lived separately.

3. Explain how and why environmental and other factors shaped the development and
expansion of various British colonies that developed and expanded from 1607 to 1754.
 The Chesapeake and North Carolina colonies grew prosperous exporting tobacco—a
laborintensive product initially cultivated by white, mostly male indentured servants
and later by enslaved Africans. The colonies of the southern Atlantic coast and the
British West Indies used long growing seasons to develop plantation economies
based on exporting staple crops. They depended on the labor of enslaved Africans,
who often constituted the majority of the population in these areas and developed
their own forms of cultural and religious autonomy.
 The New England colonies, initially settled by Puritans, developed around small
towns with family farms and achieved a thriving mixed economy of agriculture and
commerce. Distance and Britain’s initially lax attention led to the colonies creating
self-governing institutions that were unusually democratic for the era. The New
England colonies based power in participatory town meetings, which in turn elected
members to their colonial legislatures; in the southern colonies, elite planters
exercised local authority and also dominated the elected assemblies.
 The middle colonies supported a flourishing export economy based on cereal crops
and attracted a broad range of European migrants, leading to societies with greater
cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity and tolerance.
4. Know the causes and effects of Indentured Servants, and Bacon’s Rebellion historical
development.
5. Explain how the Salem Witch Trials led to hysteria among the New England colonists.