AP U.S. History Unit 1

Southwest (Ancestral Puebloans)

Environment: Arid desert climate with limited rainfall

Key Adaptation: The spread of maize cultivation from present-day Mexico northward enabled permanent settlements. Tribes like the Apache, Navajo, and Pueblo developed advanced irrigation systems, canals, and terraces to manage scarce water resources.

Agriculture: Grew the "Three Sisters"—corn, beans, and squash (crops that supported each other: corn provided stalks for beans to climb, squash retained soil moisture)

Settlement: Built permanent pueblos (multi-story dwellings) into cliff ledges (Mesa Verde)

Social Structure: Larger populations and food surplus allowed specialized roles, religious leadership, and complex trade networks

Great Plains

Environment: Open grasslands with seasonal bison herds

Key Adaptation: Mobile, nomadic lifestyle following bison migrations (note: this was before horses arrived with Europeans)

Tribes: Sioux, Cheyenne

Housing: Portable teepees made from bison hide

Economy: Hunter-gatherers relying on bison, wild plants, and small game

Northeast & Mississippi Valley

Environment: Fertile river valleys with rich soil and abundant wildlife

Key Adaptation: Mixed farming and hunting economy supporting permanent villages

Tribes: Iroquois, Mohawk (formed the Iroquois Confederacy or Great League of Peace around 1450—a political alliance of five, later six, tribes)

Housing: Longhouses sheltering extended families

Mississippian Culture: Built elaborate earthworks and mounds (ceremonial centers, burial sites, elite residences). Cahokia near modern St. Louis was a major urban center with thousands of inhabitants

Agriculture: Cultivated maize, beans, squash, and tobacco

Pacific Northwest & California

Environment: Abundant ocean and forest resources

Key Adaptation: Rich marine resources (salmon, whales, shellfish) supported dense, often sedentary populations without intensive agriculture

Tribes: Tlingit, Chinook, Coos, Chumash

Housing: Wooden lodges and plank houses, often sheltering multiple families

Culture: Built totem poles and canoes; developed complex trade networks (Chinook trade); practiced potlatch ceremonies (gift-giving festivals demonstrating wealth and status)

Economy: Fishing, whaling, gathering acorns and wild resources

Great Basin

Environment: Arid, sparse resources spread across desert landscape

Key Adaptation: Highly mobile hunter-gatherer bands moving seasonally to water sources and food

Tribes: Shoshone

Housing: Cone-shaped huts with wooden poles covered in dried grass (easily transported)

Economy: Hunted rabbits, birds, snakes; gathered seeds, nuts, and insects

🏆 Gold (Economic): Europeans sought new trade routes to Asia for spices, silk, and luxury goods. The fall of Constantinople (1453) to the Ottoman Empire disrupted overland trade routes, pushing Europeans to find sea routes. They also sought precious metals (gold and silver) and natural resources.

👑 Glory (Political): European monarchs competed for power, territory, and prestige. Exploration offered opportunities to claim new lands, expand empires, and enhance national status among rival powers (Spain, Portugal, France, England).

✝️ God (Religious): Christian missionary zeal drove efforts to convert indigenous peoples to Christianity. The Catholic Church sponsored missions, and explorers saw conversion as a moral duty following the Protestant Reformation's challenge to Catholic authority.

Christopher Columbus (1492)

Background: Italian explorer sailing for Spain

Goal: Find a westward sea route to Asia for spice trade

Achievement: Landed in the Bahamas (October 1492), believing he had reached Asia. Visited Hispaniola (modern Haiti/Dominican Republic) and Cuba.

Impact: Initiated sustained European contact with the Americas, beginning the Columbian Exchange

Amerigo Vespucci (1499–1502)

Background: Italian explorer and cartographer

Achievement: Explored South American coast and determined it was a distinct continent, not Asia

Legacy: The Americas were named after him (America from "Amerigo")

Other Important Explorers

Portuguese Explorers: Pioneered navigation techniques and established trading posts along African coast before reaching India (Vasco da Gama, 1498)

Spanish Conquistadors: Military leaders who conquered Native empires (Hernán Cortés in Mexico, Francisco Pizarro in Peru—covered more in 1.4)

French & English: Later arrivals (post-1607) who established colonies in North America

From Americas to Europe/Africa/Asia

Crops: Maize (corn), potatoes, tomatoes, cacao (chocolate), tobacco, cassava, pumpkins, beans, peppers

Impact: New World crops dramatically increased food production and population growth in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Potatoes and maize became staple crops supporting larger populations.

From Europe/Africa/Asia to Americas

Animals: Horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens

Crops: Wheat, rice, sugar cane, coffee, bananas

Diseases: Smallpox, measles, typhus, influenza, malaria, yellow fever

Impact: Horses transformed Plains Native culture (though not until later). European diseases devastated Native populations, killing an estimated 90% within a century—the worst demographic catastrophe in human history. Native peoples lacked immunity, causing epidemics that depopulated entire regions.

Conquistadors

Definition: Spanish military leaders and adventurers who conquered Native American empires in the 1500s

Motivations: God, Gold, and Glory—sought wealth (especially precious metals), conversion of natives to Christianity, and personal fame

Key Figures: Hernán Cortés (conquered Aztec Empire in Mexico, 1519–1521), Francisco Pizarro (conquered Inca Empire in Peru, 1532–1533)

Factors Enabling Spanish Victory

• Disease: Smallpox and other epidemics killed millions, weakening Native resistance before battles even began
• Technology: Steel weapons, armor, guns, and horses gave Spanish military advantages
• Alliances: Spanish formed alliances with Native groups who opposed Aztec/Inca rule
• Strategy: Captured Native leaders (Moctezuma II, Atahualpa) to destabilize empires

Economic Impact

Silver Mining: Spanish established massive silver mining operations (especially Zacatecas in Mexico and Potosí in Bolivia). These mines produced enormous wealth that flowed to Spain.

Global Trade: Silver fueled European economy and global trade networks

Price Revolution: Influx of precious metals caused inflation in Europe

Encomienda System (Early 1500s)

Definition: Spanish Crown granted conquistadors and colonists (encomenderos) the right to extract labor and tribute from specific Native communities (encomendados)

Official Purpose: Encomenderos were supposed to "protect" Natives and convert them to Christianity

Reality: Functioned as forced labor system; Natives farmed land and worked in mines (especially silver mines like Zacatecas), with their production going to Spanish masters

Key Point: Natives were not legally enslaved (remained technically "free"), but the system was brutal and exploitative

Decline: High Native mortality from disease and overwork made system unsustainable; critics like Bartolomé de las Casas (Dominican friar) exposed abuses and advocated for Native rights

Repartimiento & Mita

Definition: Replaced encomienda; required Native communities to provide rotating labor drafts for Spanish projects

Mita: Andean version modeled on Inca labor tax; especially brutal in Potosí silver mines

Impact: Still coercive, though theoretically more regulated and time-limited than encomienda

Hacienda System

Definition: Large agricultural estates owned by Spanish elites

Labor: Used a mix of wage laborers and debt peonage (workers trapped by debts they could never repay)

Significance: Created landed elite class and concentrated wealth

Asiento System

Definition: Spanish Crown contract system for importing enslaved Africans; required Spanish colonists to pay tax on each enslaved person imported

Reason: As Native populations collapsed (from ~60 million to ~6 million by 1600), Spanish turned to African labor

Scale: Estimated 12 million Africans forcibly brought to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade (1500s–1800s)

First Africans in North America: 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia (initially as indentured servants, quickly shifted to chattel slavery)

Transatlantic Slave Trade

Process: European traders partnered with West African groups who practiced slavery. African merchants captured people (war prisoners, criminals, kidnapped individuals) and sold them to European ships at coastal forts

Middle Passage: The brutal oceanic voyage from Africa to Americas. Enslaved people were chained in ship holds with horrific conditions—disease, starvation, death rates of 15–20%

Work: Enslaved Africans labored in silver mines (Zacatecas, Potosí), sugar plantations, tobacco fields, domestic service, and skilled trades

Chattel Slavery

Definition: System where enslaved people were legal property with no rights—could be bought, sold, inherited, and traded

Conditions: Brutal treatment, family separation, physical/sexual abuse, lifelong hereditary bondage

Key Difference from Encomienda: Slaves were personal property; encomienda tied labor obligations to land/community under royal authority

Social Hierarchy (Top to Bottom)

1. Peninsulares: Born in Spain; held highest offices, most power, and best land grants
2. Criollos (Creoles): Pure Spanish ancestry but born in Americas; wealthy but resented exclusion from top positions (later fueled independence movements)
3. Mestizos: Mixed European and Native ancestry; middle status
4. Mulattos: Mixed European and African ancestry
5. Zambos: Mixed African and Native ancestry
6. Native Americans (Indios): Subject to tribute and forced labor
7. Enslaved Africans: Lowest status; chattel property with no legal rights

Complexity: System included ~16 recognized categories (casta paintings depicted these); some fluidity based on wealth, marriage, and appearance, but generally rigid

Limpieza de Sangre: "Purity of blood" ideology justifying discrimination based on ancestry

Religion

Europeans: Christianity (Catholic in Spanish/French colonies; later Protestant in English). Believed in conversion and saw Native religions as "pagan." Catholic missionaries established missions to convert Natives, often using coercion.

Native Americans: Diverse spiritual beliefs often tied to nature, animism (spirits in natural objects), and polytheism. Religious practices intertwined with daily life and seasonal cycles.

Africans: Brought diverse spiritual traditions (Islam in some regions, indigenous African religions). Under slavery, many combined African beliefs with Christianity (syncretism).

Land Use

Europeans: Believed in private property ownership, land as commodity to be bought/sold, and intensive agriculture for profit. Viewed "unused" land as available for claiming.

Native Americans: Generally practiced communal land use; land was shared resource, not owned by individuals. Used land sustainably through seasonal migration, controlled burning, and diverse resource management.

Gender Roles

Europeans: Patriarchal society with rigid gender divisions. Men held political power, owned property, and controlled public sphere. Women managed households but had limited legal rights.

Native Americans: Gender roles varied by tribe but often more flexible. Some societies (like Iroquois) were matrilineal (inheritance through mother's line) and gave women significant political voice. Women often controlled agriculture and clan decisions.

Family Structure

Europeans: Nuclear family ideal (parents + children); patriarchal authority; emphasis on marriage and legitimacy

Native Americans: Extended kinship networks; clan-based societies; diverse family structures including polygamy in some groups

Africans: Extended family networks disrupted by slavery; enslaved people created new kinship bonds despite forced separations

Conflict & Resistance

• Warfare: Spanish conquest involved brutal military campaigns (Cortés vs. Aztecs, Pizarro vs. Incas)
• Native Resistance: Many tribes fought back (Pueblo Revolt of 1680, though post-Period 1). Resistance took many forms: open warfare, sabotage, maintaining cultural practices
• Forced Conversion: Spanish missions forced Native peoples to adopt Christianity, often violently suppressing indigenous religions
• Slave Resistance: Africans resisted through rebellion, running away, work slowdowns, and preserving cultural traditions

Adaptation & Exchange

• Trade: Europeans and Natives engaged in trade (furs, metals, food); though often exploitative
• Intermarriage: Spanish colonists married Native women (producing mestizo population); French fur traders also intermarried
• Cultural Borrowing: Europeans adopted Native crops, canoes, and survival techniques; Natives adopted horses, metal tools, and guns
• Religious Syncretism: Blending of Christian and indigenous/African beliefs (though often forced by circumstances)

Missions & Conversion

Spanish Missions: Catholic priests (Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans) established missions throughout Spanish America to convert Natives. Missions combined religious instruction with forced labor and cultural suppression.

Impact: Weakened traditional Native cultures, languages, and religions. Created hybrid communities with mixed European-Native cultural practices.

Debate: Figures like Bartolomé de las Casas criticized harsh treatment but still supported conversion, showing complexity of colonial attitudes.

Causes of European Exploration

Economic Causes:

• Desire for Asian trade goods (spices, silk, luxury items)
• Fall of Constantinople (1453) disrupted overland trade routes
• Competition among European powers for wealth and resources

Technological Causes:

• Development of caravels (sailing ships)
• Improved navigation tools (compass, astrolabe)
• Better maps and geographical knowledge

Religious/Political Causes:

• Christian missionary zeal to spread Catholicism
• National rivalries and desire for glory
• Reconquista mentality (Spain reclaimed from Muslims 1492)

→ Effect: Columbus's 1492 voyage initiated sustained European contact with Americas

Effects of the Columbian Exchange

Demographic Effects:

• Americas: ~90% Native mortality from disease (smallpox, measles, typhus)—worst demographic catastrophe in history
• Europe/Asia: Population growth from New World crops (potatoes, maize)
• Africa: Depopulation from slave trade (12 million taken)

Economic Effects:

• Influx of silver to Europe caused inflation (Price Revolution)
• Atlantic trade networks emerged (triangular trade)
• New crops transformed agriculture globally

Social Effects:

• Creation of racially-mixed populations (mestizos, mulattos)
• Emergence of caste systems based on race
• Cultural syncretism (blending of traditions)

Causes of Labor System Evolution

Cause: Native population collapse from disease and overwork

→ Effect: Spanish shifted from encomienda to repartimiento/mita

Cause: Continued Native labor shortages + need for intensive plantation/mining labor

→ Effect: Spanish imported enslaved Africans via asiento system

Cause: Mixing of European, Native, and African populations

→ Effect: Development of Spanish caste system to maintain social hierarchy

Long-Term Effects of Period 1

• Economic: European wealth increased; global trade networks emerged; capitalism grew
• Political: European empires expanded; competition for colonies intensified; Native sovereignty destroyed
• Social: Racial hierarchies institutionalized; slavery became central to colonial economies; new hybrid cultures emerged
• Cultural: Christianity spread; indigenous cultures suppressed; syncretism created new traditions
• Environmental: Landscapes transformed through European agriculture; species introduced altered ecosystems

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