AP US History - Unit 1 Overview

Introduction

Focus: Societal makeup of the Americas pre-European arrival and the impact of European arrival.
Part of the AP US History Ultimate Review Pack.
- Includes note guides, full practice exams, and multiple choice questions.

Native Americans had diverse cultures influenced by their environment.
Common Misconception: Native Americans were monolithic; reality: diverse living styles.
- Coastal groups: Fishing villages.
- Nomadic hunters and gatherers.
- Urban centers and empires.

Pueblo People (Utah and Colorado):
- Farmers of maize, beans, squash.
- Advanced irrigation systems.
- Built clay brick urban centers and cliff dwellings.
Great Basin & Plains (Colorado to Canada):
- Nomadic hunter-gatherers.
- Small egalitarian kinship bands.
- Example: Ute people.
Northwest & Pacific Coast:
- Permanent settlements due to abundant resources.
- Chumash (California): Trade networks, villages of up to 1,000 people.
- Chinook: Plank houses housing entire families.
Northeast (Iroquois):
- Farmers with communal living in long houses.
Mississippi River Valley (Cahokia):
- Large civilizations with centralized government.

13th-14th Century Europe: Political unification and stronger centralized states.
Motivation for Exploration:
- Desire for Asian luxury goods.
- Muslim control over land routes led to seeking sea routes.
- Portugal: Trading post empire around Africa and Indian Ocean.
- Maritime technology: Astronomical charts, astrolabe, new ship designs, Latin sail.
Spain:
- Reconquest of Iberian Peninsula led to exploration.
- Christopher Columbus: Sailed west in 1492, landed in Caribbean.
- Competition among European nations (Portugal, France, England).

Exchange of people, animals, plants, diseases between hemispheres.
From Americas to Europe: Potatoes, tomatoes, maize.
From Europe to Americas: Wheat, rice, soybeans, cattle, pigs, horses.
Significant Impact:
- Disease: Smallpox devastated native populations.
- Economic shift in Europe towards capitalism.

Economic Focus: Agriculture and encomienda system.
- Problems: Native resistance and population decline.
- Solution: Importation of African enslaved labor.
Casta System: Social classes based on racial ancestry.
- Peninsulares, Criollos, Mestizos, Mulattos, Africans, Native Americans.
Cultural Exchange and Conflict:
- Both European and Native American cultures borrowed from each other.
- Relationship largely characterized by exploitation and brutality.
Justifications for Slavery and Exploitation:
- Beliefs in Native American inferiority (Sepulveda vs. Las Casas).
- Biblical justifications for African slavery (Misinterpretation of the Curse of Ham).