📚

Overview of Pre-Columbian and European Influence

May 8, 2025

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 American Societies Before European Arrival

  • 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.

Examples of Native Societies

  • 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.

European Arrival and Exploration

  • 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).

Columbian Exchange

  • 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.

Spanish Colonization

  • 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).

Conclusion

  • Understanding of Unit 1 is essential for the AP US History curriculum.
  • Resources are available for further study and exam preparation.