AP U.S. History - Unit 1 Notes

Pueblo People

Native American societies located in present-day Utah and Colorado, known for farming beans, squash, and maize using advanced irrigation systems.

Great Basin and Great Plains Region

Home to nomadic hunter-gatherers, these societies organized into small egalitarian kinship bands, exemplified by the Ute people.

Pacific Coast

Native peoples established permanent settlements supported by abundant natural resources like fish and wildlife, such as the Chumash and Chinook.

Iroquois

A farming society in the Northeast, they lived communally in longhouses made from timber.

Cahokia

The largest civilization in the Mississippi River Valley, with a population between 10,000-30,000 and a centralized government.

Maritime Technology

Innovative sea-related tools including updated astronomical charts, the astrolabe, and new ship designs crucial to exploration.

Encomienda System

A labor system introduced by Spain where natives were forced to work on plantations and extract resources like gold and silver.

Casta System

Social hierarchy established by the Spanish based on racial ancestry including Peninsulares, Criollos, Mestizos, and Mulattos.

Columbian Exchange

The transfer of people, animals, plants, and diseases between the East and the West, shaping both continents.

Spanish Colonization

Spain's strategy of wealth extraction through agriculture and forced labor, leading to the importation of African slave labor.