APUSH TIME PERIOD 1

The first human migrants to the Americas almost certainly arrived from what region?

Northeast Asia

At least how many years ago did human migrations to the Americas likely begin?

At least 25,000 years ago

What is the estimated pre-contact population range for the entire Americas?

37 million to 100 million people

Where did the vast majority of the pre-contact indigenous population of the Americas live?

Within a few hundred miles of the equator

What was the estimated pre-contact population of the present-day United States?

4 to 7 million people

What major historical development between 8000 and 2000 B.C.E. made complex American societies possible?

The agricultural revolution

What is horticulture?

A form of agriculture where people work small plots of land with simple tools

In what modern-day region was horticulture highly developed, producing crops like maize, beans, and squash?

Present-day Mexico

Cultivating maize alongside beans and squash was beneficial because it provided a nutritious diet and did what to soil?

Kept the soil fertile

By what year did complex societies rooted in intensive agriculture begin to thrive in the equatorial region of the Americas?

500 C.E.

Around 1325 C.E., which indigenous civilization built its capital city, Tenochtitlán, at the site of present-day Mexico City?

The Aztecs (Mexica)

What were chinampas?

Artificial islands built from lake mud and plants on timber frames used by the Aztecs for intensive agriculture

What sharp-edged volcanic glass did the Aztecs trade for tool and weapon making?

Obsidian

Which civilization established large cities on the Yucatán peninsula with their peak power between 300 and 800 C.E.?

The Maya

What environmental factor likely triggered the decline of the Mayan civilization around 800 C.E.?

A severe drought worsened by heavy taxation

Which Andean empire controlled around 16 million people along the Pacific coast of South America by the 15th century?

The Incas

What was the capital city of the Incan Empire, located 11,000 feet above sea level?

Cuzco

How did the Incas successfully farm the steep terrain of the Andes Mountains?

Terraced agriculture watered by elaborate irrigation systems

What large animal species was notably missing in pre-Columbian American societies, having disappeared thousands of years earlier?

Horses

Which indigenous group in present-day Arizona developed extensive irrigation systems around 500 C.E.?

The Hohokam

Which native group in the American Southwest built permanent multi-story dwellings from clay and water bricks (adobe)?

The Pueblo

Why did the Pueblo people return to cliff dwellings in the 1100s C.E.?

For protection from outside invaders

What technological adoption around 500 C.E. was most critical for small, mobile hunting bands in the Great Basin and Great Plains?

The bow and arrow

What weighted spear-throwing device was used by early Great Plains hunters to capture small game?

The atlatl

What nomadic indigenous group lived in small egalitarian kinship bands in the Great Basin region of modern Utah and Colorado?

The Ute

Which indigenous group along the California coast near Santa Barbara built ocean-going canoes called tomol to harvest marine resources?

The Chumash

What specific timber was central to the Pacific Northwest Native American societies for building plank houses and carving totem poles?

Cedar

What large wooden structures housing up to 70 extended family members were built by the Chinook people?

Plank houses

What kinship system was practiced by the Iroquois, in which descent, inheritance, and village leadership choices passed through women?

Matrilineal kinship system

What type of communal multi-family housing was constructed by the semi-sedentary Iroquois using northeastern forest timber?

Longhouses

Which ancient Native American culture centered in Ohio and Illinois constructed large earthworks and maintained trade networks from Canada to Florida?

The Hopewell culture

What was the largest Mississippian settlement by 1100 C.E., housing an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 inhabitants?

Cahokia

What factor primarily caused the collapse and dispersal of the Cahokian settlement in the 1200s and 1300s C.E.?

Environmental factors including deforestation, drought, and overhunting

What 15th-century European cultural and intellectual flowering increased demand for luxury goods and trade?

The Renaissance

Why did Portugal and Spain seek new oceanic trade routes to Asia in the 15th century?

Mediterranean trade routes were controlled by Italian city-states and Muslim rulers

Which Portuguese prince launched 15th-century African coast explorations and gathered experts to revolutionize European navigation?

Prince Henry the Navigator

What small, swift sailing vessel with triangular sails was developed by the Portuguese for ocean exploration?

The caravel

What Arab-invented triangular sail was adapted by Europeans to allow ships to sail against the wind?

The lateen sail

What navigational tool perfected by Greek astronomers was used by European sailors to determine latitude?

The astrolabe

What Portuguese trading post and fort was established on the Gold Coast of West Africa (modern Ghana) in 1482?

Elmina Castle

Which Portuguese explorer became the first European to round the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa in 1487?

Bartolomeu Dias

Which Portuguese explorer successfully completed a sea voyage to India and back between 1497 and 1499?

Vasco da Gama

What 1469 event unified Christian Spain and laid the groundwork for the final expulsion of Muslim rule?

The marriage of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon

What was the Spanish Inquisition?

A religious judicial institution established in 1478 to enforce Catholic orthodoxy and eliminate heresy

In what year did Spain complete the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula and expel its last Muslim rulers?

1492

Which Genoese navigator was funded by Spain in 1492 to find a western sea route to Asia?

Christopher Columbus

Where did Christopher Columbus first make landfall in the Americas on October 12, 1492?

San Salvador (in the Bahamas)

What island did Columbus explore next, where he left behind a small garrison of men?

Hispaniola

What was the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494/1506) agreement between Spain and Portugal?

A papal line division granting Portugal control over Brazil and Spain control over the rest of the Americas

What is the term for the global transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and peoples between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres after 1492?

The Columbian Exchange

What term describes the massive demographic collapse of American indigenous populations due to Afro-Eurasian diseases?

The Great Dying

Name three major Eurasian diseases that decimated Native American populations after European contact.

Smallpox, measles, and influenza

Name three staple food crops native to the Americas that transformed Eurasian diets after the Columbian Exchange.

Maize (corn), potatoes, and tomatoes

Name two European livestock animals introduced to the Americas that fundamentally altered Native American diets and landscapes.

Cattle and pigs

What cash crop, native to Southeast Asia, produced immense colonial wealth when grown on slave plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean?

Sugar

Approximately how much gold and silver did Spanish fleets ship back from the Americas between 1500 and 1650?

More than 180 tons of gold and 16,000 tons of silver

How did the massive influx of American gold and silver impact the economic organization of Western Europe?

Accelerated the fall of feudalism and fueled the rise of early capitalism

What economic problem was triggered in Spain and Europe due to the sudden influx of American precious metals?

Severe inflation

What was the primary European religious justification used by Christians to rationalize the transatlantic enslavement of sub-Saharan Africans?

The biblical story of the Curse of Ham (Canaan)

What was the encomienda system?

A Spanish colonial labor system granting conquistadors land and rights to forced indigenous labor

What was the requerimiento (1513)?

A Spanish legal document read to Native Americans demanding submission to the Pope and Spanish Crown under threat of war or enslavement

Who was Malintzin (Doña Marina)?

An indigenous noblewoman who served as Hernán Cortés’s primary interpreter and advisor during the conquest of the Aztecs

Which Spanish conquistador led the expedition that overthrew the Aztec Empire between 1519 and 1521?

Hernán Cortés

What was the Valladolid Debate (1550–1551)?

The first formal moral and theological debate in Europe concerning the rights, treatment, and humanity of Indigenous peoples in the Americas

Who organized the Valladolid Debate, and where was it held?

King Charles V of Spain, held at the Colegio de San Gregorio in Valladolid, Spain

Which Dominican friar argued against the mistreatment of Native Americans at Valladolid?

Bartolomé de las Casas

What was Bartolomé de las Casas’s core argument during the debate?

Indigenous Americans were rational human beings created by God who should be peacefully converted to Christianity, not enslaved or conquered

Which Spanish scholar argued in favor of the conquest and enslavement of Native Americans at Valladolid?

Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda

What philosophical concept did Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda use to justify Spanish conquest?

Aristotle’s concept of "natural slavery," arguing Indigenous people were barbaric and naturally suited to servitude

What was the ultimate official outcome or ruling of the Valladolid Debate?

Neither side was declared an official winner, and while it inspired legal reform attempts, exploitation of Indigenous populations largely continued